Mannan Shaah may have started his career as a singer by lending his voice to two songs in Vipul Amrutlal Shah's 2011 film Kucch Luv Jaisaa but he has now started cementing his foot as a music composer. You can feel a different kind of innocence in his music and he strives to be better every time he gets into his creation mode.
International Business Times India caught up with Mannan for an exclusive chat wherein he spoke about his way of composing music through live orchestra, getting the liberty to experiment with music thanks to Commando franchise, his upcoming collaborations and his take on actors taking up playback singing.
You are known for recording live orchestra for the songs you compose. How this idea of creating music came to your mind in this era of electronic music. What inspired you?
Live music always adds soul to a Melody. Pick up any melody from the 60s or 70s, they're powerful because of not just strong melody or lyrics but also because of the way they were arranged. Its the soul of every single musician that contributes to the song and that's what gives it shelf life.
Tell us how difficult or easy was it to maintain the essence of the Commando franchise and still sound different in each part of the movie.
The Commando franchise has always given me that liberty to experiment. Which is why there has been Music of varied genres in the franchise, be it Commando 1 or even the latest Commando film. In Commando 1, we had picturised two songs on the Antagonist of the film and it was accepted by the audiences. I felt that too was a unique idea then! Even at that time, we went with the conviction of delivering something different to the viewers and listeners. Being an action franchise it has been a challenge to pull it off with Music as it is challenging to blend in Action and Music together. But I've always wanted to take it up as a challenge because without strong emotion, the action is of no use and I believe its the Music that plays the role of the emotion to make the action look more impactful. And at the same time, the Action and the stunts of this franchise too have been very uniquely picturised so I believe it needed a unique way to be treated on the Musical front as well. Be it Saawan Bairi, Lutt Jawaan, Lena Dena and Mungda in Commando 1 to Tere Dil Mein and the Commando title track in Commando 2 and even Akhiyaan Milavanga and Main Woh Raat Hoon in Commando 3. All have been different in their own ways.
There used to be one music director for one entire film in the 90s which we don't see happening in today's time. Do you think the influx of music composers in a single project is hampering the quality of music creation?
It depends on what genre the film is. It is a great idea to have multiple composers for films that are mainly no-brainers and high on entertainment value. Films like Golmaal, Dhamaal etc. But I strongly believe that Love stories or films with strong Musical content still require one single composer to helm the music because the film gets its due flavour. The tonality of that film would always be established with one single composer taking charge of the film's music.
What's your opinion on actors taking up playback singing.
I would love to hear them sing. But I'd love if they too learn how to sing to realise the kind of effort some of the greatest singing talents have put which has made them amazing performers!
Lastly, tell us about your upcoming projects.
I've been working more on independent music lately. I'm on a road to collaborate with varied talents in our country as well as internationally and I've got a few tracks releasing in the next two years.
