An Interview with S R Ramakrishna
S R Ramakrishna was with the Deccan Herald for eight years and later was a professor at the Asian College of Journalism. He now runs The Music Magazine.com (http://www.themusicmagazine.com/) He has composed music for plays, tele-films and films. He plays the harmonium and has been accompanying Hindustani vocalists.
Q.What is the function of music in films?
A. Good composer makes music a subtext. It is used to highlight, underline the situation in the narrative adding the aural effect to the existing visual. Music can also create multiple narratives by underlining or juxtaposing the visual narrative.
Q. Can music also restrict other narratives from emerging?
A. Yes. It is possible that music restricts multiple narratives from emerging. In fact, that is why parallel cinema is weary of music. They consider it an interference.
Q. How do Indian films approach music?
A. Indian film music is very unique, may be because it came up to be an extension of the theatre. So the dance and music. Whereas Hollywood would consider such films musicals. In India, a film would be a musical if it spoke of music.
Q. How do you differentiate classical music from film music?
A. Film music underlines/downplays emotion. It has a specific purpose. Whereas classical music is self-contained and has an indeterminate meaning. The raga, the alaap is all abstract. While classical music might be considered pure, film music is applied. Film music is another kind of challenge.
Q. Tell us about your compositions.
A. I am more with the Hindustani music. I have composed for the plays of T Prasanna, B Jayashree, Iqbal Ahmed and others, and also for Kasarvalli's films. I have a fascination for textual experiments.
Q. How do you see the current trends in music?
A. The arrival of the sequencer has brought about a great change. The Keyboard has displaced musicians. The whole effort of learning Veena or violin for long years, the physically playing of it is all lost. The Keyboard merely has to change switches and sounds of violin, veena or guitar can emerge. I still feel there is a lot to the natural sound than the synthesized sound.
Another fascinating aspect of the songs Bollywood makes is that the whole film is actually financed by the money the songs make. The songs are released much before the film and they actually fetch the money required for the shooting of the film. And there are other media that travel into cinema.
We previously had studios only in Madras and Bombay but now they are everywhere. This kind of decentralization has made a difference. Indian film music today is unorthodox. The breaking of the grammar of the a raga, usage of disparate instruments are common. The Middle Eastern goes with the violin and there are the counters that go against the melody itself, thereby adding to the texture of the music. Folk, jazz, pop all constitute Indian film music. This way it is highly evolved.
There was this divided composition and multiple authorship. The person who composed tunes was different from the arranger. Today there is a whole lot of importance to the arranger who knows western music and the composer is usually good at the Indian classical forms.
The Sound of Music is a musical, Hollywood is not familiar with the idea that heroes can break into songs. Strangely when Bond movies are made into Kannada or Hindi, songs are added. This idiom of the song is very popular, everybody can relate to it. Everyone knows they are unreal but still it is widely accepted. It all depends on where you stand.
To me, songs make sense outside the context of the film also. The poetry and the compositions of Shankar-JaiKishen, Illayaraja, S D Burman are sound and have things to say apart from the film.
Q. There is this view that parallel cinema always uses a traditional kind of music!
A. Great change is happening regarding this. With the economics and the saleability gaining so much importance film-makers largely bank on film songs. Film-makers like Sham Benegal and Govind Nihlani are taking to A R Rehman, which will be considered unusual.
Q. Tell us about your TheMusicMagazine.com.
A. Being very passionate about music, and writing about music are different things. Writing about music is even enjoyable.We are a close-knit team. We have been receiving unexpected morale boosting from many, this has kept us going. The BBC recently did a story and said that TheMusicMagazine.com was the best among its contemporaries. The Britannica listed it as one of the best websites on music. Ehsaan and Chitra wrote in, and Shuba Mudgal spoke of us on an M-TV program, taking us all by surprise.
Published in CIEFL Film Club Newsletter. November 2001, Volume II, No 2.
Q.What is the function of music in films?
A. Good composer makes music a subtext. It is used to highlight, underline the situation in the narrative adding the aural effect to the existing visual. Music can also create multiple narratives by underlining or juxtaposing the visual narrative.
Q. Can music also restrict other narratives from emerging?
A. Yes. It is possible that music restricts multiple narratives from emerging. In fact, that is why parallel cinema is weary of music. They consider it an interference.
Q. How do Indian films approach music?
A. Indian film music is very unique, may be because it came up to be an extension of the theatre. So the dance and music. Whereas Hollywood would consider such films musicals. In India, a film would be a musical if it spoke of music.
Q. How do you differentiate classical music from film music?
A. Film music underlines/downplays emotion. It has a specific purpose. Whereas classical music is self-contained and has an indeterminate meaning. The raga, the alaap is all abstract. While classical music might be considered pure, film music is applied. Film music is another kind of challenge.
Q. Tell us about your compositions.
A. I am more with the Hindustani music. I have composed for the plays of T Prasanna, B Jayashree, Iqbal Ahmed and others, and also for Kasarvalli's films. I have a fascination for textual experiments.
Q. How do you see the current trends in music?
A. The arrival of the sequencer has brought about a great change. The Keyboard has displaced musicians. The whole effort of learning Veena or violin for long years, the physically playing of it is all lost. The Keyboard merely has to change switches and sounds of violin, veena or guitar can emerge. I still feel there is a lot to the natural sound than the synthesized sound.
Another fascinating aspect of the songs Bollywood makes is that the whole film is actually financed by the money the songs make. The songs are released much before the film and they actually fetch the money required for the shooting of the film. And there are other media that travel into cinema.
We previously had studios only in Madras and Bombay but now they are everywhere. This kind of decentralization has made a difference. Indian film music today is unorthodox. The breaking of the grammar of the a raga, usage of disparate instruments are common. The Middle Eastern goes with the violin and there are the counters that go against the melody itself, thereby adding to the texture of the music. Folk, jazz, pop all constitute Indian film music. This way it is highly evolved.
There was this divided composition and multiple authorship. The person who composed tunes was different from the arranger. Today there is a whole lot of importance to the arranger who knows western music and the composer is usually good at the Indian classical forms.
The Sound of Music is a musical, Hollywood is not familiar with the idea that heroes can break into songs. Strangely when Bond movies are made into Kannada or Hindi, songs are added. This idiom of the song is very popular, everybody can relate to it. Everyone knows they are unreal but still it is widely accepted. It all depends on where you stand.
To me, songs make sense outside the context of the film also. The poetry and the compositions of Shankar-JaiKishen, Illayaraja, S D Burman are sound and have things to say apart from the film.
Q. There is this view that parallel cinema always uses a traditional kind of music!
A. Great change is happening regarding this. With the economics and the saleability gaining so much importance film-makers largely bank on film songs. Film-makers like Sham Benegal and Govind Nihlani are taking to A R Rehman, which will be considered unusual.
Q. Tell us about your TheMusicMagazine.com.
A. Being very passionate about music, and writing about music are different things. Writing about music is even enjoyable.We are a close-knit team. We have been receiving unexpected morale boosting from many, this has kept us going. The BBC recently did a story and said that TheMusicMagazine.com was the best among its contemporaries. The Britannica listed it as one of the best websites on music. Ehsaan and Chitra wrote in, and Shuba Mudgal spoke of us on an M-TV program, taking us all by surprise.
Published in CIEFL Film Club Newsletter. November 2001, Volume II, No 2.
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