Foreign Exchange

With Road,Movie and Rajneeti,Bollywood has opened its doors to foreign-bred music directors. Here are two composers who have scored high

WAYNE SHARPE: Rajneeti
I am learning Hindi,slowly but steadily,” says Wayne Sharpe. A friend introduced him to filmmaker Prakash Jha,and this meeting became Sharpe’s passport to India’s tinsel-town. “Prakash was visiting New York City and came to my studio. After he described his next films,I played him some of my compositions,” says Sharpe. They soon discovered a common creative taste. “It’s been a great deal of work to create for an entirely different culture,” says the American musician about his background score in Prakash Jha’s earlier works Gangaajal and Apaharan.
He was signed on for Jha’s ambitious project Rajneeti . “The film is so politically charged that I approached the score differently. It will be a western sound with some Indian instrumentation,” says Sharpe. With every project,the music director devotes three days going through every scene with the director. “Even when the scenes are in a foreign language,the emotions and mood come through.”
Sharpe’s introduction to Indian music came from the classical Indian and Middle Eastern music. But it was A R Rahman who really changed his experience. “When I first heard his score for Taal ,I was mesmerised.”
The composer,who has worked on American films as well,says,“Bollywood tends to sometimes overuse the background score. I like to let a movie breathe and have breaks in the music,” he says.

MICHAEL BROOK: Road,Movie
WITH a strong penchant for rock,electronica,world music,minimalism and film scores,one would term Michael Brook the ideal music composer. Born in Toronto ,Canada ,Brook is better known for his scores in Into The Wild and his solo record RockPaperScissors. While he was always intrigued and inspired by Indian music,the opportunity to work here came with Dev Benegal’s Road,Movie . “When Dev came along with co-producer Fred Berger,I found him to be an interesting collaborator. The story is compelling and the actors are wonderful,” says the 59-year-old. “In some ways,it seems like a movie that happens to be made by an Indian and shot in India ,but stylistically was more universal”. Although Brook is a seasoned composer,he believes in doing his homework before each of his films. “I start with a wide range of information on different projects,ranging from a finished version of the film to a simple description of what the filmmaker intends,” says the composer. With Road,Movie and its soothing music garnering rave reviews,is he keen on taking up more Indian projects? “I haven’t been offered any,but I’m looking forward to an enthusiastic steady stream of projects.”