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A
theme and a place for everything
The late Sachin Dev Burman waited for a few weeks, but stubbornly
refused to record Honthon pe aisi baat for Jewel Thief without
getting an authentic Nepalese drum on which its orchestral
edifice was constructed. “The standout point about Dada’s
music,” opines veteran composer Anandji, “is that
the song immediately created a picture in your mind about
the kind of backdrop and setting the song had. We tried to
emulate that in our songs, like Mere desh ki dharti (Upkar)
and Khaike paan banaraswala (Don).”
Composing for the TV epic Noorjahan, Talat Aziz kept in mind
the time-frame of the story in its instrumentation, avoiding
for instance, the tabla which was not developed then. “I
also varied the orchestration and even the raags for the different
situations, because the songs were even placed in different
geographical regions like the Middle-East, Afghanistan, and
so on.”
Laxmikant-Pyarelal went infor a completely new sound according
to the theme and place of films like Khuda Gawah, Utsav and
Sur-Sangam. Early in their career, they gave a distinct Maharashtrian
flavour to Sant Gyaneshwar. Naushad relates how he would pay
a lot of attention to the time period and location setting
of his films. To be fair, most composers did this right down
to Ismail Darbar working on Gujarati folk in Hum Dil De Chuke
Sanam, and now planning visits to the interiors of Calcutta
to score Devdas.
Vishal Bharadwaj also relates how he made some musical research
for the Gujarat based score of Godmother and for the Maharashtrian
echoes of Hu Tu Tu. The Assam-born Dr. Bhupen Hazarika and
the Goa-Maharashtra-based Hridaynath Mangeshkar worked at
creating the right Rajasthani ambience of Rudaali and Lekin
respectively.
Through instruments, chords, raags and even imported styles
and notes (Shanker-Jaikishan reportedly composed most of the
tunes for An Evening In Paris by working on French tunes),
our composers composed songs that were dipped in the flavour
of their situations, script, settings, time frames and geographical
regions. Some succeeded spectacularly, others were not so
lucky. But there was no lack of effort.
And this is what jars in the A.R. Rahman score for Zubeidaa.
Rahman is no wanna be who has to kowtow to market trends,
and the distributor/producer/financier. Neither was he composing
for an ultra-commercial filmaker. With all the freedom at
his disposal, the man could have scored a milestone and silenced
his now justifiably on-the-increase critics. Alas! A monumental
opportunity has been squandered and we are left wondering
why Shyam Benegal, for whom commercial compulsions are (hopefully)
secondary, could not have stuck to his regular ace composer
Vanraj Bhatia, especially after a brilliant performace like
Sardari Begum.
Depolarisation and globalisation are fine, but as I have said
before and will continue to do so, Hindi film music has a
distinct idiom even as it is paradoxically composed of myriad
influences. To tell the truth, Hindi film music has been globalised
decades ago and has evolved its own identity much like we
have our own version of - let’s say - the English language.
This flavour is a characteritsic streak running through music
as diverse as that of Jaidev, Shanker-Jaikishan and Bappi
Lahiri, and scores as different as Baiju Bawara and Hum Kisise
Kum Nahin. And to date composers of all origins followed it
while maintaining their own stamp and regional flavour.
With 1947 - Earth and Pukar, Rahman seemed to be heading in
the right direction, though the 1947 score used insturments
that were not even dreamt about in 1947. But Zubeidaa is a
downhill journey back to his worst post-Bombay phase, during
which Rahman was at his repetitious worst, hopelessly techno-oriented
and completely Southern in his ethos. With some hard work
(he barely works on three projects at a time) he could have
composed a score that was authentic, well-researched orchestrally
and compositionally, and true to the subject. Instead Rahman
has composed yet another score that is fodder for the men
who equate him more than anyone else with the degradation
of Hindi film music.
Rahman to date, (and it’s all the more sad considering
his genuinely prodigious talent) has never learnt the importance
of content over packaging, thanks to the hype and the transient
success of many a well-packed but average/mediocre/trashy
product. Zubeidaa also shows him to be alarmingly averse to
anything approaching authenticity. He seems to be revelling
in anachronistic incongruity. But Zubeidaa isn’t your
standard formula film in which anything goes. Neither is it
the ‘willing suspension of disbelief cinema’ of
Manmohan Desai or David Dhawan. It is the semi-autobiographical
story of the heroine of India’s first talkie, Alam Ara,
whose hero, Prithviraj’s great-grandaughter Karisma Kapoor
is cast in that momentous role.
There is a theme and a palce for everything, Mr Rahman. And
such flippancy here is inexcusable.
Rajiv
Vijayakar
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