The music for ‘Godha’ has been on the top for weeks now, and now, he’s working with Lal Jose and Mohanlal in their upcoming movie Velipadinte Pusthakam

Words: Susmitha Suresh      Photos: Various Sources

A fun, free, positive, lighthearted soul. That’s how you could describe Shaan Rahman. His tracks, that are a reflection of his personality, has mesmerized us and claimed permanent places in our playlists. FWD Life got in touch with him to know more about his latest project with Lal Jose and Mohanlal and about the tracks in Godha that has us in wraps, be it the ‘Wow’ song, or Aaro Nenjil.

Here’s what he had to say!

I’ve noticed that there is a Hindustani touch to most of your tracks. So how did that come to be?

Yea, you can say that I’m a little bit more interested in Hindustani music. What I’ve felt is that Hindustani music is more universal, everyone loves it. My father really loved Hindustani music, so we used to listen to it a lot. That might be a reason for the influence. I’ve not studied it, but I listen to more soulful kind of music. Some element of whatever you listen to remains inside of you. It comes out when you start composing for a movie. So that could also be why.

I’ve heard people coming out of the theatre after watching Ghoda go on & on about the tracks and the BGM. Did you expect this sort of a response?

No, no, I did not. What I expected was, comments like why does a film that focuses on a sport require so much songs or why would you put so many songs in a two hour movie. So that was my primary concern. I even talked about this to the director. But he was like, it’s not coming in the movie like a song as such, but it’s more of a background score, songs melded into the movie. There are no song and dance sequences in the film. The songs support the situation, instead of dialogues you’re speak through the songs. I missed the premier over here as I was abroad. So I was so surprised when people started calling me up from India. They were like, ‘we didn’t feel the songs come and go, the tracks went that well with the scenes’. That was very interesting for me. I thought people would be counting songs, and they’d be calling me up complaining about the number of songs.

Yet another thing I’ve heard people talk about is that the music in this film is your best work yet. What would you say to that?

I wouldn’t say ‘Godha’ is my best work. My best work would be ‘Thira’. I’ve experimented a lot in Godha. Composing an album which contains 11 songs, you have to make sure that each and every song is different from the other. I composed the songs according to the sequence in which they appear in the movie. So in a way I was traveling along with the movie.

Have you worked for a film that you thought might get a good response but fell through?

I would again say ‘Thira’, because all of us, the direction department, the production department and every other department that worked for the movie, we had such high high hopes from that particular movie. We were dealing with a very relevant and sensitive issue. But somehow, the movie didn’t do as well as we thought.

How do you chose which projects to work on?

The first thing that I do is that I always listen to stories. I don’t read the script, I like to listen to being told. When the director comes to me with a bound script I tell them, ‘Listen, you can take the script back. I’m someone that loves to listen to the director narrate the story.’ If he can bowl me over with how he narrates it, then that’s it. I’m in, no matter what. But I tell them right from the beginning that no matter what the song is. I’ll try to do something different with it.

I’ve noticed that you take a lot of new singers on to sing your tracks. Do you have any particular reason behind it?

The primary point is that I go with voices that suit the song. I generally search for new voices. As far as I see it, for a song to work, it needs the right voice. I put a post on Facebook asking for demos and inviting new singers, because when I started with movies, I didn’t have that many opportunities.

So you’re working for the much anticipated Lal Jose film starring Mohanlal. How has the experience been?

It’s been awesome. You never feel like you are working with a senior director. He’s so friendly, he keeps asking you, ‘how do you want this to be, how do you want this song to be, do you have any idea regarding this’. It’s not like he gives you situations and then goes ‘bye-bye’. Every step of the way he’s like, do you have any idea. Once you compose something and give it to him, he’ll give you a proper review of it. I went to the location last day, and all of them, the actors, the crew members, they’re all having so much of fun. I told him, ‘Don’t make me sit inside the studio, I’ll also come to the location, even I want to have a fun’. There’s a lot of positivity there. It’s a first for all of really. I’ve never worked with Lal Sir, I’ve never worked with Mohanlal, and Lal Sir and Mohanlal has never worked together as well.