The New Beat

While the song is far from perfect in terms of musicality,its rakish energy,the interesting use of rhythm and the dialect reflect Bollywoods latest attempt at keeping things real. I like the music in my movies in its natural raw form. The moment you refine and master it,it loses its soul, says Kashyap. As a new wave of experimental directors makes inroads into Bollywood,the music industry too is reflecting the change. It has spawned an eclectic blend of sounds that is quirky,edgy,not quite melody-driven,but most certainly film-driven.

Khanwalkar is not the lone voice in this new soundscape in Bollywood. Rochak Kohli and Ayushmann Khuranas Paani da,a simple Punjabi ditty set to cascading guitar sounds from this years hit Vicky Donor works to perfection the simple sequence of kothe utte baike akhiyaan milonde letting our eyes meet across the terrace. Composer and arranger Mikey Mcleary stormed on to the music scene with Coke ads and created a cocktail of old classics,infusing them with jazz,pop and electronica in Bejoy Nambiars Shaitan. Singer Suman Shridhars rendition of hawa hawai in whiskey-tinged bass notes in the film was an instant success as were Prashant Pillais other grungy tracks in the album. A self-taught musician,Pillai was an assistant to composer AR Rahman and had posted his music online when Nambiar stumbled upon it. Then there is Shalmali Khodgale,the 22-year-old singer of the mush-meets-grunge track Main pareshaan in Habib Faisals Ishaqzaade,the music of which was composed by the rather unconventional Amit Trivedi,whose other composition for the film,Chhokra Jawaan was sung by Vishal Dadlani to riotous perfection.

Shekhar Ravjiani,one half of music duo Vishal Shekhar,credits filmmakers with having brought about the change. This is a great time to be in the industry everything,from scripts to directors to lyricists,is evolving. A lot of these directors come to us with open minds,we sit through narrations and work around the script for months,trying to stay as close to the storyline as possible, he says. Their latest compositions for Dibakar Banerjees Shanghai,set in a small city,has worked around what he calls the principles of road music or city music.

Khanwalkars ability to break through the clutter and create sounds that represent folk bawdiness,far removed from the posh sounds that have come out of Bollywood,is a result of working only with those who will let her choose her music. I am not violently puritanical and thats why I dont hold fine-tuned voices in higher esteem than raw voices. I am neutral,I can use awkward voices as well as smooth ones, says Khanwalkar,who does hands-on research before she composes an album. So,for the innuendo-laden I am a hunter and she want to see my gun,Khanwalkar travelled to Trinidad in the West Indies to experience the local chutney music and then fused calypso,Bihari folk,and American blues in the track.

A lot of this change has to do with a more open and unconventional audience, says music composer Shankar Mahadevan. Music need not be something that people have to start humming. It should be used to convey a scene or an emotion. You can use a piano to connote death. It necessarily does not have to be a sarangi. Its debunking these clichés thats allowing the music to evolve, he says.

Hindi film songs and their lyrics have always had a symbiotic relationship,being both a reflection of popular taste as well as a determinant. So if KL Saigals Dukh ke ab din beetat nahin from the 1935-production Devdas found resonance with the pre-Independence milieu,Sahir Ludhianvis articulation of the idea of Nehruvian socialism in Pyaasa 1957 in songs such as Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hain was equally impactful. Realism was never mainstream,rearing its head occasionally,before completely nosediving in the Noughties. Things slowly changed with the arrival of AR Rahman and musicians like Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. But it was 32-year-old Amit Trivedi,who debuted with the sleepy hit Aamir by Rajkumar Gupta in 2008,who was among the first to make a radical departure from established traditions. He had no qualms about working with raw brass bands or untrained singers in Kashyaps Dev.D,in which he churned out the pop anthem Emosanal atyachar,which Kashyap called the Bachchan of his film. Trivedi had to write notes,sing it out loud for the band and encourage them till they got it right. The result,much like his other projects,was worth the effort and the attention. The music for the film worked because there was an organic approach to it. In Bollywood,music has a lot to do with your director. You are most creative when the brief does not want you to have a defined mindset. Besides,change is a gradual process, says Trivedi.

