Film with music by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt making waves in international festival circuit
A scene from Empty Street
Rajendra Bora
JAIPUR. A film with music by Indian classical music wizard Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt is making waves at international film festival circuit.
The movie ‘Empty Streets’, about life in limbo, a meaningless purgatory devoid of cause and effect suspended in a vacuous space between heaven and hell, uses musical score of Pt. Bhatt, winner of highest international music award Grammy, to heighten the sense of void.
Pt. Bhatt scored the music for the film sitting in Jaipur using net. The film director Paul Booth would send scene script with exact timing of the shots besides rough cuts and Pt. Bhatt would sit on keyboard to compose the background score at his residence in Bapu Nagar. After composing the musical piece he would record the score at his studio in Malviya Nagar.
He himself played the Mohan Veena and the key board for the recording. The recorded stuff, exactly matching timing of the each scene would be sent to the director in New York via the net.
It has been a extraordinary experience, says Pt. Bhatt.
“There had been complete understanding between the director and me about the requirement of the offbeat film about a soldier who returns from war and loses himself more and more each night that passes and I created the music to express most brutal expression of existentialism that evokes psychological costs”, he said.
It is not the first time that Pt. Bhatt has worked for Hollywood films. Besides the most acclaimed movie “Dead Man Walking”, he contributed musical score for “Two Days in the Valley” and “Meet the Fokers” too.
Oscar winning wizard A.R.Rehman used Pt. Bhatt’s renderings in Amir Khan’s “Lagaan” besides “Saathiya” and Tamil hit “Iruver”. He scored background music for Jagmohan Mundara’s critically acclaimed “Bawandar”, based on the real life story of Bhanwari Devi, a Rajasthani village woman who was gang raped for fighting for women’s cause.
However, scoring music for films is a past time for Pt. Bhatt who remains busy giving performances of classical Indian music round the year. He was recently conferred with ‘Munnu Guru Award’ in Kanpur. The earlier recipients of the award are flutist Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia, santoor player Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma and classical singer Girija Devi.
(The story appeared in Hindustan Times - Jaipur Live - on March 23, 2009)
Rajendra Bora
JAIPUR. A film with music by Indian classical music wizard Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt is making waves at international film festival circuit.
The movie ‘Empty Streets’, about life in limbo, a meaningless purgatory devoid of cause and effect suspended in a vacuous space between heaven and hell, uses musical score of Pt. Bhatt, winner of highest international music award Grammy, to heighten the sense of void.
Pt. Bhatt scored the music for the film sitting in Jaipur using net. The film director Paul Booth would send scene script with exact timing of the shots besides rough cuts and Pt. Bhatt would sit on keyboard to compose the background score at his residence in Bapu Nagar. After composing the musical piece he would record the score at his studio in Malviya Nagar.
He himself played the Mohan Veena and the key board for the recording. The recorded stuff, exactly matching timing of the each scene would be sent to the director in New York via the net.
It has been a extraordinary experience, says Pt. Bhatt.
“There had been complete understanding between the director and me about the requirement of the offbeat film about a soldier who returns from war and loses himself more and more each night that passes and I created the music to express most brutal expression of existentialism that evokes psychological costs”, he said.
It is not the first time that Pt. Bhatt has worked for Hollywood films. Besides the most acclaimed movie “Dead Man Walking”, he contributed musical score for “Two Days in the Valley” and “Meet the Fokers” too.
Oscar winning wizard A.R.Rehman used Pt. Bhatt’s renderings in Amir Khan’s “Lagaan” besides “Saathiya” and Tamil hit “Iruver”. He scored background music for Jagmohan Mundara’s critically acclaimed “Bawandar”, based on the real life story of Bhanwari Devi, a Rajasthani village woman who was gang raped for fighting for women’s cause.
However, scoring music for films is a past time for Pt. Bhatt who remains busy giving performances of classical Indian music round the year. He was recently conferred with ‘Munnu Guru Award’ in Kanpur. The earlier recipients of the award are flutist Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia, santoor player Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma and classical singer Girija Devi.
(The story appeared in Hindustan Times - Jaipur Live - on March 23, 2009)
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