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Well, when your hundredth film goes on to rake Rs 100 crore at the boxoffice... one would expect it to be! Only his bravado over the super-duper success of Ek Villain, for which he has given the background score, conceals his persistence and hard work. It also hides the harsh reality that till recently background music makers were hardly given their due. Indeed, he agrees creating background music for the film means you remain out of the limelight. However, background score is not restrictive as many would assume. Sure, one has to follow the director’s vision. But, he informs that unlike music director of songs, a background composer comes into the picture after the movie has been made. Thus, he is free to not only choose any style or genre but also to play it in any which way as long as it doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb. For instance, in the film Life In A Metro, Celtic and country musical influences went into his compositions and for Chandni Bar, he decided to use Shubha Mudgal’s voice in varied styles. For Punjabi films 1984 and Jatt James Bond too, this proud Sikh didn’t follow the clichéd dhol-dhamaka path. To lend the right kind of sensibility to the film, he watches it many a times. He laughs "I often lose count and that’s the reason I never make it to the premier shows." The musician, who began his career as a guitarist in R D Burman’s musical ensemble, didn’t really plan his career. Certainly Pancham da’s influence was rock solid and with unconcealed pride, he says. "I come from the RD Burman school of music." Music, he tells you, doesn’t fall like manna from heaven. "It’s a natural process where what goes into your head, what flows in your blood and what you receive as inputs, all mingle together to breathe a new tune." Raju is not only a man of many tunes, but also many mediums and open to all kinds of work. So if to begin with, he partnered with Adesh and composed for Malkit Singh, he later went on to give music to a host of TV serials, many of which have stayed with viewers. Be it the album of Javed Akhtar’s immortal poetry or Parsoon Joshi’s lyrics in Big B’s voice… working with bigwigs have been exhilarating experiences. Expectedly filmy duniya for him is a fairly congenial place to be in where he has loyal friends like Mohit Suri. He interjects, "As long as you don’t assume its carte blanche for working together, it will survive." Apart from Suri, who he believes has an uncanny knack of spotting the right kind of tune, he also swears by yet another close friend Sonu Nigam. He hails Nigam as a complete singer and he enjoys weaving tunes around his melodious voice. By the way, Raju is a singer too and has sung for films like Dedh Ishiqya and Club 60. You bet he would love to sing more and compose music for songs as he has done for some films, including Raaz 2. But his ultimate dream is not to compose songs for a blockbuster but to render lilting tunes on his guitar, an album that listeners would reach out to when their nerves are frayed. Film industry might occasionally be devoid of melodies, in his saat suron ki duniya, soulful melody reigns first and last. After all the little boy has to fulfill the promise he made to himself. And what better way than music, which as Ellen J. Barrier said, doesn’t need interpreters and translators, to make the world swoon.
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AS
a kid, he would stand in front of the mirror with a guitar in hand,
and hoped to conquer the world one day. Today talented and prolific
music composer Raju Singh may not be a household name but beams,
"Life is a party."