Trivedis success prompted other musicians to go against the norm. Khanwalkar dished out Oye Lucky,Lucky Oye and Ram Sampath his Switty ditty in Delhi Belly.

But not every director is an Anurag Kashyap. Most commercial projects require a certain kind of sound and composers have to work under strict blueprints. Actor,composer and lyricist Piyush Mishra,whose music and socially aware lyrics in Gulal were much appreciated,says that most directors want you to compose in a certain way and can get extremely nosy when it comes to the tune. Jigar,of the duo Sachin-Jigar,who created the soulful Saibo in Shor in the City and the peppy Party abhi baaki hai in F.A.L.T.U,says he has had a tough time with directors,who want strict adherence to briefs and no room for experiments. We have made a lot of music,but there is only one Saibo that has something that rises above the usual. Most commercial projects are straightjacketed, he says.

If the music has evolved and given us an interesting mishmash,those singing them have evolved too. Technology has ensured that minor errors in pitch and tenor can be corrected without any hitches. A trained smooth voice that can stay steady on high notes and work out different levels of variations is hardly an essential. Independent musician and one half of the band Sridhar and Thayil,Suman Sridhar is one such instance. Far from the quintessential Bollywood playback singer,Sridhar worked the honeyed lyrics of an old RD Burman number,Khoya khoya chand,mixing it with jazz riffs to create a worthy remix in Shaitan. McCleary smoothened out her theatrical vocals with some lounge and electronica,creating a fan following both for himself and for Sridhar. I havent grown up with songs by greats such as Rafi,unlike the rest of India. So,my approach allows people to see these classics in a new light, says McCleary,who finds Shridhars voice to be one of the more unconventional ones in the industry.

Sridhar,too,does not consider Bollywood to be her cup of tea. I sang these songs for Mikey. I had no clue that they would be used in a film, she says.

This freewheeling would have been unheard of even six years ago,when lip-syncing was crucial and the singer had to capture the emotion being portrayed on the screen. Khodgale says,When I was recording with Amit,he would allow me to interpret the melody and lyrics. The expectation to deliver the high notes like the earlier playback singers is just not there.

Lyricist,composer and singer Swanand Kirkire says this has resulted in two things the slow death of lip sync and the birth of the background score,a concept that was not given much importance despite being around for a long time. The song Khoya khoya chand is set against the backdrop of a shootout scene,making it much more powerful. A few years ago,I made a short Malayalam film and composed its music in Urdu. A lot of people liked it and many didnt,but it worked for me. The idea of contradiction is the new thing and it works, says Nambiar.

This contradiction is also why indie musicians have become so popular with directors,with their cosmopolitan approach to music. Working with indie bands is a way of meeting new people and new influences. I like a lot of different voices in my work. For my next film,David,I am working with bands such as Modern Mafia,Light Years Explode and Prashant Pillai,Anirudh of Kolaveri di fame,Shruti Hassan and Sandeep Chowta, says Nambiar.

The change reflects in the lyrics too. Maange jo babuna prem nisaniya/bole jo thodi katiho kaniya/badle rupahiya ke de na chawaniya/saiyyan ji jhapte to hona hiraniya/ho,run the lyrics of O womaniya in everyday Bhojpuri parlance. Its the bol-chal ki bhasha. People can relate to it. I am a great admirer of Sahir Ludhianvi and Majrooh Sultanpuri sahabs poetry. But will my audience understand heavy Urdu words? I cant create a fantasy world for them where none exists. But at the same time,I dont want to compromise as far as quality is concerned, says Grover,who wrote the lyrics.

Kirkire says the move towards colloquialism results from a paradigm shift. Do you think we can write lyrics like chaudhvin ka chand? Nobody talks like that anymore. When idealism was deep-rooted,we needed dreams and perfect voices and the poetry to go with it. But the new generation,unlike many of us,does not come with the baggage of nostalgia. So it does not have to sound perfect,it has to be in sync with the project and as close to reality as possible, he says. Mahadevan agrees. It is always good to hear a sound that does not follow a conventional route. Cinema is coming closer to reality and we cant keep selling fantasies, he says.

Inputs by Dipti Nagpaul-DSouza