E-Paper
My hunger and food for the soul is music: Vishal Bhardwaj
Seven time national award winner Vishal Bhardwaj decided to take up film direction to keep his music-composing skills alive.
Seven time national award winner Vishal Bhardwaj decided to take up film direction to keep his music-composing skills alive. “I never wanted to become a director and do big things! Mere rooh ki giza aur bhook (food for soul and hunger) is music. I feared that if I don’t become a director I may stop getting songs. However, I had no idea that I will come so far,” said the composer, director, producer and screenwriter during the ‘Sangat: A Creative Dialogue in Art’ event in Lucknow. Bhardwaj was in conversation with author Yatindra Mishra, where he recounted various moments of life.
UP CONNECT
His father Ram Bhardwaj was a government servant and film lyricist. “He was ‘shayar’ at heart. He was friends with Laxmikant-Pyarelaji, Usha Khannaji and others. Our kind of summer holidays was never to the hills but visiting Mumbai. Probably that glamour bug had bitten me which I realised much later. I also started writing in poetry, rather ‘tukbandi’ (derogatory; poetry where there is greater emphasis on word play and rhyme than actual content). I used to compose tunes for my father’s lyrics. One such experiment reached a film director, who shared it with Ushaji, which she used in the film. This gave me a lot of confidence,” he said.
Vishal was born near Bulandshahr, lived in Najibabad and Meerut before moving to Delhi. “Uttar Pradesh has played an important part in my career and in my work. In ‘Omkara’, I was able to bring out my connection with the state and its language. The film’s dialect is that of Meerut, which has its own tone and rhythm. We shot both ‘Ishqiya’ and ‘Dedh Ishqiya’ (both as producer) here,” he said.
MEETING GULZAR, LATA
A big fan of legendary Gulzar, he first met him in New Delhi. “My only dream in life was to compose a composition of Gulzar Sahab and that Lataji (Mangeshkar) sing it. I used to remember his work by heart. My first chance to meet him was at a studio in New Delhi for a recording for Amzad Ali Khan sahab.”
“He had lost his way. He called up at the studio and luckily I received the phone call. Without telling anyone I went to receive him at Bengali Sweet House, Safdar Jung Enclave. I received him and to spend more time him I took him via a longer route and expressed my desire to work with him. Few years after, I got to work with him. My first song with him was for TV serial ‘Dane Anark Ke’ sung by Suresh Wadekar. Thereafter, ‘Chaddhi pehan ke phool kila hai’ (Jungle Book) happened.”
The composer’s first song with Lata Mangeshkar was ‘Paani-Paani’ in Machis. “The kind of preparation Lataji does before recording is unparalleled. I was very scared and she sensed it. She called me and said, ‘Treat me like a newcomer and let me know what you want from me, as it’s your composition’. Not just that her sense of humour is matchless and she does it with a poker face,” he said.
SHAKESPEARE
On picking up dark subjects, he said, “Not just me, all of us have dark moments in our lives. If I pick something from my life, it will be romanticising. People usually shy away from dark moments and run away from them but I like those moments and run after them. The way my father died disturbed me for a long time. The catharsis happened when I shot ‘Hamlet’ in ‘Haider’.”
He says that black humour is his personality. On Indianising Shakespearean tragedies, he said, “In ‘Hamlet’, the protagonist avenges his father’s death and kills his uncle (Claudius), while I went beyond it. Shahid, in my film, pardons him (his transcendence happens) as I had set it in Kashmir and my message in the film was violence is not the solution.”
In his films, he has used regional flavour to give a UP touch to ‘Omkara’ (Bidi jalai le) and Kashmir-Sufi flavour to ‘Shahid’ (Bismil Bismil). “It’s my passion to experiment with folk music. ‘Darling’ (Saat Khoon Maaf) is on Russian folk and so is ‘Tero Balma’ (Patakha). I feel connected with folk and literature. As a filmmaker, I take it as my responsibility to present it to my audience.”
TURNING POET
His first poetry book ‘Nude’ was released earlier this year. “It is in my blood. I used to write but never shared with anyone. I shared some of them with Gulzar Sahab and he encouraged me to write a book. Some 50 things that I have come up with have been written in a span of 30 years. In fact, my dialogues in the film are like poetry to me. I have spent a lot of time with the great (poet) Bashir Badr which has also influenced me.
DUET WITH REKHA NEXT!
The composer, who is a brilliant singer as well, said that he has never thought about singing with his wife, Rekha Bharadwaj ever. “It’s a good idea and we will come up with a song in future.”
He revealed that during their college day, to impress her, he used to compose music. “She was a singer star and to make an impression I used to make tunes to give it to her. ‘Sataye Saari Raina’, which she sang several years later (in Dedh Ishqiya), was one of the compositions that I had done during our college days.”
DIGITAL PLUNGE!
He is making a web-series for Netflix. “My next effort has been announced and that is for the digital platform. It’s based on ‘Midnight Children’ by Salman Rushdie.” The director feels new media will only improve films. “Cinema can’t die. Whenever something new comes, films change for the better. This platform will again give a new direction to filmmaking.”
A MUSICAL CONVERSATION
Music composer, filmmaker, producer, writer and poet Vishal Bhardwaj revealed various facets of his life during his conversation with national award-winning author Yatindra Mishra during the second edition of Sangat: A Creative Dialogue in Arts concert on Sunday evening.
Organised by Curtain Raiser on the lawns of Renaissance Hotel, live music played an important role in the event. Pankaj Kumar, Suman Dubey, Bhaumik Joshi and Anand Swaroop Tripathi presented chartbuster songs of the music composer. Songs like ‘Chappa Chappa’, ‘Dil to Bachcha’, ‘Chupadi Chupadi Chachi’, ‘Papadwale’, ‘Namak Ishq Ka’, ‘Darling’ and other numbers were presented by the singers.
Vishal too sang Hemant Kumar’s song ‘Tum Pukar Lo’ and ended the session with ‘Paani Paani Re’ in his soulful voice, earning huge applause from the audience. Earlier, during an interactive session on critical reaction to films, he said, “Whatever we try and make, we put our heart and soul into it for the audience. Then, they are free to analyse it and have an opinion about it.”
Organising team Yatindra Mishra, Nidhi Prakash and Diwakar Bhattacharya thanked the filmmaker for taking out time. Later, in the presence of Bhatkhande Music University vice-chancellor Shruti Sadolikar Katkar, it was announced that the team is coming up next with Jalsa. It will be a music festival with classical, semi-classical, Sufi, light, folk, film and fusion music.
