Sanjay Leela Bhansali has now officially turned composer with Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer ‘Guzaarish’. However, till a few days back, there were feelers that Ismail Darbar may make a re-entry into the Sanjay Leela Bhansali camp. The question making the rounds was - ‘Is Ismail Darbar going to compose music for ‘Chenab Gandhi’ and/or ‘Guzaarish’?’

If that would have happened, it would have marked the return of the composer with Sanjay Leela Bhansali along with whom he has earlier come up with master soundtracks like ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ and ‘Devdas’? While there were murmurs making the industry rounds that Ismail could well be at the helm of composing music for at least one of the two projects, announcement of Bhansali composing music for ‘Guzaarish’ has put an end to all the speculations.

“A courteous handshake doesn’t mean that Bhansali is resuming his professional stint with Ismail”, says a source close to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, “Yes, Bhansali is being nice to him in the social gatherings but by no means should that be taken as a signal for go-ahead by the composer. He hasn’t been signed for any of the two projects and if he is getting any feelers that this is actually the case then God have mercy on him.”

Though quite a few music followers would want to believe that Bhansali’s films gain an extra edge when Ismail Darbar composes for them, the source has his own argument.

“Didn’t ‘Black’ have a fantastic score? It was meant to play in the background and it did phenomenally well in that context. Even ‘Saawariya’ music was huge. It went on to do so well even after the movie was off the screens. Imagine the kind of business it would have enjoyed had the film too stayed on for longer at screens”, he questions.

He further goes on to add, “At the end of the day, it is Bhansali’s strong sense of music that creates the best magic. Both Ismail Darbar and Monty Sharma (who scored for ‘Black’ and ‘Saawariya’) have done quite well with him. It should not be any different for the composer of ‘Chenab Gandhi’ too, now as Bhansali is himself at the helm of affairs for ‘Guzaarish’”.
Well, there is still some time to go before one gets to witness the truth behind that. As of now, ‘Chenab Gandhi’ is still searching for a leading man (John Abraham is no more a part of the film even as Harman Baweja, the original choice, continues to be in the hunt). On the other hand ‘Guzaarish’, which stars Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai together, is also waiting to get on the floors.

Come 2010 and we would see for ourselves who composes the music of ‘Chenab Gandhi’, and how does the it eventually turn out to be. Till then, it’s a long way to go.