Ismail Darbar

Ismail Darbar comes from a family of four generation musicians. Ismail Darbar was born to noted clarinet and saxophone player Husain. Ismail was initially trained by his father. He also learnt how to play violin. Afterwards he learnt music from Pandit Ramprasad Sharma, the late father of composer Pyarelal and later on from Ganesh (Pandit's son), who scored music in the '60s and '70s for films like Ek Nanhi Munni Ladki Thi, Ek Nari Do Roop.

Before stepping into the commercial world of filmi music he did the title-track of a TV serial and an album with Zee Music, neither of which saw the light of day. An exponent of the violin, he worked for nine years as a session violist for leading music directors Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji, Bappi Lahiri, Rajesh Roshan, Anand-Milind, Nadeem-Shravan, Jatin-Lalit and even A.R.Rahman. Lady luck's shine increased on Ismail Darbar when he met director Sanjay Leela Bhansali(ismail was recommended by the singer Kunal), for whose film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, he composed the music. With the director's keen ear for music, the result, was sheer magic! Filmgoers were astonished by the exemplary quality, melody and originality of the musical score.

Bhansali had recognized him as a musician with Jatin-Lalit during his Khamoshi. He asked Ismail to sing out tunes, did not like the first lot, but fell for what was to be finally become the title-track. He even named the film after it, instead of the original names he was having - Aafreen and Duvidha and named it Darbar Sahab.Even though Darbar's first score has not received any awards that do the rounds nowadays, the composer himself is least affected by it. He nevertheless received Filmfare's R.D.Burman Award for Best Musical Debut of 1999.This was the turning point in his career when he composed for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam a musical hit.The nicest things about this film were the songs . The songs in this film were well-researched and relied heavily on Rajasthani folk music. The song 'Aankhon is gustakhiyan' is beautifully picturised. Another good song is the title song 'Dholi taro' .Expectations were very high from him after his debut.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Ismail Darbar have bedecked Devdas with nine songs that speak not only the story of the film but also the story of melody and passion at their entwined best.For the musical hit Devdas (2002), Ismail scored soulful music . This film got the international attention with its magnificent sets and cast ( Aishwarya Rai , Madhuri Dixit , Sharukh Khan ) and magical music 'Bairi Piya', 'Maar dala'.His other films include Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya,Mehbooba and Deewangee.Ismail always wants to stick to quality and originality in his future projects.