G V Prakash, A R Rahman's talented nephew, is not exactly a happy man at the moment.
The teenage composer finds himself dragged into an unnecessary controversy regarding the music of Jaan-E-Mann. "I am only the music arranger, not the composer," insists Chennai-based Prakash. The debate about who the film's composer was began when a Mumbai newspaper ran a report on Thursday focusing on rumours that it was Prakash who composed the music, not Anu Malik.
"The tunes are set by Anu Malik," clarifies Prakash. "Arrangements like the rhythm and flute are by me. Except for the tunes, I did the rest of the music." The interesting and unusual soundtrack is doing very well on the charts, scoring Anu Malik his first hit of 2006.
Malik's career has not done well these last two years, dogged by the shadow cast by Himesh Reshammiya in the months following Aashiq Banaya Aapne. His last big hits were Murder and Main Hoon Na, both in 2004. 2005 and 2006 belonged to Reshammiya, who delivered 31 hit tracks. rediff.com called and sent Malik text messages, asking for his side of the story, but the composer was unavailable for comment. He told the Mumbai newspaper, 'I swear I have composed all the songs for Jaan-e-Mann.'
On Saturday, another Mumbai newspaper said Malik had sent a legal notice to the first Mumbai daily, asking that it apologise for its story that he did not compose the music for Jaan-E-Maan. When told about the report, Prakash -- non-controversial like his famous uncle -- says, "One shouldn't create a controversy over a non-issue."
Don vs Jaan-E-Mann