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Grated
expectations
It’s
not a new phenomenon by any standards. But there probably
is greater justification for it today. Which, when you think
about it, is sad really.
Let us face facts - the bulk of our current composers are
carrying on fine only because of the paucity of musical filmmakers
today. An era where a Yash Chopra is considered a high-priest
of melody, and Raj Kanwar and lesser filmmakers ‘musical’
cannot be mediocre.
So what happens when that endangered, but thankfully not extinct
species called the musical filmmaker needs to have great thematic
music in his films? Answer: He tries out different composers.
This is what Karan Johar did before finally repeating Jatin-Lalit
for Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. This is what Subhash Ghai - the
man who never needed to look beyond Laxmikant-Pyarelal from
1980 to 1995, irrespective of his subject - has been doing
since Pardes.
Despite the scintillating score of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
this is what Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the most musical filmmaker
around, did when he chose to make Devdas. Before zeroing in
on his own discovery Ismail Darbar again, he had sittings
with others as well. Ismail finally fulfilled his great expectations.
The sittings with the othrs probably resulted in grated expectations!
When a truly musical filmmaker signs a composer for his own
production, it is a standing testimonial to that composer’s
calibre and credentials. Devdas is the answer to those who
are writing off Ismail after his second supposedly-disappointing
score for Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa. Ismail is no one-film blunder
like so many others. Where he has suffered in is the inevitable
comparisons to his smash debut (where he had a meaty subject
and a music-savvy man behind him), but the songs of TJCG are
tailor-made and naunced compositions with the kind of wholeness
sound one associates with the great composers of the pre-techno
and bratpack eras.
Vinod Chopra, like Mukul S Anand five years ago when he planned
Dus, chose a different option for Mission Kashmir. The two
filmmakers got specific lyrics written for specific situations
and gave them to different young and seasoned composers, with
the clear-cut understanding that they would chose the best
song for EACH situation, even if it meant multiple music directors.
The results in both cases were uncannily similar. Shanker,
Ehsaan and Loy floored the late Mukul with two songs and were
even given the entire film.
Unfortunately, it got permanently shelved after Mukul’s
death, though the album was released on T-Series and proved
a hit. An almost eerie action-replay took place for Vinod’s
film, because here was another patriotic subject and some
of the music directors in the fray (let’s not mention
names) were common. Once again, Shanker, Ehsaan and Loy’s
single composition Dhuan lead to mission accomplished and
bagged them the full film. The album is at the top of the
charts, and this time the film too is releasing this week.
Now while it speaks volumes for S, E, L and their work that
they bagged these films and scored well, let us go deeper
into the matter. None of the songs in these scores demanded
unique or high skills. And yet the music-conscious directors
were hesitant to entrust the responsibility of singly executing
their visions to any of the current crowd of composers - hotshots
or otherwise. I think this fact speaks volumes for the lack
of versatility among today’s music directors. Maybe some
of them may emerge all-rounders in the years to come. But
nothing about them or their track records INSPIRES THAT KIND
OF CONFIDENCE in the truly ‘sureela’ director of
today.
Take the case of the man with the Raj Khosla touch - Milan
Luthria. When he signed Kachche Dhaage in 1995-96, he chose
to go to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and came up trumps with him
in the most memorable music we have ever got from the Tips
film production house. It was a damning indictment of the
shortcomings of today’s music brigade, where the only
versatile tunesmith is an overworked gentleman called Anu
Malik, now onto his supreme test as he takes on Shah Rukh
Khan’s Ashoka The Great.
Now Milan is working with Sajid-Wajid in his next film, and
applying the same logic as before, the very fact that they
are doing a film for him speaks a lot for their potential,
which they have already shown with the T-Series album Deewana,
and in a song or two in Baaghi. In earlier years too, composers
would be branded. But most of them could rise to the challenge
if they were given the chance. Shanker-Jaikishan took up the
challenge of Basant Bahar, Roshan of the big-budget films,
especially the Muslim socials and Laxmikant-Pyarelal of music
beyond the frontiers of commerce (Utsav et al). But from the
’70s onwards (with L-P as the exceptions because of their
steadfast track record) this kind of branding took place even
with colossal talents like Kalyanji-Anandji and Rahul Dev
Burman. When L-P quit Laila Majnu in 1975 and Meera in 1979,
the films never went to KA or RD, who in all probability would
have risen to the occasion. If musical men like HS Rawail
and Premji could think thus of them, how can we expect Bhansali
and company to have confidence in far lesser men today?
Facts indeed can be sadder than fiction.
Rajiv Vijayakar
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