Arrol Corelli: I had only 20 days for Thupparivaalan’s background score

While I started learning Indian classical music at the age of 5 years, I started performing with Kanyakumari ma’am when I was 10-11 years old. We used to perform together at renowned sabhas. I was very active in the classical field until I completed school. However later, my interests leaned towards film music. I wanted to explore many genres of music and in our country, films are the best way to do that. However, my parents insisted that I continue my studies as well and thus, I completed Chartered Accountancy. When I felt I had learnt enough about producing music for films, I quit my job. After a hunt for good opportunities, Pisasu happened.

In an earlier interview with indianexpress.com, Mysskin had told us he was inspired by Predator’s soundtrack when he was writing Thupparivaalan. Did he share this with you? How did you interpret it?

I don’t know about Predator, maybe he was inspired by the music for a particular character. I am not sure. Mysskin is a person whose soundscape is very deep and wide. He knows what kind of music, or sounding his movies need. He writes the story based on that feeling. When he gets a spark about a character, he throws that idea to me. The music, character and the story evolve hand-in-hand. If he gets inspired by a particular piece of music for a character, he will ask me to look into it. I’ll figure out which element inspired him: scale, pattern, progression or tone and create something that gives the required effect. Also we couldn’t get much time together for Thupparivaalan, thus there weren’t many inputs from him.

Another aspect in Mysskin’s movies is that music is very coherent with the movements on screen, almost as if it is choreographed so. How did you achieve that?

During Pisasu, I used to stay at his office. Hence, I knew the script in and out. In fact, the music was done first, before shooting, for several sequences. He composes the shots according to progressions in the music. Done that way, shooting a scene is like filming a song. That’s the coherence you see on screen. The sound tracks are extremely customised for the movie. For Thupparivaalan, 60-70% of the work done was during pre-production to fix the sounds, tone for the movie. When you understand the tone you need for a movie, the exploration that has to be done later becomes easier. Since the movie is dark, we used the range of Cello,Viola and Bass to get that warmth. But, I couldn’t travel along with the movie like Pisasu. I got around 20 days for Thupparivaalan’s background score. But since we have worked on two movies together, we had an understanding of each other’s work style.

Tell us about using a string-dominated background score for Thupparivaalan

Mysskin sir has a tone for himself. A film is a director’s vision and, as a technician, my job is to bridge the gap between his vision and the audience. He visualises his movies as an ensemble of strings. In terms of tone, strings are very fluid and that enables me to convey an emotion easily. Mysskin’s films are also very fluid visually. He has realised that this kind of music suits his filmmaking style very early. It has become his signature now. I didn’t feel the need to step out that boundary and rather wanted to do justice to his style.

All your three movies, Pisasu, Pasanga 2 and Thupparivaalan weren’t commercial movies per se. If you are offered a film for a mass hero, how would you handle it? Would there be any difference?

It depends on the script and the character. If the character and story demands the ‘mass’ effect I would definitely do it. The basic reason I came into films was to explore different genres of music and commercial cinema is part of that. Every six months, I get bored of a genre. So, this way I get creative relief. My next movie, Annanuku Jai, is a completely different movie. It is a full-fledged album with a technical number, a folk song, a jazz song and a gaana number. The music should be out by next month.

What do you think about this shift to having lesser number of songs in a film. Does that in anyway restrict a composer?

Films evolve from the culture of drama and theatre. Fifty years back, our movies used to have several songs. In fact, films like Meera were filled with songs. From there, our film language has evolved. Now we are at a situation where songs are no more a need. That restricts the composer in no way. World cinema is an example for that. We all know composers like John Williams for their background scores. I think it is a healthy trend to have lesser number of songs and have more focus on background scores.

Do you have a dream project?

I consider the movies I work in as my dream projects. Everyone should be satisfied with my work, including myself. But, I would love to compose for a romance movie.