Vishal Bhardwaj (born 4 August 1965) is an Indian filmmaker, music composer, and playback singer. He is known for his work in Hindi cinema, and is the recipient of nine National Film Awards and a Filmfare Award.
Bhardwaj made his debut as a music composer with the children's film Abhay (1995), and received wider recognition with his compositions in Gulzar's Maachis (1996). He received the Filmfare R. D. Burman Award for New Music Talent for the latter. He went on to compose music for the films Satya (1998) and Godmother (1999). For the latter, he won the National Film Award for Best Music Direction.
Bhardwaj made his directorial debut with the children's film Makdee (2002), for which he also composed the music. He garnered widespread critical acclaim and numerous accolades for writing and directing the Indian adaptations of three tragedies by William Shakespeare: Maqbool (2003) from Macbeth, Omkara (2006) from Othello, and Haider (2014) from Hamlet. He has also directed the action film Kaminey, the black comedy 7 Khoon Maaf (2011), and the satire Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola (2013).
In addition, Bhardwaj produces films under his banner VB Pictures. He has co-written and produced the films Ishqiya (2010), its sequel Dedh Ishqiya (2014), and the drama thriller Talvar (2015), among others. He has composed the musical score for each of his directorial and production ventures, and frequently collaborates with the lyricist Gulzar. He is married to playback singer Rekha Bhardwaj.
Bhardwaj is the board member of Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image.
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Early and personal life
Bhardwaj was born on 4 August 1965, in Chandpur city in District Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. His mother Satya Bhardwaj was a homemaker, and his father Ram Bhardwaj was a sugarcane inspector. His father also wrote poetry and lyrics for Hindi films. He and his family lived in Najibabad until he completed class five in school. They later moved to Meerut, where he played cricket for the state's under-19 team. His thumb broke during a practice session one day before an inter-university tournament, leaving him unable to play for the year. The same year, his father died, leaving him unable to continue his cricket career.
He had an elder brother who struggled for years in Mumbai to become a film producer, and later died of a heart attack. He composed a song at the age of seventeen. After hearing the song, his father discussed it with music director Usha Khanna. She used it in the film Yaar Kasam (1985). Bhardwaj later moved to Delhi to pursue his graduation at the Hindu College, University of Delhi. He met his wife, playback singer Rekha Bhardwaj, during a college annual function; she was a year senior to him. He is also an avid tennis player.
Career
Bhardwaj started playing harmonium for friends who were ghazal singers. After a few years, he took up a job with a music company called CBS in Delhi. He later went to Mumbai to become a music composer, and he only took to directing films to create the opportunity to compose music.
His interest in film direction was kindled after watching Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) and Krzysztof Kieślowski's television series Dekalog during a film festival in Thiruvananthapuram.
Music composer
In 1995, Bhardwaj made his debut as a music composer for the children's film Abhay. He went on to compose music for Fauji (1995) and Sanshodhan (1996). In 1996, he served as the music director for Gulzar's Maachis, for which he received the Filmfare R. D. Burman Award for New Music Talent and his first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. The film depicted the transformation of boys into terrorists during the Punjab insurgency in Punjab in the 1980s. The soundtrack composed by Bhardwaj became an anthem for politically restive college youth at that time. He later collaborated with Gulzar on TV serials such as Alice in Wonderland and Gubbare. His further projects included Betaabi (1997), Tunnu Ki Tina (1997), Satya (1998) and Hu Tu Tu (1999). At the 46th National Film Awards, Bhardwaj received the National Film Award for Best Music Direction for his critically acclaimed score in Godmother (1999).
In 2010, he composed the music for his production venture Ishqiya, which garnered him his second National Film Award for Best Music Direction and his second nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. He also composed music for Jungle Book Shōnen Mowgli, the Hindi-dubbed version of the anime adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's original collection of stories, The Jungle Book. Apart from feature films, Bhardwaj has provided music for albums such as Sunset Point (2000), Ishqa Ishqa (2002) and Barse Barse (2011). He frequently collaborates with Gulzar.
Writer and director
Bhardwaj made his directorial debut with the children's film Makdee (2002), starring Shabana Azmi, Makarand Deshpande and Shweta Prasad. The film tells the story of twin young girls and an alleged witch in a mansion. It was screened in the Critics' Week (Spotlight on India) section at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.
Bhardwaj had read a short version of William Shakespeare's Macbeth and wanted to turn it into a gangster film. He had seen Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (1957), which was also inspired by Macbeth. It inspired Bhardwaj to make it into a feature film. He then started working with Abbas Tyrewala to adapt the play. This developed into the 2003 film adaptation Maqbool starring Pankaj Kapur, Irrfan Khan and Tabu; it was set against the backdrop of Mumbai underworld. The film was screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival. Sita Menon of Rediff.com called it "..a visual gallery that is an intelligent blend of dark, tragic overtones and comic, satirical undertones." CNN-IBN listed Maqbool as "one of the 100 greatest Indian films of all time" in a 2013 list. In 2010, critic Raja Sen included it in "The Top 75 Hindi Films of the Decade" list.
