After Dhurandhar, will an eclectic mix be a soundtrack trend now?
Trends are dicey things. And when trailblazers like Dhurandhar and its sequel Dhurandhar The Revenge happen, the film industry tends to home in on every minute aspect of such blockbusters. Obviously, the eclectic soundtracks of the two films have grabbed unprecedented attention—as with Hollywood, the intention seems to design a soundtrack wherein the right mood is created.
Original songs, written by Irshad Kamil and composed by Shashwat Sachdev, combine with cover versions integrated into them, aside from snatches of old background scores and use of original or re-created old film and non-film Hindi and Punjabi tracks and even international numbers. With herd mentality common here as success is the mantra, will we now see a plethora of such albums, at least in big-budget movies?
The startling exception!
Yash Raj Films has steadfastly stuck to one composer in the era of multiple music makers. As said earlier in these columns, the exceptions came in Sohail Sen’s Ek The Tiger (wherein Sajid-Wajid came in for one song at Salman Khan’s behest) and when BGM composer Julius Packiam composed a song as part of his score in Dhoom:3 and Tiger Zinda Hai.
But YRF made a startling exception in Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, wherein the music score was composed by esoteric entities like Peter Cat Recording Co. (PCRC), Madboy/Mink, Mode AKA, Blek, Joint Family and IJA besides director Dibakar Banerjee credited for the music of a song along with Sneha Khanwalkar, the only known name in music here. Wonder what was the rationale here in having not just multiple names but entities (including a company!!) who were not even film composers!
Common points
What do Vishal Bhardwaj, Vishal and Shekhar, Salim-Sulaiman, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Himesh Reshammiya, Sajid-Wajid, Daboo Malik, Sandesh Shandilya, Mithoon, Amaal Mallik and Sachin-Jigar have in common?
Well, each and every one of them made their debuts in multi-composer films! We can add two more entities with qualification: Anu Malik composed just one song in his father, Sardar Malik’s Hunterwali 77, while Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen’s debut film, Soorma Bhopali had one song (sung by Mohammed Rafi!) that was actually composed by Naushad!
Where does inspiration end and copying begin?
It’s a line thinner than the slimmest silken thread. Where does ‘inspiration’ end and imitation begin? Recently, controversy erupted over Pritam’s song ‘Ramji aake bhala karenge’ from the forthcoming Bhooth Bangla, which has echoes of ‘Bhooter raja dilo bor’ from Satyajit Ray’s 1969 film, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne. This is because both songs have passages that describe bhooth (ghosts) of different kinds in a sing-song fashion.
However, this idea only is a part of the song and that otherwise, lyricist Kumaar and composer Pritam had made a completely original number. The approving verdict came from Ray’s son Sandip Ray, who declared that the new song is no copy and there is no comparison despite the similarities in the descriptive part. The first song was a celebration, the second is a comic end-title number. Inspiration: Yes! Copy: No!
The South Indian who never composed in the South!
We all know that Hariharan, Kavita Krishnamurthi Subramaniam and Shankar Mahadevan are artistes whose roots are in the South but were based in Mumbai. However, not many are aware that composer Ram Sampath, who has been a frontrunner in jingles and has also composed for select films like Khakee, Delhi Belly and others, is a half Tamilian and half-Kannada. Unlike the three artistes above, he has never done work in South Indian films. Is it because no one knows of his origins? “It is, partly!” he admits, adding that he only has a working knowledge of both the languages and is not fluent in either!
‘Don’t hear my songs, please!’
Here’s an amusing incident of a few years ago. A young music composer met me by chance at a five-star and we chatted for a few minutes. He had a musical coming up and I asked him about it. Very intensely, he told me, “Sir, don’t hear my songs, please! They are really bad!” Shocked that someone could say this about their own work to come, I asked him why. The answer was as predictable as night following day: the gross interference by its music label! So when will the time come when creative souls will be told by the money mongers to go fly high and make us all music lovers thrilled with a great standard in film music?
Glimmer at the end of the tunnel
The music scene has been thus quite barren for a long while. A top insider in the music industry admits that the multi-composer trend has taken a unique toll: there is hardly anyone who can handle a bouquet of five or six diverse songs in a single film as solo composer. And yet I do see a light, however faint, at the end of this tunnel. I see more and more filmmakers veering towards single composers now, with Himesh Reshammiya, Pritam, Anu Malik, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Amit Trivedi, Sachin-Jigar, Mithoon and others, and (in one case even) Tanishk Bagchi, that re-creation number specialist, doing increased solo films.
Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Dhurandhar The Revenge makers correct mirror goof; revised prints sent to cinemas
More Pages: Dhurandhar The Revenge Box Office Collection , Dhurandhar The Revenge Movie Review
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