Goal Keepers

The Merchant brothers,known by the amalgamated Salim-Sulaiman,are a busy duo. The elder,Sulaiman,says that he hasn’t had a chance to watch Salim,one of the judges on the fifth season of Indian Idol,yet; “there’s a lot I could do with that hour,” he says. “My wife is due in the first week of August,so I try to spend time with her,” Sulaiman adds. We meet the brothers on a Sunday evening at their studio in Juhu as their team is busy editing before they head to Colombo for the upcoming IIFA awards. Post the awards,they are heading to South Africa to perform a song they composed for the FIFA World Cup; this they say is “India’s representation”.

Arranged by a businessman in Nairobi,Karim Jamal,the duo composed a song ‘for Africa’ rather than just for the World Cup that was sung by Loyiso Bala,a South African R&B singer and Eric Wainaina,who Salim describes as the current heartthrob of Kenya. “We recorded the scratch with Sidd Coutto,the vocalist of Tough on Tobacco and wanted him to do the vocals,but the organisers felt otherwise,” Salim recounts. The duo will also perform their hit from Kurbaan,Shukran Allah. “The first paragraph is in Hindi,followed by Swahili and English.” Although not finalised as yet,the duo might perform at the closing ceremony too. This is a proud moment for them that follows AR Rahman’s meteoric rise and international fame through Slumdog Millionaire. Sulaiman says,“After Rahman broke all western barriers,there has been a lot of respect for Indian musicians. However,there was always respect — this has simply shot up.” Salim adds that while the classical side of Indian music has always been appreciated abroad,now mainstream Indian music is getting there too. While they recognise the importance of the World Cup opportunity,Salim insists that the two are already internationally respected. “Our musical,Merchants of Bollywood,has been running successfully in Europe for five years. We’ve collaborated with artistes such as Karsh Kale and,if our schedules permit,we hope to collaborate with DJ Tiesto later this year”.

They have worked on jingles and even TV shows,including one for Nickelodeon which was nominated for a Grammy,but admit that one always gets more recognition for films. “We don’t have a music industry,as such. The pop industry was,at one time,thriving,but now every single pop artiste wants to be a film composer or singer,” Sulaiman laments. Salim is more defensive of filmy music,however,and says,“People look down upon film music but that’s stupid because film music now is really cutting edge. The industry has changed a lot since we started out two decades ago,when Sulaiman was 19 and I,16.”

While they don’t have the time to follow club football,Salim says that he does watch every World Cup (although his memory of the players in his favourite team,Brazil,is questionable). When asked whether Sulaiman plans to take some time off once his first child will be born,Salim cuts in,saying “we have a packed schedule until March 2010. If our first world tour works out,we will be busy for two more months after that.”