Alokananda Dasgupta on composing music for grim documentary, Kicking Balls

In Kicking Balls Guneet Monga Kapoor showcases the courageous journey of young girls in Rajasthan as they fight against child marriage and abuse to chase their athletic dreams Vijayeta Kumarrsquos directorial venturemdashfittingly backed by an allwomenrsquos crewmdashshowcases the resilience of 300 girls who turn to football as a tool for empowerment Grim though the documentaryrsquos narrative may seem composer Alokananda Dasgupta shares that it is a celebration of their untameable spirit In this interview she shares why the music was at odds with the pain reflected in their storiesEdited excerpts from the interviewDid you have a word with Guneet on the idea behind the documentaryrsquos musicI had the first conversation with Guneet during COVID and I knew this was special I spoke to Vijayeta extensively When she described it it did not seem like this would be just another film about the crisis The tables turn and it becomes fun in the end Irsquove wanted to explore the format of documentaries and docufictions because Irsquove grown up watching them As for this film I loved the narrative and how the girls talk about their storyGuneet MongaAs they share their stories you can see their expression change Itrsquos different when they play and run about I also love that the storytelling fits the game of football We havenrsquot seen something so real in a long time We didnrsquot want the music to imitate the sorrow that was part of the theme Therersquos a famous folk song included To add a twist to it I included a North African style of strumming The idea behind doing so was to ensure that we didnrsquot create the perception that this is only a regional taleYou must have had to walk the tightrope to create music that was upbeat but still aligned with the narrative which is at odds with itYoursquore right It was basically playing with opposites But I found the characters upbeat I found their way of speaking their diction and the way they share their stories refreshing They almost do the job for you It has a certain vibe At the same time the makers show the real picturemdashyou see a girl cry as she shares how she was almost raped many times and her husband was an abuser When she says that there hasnrsquot been a day that she hasnrsquot cried you can see that she has faced the harsh reality of life When you see their faces you can also see the contrast that Irsquove attempted to musically create They are gentle and young girls But you can see that they have had to grow up very early in life Then you see them singing on the bus celebrating the little moment of joy that they have That is the contrast I wanted to showcase with the musicAlokananda DasguptaOf course I could only exercise so much liberty because we know these girls live tough lives They only have a few occasions to let their hair down We used some ethnic instruments such as the sarangi Normally I do not use the acoustic guitar But I felt there was something about the way it was being strummed that worked for the narrative Cyli Vivek Khare sang the song She has a very raw voice We kept the integrity of the song alive with her vocals Tanmay Pawar was the guitarist who gave me ideas on the different arrangements that we used The process of working on the music was rather beautiful and stressfreeWhat according to you are the primary differences that come into play when composing for a documentary and a filmI donrsquot normally recite technical examples but there is a technical difficulty relating to the voiceover Here there was no voiceover but several aspects relating to the dialogue narrative and speech had to be attended to It is a theatrical formatmdashthe protagonists are facing the camera and telling a story The music has to be cleverly used You need them to be heard without the bias of music And in some places the film really begs for music You also use silence intelligentlyCould you tell us about your upcoming workThere is a horror series called Khauf and a Yashraj series Therersquos also a Bengali project Puratawn starring Sharmila Tagore It is my first Bengali film since Babarsquos filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta passing My last Bengali films were Urojahaj and Tope directed by Baba Working on this film was nostalgic I was missing my parents because such moments take you back into a world that you didnrsquot know still existed There is a song that has been sung by Shreya Ghoshal and penned by my sister lyricist Rajeshwari Dasgupta