Filmmakers who play by ear

Bollywood has had a tradition of filmmakers who either become music composers or ghost-compose music for their movies, writes Rashmi Vasudeva

A still from ‘Padmaavat’.

The Hindi film industry has had several directors who either secretly or openly nurtured the dream of becoming music composers. L V Prasad, Raj Khosla, Basu Chatterjee, Subhash Ghai, and of course, Vishal Bharadwaj are some names that immediately come to mind when you think of filmmakers with an ear for music.

A few went ahead and actually became composers and successful ones at that. Sanjay Leela Bhansali (SLB) of the epic-scale-sentimentality fame is only the latest in a long list of such filmmakers who created mediocre to memorably melodious music for their films.

Then there are those who famously ghost-directed the music of their movies and like it often happens, the legends around their musical abilities grew and took a life of their own. The most well-known such instance is that of Raj Kapoor.

Tales abound of the legendary filmmaker’s ability to compose the hook line of a song in his head. He would apparently then rush to his favourite composers Shankar-
Jaikishen who would then hone it to perfection. A filmy anecdote goes that when Raj Kapoor first worked with Shankar Jaikishen for the movie ‘Barsaat’ (1949), Jaikishen played the famous waltz ‘Blue Danube’ (composed by Johann Strauss II) on the violin — just for a lark. The sharp-eared Raj Kapoor insisted that it be included in one of the songs in the movie ‘Chod Gaye Balam’ by Lata Mangeshkar and Mukesh. If studio whispers are to be believed, the filmmaker’s musical prowess was largely instrumental in the songs of the 1973 blockbuster ‘Bobby’ being so catchy.

While the likes of Raj Kapoor preferred to remain behind the scenes, SLB is happy to let his music take centre stage. Just like the expansive canvas of his movies, his music too is heavy on orchestration, with the piano and the violin leading the brigade, often more stridently than necessary — but that is to be expected from SLB who delights in excess of all sorts.

That said, he is arguably the most successful filmmaker-music composer of recent times, with a national award as well under his belt for the music of ‘Padmavaat’ (2018).

Even while being a tad sceptical about his penchant for the overdone, one must admit SLB has created some genuinely haunting songs — ‘Aaj Ibaadat’ from ‘Bajirao Mastani’ (2015) in the filmmaker’s self-proclaimed favourite raga yaman is up there with ‘Tera Zikr’ from ‘Guzaarish’ (2010) in raga mohanam being a close second.

SLB’s oeuvre is only growing and we are not complaining.