'California meets Mumbai, sarangi meets sax' Zakir Hussain and Rahul Bose on Everybody Says I'm Fine

Simran Thadani

Erstwhile Bombay Boys star and first-time director Rahul Bose ushers me into a heavily curtained room where a curly-haired, kurta-pyjama-clad man is chatting on the phone.

I watch, entranced, as his restless fingers tap out a riff as he talks. A minute later, Ustad Zakir Hussain stands up to greet me, switching gears seamlessly. Rahul stops making notes on his writing pad and tunes in, too.

And we launch into a conversation about Rahul's upcoming film, Everybody Says I'm Fine, for which Zakir has composed the musical score.

Turns out the film has been in the works since 1999, when Rahul wrote the script. It was rehearsed, shot and edited between his own bouts of acting. The film was ready by May 2001. That September, Rahul went abroad and spent "six months looking for a distributor. Now we have one, and we are rocking!" he smiles proudly. "Do you know that this is the first Indian film after Lagaan to get American theatre distribution?"

Ustad Zakir Hussain was a natural choice for the music. Rahul ticks off on his fingers: "The music spanned pop, rock, reggae, trance, jazz, qawwali and rap. To my mind there was only one musician who could marry these genres, meld these worlds without it sounding cheesy or forced. We have got sarangi and saxophone, jazz and Hindustani classical. And Algerian singer Flora harmonising with Talat Aziz. It is California meets Mumbai, really."

I ask for Zakir's take on the score. There is much to say; there are even different versions of how he got involved with Everybody Says. "Rahul came to New York, hired three mafia guys and sent them to me --- and they made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

Then: "Rahul promised to make me a rock star. But look, I am still sitting here in my kurta-pyjama!" (Rahul jumps in, grinning, "Yeah, Zakir is quite disappointed and dejected after Everybody Says!") And, more honestly: "It was genuinely a great project."

Whatever the case, the maestro had never done anything like this before. Rahul had sent him a "completely finished script, with every shot, everything designed, and with the kind of music he wanted, and where [in the film] it would go. It was all in print." And as the script itself was "quite natty," he took on the task even before he met Rahul.

Did Rahul start out with some seeds of ideas? "Oh, yeah, I definitely had a vision." He wrote briefs for the kinds of songs he wanted, along with the "feel" of each song --- "warm, emotional, cold, hard, sexy, teeny-weeny", and left the rest to Zakir.

But is the Everybody Says soundtrack the kind of music that he listens to? "I listen to wider stuff. Radiohead, REM, Hindustani classical music --- we have got neither extreme in the film. It is a mix. I keep saying, 'The music is universal' --- the guys at Universal [Music, who are distributing the film's score], must be really happy with me!"

What was it like working on the album? Says Zakir, "Well, the music dealt with all the elements of our planet from a musical point of view. It was all familiar to me; I had worked with every type of music Rahul wanted. And I thought, 'Hey, this guy thinks just like me!' It is a wave length thing."

And as for the execution, "Taufiq [Qureshi, his younger brother] and Salim [Merchant] deserve all the credit. I worked with them and Piyush [Kanojia], on the melodic structures. It was great --- they [are the kind of people who] know how to put into action what you are thinking."

As for the actual collaborations, "We decided together which artistes would or would not work. In today's day and age, you cannot put them all in a room together and just say 'play' or 'sing'. You have to bring them individually or in pairs, and see what happens. Except for the qawwali, where we had a roomful of musicians. ["Twenty or 21," says Rahul.] I thought, 'Is this going to work? Is this going to happen'?"

"But everyone interacted beautifully. It was all about friends coming to the rescue." Even Carlos Santana (who has lent his unrivalled guitar skills to the title track)? "Yeah, I have known him for years. We live in the same neighbourhood, shop at the same grocery store.. My daughter and his kids go to the same piano teacher."

Are there any new talents on the album? "Samantha is the Nescafι girl; she has done jingles, but this is her first film. Then there is Rahul Bose and Zakir Hussain --- first-time singers. Oh, and this one guy called Carlos Santana, he's an up-and-coming guitarist." They look at each other and burst out laughing.

Director and composer had to overcome their share of hitches, though. Rahul narrates one incident that he describes as "at the time, not funny at all --- in fact, I was quite tense." One of the songs turned out to be "not what I was looking for for the film. How do you tell a man like Zakir Hussain that you want something different? I panicked."

When they finally chatted, Rahul blurted out what was on his mind. "I still remember Zakir's words; he just said, 'Fine, we'll do it again. I have to do my best to make your vision come true.' I had just heard these words coming from a genius --- a national treasure. And I realised that even the big names just want to do their stuff. No ego involved."

And are they happy with the final product? Zakir unhesitatingly says, "Yes, and I would do it again. I am very satisfied with what has gone down. It is a musical statement that I can stand behind. This is what I wanted to do. We need to think about where the collective creative mind is going, what is happening in the world.. And it is nice to be able to put another card on the table, to take different genres, mix them and have it work.. To say, 'here's the way I feel, what do you think?'"

With all the experimentation that happened with this score, how would one describe the essence of the soundtrack? "I think it is wrong to say that Everybody Says has an Indian flavour. I think, to use a cliche, it is a 'different' flavour. But its bed of influence is definitely Indian, it is emotionally and psychologically Indian. Not necessarily musically, though many of the tracks were composed with Indian raga scales in mind."

"Besides the range of East-West jugalbandis that lend the album its individualism, there is also been a bit of experimentation with instrumentation or lack thereof, on Listen to Your Heart. Acappella (purely vocal music, involving harmonising without any instrumental backing) is now coming back!"

But as a percussionist, why the choice to work without instruments or a beat? "I have always been taught to vocalise and sing my rhythms. These songs definitely have a rhythm, a rhythm and words."

Will it work with Indian audiences, though? "It worked just fine for us. We wanted to feel good." Rahul chimes in, "We heard it, we said 'Let us put it in.' The album is full of little surprises like this which we do not talk a lot about. It is not about commercial profit, it is a feel good thing."

Any common favourites from among the smorgasbord of styles that is Everybody Says? Zakir is quick to choose: "The qawwali track has worked very well, as well as the title song and the love song. Don't you think, Rahul?" Rahul nods his head vehemently.

So who is behind the lyrics for the masterpieces? "Oh, Rahul wrote all the lyrics," says Zakir. "It is a little known fact. Rahul, why don't you tell people this?"

Rahul responds with "Can you imagine what people would say if I told them I have done everything? Also I have done only one track for the album, just my voice --- I am the speaker."

Zakir changed lanes and sang a track, too. "I am not a singer unlike Rahul. I just sang it as a guide track and was bullied into leaving it there. I am telling you, I was bullied a lot."

The soundtrack of Everybody Says I'm Fine is available in music stores around India. The film, which had an international premiere in September 2001 and has won recognition at a number of film festivals, will release in India in July 2002.