Raising a Voice

Around four months back,NFAI had approached the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) with the DVD launch initiative. Currently NFAI is in possession of 21 silent films. Since the project is not funded by the I&B Ministry,releasing other silent films on DVDs will depend on the budged involved,says Prashant Patharbe,director of NFAI. Speaking about the reason behind inclusion of background score,he says,”From 1913 to 1930s,whenever silent films used to be showcased,they were accompanied by an orchestra or some kind of music. In current context,including music in the film itself was a logical step.” The DVDs will be launched on August 31.

Referring to Raja Harishchandra,Ranade says,“The fact that I will be touching something which is 100 years old and also India’s first film,itself is a great honour. At the same time,it was also a major creative challenge for me to conceive music for these films considering the period they belong to.” The music,he says had to gel with the era in which the films were made. “

Thus,in order to avoid a mismatch of the onscreen scenes and the music,Ranade decided to age the sounds of his music. For this,he took inspiration from the music of Prabhat films’ music arrangement,structure and melody. “I recorded all live instruments and mixed them with monophonic i.e use of a single speaker,which was quite popular in the 70s. Later,I aged the music using a software that enables playing with the sound,” he explains. His team,which includes Narendra Bhide,Chaitanya Adkar and Sushant Pandit,played a huge rule in accomplishing effect,adds the musician.

Considering the varied storylines of the three silent films,Ranade conceptualised a different line of music for each film. For instance,he has composed ‘Chaplinish’ music for Jamai Babu (23 min),a slapstick comedy film which revolves around the protagonist Gobhardan,who comes to Kolkata to visit his in-laws. He gets lost in the crowded streets of the city. This is followed by a number of funny incidents like when he sneaks into the room of his wife; he is mistaken for a thief and is beaten up. “We primarily used string instruments,clarinets,oboes and so on,” said Ranade.

The musician points out another challenge that he worked on. “In any film,ambiance and incidents that create sounds like thunder,moving train,footsteps etc play an important role. Music becomes a part of these effects. But here,in these films,since there are no dialogues,I had to score carpet music,which plays throughout the film,” explains Ranade. Although,Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra was originally around 40 min long,NFAI has only the first and the last reels of the film,which is 15 min long.

“For Raja Harishchandra,a film that revolves around the noble and righteous king Harishchandra and Kalia Mardan (45 min),a mythological drama,the background score has a touch of Indian classical music using traditional instruments like pakhawaj,sitar and flute to name a few,” says Ranade.