8/6/2019 First Take Issue 24
1/1
How often do competitors evolve into compatriots?
The story of the coming together of composer duoof Bennet and
Veetraag is perhaps as offbeat as their
musical creations.The two, who were often lined up against each
other in
string instrument competitions in college, went on to set upa
musical partnership that has produced some quality songsin
Malayalam cinema.
This talented duo launched their film career in the film Outof
Syllabus in 2006.
Singer-musician Veetraag who has trained in Carnatic clas-sical
music later expanded his tastes to develop a passion fordiverse
musical genres, including Hindustani classical.
Bennet is a guitarist song-writer who broadened his mu-sical
training in the Western Classical through exposure toother genres
as varied as fusion and ghazal. (Currently, theguitarist performs
in singer Kartiks troupe).
Going into rewind mode, they recall how they chancedupon each
other at inter-collegiate music competitions.
Later on, when Veetraag decided to do an album he askedBennet to
join him to help with the background score. It wasduring the jam
sessions for the album that they realised howclosely their musical
sensibilities matched and decided to be-come a composer duo.
And, when a common friend, Viswanathan, decided tomake a film,
the Bennet-Veetraag combination became analmost default choice.
In collaboration, they have produced music that is any-
thing but run-of-the-mill with the orchestration me-andering
away from the beaten paths.
To many music lovers, they have infusedan originality of thought
in their composi-tions. Their love for various genres of mu-sic is
reflected in the yen to push bounda-ries and this imparts to their
melodies anexploratory feelalmost as if they coaxtheir listeners
along a trip to an outersoundscape.Our songs are not an extension
of a
jingle kind of music. It is not just aboutcomplementing a film.
Wewant our songs to havea more wider anddeeper perspec-tive and
live onas an entity
by themselves. The songs need to have an identity independ-ent
of the movie, says Veetraag.
Their debut effort in Out of Syllabus was appreciated formusical
richness and style of treatment. In fact, the song
Poi Varuvaan from this movie won the state award for BestLyrics
for noted lyricist Prabha Varma.
Bennet-Veetraag scored music for two other moviesSoorya Kireedom
(2007) and Dr Patient (2009) thoughthe songs were not fully filmed
in these movies. The song
Mazha Njan Arinjilla opening with soft guitar notes and
hauntingly rendered by Hariharan is arguably their best songto
date. Interestingly, somewhere along the anuppallaviof this song,
the flavour evokes nostalgia about Johnsonsclassy song Aadi vaa
kaatte for Koodevide.
Kamals Gadhama is their latest movie as music direc-tors.
What is special about songs for Gadhama is the
culturalrelativism of their music to the song situations. For
instance,while the song Naattuvazhiyorathe has a typical
South-Indian touch, the song Vidhuramee Yaatraa has an Arabicfeel
to it.
The challenge, according to the two musicians, has been tobring
about the difference in predicament of the protagonistin these
songs while being rooted in the physical and emo-tional
contexts.
Bennet and Veetraag say they worked very closely
withpoet-lyricist Rafeeq Ahamed to embellish the lyrics with
theright notes to come up with an exposition closes to Kamals
vision for the film.{
ACTION
FIRST TAKE>
Jyothi Varma
An Out of Syllabusmusical combo
