Bring in the band

Pranaay

The French comedy-drama series, Call My Agent, is peculiar for its rather sombre music palette. Its Indian counterpart is significantly distinct. Score composer Pranaay says his primary brief was to include colourful, vivacious, and energetic sounds.

"Shaad [Ali, director] wanted to employ jazz and new-age music. We created many themes for the [celebrity management] agency shown in the series. It's called Art. The themes were created to do justice to Rajat Kapoor's character, which has shades of grey. For that of Aahana Kumra, we needed up-tempo music, and hence, used bebop and jazz. The music is bright and energetic, because these are the guys who are managing the lives of celebrities. The agents exude bonhomie," he says, adding that he didn't use old Bollywood tunes to establish the fact that the series is set in the film industry.

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Bollywood music, he says, isn't defined by a single genre. "You can include reggaeton, hip-hop, trap music, bandish and rock, and they can all be woven [to make Bollywood music]. The crux of Bollywood music is the melody. And that is what we paid attention to."

Having shuffled duties as song and score composer, Pranaay reveals that while directors are often willing to alter their films to suit the songs composed by musicians, score composition must go hand-in-glove with the unfolding scenes. "My job as a composer is to ask the director what he wants the viewer to feel. Music can change a viewer's perception of a scene. I can't play comic music alongside a character with shades of grey, unless I aim to cheat the viewer. If I aim to reveal a character's true colours later, I may play happy music with his scenes, until his true motives are revealed, and that's how we cheat viewers. In a comedy, like this one, music must create a sense of urgency."

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