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13 September 2007, 07:49 PM
A 21 days schedule will be held in
Shooting begins for Subhash Ghai's Yuvraaj
RGV on AR Rahman
Initially, when he used to make movies, he used to get involved right from scripting to music, to editing to post production work and finish the product. That's how a Satya or a Rangeela got made.
Nowadays, he just does not focus on all these and just directs the movie. Also his steam to direct movies also fades in between of making one movie.
One statement he said sums it all. When asked that why he hadn't worked with A.R. Rahman, he said, "I do not have the patience to work with him. He is a genius and takes time to compose music, whereas I have no patience and if I want something, I want it like yesterday, instant".
That shows that his focus is going way.
I do not want to lose out on watching such a talented director making movies, to so many critics putting him down, and him getting his own downfall.
Above article is an excerpt from Indiafm
The return note - Pyarelal
"Do you think Pyarelal Sharma sounds okay?" asks music director Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo. Indeed, for generations who have grown up humming their compositions since the LP melody wave hit the Hindi film music scene with Parasmani (1963) and Hansta hua noorani chehra in the early 1960s, the LP brand has been inseparable with over 500-plus films composed by the industry's most prolific and successful music directors ever. No wonder Pyarelal, who's been making consistent go's at music collaborations abroad over the last few years, hesitates highlighting his new solo nomenclature. "Though that's how I have let my name appear in the symphonies that I am composing for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the last two years, the LP tag will always remain for any film I have done or will do." It's been the same nearly a decade since Laxmikant's demise in 1998, with the 'LP tag' once again being the only brief with which director-choreographer Farah Khan convinced the veteran music director to come off his self-imposed exile from the current film music scene to compose a song for Shah Rukh Khan's Om Shanti Om. "She wanted the typical LP style of music from the 'Seventies to go with the flashback track in the film that revolves around the theme of reincarnation," he says. So what's the LP style of music, one may wonder and he says after a long pause…"That's for the music lovers and critics to decide, but I think it's that music jo purana hote huye bhi, jiske sound mein freshness hai…Farah wanted me to do three songs, but I said I will do just one, but a good song," he says, adding, "I had initially refused her, as I have gone a bit low on doing films after Deewana Mastana (1997), but my daughter convinced me to take up the project." And in LP style the song's recording happened with a 150-plus orchestra, a rarity in today's age of digitally-arranged music making. "Nobody works with an orchestra these days, but Farah was very cooperative to my insistence on recording the song with an orchestra only. We used 40-45 different drums ranging from tabla and dhol to duff, 40 plus violins and 22 woodwinds amongst other instruments for the song," he informs. "We always had one of the most exhaustive orchestras in the industry," says Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma, who along with Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar, "used to source musicians from navy and police bands, and made regular trips to old hotels with famous in-house bands like the Ambassador and Ritz to spot new talent. We also had some of today's classical greats like Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Ustad Rais Khan, Ustad Sultan Khan amongst others perform for us. We always had nearly 50 musicians on the payroll irrespective of the availability of work."
Ruing that the orchestra has been done away by today's music directors "because many don't know how to handle one," he says, "Today different aspects of music in a film are handled by different individuals other than the music directors. But in our days, we used to do everything from arranging the music to doing the film's background score, apart from composing the songs. We rose from the second bottom in the music-making hierarchy to become music directors."
So when Pyarelal stepped in for doing even just one song for Farah Khan, it was on his own terms with the attendant regalia that's signature LP. "Unlike today's music directors, I still work from home. So we had two rehearsals at home followed by one in Yash Raj Studios. The song was created in nine shifts spread over three days," informs Pyarelal about the song written by Javed Akhtar. "Its lyrics go something like Dhinak dhinak dhin and I felt nice composing it. I am quite keen on seeing how it looks on the big screen," he adds.
Does that mean we get to hear more of him finally? "I come from an era where music directors didn't hang around studios or randomly chatted up directors asking for work. Though we too had our fair share of struggle, at least now I am well past that stage. We have always believed in long- term relationships with the directors we have worked for and with someone like Farah who has an ear for music, I would love to do a full film in future," he opines.
Incidentally, the music director has composed a bank of tunes in the meantime to be used soon with a few big banners he is currently in talks with. "So Om Shanti Om isn't a comeback. You will get to hear some big announcements within the next year-and-a-half," he informs.
Simultaneously, the violinist, who once contemplated moving to Venice to work with western bands before meeting Laxmikant, is kind of realising his western dream doing symphonies for the London Philharmonic Orchestra. "I have already composed a few and I am working on two-three more symphonies with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which will be played at the Royal Festival in London next year. It takes at least six to eight months to compose one symphony," says Pyarelal, hoping that one day he will do the background score of a Hindi film with the Philharmonic. "Indian instruments fused with a western orchestra will create a new sound, which would appeal to fusion lovers in both east and west. One only needs an Indian filmmaker to have the vision to accommodate such experimentation," he avers.
Pyarelal, who is currently also working on a music album with Indian and Pakistani singers, had released an album titled Indian Summer containing eight pieces for string quartet in March this year for the UK-based company Schott. Trinity College's professor of music Candida Connolly in her introduction to the album writes, "These pieces reflect the richness of the musical background, a strong diatonic base and a thoughtful blend of instrumental parts infused by the distinctive colour and flavour of the Indian sub-continent... These are entities in their own right. These quartets are not arrangements or adaptations of other music, the pieces are designed to simulate the western ear by causing the familiarity of the quartet medium with new exciting ideas from the world of Indian music."
However, apart from making music from myriad platforms, Pyarelal also has to deal with frequent invitations to judge the various music-based reality shows on TV. "My only condition is that I will be a solo judge. The last time I helmed a music show was few years back to judge the finalists on Zee TV's Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, who were performing in front of a live audience in Noida. I had given one of the contestants three out of 100. When the organisers feigned shock, I said even singers like Lata didi, Asha and Kishore are in the 60-70 range. I didn't take a single penny for my judge act then, but what I see happening on the reality shows on TV today is a bit incomprehensible. Hasn't India still got its voice that we are searching for a voice of India? And I don't understand what's the body language judges are looking for in singing," he wonders, informing that he had also objected to one of the music shows associating gharanas to music directors. "It's wrong and misleading as these music directors don't have any gharana in the first place." Pyarelal, who succinctly lists the lacunae of each of the three reality music shows on air these days, is happy however with some of the talent on display. "Even the best singers used to occasionally get besura during recordings, the judges shouldn't be so harsh," he says informing that the original title track of Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma Pa incidentally was actually set to the tune of pa dha ni sa.
He is also all praise for one of the current Sa Re Ga Ma Pa judges and Om Shanti Om's music directors Vishal and Shekhar. "They are very well-behaved and are good with soft music. Most of the judges in the show have worked with us. While Ismail Darbar used to play violin for us, Himesh's father used to arrange music for us for years on end. Even AR Rahman had once played for us when he was known as Dileep," he reveals.
But it's really a tough call to get him pick a favourite film score from contemporary compositions. "I think the last film score that appealed to me in its entirety was AR Rahman's Roja. Its music was different and I liked it."
Life could seem to have come a full circle, but a deeper probe provokes forth a raw hurt, however subdued. The living legend of the multiple awards-winning music director jodi rues the lack of due recognition to their contributions. "Though many who came after us and worked with us have been recognised by the government, it's quite an irony that while one of our singers Lata didi has received the Bharat Ratna, we are yet to even receive a Padma Shri."
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