Western and Indian classical tunes have often been met in various fusion projects by many artistes. But it may never have been done in a fashion where familiar tunes of Hollywood’s most popular background scores or songs meet the soul-soothing tunes of the Indian classical instruments. This is how young composer Tushar Lall had started out. After leading The Indian Jam Project (TIJP) on YouTube for all these years, and some majestic original pieces like Sifar, Tushar made his debut in Bollywood with Brahmastra, working with musician Pritam.
He has now produced yet another striking song with a unique flavour, called Quaid, for the Randeep Hooda-starrer Sergeant. We sit down for an exclusive chat with the young musician and learn more about the song, his work in multiple documentaries including The Sound of 007, bringing TIJP to the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) and much more.
Tell us about your song, Quaid. What is it about?
Sergeant is essentially a film about this individual who’s really troubled. He went through a lot in life and is not able to operate in the same capacity that he used to, because of some impediments. So, Quaid is a song that represents that helplessness and how he’s shackled by his own circumstances. Additionally, the director picked a very interesting route, when he told me ‘Why don’t we make this a dark jazz song?’ It’s not like the quintessential sad song, though. In the film, it works very well as you see the entire montage where Randeep Hooda’s character is in the London streets wrung out of his mind. Also, the way Anupam, lyricist of the song, has written it is beautiful. We also got one of my favourite singers, Osho Jain, whose voice has a lot of depth.
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You have also composed scores for Dancing On The Grave (DOTG), a well-received documentary. What do you need to remember as a composer when you score for such projects?
With a docuseries or documentary, I think the narrative and the talking heads are essential. But even though I’m new to this, and don’t fully know the difference yet, what I’ve understood so far is that in a film, you have to make visuals evocative, and you can do it in a way that is a little unbounded. Music and visuals go hand-in-hand. You really can add to the scene with the music you’re making. In the case of a docu-film or a docu-series additionally, the dialogue is highly important, because you’re trying to process as much information as possible. And that’s what the directors are trying to convey to the audiences as well. However, undertelling a story is very nuanced. It needs to be done in a subtle way while giving it a lot of breathing space. It can’t be wall-to-wall, like in a feature film. And I think that’s one of the primary differences.
You are also associated with James Bond through another documentary, The Sound of 007. How different was it to work on this iconic project when compared to DOTG?
DOTG is a beautiful show that Patrick Graham (director), Ankit Gupta, and Chandni Ahlawat Dabas (the creative producers) have made. The way the project was laid out, it felt sorted. As the music composer for the show, I understood there are two things that needed to be done there. One, to show crumbling aristocracy, and then there is an underprivileged sociopathic side. So we needed a score, which catered to both. That’s how we wrote the score as well. We used instruments like the harpsichord, some others that created weird distorted sounds to represent Shraddhanand’s (the accused in the story) psyche. With The Sound of 007, it was an insane honour. You have artistes like Hans Zimmer, Billie Eilish, and FINNEAS talking here! I was scared initially, thinking ‘What value addition can I make?’ We represented the Indian legacy of James Bond music, and representing India within such a context felt very cool.
Your ardent followers know you from TIJP. Where did it all start?
I was fed a lot of music when I was a child because my mother used to listen to a lot of songs — she had an insane cassette collection of 300-400 cassettes. She listened to a variety of artistes, some of them being Jagjit Singh and Abida Parveen. My dad also listened to artistes like Abba. Therefore, I feel the concoction was very interesting. My parents don’t play any instruments, but they’re avid listeners of music containing high intellect. Also, when you study Hindustani and Western, there are a lot of parallels that you start drawing. By the time I was 16-17, I started consuming a lot of background scores and felt like this was a really good space to explore. That is how TIJP started. I began the journey with Game of Thrones with two of my really good friends. Later, when I worked on Brahmastra, I followed the same process and got encouraged by Pritam da to do the same.
How did it feel to take TIJP to a live audience at the NMACC?
It was really exciting. More so because it was genuinely better than all the venues we played at. I’ve seen Broadway in New York, and after seeing the Sound of Music musical here, I couldn’t draw any differences between the two. Tiny things, like the green rooms, the structure of the tech alley, the console — they have done an insane job with the venue. So performing there was a treat because we never get to experience such good sound.
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You were very clear early on in your life that you wanted to pursue music. What about the field called out to you?
Music has such power over me. I really believe that it’s floating somewhere in the cosmos and when you play something, let it flow through you, and it will come onto your instruments. In every other thing in my life, I’m very theoretical, and by the science side of things, but this is the one thing where I really don’t mind going supernatural.
What are your upcoming projects?
With DOTG and Sergeant, I have done enough work in the dark space. So, I wanted to do something a bit more lighthearted. I’ve been part of Jo Tera Hai Woh Mera Hai, an upcoming Paresh Rawal-starrer film. There’s another intense, really well-made docu-film, about which I can’t reveal much right now
Quaid (Sergeant) is streaming on JioCinema.