Mannan Shaah on scoring for Governor: Recreating 80s rock and orchestral grandeur with live strings
Mannan Shaah has built a reputation for delivering some of Bollywood’s most memorable contemporary tracks including those from the Commando series, Namaste England, and The Kerala Story 2, but his latest project, Governor, demands a different kind of discipline. Tasked with recreating the sonic landscape of the late ’80s and early ’90s, Mannan has traded digital shortcuts for the live grandeur of a 50-piece international string ensemble and the raw energy of 80s rock.
How Mannan Shaah’s 50-piece orchestra and 80s rock guitars power the political thriller
We caught up with the composer to discuss his creative evolution, his journey, and how he used live instrumentation to build the high-stakes atmosphere in the political thriller Governor.
Take us through your musical journey. What was your dream while growing up?
Honestly, as a child I never had any dream of what I will be pursuing as my career. But the most important thing was that I wanted to do something into music always as I was born with music. I had started learning Hindustani classical music at the age of five and at that time I was not even thinking of taking up music as my career. It was much later after my college that while learning from my second Guru, Late Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan sahab, I decided to compose music and from then onwards I completed my Audio Engineering and assisted Pritam Chakraborty for couple of years before I bagged my first film Commando: A One Man Army.
Since the film Governor is set in the late ’80s and early ’90s, how did you make the music sound authentic to that era?
Background score is the biggest USP of Governor as it has got some of the most authentic sounds of India and the World in the late 80s and the early 90s era. It has got the tonality of that era and that itself was quite challenging yet very exciting to create. A period drama is largely defined by how effective the background score is, to take the viewer into the world of that era and with Governor I have tried to achieve exactly the same. I’m a 90s kid myself so I could relate to the story even more.
Its a combination of Orchestral Music and 80s Rock Music both. With this film I got to record an international orchestra for the first time in my career. Alongwith that we recorded live electric and acoustic guitar pieces with the playing pattern of the 80s rock scene inspired from bands and artists like Guns N’ Roses, Bon Jovi etc. So the whole world has been a very interesting world and a completely new territory to explore
You joined the project after the film was already shot and edited. Did that make it easier or harder to compose?
Governor was a challenging film to work on because of the informative nature of the film. Ofcourse had I been involved on the background score before the shoot itself, it wouldve maybe been easier for me to design themes surrounding the main plot and key scenes before it went on floors. But still despite having a ready film with its final edit had its own pros as well because I got more and more time to live with the visuals to design a particular tone to the film.
Its a very intelligent drama with a lot if detailing in its screenplay and dialogues. Every single dialogue of the film is stitched and connected to another. So one small dialogue if I missed then the entire scene I’d had to re-look into because I’d lose the continuity in the score as well. So it was meticulous that way because a lot of concentration was needed in stitching the music to all the scenes. Also the performances of each and every actor in the film especially Manoj Bajpayee is so top notch that I had to justify them with an equally immersive and engaging background score.
What is the biggest difference between composing a standalone song and creating a full background score?
Both are two completely different worlds. A song can be designed in a few days, right from composing to writing to arranging and singing, it is a shorter format. Whereas a background score can take months, depending on the script and the film that we work on. Some films may require even one whole year to complete the background score. That is because in background score we design scenes of a film. It is like the second hero of the film alongside the protagonist and has to drive the entire screenplay, so in a way it is a screenplay in itself. Hence a lot of planning is needed, lot of brainstorming is required alongwith the filmmaker. We have to be on the same page alongwith the filmmaker as to what and how he’s visualising the film and whether we’re able to match his vision and feel.
What was it like recording with a 50-piece string ensemble from the Budapest Scoring Orchestra?
For the first time in my career I recorded an international orchestra and thanks to Governor, I got that opportunity to record the wonderful Budapest Scoring Orchestra to give an orchestral vibe this film needed. We recorded a 50 piece strings ensemble in Budapest to give a certain grandeur, scale and also to give a certain character to the whole narrative. The main theme of the Governor himself is Orchestral and you will notice when you watch the film.
Why was it important to you to use live instruments rather than purely digital sounds for this project?
I’ve done nearly 70 per cent of this film’s background score live because I needed more of progressive music than sticking to one single tone or template. Barely any theme inside this film has repeated more than once in the entire film because every scene of this film is a revealation. The film has a certain graph which an intense gripping political thriller is needed to have, so you can imagine the level of progressive approach the background score of this film required. Apart from 50 piece Strings ensemble, we also recorded live electric and acoustic guitars throughout the film with the 80s rock vibe and playing styles, which we have tried to seamlessly blend alongwith the orchestral sound of the film.
After working with an international orchestra, do you plan to use more global collaborations in your future Indian film projects?
Yes ofcourse I will be! Infact for one of my upcoming singles that I’m working on at the moment, I’m willing to record the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as its got more of a Waltz Music feel to it. I will be recording the song soon once I’ve completed couple of my other upcoming independent singles which would be releasing in June.