Midival Punditz And Karsh Kale Talk Soundtrack

New Delhi electronica duo Midival Punditz and Indian-American producer/musician Karsh Kale, collectively known as MPKK, have composed the music of upcoming Bollywood film Soundtrack. The soundtrack for, um, Soundtrack, has two Laxmikant Pyarelal songs, ‘Ruk Jaana Nahin’ and ‘Yeh Jeevan Hai’ reworked by the composers and sung by Suraj Jagan and Malini Awashty respectively. The film’s official Facebook page claims it is “the official remake of the award-winning, cult film It’s All Gone Pete Tong” and reportedly have permission for the same.

Soundtrack has several indie scene links. Ankur Tewari (Ankur & The Ghalat Family), Sidd Coutto (Tough On Tobacco), Anushka Manchanda (Shkabang) and Papon (East India Company) are all associated with the film in various capacities, either as singers or actors. Ankur Tewari, no stranger to acting, and Sidd Coutto star in minor roles, as can be seen in the trailer of the film. Ankur Tewari’s song ‘Jannat’, off his debut album by the same name, also features on the soundtrack of the film. Papon has sung two songs and Anushka Manchanda has sung the song ‘What The F’, and stars in its video too.

The Anurag Kashyap-produced Shaitan also featured a bunch of indies including Bhayanak Maut, and Suman Sridhar of Sridhar/Thayil voicing the tracks ‘Hawa Hawai’ and ‘Khoya Khoya Chand‘.

MPKK have also worked with celebrated filmmaker Shekhar Kapur on a couple of concept tracks and are due to release an album soon. Midival Punditz have previously composed the music for Ankur Tewari’s co-directed film Let’s Enjoy in 2004 alongside other composers such as Julius Packiam, Papon, Jayant Luthria and Ankur Tewari himself. Along with Karsh Kale, the duo previously forayed into Bollywood with Farhan Akhtar-starrer Karthik Calling Karthik and later, Rohan Sippy’s Dum Maaro Dum, composing the background score for both the films.

We caught up with Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale and asked them about their involvement with Soundtrack and other Bollywood films.

From background scores to music directors, is this (Soundtrack) MPKK stepping into mainstream Bollywood? How did the project come about?
Gaurav Raina (of Midival Punditz): Neerav Ghosh, the director of Soundtrack, happens to be a very old friend of ours from Delhi. He called us about a year ago when he got the rights to the Indian adaptation of an English film called It’s All Gone Pete Tong, based on the life of a DJ who loses his hearing because of the loud music he hears while DJing. So, we were Neerav’s obvious choice because we’ve been DJing for 15-16 years now.

Mainstream media has called this the “evolution of the Bollywood sound”. Do you feel the same?
Karsh Kale: I do not think that this is the ‘evolution of Bollywood’ in any way. The evolution will come when it is not always referred to as one big industry. While always acknowledging this virtual mountain that is Bollywood, we allow the concept itself to eclipse the individual work of great new directors, actors and music directors. If one film comes along to change the entire industry, doesn’t say much about the industry itself, does it?

What was it like working with musicians like Kailash Kher, Ankur Tewari and Anushka Manchanda?
Gaurav Raina (of Midival Punditz): Ankur Tewari has been an old friend and a close associate for many years. His track ‘Jannat’ was selected by Neerav (Ghosh) for Soundtrack, and we were very excited about that. It is a great track and suits the moment in the film aptly.

When we were writing the main pop track ‘What the F’ for the film, we actually had only one voice in mind while the song was emerging; that of Anushka Manchanda’s. The track was specially created for her high energy and spunky spirit, which comes out beautifully in her vocal rendition. To work with her was fun and easy, as she even helped write the lyrics of the track and came with numerous ideas on how to take it further.

Kailash Kher, Neerav and the (Midival) Punditz have shared a long association over the years, and it had already been discussed that Kailash Kher would do a track in Neerav’s first project when it happened. So, getting him on board was inevitable and working with him is always extremely inspirational and exciting.

More from MPKK as we hear it. Check out the video for ‘What The F’ below.

More indie and Bollywood links here.

Photos by Rafique Syed