In 2006, Bhardwaj again adapted Shakespeare, reimagining his tragedy Othello as Omkara. Set against the backdrop of the political system in Uttar Pradesh, the film starred an ensemble cast of Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Vivek Oberoi and Bipasha Basu in lead roles, with Devgn playing the titular character. It premiered at the 6th Marrakech International Film Festival, and was screened at the Cairo International Film Festival. At the 54th National Film Awards, Bhardwaj received the Special Jury Award (feature film) for the film, in addition to earning his first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Director. Omkara met with widespread critical acclaim, but was a box office disappointment. However, it opened to a positive box office response in North America and the United Kingdom.
Bhardwaj's next project was the 2005 children's film The Blue Umbrella, based on Ruskin Bond's novel of the same name. It won the National Film Award for Best Children's Film in 2005. His followup was Blood Brothers (2007), a short film on HIV/AIDS with a run time of 13 minutes. It tells the story of a young man who, after finding out that he is HIV positive, allows his life to fall apart. It was a part of the 'AIDS JaaGo', a series of four short films directed by Mira Nair, Santosh Sivan, and Farhan Akhtar in a joint initiative by Nair and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The series premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. The same year, he served as a writer for Sanjay Gupta's anthology film, Dus Kahaniyaan.
Producer
Bhardwaj produces his own films under his banner VB Pictures. In 2010, he produced the black comedy Ishqiya. Starring Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi, the film was directed by debutant Abhishek Chaubey. Chaubey had earlier assisted and co-wrote several of Bhardwaj's films. The film was an average grosser at the box-office. The film earned him his third nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. He teamed up with Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Motion Pictures to produce the supernatural thriller Ek Thi Daayan in 2013. Dealing with the theme of witchcraft, the film was based on 'Mobius Trips', a short story written by Konkona Sen Sharma's father. It received mixed reviews from critics, but proved to be profitable at the box office.
His next production venture was Dedh Ishqiya, a sequel to the 2010 film Ishqiya. Starring Madhuri Dixit, Naseeruddin Shah, Huma Qureshi and Arshad Warsi, the film was a critical and commercial success, earning ₹270 million (US$4.1 million) in India and abroad. In 2015, Bhardwaj wrote and co-produced Meghna Gulzar's drama thriller Talvar. The film was based on the 2008 Noida double murder case, and starred Irrfan Khan, Konkana Sen Sharma and Neeraj Kabi. Talvar premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, and was released in India on 2 October 2015 to positive reviews from critics.
Playback singer
Apart from composing music, Bhardwaj has also lent his voice to various songs for films like Omkara, No Smoking, U Me Aur Hum, Kaminey, Striker, 7 Khoon Maaf, Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, and Haider.
Craft and style
Bhardwaj's films are often twisted, with portrayal of characters with grey shades. He also frequently adapts short stories and plays in films. The Blue Umbrella and 7 Khoon Maaf were adapted from Ruskin Bond's short stories. Maqbool, Omkara and Haider were adaptations of William Shakespeare's tragedies. Some of Bhardwaj's films take inspiration from real-life incidents. The Kashmir conflict was shown in Haider, the Mumbai underworld in Maqbool, and Talvar was based on the 2008 Noida double murder case. Bhardwaj frequently collaborates with writer-lyricist Gulzar, calling him his "father" and "mentor". Most treatments of his films are like documentaries. Haider was co-written by journalist-writer Basharat Peer, who was an eyewitness to the Kashmir conflict.
Bhardwaj is influenced by the filmmaking styles of Krzysztof Kieślowski, Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, and Akira Kurosawa. Kieslowski's Dekalog (1989) inspired him to become a filmmaker. Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah says: "I think he makes interesting films, even though I haven't liked all his works. But even his poor work is more interesting than a lot of people's so-called good work."
Awards and nominations
He won the National Film Award for Best Music Direction for Godmother. He then went on to win two consecutive awards: The Blue Umbrella, which won the National Film Award for Best Children's Film, and National Film Award – Special Jury Award for Omkara. Bhardwaj received two Filmfare nominations for Kaminey for Best Director and Best Music Director.
He won his second National Film Award for Best Music Direction for his production venture Ishqiya. At the 62nd National Film Awards, Bhardwaj won his third Best Music Director and Best Screenplay award for Haider. In 2016, Bhardwaj was given the Yash Bharti Award by the Government of Uttar Pradesh for his contributions in the field of cinema. He also received his second National Film Award for Best Screenplay for writing Talvar. Bhardwaj's Shakespearean trilogy—Maqbool, Omkara and Haider—was screened as part of an event marking the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death, co-hosted by the British Film Institute in London. In 2019, Bhardwaj won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Music Director for his second Malayalam film Carbon.