How did Fruit & Nut happen as your debut film as composers? More important, at their pre-release party, everyone lampooned each other, but seriously praised your music.
Sangeet: We literally bumped into the film, so to speak. Kunal Vijayakar and Studio 18 came to meet dad, who looks after our three studios, and wanted his opinion and inputs. When they spoke about the film, he suggested that they talk to us, as we happened to be sitting in the canteen. We heard the situation for Andhera hai and came up with the tune in 5 minutes. That clinched the film for us.
Siddharth: It’s been two years since we recorded that song, but we enjoyed working on Fruit & Nut because Kunal Vijayakar’s brief for each song was different but very clear. A music director’s work, I think, can only be as good as the director and his vision.
Explain.
Siddharth: The director is the guy who drives the film at all stages. It is his thought-process that gives all the results. He is the guy who inspires and can make a music composer do great, okay or poor work. We can go only where the director takes us. If Hrishida had not given a clear brief to Salil Chowdhurysaab, how could he have come up with a Zindagi kaisi hai paheli for Anand?
Sangeet: My father worked for so many composers and he recalls Raj Kapoorsaab instructing my father to play a piece the way a little girl would play and not in the skilled and masterly way he was doing so as a trained musician for the song Yashomati maiyya se from Satyam Shivam Sundaram. He did not change the composition Laxmikant-Pyarelal made, but gave them a clear-cut requirement for his character.
Siddharth: A film score differs from a pop song precisely in this way - every song is situational, unless of course it is just an “item” number. The words, tune and orchestration are designed for a situation.
So can you reveal the specific briefs that you got?
Siddharth: Kunal explained how Dia Mirza’s character was more dominant and almost like a man in the Dia-Cyrus relationship, and so she addresses him as Heeriye in the song Bhangra paale. Kailash Kher kept asking whether we were sure that we wanted him for a hip-hip song like the title-track when it was not something conventionally associated with him! But we wanted to break the rules - a Shaan or a Kunal Ganjawala would have been very conventional.
Sangeet: Then there was the brief we got for Andhera hai. “I want a sad song for Cyrus Broacha, the hero, when he has lost his job, his home and his girlfriend and his clothes are torn and his spectacles broken.” We nodded our head and got up. And Kunal added, “Oh sorry, sorry! I forgot to tell you that the sad song should make people watching it laugh!”
Siddharth: And Bomanji’s song Khabardaar was a fabulous experience. We composed the song in 30 minutes after Kunal’s brief, which was “Give me a mix of Chicago, Moulin Rouge and Boman Irani!”
Sangeet: We have used only acoustics in Khabardaar – one bass guitar, a live drum, two brass, a live piano and a chorus of two girls. Nothing was programmed.
And how was the Boman experience?
Siddharth: We believe in the old-school concept of rehearsals, but despite that Bomanji was very nervous on the day of the recording. Different artistes have a different way of expressing nervousness and Boman’s way was to insist that we open all the doors of the studio and call in everyone. Then he began dancing to the cue track in a mad, funky way and told everyone to just copy him. After that he went on the mike!
What are the films you are doing now?
Sangeet: We are doing Warner Brothers’ animation film Ae Phansa, a major 3-D project directed by Jyotin Goel.
Do you divide your work?
Siddharth: To a good extent, yes. I tend to work on the lyrics and the composition with my guitar. Sangeet thinks more in terms of sound because of his jazz background and I tell him that he is the best man to decide on what is known as the first music, the second music,the chorus and so on.
How much of a role does your father have in your music?
Siddharth: My father supervises the final mixing and mastering as he looks after the studio. We thus get the benefit of his experience as he is the best in the business, for besides composing so many film songs, background scores and albums for over 25 years, he has also worked with the biggest names like Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Rajesh Roshan, Anu Malik and even Nusrat Fateh Ali Khansaab. Sangeet did have some interaction with my father but I could not learn under him. But both of us have obviously learnt a lot from him.
Sangeet: And because of what he is, the pressure on us to prove ourselves is immense!
Finally, how would you like to be known?
Siddharth: We want to be known as versatile music directors. We want to do justice to every song and to every director. Less is more in film music and we do not have to show off what we can do every time if it is not needed for that specific song. Each song must have its natural vibe. We make a singer listen to our composition and then like to ask him how he will sing it. After that we just explain the nuances needed.
Sangeet: Every song we do must sound like our song and not that of the programmer! My father’s instruction to us is to do our work very seriously.
You are the first duo that adds a surname.
Siddharth: That’s the name that gives us our identity. Maybe we will remove it after we make it big!
