A period film with a renowned director like Vasantha Balan to helm it — what better launchpad can singer Karthik ask for? Having sung a number of songs for many music directors in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada, Karthik now turns music director with Aravaan, that features Aadhi, Pasupathi, Dhansikaa and Archana Kavi in the lead roles.
Says the singer-cum-music director, “I love challenges in life. Honestly, I didn’t think that I would be able to compose songs for this film. Thanks to my fabulous director Vasantha Balan, I have. I have watched his previous films and loved it. He understands his music composers and gives them the space and time they require to bring out their best. He has good knowledge of the subject he is working on. The theme, a period flick, by itself was a challenge for me. That drove me to take up this project.”
Being an ardent fan of AR Rahman and Ilaiyaraja, Karthik believes that his composition will be a tribute to his gurus, but not influenced by their music. “I’m a Chennai boy. I have grown up listening to their music. But my compositions are from my heart. I don’t want to imitate anyone,” says Karthik.
Aravaan has seven songs. Most of the songs have been penned by Na Muthukumar and Viveka. Commenting on the compositions, he says, “First, the songs were penned and then, the tunes were composed accordingly. A lot of research was also carried out while composing. Since it’s a period film, I had to include a lot of folk elements.
It wasn’t like one morning I compose and the second day, we complete a song. I took nearly 15 to 20 days to compose the first song – Orae Orae, to which the entire village sings and dances.” Interestingly, Karthik has used 95 per cent live orchestra to give his music a different treatment. “I have used instruments like Fujara and some pipes from Pakistan. Also, I had to collaborate with musicians from other parts of the world. I recorded music with Pete Lockett, percussionist from the UK. And I have also used our traditional instruments like the sitar, sarangi, veena and nadhaswaram. But we kind of stayed away from the western instruments like bass guitar and keyboard.”
But has the composer sung any song in this film? “No. I haven’t sung except for the first song that was composed for the puja of the film.”
At present, Karthik is busy composing the background score for the film, and will take up other projects after the release of Aravaan.