The Unlucky Aadesh Srivastava

Life has always been tough for music director Aadesh Srivastava. Today his elder brother Chitresh died in a freak road accident in the United States. He was the manager of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, and was on a performance tour of US. His death seems to have shattered Aadesh, who himself had survived a bout of cancer some time back.
This boy from Jabalpur has always had an uncanny ear for beats. In his earlier days he used to play drums in shows. When he landed in Mumbai he played drums for such stalwarts like O P Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishen and Salil Chowdhary. He assisted Laxmikant Pyarelal for almost a decade till he came of his own with a fairly good break in KANYADAN (1993). The immensely popular song Kya Ada Kya Jalwae Tere Paro (Shastra- 1996) set him on a path of recognition.
Aadesh had a knack of creating high-tempo upbeat songs, which lent easily to eye-catching dance choreography and was perhaps one factor behind the popularity of his songs. 90s were the decade ofspicy lyrics and hip-jerking dance numbers. Aadesh was past master in such trade. But somehow, despite giving chartbusters at regular intervals, he wasn’t signed up by many filmmakers.Aadesh was constrained to relegate himself to background scores, if only to keep his kitchen going. His ouvre has as many music directions to his credit as background music scores.
I remember meeting him for an interview in Sunny Sound, Juhu. It was 2000, and he had just completed the background score of his film REFUGEE. He was minus his afro hairstyle and was in the studio giving background score to yet another film.
We talked about a while. He had a sore point about one music director obliquely referring to him as the man who presents his tune to producers by drumming them on the table. He on his part took a jab at one Pakistani singer who had come and conqured Bollywood !!
Srivastava had a good chemistry with Bacchan. In fact he gave music to quite a few of his films. Major Saab, Lal Badshah, Babul, Bhagban etc. During his cancer treatment Bacchan gave him a hospital visit. And also after his brother’s death.
During the Navratri period Aadesh was and is a regular feature in Mumbai. He has his own 9 days’of dandiya dhamaal which is quite popular. So is his stage shows. It goes well to show that he still has niche in people’s hearts. In live shows they lap him up. But it is through Bollywood films that Aadesh wants to reach out to his audience. And that’s where industry has been given a cold shoulder. Unlucky Aadesh.