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A whole new beat

Zakir Hussain. Click for bigger pic!

Soon after Uttam Singh trotted down south to set the music for Hariharan's Prempoojari, comes Zakir Hussain, the great tabla maestro, to fashion the background score for Shaji N Karun's latest film, Vaanaprastham.

It was a charged up Zakir Hussain we met at the Prasad Color Lab. But if he had music on his mind, that never stopped him from being polite to a fault. Here, in an interview with Shobha Warrier, he discusses the film and the music he's composing:

Vaanaprastham is based on the story of a Kathakali artist. How different was it for you to compose music for such a film?

The core of the music is traditional. It has to be, considering the character in the film and the subject. And so I studied about Kathakali. For the past six months I've been listening to a lot of Kathakali music, meeting a lot of Kathakali artists, going to the sets, listening to the musicians, watching the shots being taken etc to get the feel of the art.

In that sense, it was a much more involved project than a normal film. The challenge here, of course, is that there are no songs in the film. So you don't have something to catch the audience right away. You have to catch them with the emotion of the music. So the music has to be very emotive and expressive and it has to bring out all the subtle nuances that exist in the scene itself.

Shaji is very particular about how he wants a scene to express itself on the screen. Whatever I had to do should not disturb that expression but enhance it. We have to be very careful with the music.

What we have done is, we have divided music session into two different zones. One is the music that is going to focus on the core of the traditional Kathakali music. And the other is modern approach to film music, creating music that could be presented on a CD.

Won't the traditional and the modern clash in a film like this?

It won't. After all, the same 12 notes are used everywhere in the world, the same rhythm is used everywhere. In that sense, it won't clash, and we have been doing it. To a large extent, we have been doing this kind of configuration -- or interaction of different musical ideas on film -- for the last 40 years.

With Shaji Karun and Mohanlal. Click for bigger pic!

Is it because you, a modern man, is involved in the traditional music that you thought of fusing the traditional and the modern?

The man may belong to any age but if he is presenting a traditional art form, he is going to be that and he has to be that.

You mean he becomes traditional only when he is presenting that particular art form, don't you?

Yes, when he is presenting the traditional art form, he has to be only traditional. So when we have the Kathakali music in the film, we are using all the traditional instruments, like the chenda, the idakka, the maddalam and the veena... A lot of western music or pop music use a sitar for a second or a tabla for a second just for the sound effect. But we want to use them to express themselves, to do the thing they do the best. What I am doing is, just building around these musical forms, a nice frame, a supportive frame, that is going to display this incredible Kathakali tradition.

Whatever music I am composing deals with ragas and they are all Carnatic ragas so that they relate closely to the musical melodic form of Kathakali music. So the emotional content of the music is actually pretty much all they provide. You may hear a violin there, you may hear a drum roll there, or you may hear some kind of a symbol, but it's all going to be decorative, just propping up what already exists.

It's difficult to keep the raga's structure, not disturb them and still work in harmony, still work with the melodic content which is more modern. It's a challenge.

Is it difficult?

It's very difficult, especially after meeting the French people involved, the production people. You are not doing it for India alone because it will be presented all over the world. They are used to pop, rock, jazz etc. So we can't give them what the regular film industry in India provides; because they already have that.

Click for bigger pic!

We have to show them what we have and make it possible for them to understand it, feel the emotion the way we do when we listen to a particular raga. To achieve that, we have to bridge the musical gap in such a way that it does not disturb our tradition but at the same time explains to everybody else in the world what we are all about.

Is this not the first time that you were composing music based on Carnatic ragas and using south Indian instruments?

I have studied in Rishi Valley and spent sometime with the great mridangam vidwan Palghat Mani Iyer. I learnt something from him. I have spent the last 20 years of my life in close contact with great Carnatic musicians like my great friend Vinakram Riku. What I am saying is that I am aware of these instruments and I know what they do. I have heard these drums play the traditional pieces of music.

In some ways, I guess they feel I am the right person for this because I have seen both sides of the coin and I have been able to study them. So I probably could be the person who would know how to make the twain meet without stepping on each other's toes. Working with these drums like the chenda is such an exciting experience.

