“We’ve tried to use chants and mantras in Rakht Charitra” – Dharam – Sandeep

By Devansh Patel -

October 19, 2010 - 4:37 PM IST

Ever seen music composers balance career with life? Meet the talented duo Dharam and Sandeep. So when you visit their plush studio in Khar, you notice that each has popped out from downtown New York or London's famous Piccadilly Circus. Vulnerable, humourous and gifted, you get sucked into their way of thinking and scoring for each film. On further interacting with them, you find out that music has a definitive language (according to the duo)...the only difference is...the pair gives their own explanation, "For us, music is like sipping hot coffee. Only then you tend to get more relaxed and comfy. That's when we score high". UK's Harrow Observer columnist and Bollywood Hungama's London correspondent meets Dharam and Sandeep, RGV's latest find who are in the forefront when it comes to scoring for films like Rann, Phoonk 2 and the much talked about Rakht Charitra (RC). Then why name them 'background music composers?" Tune in...and you'll soon find out.

"RC is going to explode"

It is not very often that you get to score a true life story. We are lucky to be associated for the third time in a row with an RGV film. This one especially is a bomb shell. Rakht Charitra is going to explode like anything once it releases in a couple of days.

"We decided to challenge ourselves"

Rann was different in its own way, Phoonk 2 was again a horror flick and Rakht Charitra touches the ethnicity of India. But at the same time, we decided to challenge ourselves by not going into the cliche genre of scoring yet another vengeance filled film. RC is scored in an 'East meets west' type. We've tried something different and that's what RGV is all about. It's not that RGV is a controversial figure. People think that he takes the case of everyone. But the fact is that he is only giving his own opinion.

"Suriya cannot get 'Dance of Death' track out of his mind"

Suriya loved the song which we composed titled 'Dance of Death - Milega Marega'. The first time we met him, he showed his appreciation by saying that the track is 'kick a**'. Later in a party, he again came up to us and shook our hands saying, "I cannot get the track out of my mind. Well done guys.' Such words of appreciation only help us perform that much better."

"The score of RC cannot be rated. It's beyond anyone's imagination"

We've tried to use chants, mantras and all to depict the inner demons of each character. It brings them out even more powerful. If we have to rate our score from the other films we've done, well, RC is too larger than life to be described. The score of RC cannot be rated because it has surpassed all figures. Once you hear the score, you'll believe in what we're saying.

"For the first time ever, RGV's film has English lyrics"

For the first time ever, an RGV film has English lyrics. Now people might think how English lyrics can fit into a Hindi film. Just because something is English doesn't mean that it doesn't suit the scenario. In fact, it adds more to the scene or the flavour of that scene. Music has no language barrier and only then you score brownie points as music directors or background music composers

"We felt some kind of an aura like Vivek has in the film"

The combination of Vivek and RGV is mind blowing. Once there was a Company, now there is Rakht Charitra. It's cinema to its core. I don't know what it is but every shot gave us goosebumps. We felt some kind of an aura like Vivek has in the film while scoring for RC.