The melody maker - Amit Trivedi

He could pass for your average Mumbai boy, but Amit Trivedi produces music that cuts across any divide.

Remember ‘Emosanal Atyachaar’, the number from Anurag Kashyap’s Dev.D that became an instant catchphrase and had us all humming the tune? That was when Amit Trivedi became more than a name. He was, after all, the young music composer behind 18 delightful tracks that gave Dev.D its unique appeal. If you follow film music closely, you might remember Trivedi as the face behind the score from Rajkumar Gupta’s gritty film Aamir.You would also remember him from last year’s track ‘Iktara’ from Ayan Mukherji’s Wake Up Sid.

If the music is addictive, what is its composer like? “I’m a reserved person,” Trivedi declares, and laughs sheepishly, “I really don’t know how I make the music I do. Maybe it has something to do with what I have grown up listening to — a mix of jazz, western classical, Indian classical and a lot of A R Rahman’s film music — and maybe it’s also because of the person I am. I have lots of mood swings, I’m unpredictable, I like to go against the rules, I don’t know what I’ll be doing in the next three minutes... the music I make seems to come from some divine power.” Sounds rather other-worldly, almost spiritual? “It is spiritual,” insists the 30-year-old music director. “When you are so connected to something it becomes spiritual. Very often I can’t figure out where that tune came from ...”

A hard-core Mumbaikar, Trivedi, however, knows what has got him here. Academics were never high on the priority list. But his mother’s inclination towards music influenced him early on in his teens. Later, Rahman’s music “turned my life upside down”. He took lessons briefly, on and off from a couple of teachers, but that was restricted to the keyboard. “I have a strong sense of music, an affinity for it, because I have spent a lot of time listening to all kinds of music. If you ask me to pick a favourite, I can’t. People do different things to rejuvenate themselves, but I need nothing other than music. Country music always calms me down,” says Trivedi. He continues: “I’m always composing. Tunes come to my mind when I’m relaxing at home, or eating a sandwich at Subway.” So how did ‘Emosanal Atyachaar’ happen? “One morning, I woke up and found myself humming the ‘Emosanal Atyachaar’ tune”. There is a hint of modest pride in Trivedi’s voice when he adds: “It [Emosanal Atyachaar] has become such a big hit”.

In quite a contrast to his repertoire in cinema, the first time Trivedi made music, it was for a Gujarati play. “I was spotted at a music show by a producer and he offered me the chance to work on the music for a play. It was a haunting composition,” he recalls. Theatre and a stint with a music band kept Trivedi busy for the next couple of years till one day, good friend and fellow composer Amartya Rahut pulled him into the world of advertising. “It seems like such a long time ago. I started helping Amartya with arrangements for radio spots and commercials, and eventually, it turned out to be a very interesting journey. It was just as challenging as theatre, but in advertising I had to convey a lot in about 30 seconds, and make it sound remarkable,” explains Trivedi.

But clearly, cinema is his passion. He’s more than comfortable with the medium. It was friend and singer Shilpa Rao who introduced Trivedi to Kashyap when the latter was looking for a new composer for Dev.D. If it’s the creative freedom he enjoys while composing for a script, he admits that film music is a director’s medium and a composer has to cater to that. “It’s definitely about how I interpret the script personally, but I have to match up to every brief, every mood,” he says. ForDev.D, director Anurag Kashyap let Trivedi experiment from rock to folk to classical sounds, and was even willing to make it a 24-track album. Trivedi stopped at 18. “It really helped that Anurag sir thinks out-of-the-box. It’s because of him that I could experiment,” says Trivedi graciously.

The freshness of Trivedi’s music also reflects in his voice. He sings his compositions occasionally, when he feels the track requires a restless, free-flowing quality. Listen to the tracks ‘Duniya’, or ‘Saali Khushi’ that Trivedi has sung from the soundtrack of Dev.D and you’ll get the drift. However, the number ‘Ek Hulchul Si’ in the film, performed by singer Joi, is one of his favourites. “I fall for voices,” Trivedi admits, almost guiltily, — but he isn’t talking about his own. “I like interesting textures in voices. I like the voices of Kavita Seth and Shilpa Rao who I have worked with, and would love to work with Bombay Jayashree. There are so many good singers around, you just need to tap them.” Next up from Trivedi is the music for another Abhay Deol starrer Aisha, besides films like Chillar Party and Udaan, all of them still under production.

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