I went to Kerala for the shooting and the chenda master (Mattannur Sankaran Kutty), who has acted in the film too, did a performance for me and I can only say, Wow! These musicians get up at six o'clock in the morning, and I feel it's incredible. It's a great inspiration to hear these masters and to see what they do. It helps me and inspires me. In some ways, the ideas just come up. It is not like I have to sit there for 10 days and figure out one little note. No, it just comes out because the music is showing the way.

Did you instantly say 'yes' to Shaji when he asked you to compose music for Vaanaprashtam?

Actually, yes. Because I'd seen his earlier films...

Both films?

Yes, yes. Those films are quite well known in the film world. I go to France often and I have seen his films there too. When I heard that Lal was working in the film, I felt it was a challenge.

Click for bigger pic!

You knew about Mohanlal earlier?

Of course. Come on, doesn't everybody? [laughs]. In north India, we are not that isolated from the culture from this part of the country. We have seen it. We have known it. I know about Lal's ability too. And his performance in this film was incredible? Stunning! The kind of dedication, devotion he has o this character is amazing. The way he worked on it, the way he learnt the Kathakali mudras ... I feel only a person with an artistic mind and a keen interest in music and dance would be able to actually do that. Not only him, Suhasini too has done a wonderful job. Kuku Parameswaran is so beautiful. Her face is so bare without any make-up but she looks like a beautiful apsara. I am bowled over by the film itself.

Do you feel the outside world feel mesmerised by the bright colours and the electrifying music associated with Kathakali?

Kathakali is already a well-known art form abroad. The people in the west, and especially those in Europe, are mesmerised by Kathakali. The reason why the French people got involved in the project was because Kathakali is well known to them. And I think one of the reasons is the use of vibrant colours.

Yes, the Kathakali music is electrifying. But the colours, the visuals, are incredible. The colours used by Van Gogh are influenced by the Oriental, the Japanese, but in some ways they are close to the colours of Kathakali -- the great red, the beautiful green etc. Visually it is so stunning that the music has not much to do. I think it is a very unbeatable combination.

The protagonist of this film suffers from various crises in life, of parenthood, identity etc. So how did you stress on these crises while composing music?

We have come up with some musical themes that magnify each character. Kunju (Mohanlal) has one theme assigned to him. So does Subhadra (Suhasini), Kuku and the child. And the theme has to express a whole canvas of emotions throughout the film. Sometimes when Kunju is happy, the theme is happy. When he is sad, the theme is sad. His anguish also is expressed through the theme music. You may see Subhadra in the scene but you hear Kunju's theme. That means she is thinking about Kunju.

Click for bigger pic!

How she is thinking about him is also important. Is she thinking about him in anger, longing, love or passion? The theme will express all that. That is what we are doing. We are trying to create musical ideas for each character and take the musical idea through the whole journey that the character is taking. It could be a journey of confusion, a journey of indecision, a journey of love or even a journey of anger. So, you will be able to identity the character and the feeling from the music even if you close your eyes.

Do you feel every artist goes through this kind of an identity crisis?

I definitely think, yes. We all suffer them. What the film points out is that we have to try to rise above it. Yes, we all suffer from it.

Do you also?

Some of us are blessed. Some of us have more positive things in our lives than negative. I think that I am one of those blessed ones. My father is a great artist and he is happy with what I do. I have my wife who loves me, my kids who love me. So things are at a more positive phase for me.

Yes, as a child, I may have gone through some negative situations. Yes, there was an identity crisis -- trying to establish my own identity as opposed to my father's. He's a genius. I was lucky enough to get to a point where I am recognised for what I am.

In this film, it is a little different because an artist is looking for recognition from a non-artist. Even when the artist becomes great, the recognition isn't there and it makes it all sour for him . The same thing happens to Kunju's son too.

I will say this identity crisis does exist. We all go through it -- on a more large global level now. Like Indians who don't look like Indians. An Indian who does not look like an Indian is not sure where he is, where he should go and who he is. He may think, 'Why is that I am living in America and have an American passport but the Americans think of me as a non-American?' So, this crisis does exist for everyone, even if we were to take the message through a larger canvas, a panorama of global uncertainty in humans.

Photographs of Zakir Hussain performing by Jewella Miranda; photographs with the Vaanaprastham team by Sanjay Ghosh