Ismail Darbar comes from a family of four generation musicians. Ismail Darbar was born to noted clarinet and saxophone player Hussain. Ismail was initially trained by his father. He also learnt how to play violin. Afterwards he learnt music from Pandit Ramprasad Sharma, the father of composer Pyarelal and later on from Ganesh Sharma (Pandit Ramprasad's son), who scored music in the '60s and '70s for films like Ek Nanhi Munni Ladki Thi, Ek Nari Do Roop. Before stepping into the commercial world of filmi music he did the title-track of a TV serial and an album with Zee Music, neither of which saw the light of day. An exponent of the violin, he worked for nine years as a session violist for leading music directors Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji, Bappi Lahiri, Rajesh Roshan, ...By Rohit» read full biography