Today, Ghibran is a brand. He has etched himself a big name in this industry, all thanks to his mesmerizing and unique compositions. Now, Ghibran is a hot shot composer in Tamil Cinema and one big proof for his demand is that Kamal Haasan has signed him for three consecutive films viz. Vishwaroopam2, Uttama Villain and Papanasam. Rajasekar from Cinemalead caught up with the composer recently, discussing music, social interactions, Kamal Hassan and more. Read on.
Ghibran is a very private person and his recording studio hardly has just two people. Ghibran says "I think I want to give equal respect in whatever thing I do. For example now I'm talking to you and I have kept my phone in silent mode, this is the respect I'm giving to you. Similarly while composing music, I should give the respect for my profession and hence I'm limiting myself from a large number of people".
Ghibran on people comparing him with Rahman, also opens up about Ilaiyaraaja..
In social networking sites there are comparisons between Rahman and Ghibran, with people saying that both came from similar difficult situations in their life and they quit education for the family. Also, their composing styles possess a similarity that only after repeated hearings, the listeners can understand the depth of their music. When we asked whether Ghibran is aware of these comparisons, the composer says "No, actually I don't want to be compared with AR Rahman. Rahman is a genius and he is like a professor to me, I'm just a beginner and I do accept that there are few similarities like general perspective of repeated hearing of my music. But comparing me with such a legend is actually an embarrassment".
Ghibran says "I have a learnt a lot from Raja sir and Rahman like an Ekalavyan, they have taught me that discipline and music are the same. One should not do immoral activities, even if the situation pushes us to do. Many will find situations to do wrong things, it happened to me as well. But legends like Raja sir and Rahman are my role models to be disciplined. I think me and my parents owe them big time for teaching the much needed discipline to this generation".
There are many layers in Ghibran's compositions and the composer says "During my difficult situations, good music compositions were my relaxing therapy and hence I always prefer to make the orchestrations as beautiful as possible".
On Amara Kaaviyam..
When we met Ghibran, he was busy with the final mixing of Amara Kaaviyam which is touted to be an intense love story set in an 80's backdrop. Ghibran has consciously used instruments of that period for the background scores. "Jeeva Shankar is very clear about Amara Kaaviyam's music, he has narrated the script to me for more than four hours. He has retained many silent portions in the film which is left for me to convey through music and it feels good that a director is confident of my work. Recently, we saw the final output and the director said that the background score will be a memorable one and will be in discussions for a long time. I guess that is a great compliment for my music." said Ghibran with a smile.
Ghibran calls Amara Kaaviyam as a special film for him. Of course, one reason is that all the songs are already topping the charts. As Ghibran has met his wife in Singapore and fallen in love, we asked whether his real life romance made Amara Kaaviyam a special film. Ghibran denied it with a big No'. The composer says "Love can happen at any age but innocent love during high school is always special and we won't experience that innocence in any moment in our life, ever again. In that way, Amara Kaaviyam is a special film".
On his films which are poorly executed..
Ghibran's songs are always on a different level but some of his films didn't match his great compositions. We praised him about his tremendous Vathikuchi background scores and soulful Thirumanam Ennum Nikkah notes, but he did accept that they ended up as a disappointment. When we asked whether poorly executed films bother him, Ghibran said "Of course, it disappoints me to the core but nothing is in my hands. When a director narrating a script, I find it to be interesting and compose the tunes with my imagination of the story but after watching the film only, I'm able to know that the directors' imagination is ostensibly different". Ghibran says "Human imagination is beyond limits, people who loved reading the Lord of The Rings didn't like the films. This is a similar story."
Favorite genre in music and importance of script narration..
Ghibran really loves to compose Hindustani music, the raaga based songs are his personal favorites. "When directors give me freedom to compose Hindustani music, it will be a kushi moment for me" said Ghibran like an excited child with glowing eyes.
For Ghibran, directors must narrate their complete scripts. "Only by understanding the script of a film, one could compose different kind of songs for a film and at the same time, one could maintain the connectivity between all the songs".
On composing the background score and Kamal's confidence..
Ghibran has finished his schooling in music at Singapore and they actually taught him more about composing background scores for films but here the composer hardly gets time for background scores since most of Tamil films are given to the composers only during the last moment before release.
Ghibran says "I always want to leave it silent wherever necessary for a film and fill in music for scenes which are to be conveyed by music, for example the invitation-handing-over scene in Thirumanam Ennum Nikkah demands a music to convey the lead pairs trauma."
On asking him whether the directors instruct him on the background score, Ghibran says "Till Thirumanam Ennum Nikkah, I myself took the call when it comes to background score, and for Amarakaaviyam both the director and myself discussed about the background score. But directors like Kamal are on a different level. Kamal will boldly maintain silence for lengthy shots which actually many directors will be afraid to do. Also he is very clear about the background score of his films".
Connection between God and Music..
We questioned him why many top music composers like Ilaiyaraaja, Rahman and Yuvan are more spiritual? Is there a connection between music and God? Ghibran thinks for a second and replies with his cool smile "Im not a representative of God. Actually, no one is but I can tell you one thing. Before composing a song, I don't know how the song is going to be nor do I know whether I will press the black' or white' chords in the keyboard. Actually, I'm yet to begin the composition for my next film Chennai-Singapore. But the songs for that 2015 album exist somewhere and I think that process of music are spiritual and close to God".
