In conversation with Shamir Tandon 
By IndiaFM News Bureau, February 11, 2006 - 01:25 IST
The CEO of Virgin Music India, Shamir Tandon started his career as a composer with
the film Stumped but he was greatly appreciated for his composition for the film Page 3. He is looked upon as a very talented music director who excels in creating music for films with mature and sensitive subjects. Now, he has come back with Umar that is another unconventional subject.
You are returning back after the long break you took since Page 3.
After Page 3 I have worked on the music of four films, most of them due to release in 2006. Recently the music of my latest film Umar has been released, which is my next after Page3.This album is very special to me because I got the opportunity to work with the living legend Manna Dey who sang for a Hindi film after almost 18 years. Also, there is a ghazal sung by the ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh. In 2006, I'll have releases like Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate and others.
How did you get Manna Dey to sing for Umar?
I find it fascinating to work with singers of yesteryears. I did work with some in my past films. In case of Umar, I was told that I had to compose a song for the character of an old man, so I thought it would be a great idea to have someone mature enough whose voice would suit the character and who would sing well and Manna Dey was the only name that came to my mind. I did have a tough time to track him down since he no longer stays in Mumbai. I finally found him in Bangalore where he stays now and requested him to sing for this film. Luckily, he agreed and the song has turned out to be great. He is still as melodious as he was.
Tell us about the music of Umar.
Umar has four songs primarily. One is very sensitive and heart touching ghazal sung by Jagjit Singh. It is called “khumaari chadke utar gayi”. Then there is a fun Qawaali called “duniyawaalon ko nahi kuch bhi khabar”, sung by Manna Dey. And there are two romantic songs sung by Hari Haran, Baabul Supriyo and Sunidhi Chauhan.
You have worked with Madhur Bhandarkar and now Karan Razdan, both of them known for making offbeat films. So how was your experience of creating music for the kind of films they make?
Both Madhur and Karan are very sensitive film makers and the subjects of their films are very intelligent. Umar is the movie about the sensitivities of old age. It is the kind of subject which has not been dealt with generally in Hindi films. So is Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate which is going to be my next release. These are the kind of subjects, which are inherently non-musical, and hence creating music for them is a challenging task.
Your music in Page 3 won you a lot of appreciation and now you are coming back with Madhur Bhandarkar again in Corporate, so is there any kind of pressure building up?
Well there is no pressure as music is more like a hobby to me. Also, I believe that I have to love the music I make. I am very glad that the music for Corporate is kind of similar or rather a better shade than that of Page 3. I have a very melodious track sung by Asha Bhosle, the title track is sung by Alisha Chinoy and a peppy number by Vasundhara.
Even Bluffmaster music is doing well.
Well in Bluffmaster I haven't actually composed any song but designed about seven out of eight songs. Many film makers these days who are making a very international kind of cinema don't really like to have very conventional Hindi film music for their films. So for Bluffmaster I collaborated with some international bands and retailored their work to fit in to the film. Even the remix of 'sabse bada rupiya' is done a group from UK called Trickbaby. And I think the experiment has worked well.
So do you support remixes?
I don't really support remixes in which a song is just taken up, used out of context and nude video is made for it. What I would say is that if you take the song with the permission of the original composer of the song and give them their due credits then it is acceptable.
You have done an international song with Asha Bhosle.
Yes that is one project which is still under wraps and we are not talking much about it. What I can tell you is that there are people in Europe who want to project India as a shining country and especially Mumbai, where people from all over the world come to make their dreams come true. And this is a sentiment that the world should know that Mumbai is a great city. So we made a song on how in Mumbai people make their dreams come true in spite their limitations and I thought that Ashaji would be ideal to sing this one.
What other films are you working on?
I am working on Madhur Bhandarkar's next film called Signal after Corporate. Also, there is Karan Razdan's film next film after Umar called Maang, which is about marital rape. I am doing music for Vinod Pande's Red Swastik as well.
|
Timeless music for Umar
