Vishal Bhardwaj is not a name or a person. He is an institution. Vishal Bhardwaj is a super human. A successful director, musician, scriptwriter, singer, poet and much more. But all these characteristics alone do not make them superhuman. What makes him special is his journey, which had many difficulties but the patience and restraint with which Vishal Bhardwaj has achieved success is an inspiration for generations.
Vishal Bhardwaj’s childhood dream was to become a cricketer. He had devoted his life to cricket. Only cricket day and night. He also got the fruits of this hard work. He was selected in the state level cricket team of Delhi. But here a big reversal happened. Vishal Bhardwaj’s head got injured in an accident just before the Delhi team was to play in the Ranji match. And he was out of the match and the tournament.
Next year, when it was time to play in the Ranji team, a new problem arose. Vishal Bhardwaj had failed in his college examinations. This gave him a double shock. Firstly, he had to repeat the year. Secondly, to join the Ranji team, it was necessary that the player should not have failed in his college examination and should not be repeating the year. But Vishal Bhardwaj could not follow this condition and did not get to play next year also.
But Vishal Bhardwaj did not give up. He did not become sad. Vishal Bhardwaj saw all these incidents as a sign. He felt that his future probably was not in cricket. Destiny, nature, existence do not want him to play cricket. Then Vishal Bhardwaj gave up his fascination for cricket.
Vishal Bhardwaj’s father used to write songs for films along with a government job. Vishal Bhardwaj’s father also worked with music composers Usha Khanna and Lakshmi Kant Pyarelal. Vishal Bhardwaj loved his father very much. But an incident with his father broke Vishal Bhardwaj.
This incident happened when Vishal Bhardwaj lived in Meerut and had just started college studies. A lawsuit was going on regarding his house. The person who had filed the case against his father had good relations with the lawyer and the judge. The result was that the other side won the case. And Vishal Bhardwaj and his family were ordered to leave the house. Before Vishal Bhardwaj left the house with his family, the other party sent some unruly elements and goons and threw Vishal Bhardwaj’s family out of the house along with their belongings. This deeply hurt Vishal Bhardwaj’s father and he suffered a heart attack, due to which he died on the road.
It is difficult for anyone to understand what impact these events would have had on the mental state of a nineteen or twenty year old boy. How challenging it will be to stand up again for a man whose father died on the road in front of him, in front of whom his dream, his cricket, has died. But Vishal Bhardwaj had no time to mourn. He had responsibility after his father. Responsibility for your nutrition. Responsibility of being the courage of the family.
Vishal Bhardwaj worked in the advertising field, where he did not have a very good experience. He got his first success when the song “Jungle Jungle Baat Chali Hai Pata Chala Hai, Chaddi Pahan Ke Phool Khila Hai” written by lyricist Gulzar became a hit. Its music was given by Vishal Bhardwaj.
Vishal Bhardwaj got recognition due to the success of Gulzar’s film “Maachis”. There was a magical feeling in Vishal’s music, which kept the listeners under its spell for a long time. But there was still some more struggle in the life of Vishal Bhardwaj. The news spread in the film world that if Vishal Bhardwaj is to be taken as the music composer in the film, then lyricist Gulzar will also have to be included in the project. Due to this, Vishal Bhardwaj did not get many projects. Vishal sincerely wanted him to give music in films. In such a situation, Gulzar advised Vishal Bhardwaj to make his own films and give the music of his choice in it. Vishal obeyed Gulzar like a disciple and the rest is history.
Vishal Bhardwaj established himself by directing films like “Maqbool”, “Omkara”, “Haider”, “Blue Umbrella”, “Pataakha” and music direction in the films “Ishqiya”, Dedh Ishqiya. The beauty with which Vishal Bhardwaj did the Indian adaptation of Shakespeare’s novels is worth seeing. Vishal Bhardwaj’s journey tells us that before reaching the velvet red carpet, one has to heal the blisters and wounds of one’s own feet, one has to tie the balm on one’s sorrows one’s own.