Going Hollywood way

THE Hollywood practice of recording "original soundtracks" is being adopted by Hindi cinema. Instead of merely releasing the songs picturised on screen, film-makers are also packaging the background score and sometimes key dialogues in their music cassettes.

Ramgopal Verma is said to have started this trend with Satya, although old-timers point out that Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay was the first Indian film to market its background score and dialogues way back in the early seventies.

The latest is Deepa Mehta’s Earth. "It would be illogical for my film to have characters dancing around trees or swimming in a disco", says the film-maker. "But since music is important to Indians, it made sense going the Hollywood way".

Composed by A.R. Rahman, the music score of Earth comprises two songs rendered byKumar Sanu and a background score. The songs have been used either as the film’s background score or as situational numbers, Mehta points out.

Similarly, Nagesh Kukunoor has a special soundtrack recorded for his next film, Rockford.It comprises a number of songs recorded by different music groups and artistes.

The only song composed specifically for the film Aasman ke Paar, by Ehsaan Noorani, Lloyd Mendonca and Shankar Mahedevan, has been written by Gulzar. It has been rendered by Mahadevan and used as the opening title number for the film.

Other singers featured on Rockford’s soundtrack album are Uday Benegal, Colonial Cousins, K.K. and Ashirwad.Additional numbers have been sung by artistes employed by Sony Music, the company marketing the album. — MF