At every step of coordinating an interview with James Vasanthan, I noticed myself breaking into an impromptu head bob made famous by actor Jai in the composer’s superhit song ‘Kangal Irandal’ ( Subramaniapuram ). I can’t think of another recent Tamil song that has had the same impact on discerning Malayali listeners such as me. So when news spread that he would be directing a musical, it got me curious, even though his recent films haven’t really worked the same magic.
What’s so new about musicals anyway? “I grew up on films like Grease and Saturday Night Fever but those kinds of musicals weren’t being made here,” says James, adding, “As I moved into film music, I nursed the idea of a Broadway-style Tamil film — one where the actors would sing for themselves. I pitched the idea to industry friends but they felt they couldn’t make it. That’s when I thought I should make it myself. So it’s the case of music leading to a film unlike the other way round like it usually is. It’s not been tried here since the first talkies.”
He admits that it was a struggle to find a set of youngsters who could both sing well and act convincingly. “Finding the 11 lead characters for the film was proving so difficult that it took a global search over two years to discover them. The story revolves around students from Loyola College and WCC during inter-collegiate cultural festivals and since their voices were so integral to the film, they had to do their own dubbing as well. After short-listing them, it was getting them out of college for the shoot that proved challenging — to the point where their parents said I was spoiling their education,” laughs James.
Of the 17 songs, 15 are pop and pop-rock, with one lone gaana song. James, who has also written the film, derived much of the story from his own nostalgic revisits to college days back in Tiruchi. He says the film’s main character named Jack is based on his own life. “Culturals were just coming up around the time I was in college and Tiruchi was one of the first places to witness their popularity. These fests had musical shows which were ticketed and I remember once when the judges were Ilaiyaraaja and Gangai Amaran. I sang ‘Uravugal Thodarkathai’ from Aval Appadithan and Gangai Amaran came backstage and took down my number because he had liked it. It was surreal. The whole year would revolve around practising and jamming for these competitions and it was great fun. Today, these fests have become a career platform and hence more competitive. In fact, it was when I visited one such fest that I discovered Benny Dayal and got him to sing a gospel song and ‘Theneeril Snehitham’ for Subramaniapuram .”
The lyrics of most songs in the film have been derived from an English hook-line, reflecting the lingo of the characters. It was while auditioning for the film that James got some idea of what young people were listening to. “As students, we were exposed to some incredible classic and soft rock and I was (and still am) an obsessive Deep Purple fan. So when I come across kids who only listen to Electronic Dance Music (EDM), I feel sorry for them. It tends to be monotonous and all one needs are those technical loops and grooves to create EDM numbers. But you need real musical scholarship to create soft or classic rock. So during auditions, I was really surprised to find a girl who only listened to and performed songs of Aretha Franklin. Another group played Rolling Stones and Queen. These were the kids who could play the guitar and keyboard well, unlike the EDM guys.”
James says composing 17 songs would have been enough for three regular films, from which he has taken a break to work on Vaanavil Vaazhkai . But his composition style has remained the same and he believes the first instinct on a tune is most reliable. “I felt ‘Kangal Irandal’ was a bad song after I’d given it to Sasikumar for shooting. I called him and offered to give him a better song that would suit his visuals but he wasn’t convinced, so I felt I had to trust my instinct. Similarly, while composing for Pandiraj’s Pasanga , I happened to play a track from my rejected tunes folder, but he immediately loved it and replaced the duet we had selected earlier. That was ‘Oru Vetkam Varudhe’,” he says.
Considering the many successful musicians who have entered films after being church musicians, I ask James about his experience.
“If all young contemporary Christian musicians come into independent and film music, most of the existing composers would be wiped out. The talent out there is incredible and it has got to do with the wide range of music they listen to... their music database is huge. They almost never listen to film music, which has become less experimental and more improvisation. But they won’t come into film music because they feel it’s taboo,” he says.
