Foreign Exchange

“I AM learning Hindi,slowly but steadily,” says Wayne Sharpe,who is currently familiarising himself with Hindi and Bollywood. A mutual friend introduced him to filmmaker Prakash Jha,and this meeting became Sharpe’s passport to India’s Tinseltown. “Prakash was visiting NYC and he came to my studio. After he described his upcoming films,I played him some of my compositions,” says Sharpe. They soon discovered that creatively they had a lot to offer to each other. “It’s been a positive surprise in my life that I have become so involved in Indian cinema. It’s been a great deal of work learning to create for as well as have my music relate to an entirely different culture,” says the American musician about his background score in Prakash Jha’s earlier works Gangaajal and Apaharan.

These two films served him as stepping stones to bag bigger assignments and he was signed on for Jha’s ambitious project Rajneeti. “The film is so politically charged that I approached the score a bit differently. This one will have a very western sound with some Indian instrumentation,” says Sharpe.

The music director usually devotes three full days every time he works on a film,spotting the film where he goes through every scene at least once and the director conveys story,dialogue,the emotional center and what needs to be highlighted in the music. “Even when the scenes are in a foreign language,the emotions and mood still come through.”

The composer has been listening to classical Indian music for years. But it was the Oscar-winner A R Rahman who really changed his experience. “I first heard his score for Taal about the time when I had started working. The music left me mesmerised.”

Sharpe,who has worked on American films,finds all music inherently similar,with the exception of the language barrier and duration. “Bollywood tends to sometimes overuse the background score. I like to let a movie breathe and have breaks in the music,” he says. Apart from Rajneeti,Sharpe is negotiating for a large-scale Indian production and is also looking forward to expanding as a songwriter in USA in 2010.

MICHAEL BROOK,Road,Movie

WITH a strong penchant for rock,electronica,world music,minimalism and film scores,one would term Michael Brook the ideal music composer. Born in Toronto,Canada,Brook is better known for his scores in Into The Wild and his solo record RockPaperScissors. Although he was always intrigued and inspired by Indian music,the opportunity to work in India came with Dev Benegal’s Road,Movie. “When Dev came along with co-producer Fred Berger,I found him to be an interesting collaborator. Since the story is compelling and the actors are wonderful,the opportunity to compose music for Road,Movie seemed inviting,” says the 59-year-old.

Composing music for the movie has been a rewarding experience,though dotted with many challenges. He is quick to clarify that many of the challenges were not related to the Indianness of Road,Movie. “In some ways,it seems like a movie that happens to be made by an Indian and shot in India,but stylistically it seemed more universal to me,” he says.

Although Brook has been a seasoned composer,he believes in doing his homework before each of his films. “I start with a wide range of information on different projects,ranging from a finished version of the film to a simple description of what the filmmaker intends. In many ways,I don’t really decide on the music. It’s much more of an experimental process,” says the composer.

With Road,Movie and its soothing music garnering rave reviews,is he keen on taking up more Indian projects? “I haven’t been offered any,but I’m looking forward to an enthusiastic steady stream of projects.”