Siddharth Anand’s much-awaited aerial action drama “Fighter” is all set to make the audience experience a rush of patriotic fervour. The film has Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, and Anil Kapoor in the lead roles, along with Karan Singh Grover, Akshay Oberoi and Talat Aziz. The exceptional music album of the film that has constantly been trending, has been composed by Vishal-Sheykhar. The film, which revolves around IAF officers, will hit the theatres on January 25.
In a conversation with Asian Voice, Vishal Dadlani talks about the songs, working on the album and collaborating with various artists.
What was your brief for this, like the album for “Fighter”? What was the collaborative process like for creating the music?
For “Fighter”, we are a team of friends working together, Siddharth Anand (the Director) is a very close friend of Sheykhar’s and mine. We normally read the script, but for the first time, he narrated the script to us. By the time we approached the interval, we were in tears. It's a film that while it's entertaining with big grand action and all the aerial combat, has also got a very big heart and really makes you feel. We started like that and then a lot of the songs were born from that narration, and we started tossing ideas around. Sheykhar and I, we compose quite informally. Wherever we happen to be, we think of ideas and then we figure out where it goes from there.
There are two distinct kinds of music in this film. There's music of friendship and camaraderie, which is what you've seen so far. And then there's the music of the fighters, like “Heer Aasmani” is a love song from a pilot to the sky. The songs that haven’t reached the audience yet have a deeper worldview. In “Sher Khul Gaye”, they're celebrating a major achievement, talking about how they feel like the kings of the world. The film travels through the song. Siddharth always makes songs that have meaning in the context of the film. So while these songs are entertaining individually, they are much more meaningful when you see the film. “Ishq Jaisa Kuch” is a little light romance between the characters. The music justifies what sometimes happens to a romance in high-pressure situations. The album also has songs that you can truly feel in a human context or the context of a soldier's life and a nation. That is yet to come and I can't wait for you guys to see it.
The “Spirit of Fighter” evokes a renewed spirit of nationalism once you hear it. What is the responsibility that comes when you are incorporating a patriotic song?
We have reused some lyrics from “Vande Mataram” that Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote. The melody of the “Spirit of Fighter” was written first and then when we added the lyrics, it just sounded like they were meant to be together. Once that happened, Sid (Siddharth Anand) was like “This is the theme of my film”. I think the words “Vande Mataram” inspire every Indian, there's a sense of patriotism and energy that just comes with it.
The beautiful thing about “Vande Mataram” is it's not a jingoistic song. “Sujalam, suphalam, malayaja shitalam”, means “Your crystal clear springs, your sweet water, your sweet fruit. Thank you for that, oh mother!” I feel that true patriotism is to be grateful for everything that you've been given, which is why you stand up for your country when the time comes, which is what these pilots do. They put their lives on the line out of gratitude to their country and it's a very honest reflection of that.
Your music in the past few Sidhant Anand movies has been chart-busting and we notice Shilpa Rao to be commonality in these projects as well. How is it working with her?
She's amazing. Shilpa is a very dear friend, she's crazy and we have a lot of fun and laughs together. She's a genius musician, but casual about it and doesn't carry the weight very heavily. She'll come in just to sing a little line if you ask her, which is really kind, and we appreciate that very much.
I think Siddharth and her get along very well. Her first song for us was “Khuda Jaane” and she exploded with that. It was Deepika's second film as well, so everyone was relatively new. Now I think she has sung for every major star but somehow when she sings for Deepika, it just locks, it looks like Deepika’s singing which is wonderful. Apart from being the perfect voice for Deepika, she has sang other songs for us as well and her voice is just is pure gold.
