Mumbai Notes

If you have seen Ang Lees Brokeback Mountain,you would as well remember Gustavo Santaolallas music. A soaring,melancholy score,it swept the Wyoming countryside and became the undertone of the fierce,forbidden love between Jake and Ennis.

If you have seen Ang Lees Brokeback Mountain,you would as well remember Gustavo Santaolallas music. A soaring,melancholy score,it swept the Wyoming countryside and became the undertone of the fierce,forbidden love between Jake and Ennis. A year later,in 2006,the Argentine Santaolalla came together with his favourite director Alejandro Inarritu and made Oscar-winning music for Babel. After two Grammies and Oscars,he is now giving music to Kiran Raos Dhobi Ghat .

Santaolalla,who is here to absorb the experience of India,says,To do justice to a movie,you have to know its background. Thats why Ive come to India. He met Rao in Los Angeles,where she had gone to persuade him to compose music for her directorial debut. Kiran had decided that I was the right composer for her movie. She showed me the film and I loved it and instantly agreed. I work on a project only if Im convinced that its worth the effort, he says. I appreciate the fact that Kiran is trying to do something different in Dhobi Ghat.

The 58-year-old composer is voluble about his India experience. At the reception for me in Mumbai,I met many people from the Indian film industry. Many were already familiar with my work. If I get the opportunity,I would love to continue my Indian association, he says. Hes also excited about having listened to Indian musical instruments.

Ive discovered the flute,sarangi and the veena and Id love to use them in the movie, he says,Not the sitar and the tabla,though. Theyre obvious choices.

Santaolalla says movies happened to him by accident. In 1978,he left Argentina for the US. It was a terrible time in my country. The military was ruling and around 30,000 people had disappeared, he recalls. In the US,it took him almost 20 years to get his first big movie break. A friend told me that Inarritu was looking for a composer for Amores Perros, he says. Santaolallas first instinct was to say no,since he was busy producing music and making albums,but he changed his mind overnight,when he realised that he might be missing the opportunity of a lifetime. I told Inarritu to show me his movie and when I saw it,I was convinced.

Then came an offer from Walter Salles,for his movie about a young Che Guevara,The Motorcycle Diaries (because Che and I are both Argentine). When this movie was doing the rounds at the Sundance Film Festival,Santaolalla met Lee,who would go on to make Brokeback Mountain the movie that would win the composer his first Academy Award (for Best Song) in 2005.

The Oscar is a different beast altogether, he says. As for India,he just hopes that everyone loves my music.

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Mumbai Notes

If you have seen Ang Lees Brokeback Mountain,you would as well remember Gustavo Santaolallas music. A soaring,melancholy score,it swept the Wyoming countryside and became the undertone of the fierce,forbidden love between Jake and Ennis.

If you have seen Ang Lees Brokeback Mountain,you would as well remember Gustavo Santaolallas music. A soaring,melancholy score,it swept the Wyoming countryside and became the undertone of the fierce,forbidden love between Jake and Ennis.