A good film can't have bad music

He grew up to be a tabla virtuoso and went on to win a National Award. Yet, he often gets overshadowed by his brother. CT decodes Mayookh Bhaumik
At the top floor of a south Kolkata home, Mayookh Bhaumik sits curled up on a small bed. There are three chairs lined up in front on which rest a laptop, two small speakers, headphones and a MIDI trigger. The sparse arrangement makes us curious.“Welcome to my workplace. This is where I design my music. "Is this all he needs, we wonder aloud. “Oh, yes. I make music that sounds good on the laptop and mid-level speakers. I know many who complain that they can't pull off a perfect job in dearth of world-class arrangement! Skrillex designs all his tracks on the go -on smartphones and tabs. He is one of the biggest DJs ever.
"Pointing at a cupboard in front, he adds, “I recorded a song, Sokhi kemone, for Herbert inside that cupboard. We used a bedsheet, a piece of curtain and turned it into a vocal booth. It turned out just fine. The best part was no one figured out. If they had, they would have said, 'You know, it's good, but oi byaparta missing.'"

That set the ball rolling for this interview. Excerpts:
You are Mainak Bhaumik's elder brother. What are the obvious disadvantages?
Disadvantages? I don't see any right now. But yes, every time he comes up with a film, people ask me why am I not doing the music. Why should I? Just because he is my brother? That can't be the sole reason. This assumption can be annoying at times.
Mainak is quite popular in the industry. He has gorgeous actresses swearing by him as a friend...
(Cuts in) Oh, yeah.
And then, there's you. Not all of Mainak's films feature you. Does jealousy creep in at times?
Not at all. I am very proud of all that Mainak has achieved.
You mean you are proud of your little brother?
No. I am saying this as a colleague. There was a time when he would do nothing apart from bugging me. That was his full-time job. I remember, I used to cut his birthday cake. He was so shy that he would hide behind me and say, “Aami na, dada katbe." That was Mainak. And now, he is immensely successful for something he has developed right in front of my eyes. At a very personal level, seeing that success overjoys me. There have been times when people have come up to me and spoken about his films, not knowing I am his brother. I enjoy that. I love that.
Among them, must also be those who criticized his films not knowing who you are?
Yes. And I have come home and laughed over it with him. It goes both ways, actually. Just a few weeks back, I had this gig at Jamsteady . I scored for Suman Ghosh's Dwando, in which there was a song called Teri surat. It's a tribute to Aziz Miyan Qawaal. I performed it as a part of my set. One guy went to Mainak and Swastika (Mukherjee) and said, “Dekh, Dwando-r gaan ta jherechhe." Mainak and I had a good laugh over it.
In Pics: National award winner Mayookh Bhaumik gives Kolkata a taste of futuristic music
Mainak's Take One was panned by critics, though the music was hugely appreciated...
You can't have a good score for a bad film. There is no such thing. The score is not exclusive of the movie. And if you walk out of a theatre thinking, 'OMG! Lovely music but the film was not so good', then I have failed as a music director. Film music is not supposed to stand out.
Also Read: Movie Review of Take One
You maintain a very low profile in Tollywood. Doesn't that translate into less work?
First of all, I am not really into popular Bengali music. I am a classical tabla player. I do electronic music, which is still very alien to Kolkata. A lot of time, when I am playing my stuff, people don't know how to react. My focus is the direction in which world music is going and where does Indian music fit into that. I never had that ambition of becoming a film composer. I am more of a stage guy . And in a lot of cases, I feel restricted when I have to limit myself to the context of a story . Film music is India is primarily about songs and not the background score. Until very recently , we didn't even have a National Award for background music. So to answer your question, as an artiste, it doesn't really affect my personal work. Also, I am very choosy times people say, 'Or mato ekta music kore dao' and I am like, 'O to ekhono benche aache, or kachhe jaao na.' I can't pretend. When it comes to popularity, as a classical musician, you have to make up your mind about what you want. I have seen situations where a Bengali television actor is being swarmed by people on the streets. And yet, I had walked from Southern Avenue to Deshapriya Park with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan saheb and no one had a clue about who he was! This was the same man who refused the Grammy five times. He said, 'I don't do what you are calling world music. What I do is Indian classical music. If you don't have a category for that, either make a category or don't give me an award.' He was the big daddy and few gave him his due. A lot of my idols are not stars.

But they are people who are worshipped. I remain unaffected by popularity . What's your take on the current music scene in Tollywood?
It's absolutely great. I have nothing against it. Just that, being a little more open-minded might help. The audience is not dumb. If you give them something new, they will take it. The assumption is, they won't. But look at Kabir Suman, Nachiketa, Rupam Islam.... The audience took them.
Mainstream popular music is what Tollywood is still associated with...
That's true for the whole of India. Once, someone from a radio station called me up to say, 'Can you send the humming from Take One?' I was like, 'It's a song, not 'humming', but yeah, I know what you mean.' The song didn't have any lyrics, so it became 'humming'. Unfortunately, a lot of people here do not listen to what's going on in the rest of the world. So, a lot of artistes only 'hum'. Why not have categories like the 'best new hum' at an award ceremony (laughs)? India is still a country where the original score for a movie is categorized as background music. That's not a cinematic term. Automatically, when you call something background, it gets pushed to the background. Now, after AR Rahman, we are slowly recognizing the importance of an original score. I hope Tollywood recognizes that too.
What are your future projects?
I have four songs in this film called Hridmajhare. And then there's Black Coffee... Hridmajhare.
Tell us a little about Black Coffee.
That is my dream project. I have started performing the set in live gigs. The album is coming out later this year. Jaja is already up online. Two of the tracks, FZCK and A tune were used in Take One. Then our next release is a song called Autumn tillana. And that is my homage to Clint Mansell's theme for Requiem for a Dream. This is my take on what Indian music should be. And therefore, will be. I don't have a name for it except for futuristic Indian music.

And why the name, Black Coffee?
Mainak and I conceived the idea over a mug of black coffee.
Tell us about your transition from Indian classical to electronic music.
Classical music is a way of life. It's not just a genre. And I am a believer of this philosophy . I got that from my gurus, Pt Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Ustad Sabir Khan, Zakirji (Hussain), Pt Birju Maharajji and Pt S Shekhar. When you spend time with such greats, their wisdom rubs off on you. Electronic music is something I grew up with. So, it was not really a transition. I felt these two will go well together. Ultimately , they all are trying to reach one final goal, of telling a story. I found electronic music to be a really interesting way of telling stories.
Coming to things other than work, you must be having a huge female fan following...
As you said, Mainak is the one with female friends...
So there's no one special?
There are loads of special friends.
Are you keeping it open ended?
I have always wanted to explore this open-ended thing in a relationship. Maybe, I will someday . But right now, I am single.
A line on fellow musicians:
Indraadip Das Gupta: I am a fan of both his compositions and singing. I have to design a song for him to sing.
Debajyoti Mishra: An international-standard composer. I don’t know why he is not a bigger deal in the world.
Jeet Gannguli: He is the master of pop. He makes Bengal hit as hard as Bombay.
Neel Dutt: Fantastic aesthetic sense. Having travelled the world, he brings a global perspective on the table.
Anupam Roy: The ideal contemporary singer-songwriter. He can represent Bengal on a global platform.
Rupam Islam: A voice that can pierce through any sound system. A cult in himself. A star performer.
Gaurab Chatterjee: He once asked me to play a drum set on the tabla. He has the vision.
Shayan Choudhury (Arnob): An infinitely creative genius. Watch out for him.
Neel Adhikari: A very progressive guy. Now that you bring it up, I don’t know why we haven’t collaborated yet. We should.