Khoya Khoya Chand -Retro Style Music back - Page 6

After Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, where he had to dish out everything from Benarasi folk music to Mumbaiyaa street tunes to Swiss tango, SHANTANU MOITRA revisits the era of SD Burman, Salil Choudhury, Sahir Ludhianvi and Majrooh Sultanpuri with Sudhir Mishra's filmi tribute Khoya Khoya Chand. A t2 chat with the man who thinks, creates and expresses in Bengali...

You are back with the man with whom you started. What's changed in Sudhir Mishra?

Absolutely nothing! Amar to haathe khodi onar kachhei... Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi was my first film and that was three years ago. But nothing in Sudhir has changed. The belief system is the same. It's always such a learning experience working with him. He knows the medium so well. More than the project I just love to work with him.

The project sounds so challenging — recreating the music magic of the 1950s-60s...

Khoya Khoya Chand is 50s-60s cinema paradiso. At the very outset Sudhir told me: "Don't mimic the greats. Don't give me a hit song. Give me a good song." If you look back at that period of Indian film music there were legends like Anil Biswas, Salil Choudhury, SD Burman, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Kaifi Azmi at their peak. I would be mad if I even think of bettering these people. So my attempt was to represent them as honestly as possible.

And how did you approach that?

I didn't want to listen to their music for reference. What was important for me was to try and understand what kind of people they were. See, the emotions haven't changed over the decades, just the rendition has become very different. Today if you are happy you would go and party, maybe have dinner somewhere. In that era, if you were happy you would read poetry to yourself. And you would feel on top of the world. My attempt was to understand that pace of life.

So besides the tunes a lot depended on how the songs were conveyed?

Exactly. See, today everything is so loud. We say "I love you" and "Sorry" in the same manner. But earlier it was so subtle. So the singing style had to be like that. So for Khoya Khoya Chand I have used a technique called closed mike where you will feel that the singer is caressing the microphone rather than singing into it. Listen to Sonu sing re paakhi. Also I have tried to make the singers sing the duets together, do the rhythm and string sections together. I believe that when people sing or play together, even their body language helps the song.

But it's not the same with the title song and Thirak thirak...

Those two songs are about telling the world that I am happy. Today, when someone's happy he would rather keep it to himself but in the 50s and 60s he would shout it out from the rooftops, share his joy with everyone. Sudhir and (lyricist) Swanand (Kirkire) have contributed to the album immensely. Just look at Swanand's words — Kyun khoye khoye chand ki firak mein talash mein udas hai dil... I have also been helped a lot by Gulzarsaab to tell me how it was like then.

Who is your favourite music composer of that era?

SD Burman. The entire Navketan era and then the Guru Dutt films. They were cinematically so brilliant. It was not about catchy phrases. It was about poetry. It was something from the soul.

What is your take on the albums of Om Shanti Om and Saawariya?

See, both have a lot of muscle power. Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi was a marketing disaster. When the music released, the film didn't release. When the film released, the music didn't release. But people till this day are buying the album for Bavra mann. I think the same will happen with Khoya Khoya Chand. But I am happy for both OSO and Saawariya. People used to say that only Shantanu Moitra does melody. Now others are doing it to too. And melody is coming back in a big way.

What next?

Shyam Benegal's Mahadev and Rajkumar Hirani's Idiot