Rahul Ranade is a fitting example of how successful people often begin their journey early
Mrunmayi Ainapure & Sapna Sarfare
Posted On Sunday, June 10, 2012 at 07:58:17 AM
Nikhil Ghorpade
When Rahul Ranade was seven years old, his class one teacher complained to his parents that he pounded on his desk during classes.
That is when Rahul’s parents decided to gift him a tabla and a music-teacher on the occasion of his thread-ceremony. Journeys of successful people often begin from their childhood itself. Rahul Ranade is a fitting example.
As a youngster, Rahul was charmed by every form of expression and was engaged in a melange of cultural activities. “I composed my first song when I was in class 10 for a children’s play Chandra Hava Chandra Hava.
My mother who recognised my talent, egged me on to focus on my cultural pursuit,” Rahul says in a nostalgic tone.
While trying to find his calling, Rahul ended up playing a part in Ketan Mehta’s Holi and travelled the globe with the troupe of the musical Ghashiram Kotwal. “These were experiences that taught me a lot about the entertainment industry during my early days,” he says.
Director Sai Paranjpye, his guru and his best buddy Gautam Joglekar’s mother, gave Rahul his first break in her 1989 movie Disha, for which he composed the background music. “After I proved my mettle in Disha, I got the opportunity to compose music for Mahesh Manjrekar’s debut movie Aai.
That is when our partnership kicked off.” Rahul was the music director of a chain of Mahesh’s movies like Astitva, Pitaah and Vaastav. Perhaps the first composer in his generation to have created his identity in Bollywood, he did not ignore his roots and composed music for several Marathi flicks as well, like Dhudgoos and Saat Chya Aat Gharaat among others.
A lot of music directors are known to compose tracks first, to which lyrics are added later on. Rahul criticises this technique. “I stick to the traditional way of composing. One can never capture the mood of a song before knowing what the lyrics will be,” he says. A die-hard Asha Bhosle fan, Rahul believes his music is highly influenced by R D Burman’s style of experimentation.
Speaking of Gen-Y music, what is his take on reality talent hunt shows? “They do create an ideal platform for amateur singers and train them to be technically perfect. But this exposure is short-term sometimes resulting in the talent of the youngsters getting stagnated owing to the fame they receive at an early stage of their career,” Rahul argues.
What is in the pipeline? “I’m working on the music of Maanus, a grand biographical play on V Shantaram to be produced by Mahesh Manjrekar,” he reveals. Manjrekar’s recent Marathi film Kaksparsh has found a strong supporting cast in its music director Rahul Ranade who brought in an authentic and subtle flavour to the period film.
This creative musician likes things straight and real which also reflects in his work. “There was not provision for songs here. In that period, the only thing which came closer was ovis. For authenticity, I reached Kumud Pawar who is the sister of Sarojini Babbar. Babbar had studied the songs of that era. Pawar showed me her works and I knew the tunes,” says he.
“This was their way to relieve their feelings. Since the women would create and write these songs, the simplicity is touching. They used a lot of metaphors in the songs. But these songs are couplets. But one of the biggest lessons is that whatever touches your heart is music.”
His pride in his work also comes from that he has no regrets. “I am a very content person. If I see something, I try to reproduce it in music. If it is a song, I like to get inspired by the words. Music cannot be learnt through short-cut crash courses.
One has to learn Indian or western classical music. I have no tune backups. Many say that you cannot be successful with tune backups. I cannot make music out of nothing.”
► I composed my first song when I was in class 10 for a children’s play
03:37:55 PM