The Maverick Maestro

Amit Trivedi's holistic, but unorthodox, approach to his compositions is music to filmakers' ears.

- Priyanka Bhadani

The most euphoric moment for film director Raj Kumar Gupta, while making Aamir (2009), was when he first listened to the song ‘Haara’. Its escalating rhythm makes use of a mishmash of repetitive sound effects and short recurring measures of several stringed instruments, reflecting the thickening of the plot. Composed and sung by music director Amit Trivedi, the song used instruments that Gupta could not identify, but it enhanced that particular film sequence. Gupta later found out that Trivedi had used the slamming of the studio door and other whipping sounds for the beat.

“I would not have thought that there could be music in [banging a door], but Amit knew how to make it effective enough to fit it in the larger theme of the film,” said Gupta. The director also collaborated with the composer for No One Killed Jessica (2011) and, more recently, for Raid, which released in March.

‘Haara’ is one of many examples of Trivedi making music using random objects. He added an interesting facet to the psychedelic number ‘Pardesi’ in Dev.D (2009) with the sound of a matchstick being struck. Then, it was beatboxing and handclaps in PadMan’s ‘Aaj Se Teri’.

The influences in Trivedi’s life have been varied. He developed a love for A.R. Rahman’s music after listening to the maestro’s work in the Tamil film Thiruda, Thiruda (1993). And, the admiration has never waned. “There was always some folk music playing in my house—Gujarati, Marathi, lokgeet, lavani, bhajan-kirtan, garba. All those influenced me hugely,” he said. “Since I grew up listening to all that, it was somewhere in my system and also in whatever I do today.”