Music composers Sachin Sanghvi and Jigar Saraiya say that the music churned out by the Pakistani music industry is soul-wrenching.
Saraiya says, “Pakistani music is largely divided into two segments. One is very raw and folksy. That really works for us. It’s just purely soul-wrenching. The other part though is pretty mediocre as it apes Bollywood. That’s not exciting.”
Sanghvi says, “What we can learn from Pakistani artistes is that they appreciate their original poetry, their Sufi concepts, their old poets, that ‘ shayrinuma ghazalnuma ’ depth is still there. People still enjoy it at a very layman level. Here in India, our ears are corrupt with either the West or Bollywood. So if we can bring the best from our folk to the front, we can also be original and organic in our content.”
Spoilt for choice The duo, who have composed music for films such as Go Goa Gone , Hero , Badlapur , Finding Fanny and A Flying Jatt , feels that the depth in the songs is vanishing from Bollywood.
Saraiya says, “We don’t think we can now stay on one song or that one tune or that one melody for too long now. The depth seems to have vanished. With so much entertainment we wonder how the listener picks one favourite with so much choice.”
He says the Hindi music industry has stopped focussing on giving songs a recall value. “We have started looking for shock value or immediate impact more than making an impact for a lifetime. Somehow we need to go deeper and be more soulful. We should not go for only popcorn music that doesn’t last more than the popcorn itself.”
With more platforms such as Coke Studio and MTV Unplugged sprouting for folk artistes and independent musicians in India, Sanghvi says it is time the Indian audience looks beyond an artiste’s last composition.
“It’s time Indian audiences start to like an artiste for his personal work and not his last Bollywood best. Coke Studio certainly pioneers this space.” He says the show was a winner as it is “folk redesigned.”
‘Honest, naughty lyrics’ The composer duo also feels that the Hindi music industry has learnt to become more honest and naughty.
According to them, the industry has moved ahead from the time when Hindi film lyricists were shy about expressing certain words, sentiments and feelings.
Sanghvi says, “Earlier, we [music composers and lyricists at large] couldn’t say a few things in the songs because we were shy. Let’s say we used to be rosy in a love song. Now we find that artificial.” He says both in song-writing and lyrics, they have learnt to appreciate a more honest approach.
“As far as naughty songs are concerned, we are getting as naughty as we can be. It’s cool and naughty, though sometimes we are on the edge. Let’s hope we don’t become vulgar.”
