Ram Madhvani on why the trend of lip-syncing needs to return to Bollywood

Filmmaker Ram Madhvanirsquos tendency to favour music that is spiritual philosophical and traditional isnrsquot new Celebrated for deftly crafting the Sushmita Senled Aarya 2020 and Sonam Kapoorrsquos Neerja 2016 Madhvani points out that both projects employed spiritual works that the Indian audience was familiar with a development that he believes was crucial in grabbing their attention Evidently then the National Awardwinning filmmakerrsquos decision to continue the tradition with The Waking of a Nation was only fittingTaaruk Raina plays a young lawyer who aims to uncover a conspiracyTouted as a tale based on true events the Sony Liv show that airs on March 7 features actor Taaruk Raina as Kantilal Sahni a young lawyer who attempts to uncover the truth behind the British conspiracy surrounding the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre The show follows the Hunter Commissionrsquos inquiry which investigated the massacre and uncovers a conspiracy to cover up the truth behind itInstead of turning to spiritual music Madhvani chose to use this opportunity to put the works of Indian saint and poet Kabir on a pedestal ldquoFor Kabir all men are equalrdquo says Madhvani when asked about his decision to turn to the writerrsquos works ldquoIn a project based on colonialism prejudice and racism his works were apt to share our ideasrdquoRam MadhvaniIn this interview Madhvani joins composer Sameer Uddin who has crafted the songs and the score of the show to discuss why the music was crucial to the narrativeEdited excerpts of the interviewWhat made you turn to the works of Kabir for this projectRam When we were writing The Waking of a Nation we thought of ways in which we could reach out to people Even in my previous works like Aarya in which I used the Bhagavad Gita and Neerja 2016 where Irsquove used the Maha Mrityunjaya mantra I explored the idea of speaking philosophically and spiritually to the people of our country So I wanted to use the works of Kabir They say there are actors who do method acting I do method directing A year and a half ago I learnt to sing I met Prahlad Tipanya who is among the foremost singers of Kabir in the country and stayed with him in Lunyakhedi Madhya Pradesh to understand the atmosphereI felt that one could reach out to people through his philosophies One of the things about Kabir is that for him all men are equal Because this is a film about colonialism prejudice and racism I felt this would be a nice way to share our ideas thematically and through musicThe reason behind roping in Sameer is because in a way he comes from a folk background The melodies are his original works and I knew that hersquod be able to do justice to the music We wanted to celebrate the folk tradition That rootedness is what will strike a chord with people because that tune is already part of our cultureSameer More than the melody we were yearning for purity We wanted to keep the music minimally intrusive and still come up with something that was relevant and which could both work for the show and have a lsquostandalonersquo spirit It can be intimidating to revisit the works of a veteran artiste And I am no scholar Finally we narrowed it down to four songs We didnrsquot try to be very crafty After wersquod create a basic structure Shruti Vishwanathan song consultant would correct the language and ensure that we were not spoiling the wordsCould you take us through the various songsRam There are four songs all of which have been lipsynced Thatrsquos one of the things that we are losing within Bollywood And though they are lipsynced they are rooted within the series At no point will one feel like the protagonist is randomly breaking into a song sequence One of the songs speaks about how life is momentary Wersquove been true to the language of KabirWhy do you believe the culture of lipsyncing as you describe it is relevantRam Javed saab Akhtar had once said lsquoHumare yahan jo cycle chalate chalate doodh wale aatein hai subah ko woh gana sunte nahin gana gaatein hairsquo Thatrsquos true We donrsquot listen to songs we sing them Everybody is a singer in India Music is in our blood and we should not lose this tradition or shy away from it I have not used lipsyncing in my songs so far but Irsquove done it in this project In my next film I will be frontfooted with itSameer today when people are often offended over seemingly inconsequential things how careful did you have to be while revisiting Kabirrsquos worksIn this environment even if Kabir says something people will point out his mistakes Itrsquos like the Charlie Chaplin syndromemdasheven Chaplin can come second in a fancy dress competition of him So I am not too worried We were working with only four of his works and Ram of course was there to ensure that we were aligned with the context Ram said that he has been an ardent follower of Kabirrsquos work In 2008 he had sent me a few of Kabirrsquos books too I know the deep connection he has with his philosophy and movement Then we also had Shruti who is a key member and a follower of this culture and movement I must have broken a few rules but I am fine with that because thatrsquos what creators doRam Sameer has also done the background score of the project There are two parts to it one is the British part and the other is the Indian part Sameer managed to keep those worlds different and yet bind the entire project musically It is genuinely worth listening toSameer If Irsquom chaos Ram is order Ram is method I borrow from the noise and he quantises it into information Ram and I met way before the shoot began and made the songs and the themes So my work was done before the project even went on the floors He then dressed up the show as he needed He was clear about what he wanted and that made my job easy There are some beautiful textbook methods that he has applied not just into the music but even to the visuals