Architect of Melodies

SHAKTHISREE GOPALAN'S MUSICAL ODYSSEY THAT SPEAK TO THE SOUL

- BY NAMITA GUPTA

How did you get the project for composing music for Test starring Nayanthara and R. Madhavan and how did you approach creating its sonic landscape?

The director S. Sashikanth approached me in 2020, around the time of the lockdown. He had called me and told me, ‘I’m sending you a story, give it a read.” And then he said, he would really like for me to do the music. I was really able to connect with the story and the characters, because I was able to relate to the struggle of these characters. So, because the story really spoke to me, I said, ‘Okay, this I should do.’ We began with identifying what the sound of Madhavan’s world is or what kind of soundscapes all the characters live in. So it had to be in sync with how the director imagined the colours, composition, textures and the physicality of it, visually. Our greatest opportunity and challenge was in finding that same thing through sound. So, I had actually started composing way before the movie went into shoot - composing background score with songs and presenting them to the director.

How was your experience working with Sashikanth, given your shared background in architecture?

Throughout the process, I stayed true to the story, but a lot of times, the story and characters called out for different things. The director's brief was for just one or two songs where I felt it makes sense to the storyline. The script very naturally called out for the songs. There is this song called the Arena, which would cut to the stadium and I thought it would be cool for us to have something that embodied the spirit of the game. All of these other things would be going on, while the game was on. So that's how I originally pitched the idea of