by Rajiv Vijayakar, ScreenIndia.com
ll they need is that one big break that will make the world aware of their talent. In Hindi film music, music duos have been a tradition, and among duos, brothers (Husnlal-Bhagatram, Kalyanji-Anandji, Anand-Milind, Mandhir-Jatin, Jatin-Lalit, Sajid-Wajid and Salim-Suleiman) have been a regular feature. Bapi and Tutul Bhattacharya represent the latest examples of this convention. And as we all know, the Bengali contribution to Hindi films has been humungous.
In 2005, the chant-based ‘Govinda Govinda...’ from Sarkar has made waves, and Bapi and Tutul are sincerely praying and hoping that this leads to meatier assignments but not for similar work! After all, they want to exhibit their range, which also spans from the contemporary ‘Sindoori aasmaan...’ (James) to their classical number ‘Chhaa bhanwar trishna...’from Ek Hasina Thi.
Bapi and Tutul were brought up in musical surroundings in Bihar, where their mother Babli Bhattacharya was a Reader of Music and the Head of the Department of Music in Bihar University. The brothers state that their quest for commercial music brought them to Mumbai in 1993. Trained in electronics, they began to do arrangements for jingles and later composed their own - the first ones being for Ayur and Vicks Action 500.
“Simultaneously, we met lyricist Sandeep Nath, struck up a rapport with him and began to build up our repertoire of songs,” says Tutul. A meeting with Ram Gopal Varma led to an opportunity to compose one song, ‘Din hai na raat hai...’ for the album of Varma’s 2003 songless film Bhoot. “It was rendered by Usha Uthup,” says Tutul. This was followed by Ek Hasina Thi, Sarkar and James.
Is the impression that they work exclusively for Ram Gopal Varma’s film stonewalling their progress?”I hope not!” says Bapi sincerely.”We have also done Manisha Koirala’s home production Paisa Vasool in which ‘Bhaagte bhoot ki...’, sung by Sunidhi Chauhan, was quite popular. Paisa Vasool was actually our first release as a film, because Bhoot was just an album. If you hear the album carefully, it was a very innovative one.”
Coming up, adds Tutul, are two interesting projects, Khosla Ka Ghosla directed by Diwakar Banerjee, in which they have done five songs as well as the background score, and Kathputhli, directed by Sanjay Khanna for Sahara One Motion Pictures.”Our work in Khosla Ka Ghosla should help us take a step forward. All the songs here are in the background because music is like another character in the film. One song in fact is like the sutradhar. It is sung by Adnan Sami.”
There has been a paradigm change in the use of music since the 12 years they have arrived in Mumbai, notes Bapi, which is also making it difficult for a newcomer to progress, and it does not mean only multiple music makers in one film.”Today the audio is barely selling. Music is not doing well in physical formats. There is a phase of songless movies and confused filmmakers. To assess a music director’s worth, good situations and romantic songs are needed, whereas most of the songs wanted today are either ’item’ songs or theme numbers.”
Adds Tutul,”A hit song has no relevance in the scene today, and there is no filmmaker coming with a script and a brief about the 5 situations where a song can be composed.”
The duo claim that their music is different and innovative because of a lot of stress on sound design.”We also use unusual voices like that of Usha Uthup and Pandit Jasraj,” says Bapi. Echoes Tutul,”As musicians we are satisfied with our work. But we do want to make commercial progress. We have a good stock as well as understanding of what goes into good film music. Our musical styling and rhyming are different and not cliched. In ‘Chhaa bhanwar trishna...’ the composition is in the 7-8 beat, the orchestration is 5-8 and the rhythm in 13-8. We also infuse our stamp in other innovative ways.”
Another Bapi-Tutul habit is vocal designing of a song, complete with backing vocals.”We want a soulful quality in our songs that can only come from acoustics, not electronics,” says Tutul.”We do not want to approach music in a stereotyped fashion.”
The use of ‘Govinda...’ in Sarkar was also a case in point.”Ramuji wanted a part of the background score in verse. There was a relevance to the characters and an emphasis on the tussle between right and wrong.”
The brothers admit that their work for Ram Gopal Varma has been limited because of his known aversion to music in his films, but do not think that this too has come in the way of their work.”For us, it is enough that Amitabhji said, ’Great work!’ when he heard ‘Govinda...’”
Bapi-Tutul also lay great emphasis on folk music.”Regardless of trends that come and go, our folk music will always click with the audiences!” Tutul declares. They add that our film music is the perfect fusion music with an Indian base and symphony-like orchestration.”In these days when the world is waking up to India, I think that we should take our music to international levels rather than making fake Western music! Indian folk and classical have long-lasting value. It is sad that we are imitating them when Indian musicians are so much in demand there and even foreigners are playing our music!”says Bapi.
He adds passionately,”Our folk music resembles elements of jazz, a musical form that is popular worldwide. That shows how much potential it has to get universal popularity. Just to give one example, the pentatonic minor scale has the same notes and beats as Raag Bhupali. Our folk music has elements of sounds used there, but we don’t exploit that. Our various gharanas also exercise bandhans on their disciples as they want only their styles to flourish.”
The duo also decry the Punjabi folk overdrive that is undermining the rich treasury of folk music from so many other states of India.”It is being ignorant to state that Punjabi beats have intrinsic popular appeal because it is beats-oriented and peppy. The traditional genre of music called ‘Aala Udhal’ from UP and Bihar, to give just one example, has elements similar to rock. But we are aping them instead! Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kashmir, the South - our music is so varied and rich, but all we are making in these days when Indian music is being taken globally is the same old mix of Punjabi and Western music.”
In short, the brothers conclude, music has become more of showmanship and marketing. Making good music today is nothing less than a challenge! they sign off.
Read the story on ScreenIndia.com
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