Music in his blood
Sharmila Taliculam
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Uttam Singh. Click for bigger pic!
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After one triumph, success seems to come on oiled bearings. As Uttam Singh recently found out.
Hardly had his music in Dil To Pagal Hai become a hit that he's suddenly the new rage.
Naturally, for the cassette sales are said to have exceeded that of Yash Chopra's last hit, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.
And for someone who came through some very daunting times, Uttam Singh is looking blissfully happy, even complacently saying that he was destined to get what he did.
Uttam says he was never ambitious and was happy with whatever he did before he hit the big time. And since people in the industry are attracted to success he has more work now.
DTPH wasn't really offered to him first. He was actually offered a tele-film for which he had recorded a few tunes. Yash Chopra liked what he heard and Uttam to put together a few more tunes.
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A still from Dil To Pagal Hai. Click for bigger pic!
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Pleased with the attention, Uttam thought up some more tunes, which Yash Chopra liked again. Then followed a hiatus of eight months during which Uttam teetered between cautious expectation and natural fatalism. And then he was told that instead of a telefilm, he was doing a full-length film. That's when enthusiasm overcame phlegmatism and Uttam cobbled together 100 tunes, to whittle them down to final eight.
"I have arranged music for so many hit films. But this was different. I was the music director of the film. Which meant I was in complete charge. It took me two years to finish the tunes, of which one year was dedicated to only making tunes and getting Yashji's approval. It was a good experience."
Being in complete charge of music was not a new experience for Uttam. He, along with partner Jagdish Khanna provided the score for films like Painter Babu andWaaris. The music did well though the films didn't.
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Click for bigger pic!
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"This industry will only look at people who are successful. Even Painter Babu's music was popular, but the film didn't do well. So we were not asked about." So he went back to arranging music for music directors in films like Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, the Sangam album by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and many more. Only success was hard to come by. Till DTPH.
Fortunately for him, the music clicked. But even there things weren't so easy. For his Dholna song, he says, "I composed at least six tunes. Yashji, Aditya sat over it and got a bit confused initially. They listened to it a few times and then finally decided on the tune." The lyrics were written later. Along with success came fame, and the industry measured this veteran of 30 years anew.
His father, a musician himself, wanted Uttam to be a violinist. "He wanted me to play the violin and not any other instrument. He had seen the performances in the industry and he felt our industry needed a good violinist."
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A still from DTPH. Click for bigger pic!
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"Whenever I gave an audition, I never had to call anybody the second time. They called me back. I started my career like that. By playing the violin for music directors." Uttam was the solo violinist for all the R D Burman songs for over 14 years and worked with greats like Madan Mohan, Roshan, S D Burman and Naushad.
He considers Naushad his guru, and it from him that Uttam was inspired to have an orchestra of hundred people. Naushad used to work with 60 people, a legacy from his Trinity college days.
"I know what it sounds like when you have so many people playing at the same time. In (the sixties) the emphasis was on melody; now it's no more. What is lacking is good soulful music".
An issue he addressed in DTPH, taking three months to compose the title song and recording it in five minutes.
Today Uttam is happy he will be doing more composing than arranging. And he realises it has made some things more difficult. "Now I have to think of a tune, write it, implement it, orchestrate it. Before, I was given a ready-made tune; I only had to arrange instruments and the music. The music directors had to sit with their tunes, get it passed and then call me. Now I have to do all that. Arrangements used to take half-an-hour to one hour. Now it takes more time."
He did have a say in the arrangements too but wasn't too worried if the music director got things wrong and wasn't willing to listen.
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Click for bigger pic!
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"I never ever felt frustrated that I was arranging and not composing music. I had the job satisfaction of doing something I loved. I was with music and that was enough."
Uttam is truly as easy-going as he sounds. Up ahead is his next film Dushman, but he isn't too worried about its chances. He hadn't expected much from DTPH, but was surprised by the popularity of his music. And, modestly, he puts it down to a resurgence of musicals than to his own talent.
But despite his dispassionate exterior, Uttam admits he works through inspiration.
"Sometimes when I am sleeping, I get a good tune. I tape it on a tape recorder by singing the tune. I even go and do this when I am doing for somebody." That must be very taxing for the neighbours. "Sometimes I don't get any tune for two to three days at a stretch, but I don't get worried. Tomorrow is another day".
One thing he's firm about is that his music is clean and will never be associated with vulgar lyrics or something that makes no sense to him. And if big banners pass him because he can't deliver crass stuff, then so be it. "I think God had given me the right time to compose music. I have to respect that. I don't mind losing out to make it big. I have my standards and can't lower them."
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