The other day, while listening to FM on the daily office commute, I was struck by how different Hindi film music sounds today from what it did maybe even 4 or 5 years back. And yet it was odd-the melodies themselves did not seem to have changed that much-but the way they were arranged and orchestrated had undergone a sea change. To understand why, I decided to do some digging.Given that there are only 12 distinct notes in most music around the world, there are only two ways of creating different moods and cadences from these 12 notes- playing a selection of them in different combinations and sequences, and the other by playing a number of notes at the same time. Indian classical music, in both its Hindustani and Carnatic manifestations, focuses on the former; the raga concept essentially is a set of rules which notes can be used with others in a given sequence. Western classical, and in a much more specific context, jazz music, deal with notes stacked one over the over to create different cadences, albeit with a far fewer number of scales.
Most Indian music directors, both in the past and the present, have been adept at creating melodies based on various ragas, and that is where the term “song bank” originates. Ask anyone from Anu Malik to Himesh Reshamiya to Nadeem-Shravan at their peak about their plans for the future, and they will all mention having “10,000 songs in their song bank”. These are typically melodies either written down or recorded by the composer in a semi-finished state, but which are by no means songs ready for final recording.
This is where the role of orchestration comes into play-for musicians who can take semi-finished pieces and flesh out their essence.
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This is where things have changed in the last decade-primarily with the advent of AR Rahman. For the first time since the mid-70s, Indian cinema heard a composer with his feet comfortably in the Indian and Western moulds. Although Illayaraja in the south and Anand-Milind and Viju Shah had experimented with synthesizers in the past, Rahman really bought the instrument to the fore and showcased how it could be used creatively and inexpensively for movie scoring. The music for cult movies like Roja, Thiruda Thiruda, etc. was done almost entirely on synthesizer, with the background scores (also done by Rahman) standing out. However, soon afterwards Rahman also proved his expertise at composing and arranging for other instruments, with the incomparable Kadri Gopalnath providing the bedrock for the saxophone-laden soundtrack for Duet, and more recently in the guitar-and-strings Rang De Basanti.
The revolution from down south caused Bollywood to take notice, and for many excellent music arrangers to get work. Anyone who has listened to Anu Malik’s flamenco-and-hiphop-tinged work in Aks has manic drummer and composer Ranjit Barot (remember Sunita Rao’s Pari?) to thank. The composer’s own work for movies like Holiday and Asoka, unfortunately, has gone criminally underappreciated.
The other big names to come out of this modernist, technology-oriented musical scene of the late 90s were Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Vishal-Shekhar. Ehsaan and Loy, both seasoned jazz and rock sessions musicians in Bombay, along with classically-trained Shankar Mahadevan, have perfected the trick of taking simple, catchy themes and driving them with radio-friendly rhythms. Personally, though, some of their over-emphasis on synthesis leaves me cold-a case in point being the appalling sarod solo in Mitwa from Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna; it is so obviously played on a keyboard that it leaves one cold. Vishal-Shekhar, too, have found their groove in creatively using hip-hop and rock rhtyms and programming to get their point across. Another brilliant orchestrator, albeit a composer of somewhat dicier merit, is Calcutta-based guitarist Pritam Chakraborty. On his two breakthrough releases, Gangster and Woh Lamhe, he has rearranged tracks from Indonesia (Kya Mujhe Pyar Hai), West Bengal (Bheegi Bheegi) and Arabia (Ya Ali) with such brilliance that even the niggling criticism that these are not really his own songs is left behind.
In closing, a heads-up for a slightly unknown gem in the Hindi film music firmament: Sandesh Shandilya’s score for Socha Na Tha; a score that seemed impossibly fresh-sounding for a long time, until I figured out why. For the first time in years, this was a score where all the instruments were real-from the guitars, to the string section to the drums, which almost seems extinct these days, having been replaced by the discotheque-friendly synth thump. Ably helped out by GIT alumnus Sanjay Divecha, the jazzy, folksy score deserves to be heard by everyone.