Ghibran on Vishwaroopam II..
Our topic slowly shifted to Vishwaroopam-II but Ghibran actually calls it as Vishwaroopam2 (Vishwaroopam square). Everything will be double as that of the first part, right from action sequences, graphics, grand shots and rich orchestrations. This film will match Hollywood standards which we often talk about in Tamil films. For Vishwaroopam 2, Ghibran has recorded songs and scores in Singapore and Bulgaria, he says that a special team is working for a long time in visual effects and everyone in the team are excited about the output.
Uttama Villain and Kamal's surprise gift..
Based on our conversation with Ghibran, we can easily say that the composer is super excited about Uttama Villain. Ghibran says "Kamal has bought instruments from Bali and it was quite a surprise for me, we have tried something different as the film has fantasy/fictional elements in it. We ourselves imagined that this how our ancient people would have composed songs and the film will also have these instruments in visuals". Ghibran learnt to play these instruments during his times in the Singapore music school and he thinks that these music instruments will also suit our tradition and culture.
Among all his films, Ghibran finds composing for Uttama Villain is the toughest scenario and it took him more time to compose all the numbers in the film. Ghibran says "We have decided to not include two of the songs in Uttama Villain album because it will reveal the story. Hence we have reserved it only for the film". We did ask him whether these two songs will be like Michael Madhana Kamarajan's opening song which summarized the entire flashback of the film. Ghibran said "I can't tell you now, you will have to wait little longer to know".
Whatever question we ask, Ghibran's answer arrives at Uttama Villain. We asked him on his style of composition of songs i.e. whether he used to compose music for lyrics or ask his lyricists to write for his tunes. Ghibran says "In Vaagai Sooda Va, Vairamuthu sir gave me full freedom to compose tunes first and he generously cited the reason that it is my first film. Right from Vaagai Sooda Vaa, for all my films I have composed the tunes first and then lyrics. But again for Uttama Villain, we ourselves don't know whether lyrics came to the music or music flowed in along with the lyrics, the magic just happened".
On the see-saw between computerized music and live instrumentations..
Many music lovers are complaining that these days, the music is computerized and they can't feel the magic of live instruments. Ghibran says "If you ask me to vote between live instruments and computerized tunes, I would definitely vote for live instruments. As for my compositions are concerned, I'm using a new technology to present live instrument tones in a lovable format/package. Technology actually helps to present live instruments' music in a much better way".
Ghibran on Santosh Narayanan, Anirudh and Sean Roldan..
When it comes to recording songs, Ghibran generally avoids listening to other composers' music but during his free time he does catch up with the young generation music composers' works. Ghibran says "Myself and Santosh Narayanan always discuss about our works on the phone, Naan Nee from Madras is my recent favorite from Santosh Narayanan's compositions. I also loved Anirudh's Velai Illa Pattadhari's tune. Especially the initial vocals in the song was in my head for a long time. I think Anirudh's music is having that instant hook factor. Sean Roldan's Mundasupatti and a song from Pannaiyarum Padminiyum were also instantly likable".
Why did he de-activate his Twitter account?
As we said earlier, Ghibran is a private person and recently he de-activated his Twitter account. We asked him why and told him that Twitter is a nice platform for fans to interact with him. Ghibran said "Im not against Twitter nor being connected with the audience, as I said earlier whatever thing I do, I must give respect to it. When audiences are mentioning me, I should reply them and I can't ignore their mentions but sadly I don't get that much time". Another reason which Ghibran says is "After Vaagai Sooda Vaa, people in Twitter asked me to compose songs like Sara Sara', later when I did Vathikuchi which is exact opposite to Vaagai Sooda Vaa, people asked me to compose like Kuru Kuru' and from then on, I'm afraid that instead of composing on my own, I might get influenced and compose tunes which please others and hence I quit Twitter".
Ghibran says "I'm a very private person. Look at my recording studio, there are only few people working here. This is how I started my career by composing jingles for ads and also during Vaagai Sooda Vaa, I still want to remain the same. Even now, I used to go to the tea shop at the corner of this street and have the usual discussions with that anna(brother). You are here to interview me because you loved my work and if I want continue giving such music, then I think I want to be same old Ghibran who composed jingles for ads".
Ghibran is still connected to his fans through Facebook and even promised us to be interactive via question/answer sessions.
Bonus points:
Ghibran's next project is Chennai to Singapore starring Sathya.
Vishwaroopam - II and Uttama Villain will be completely contrast albums.
Vishwaroopam -II's music has been recorded in Singapore and Bulgaria.
Ghibran got a appreciation call from Rahman for Vaagai Sooda Vaa album
Uttama Villain will have music composed in instruments flown down from Bali.
Uttama Villain songs took more time for Ghibran and he calls it as his toughest project till date.
Interviewed by Rajasekar S
http://cinemalead.com/news-id-ghibran-interview-m-ghibran-on-uttama-villain-and-vishwaroopam2-31-08-145966.htm
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