Rappers’ paradise

Some dogs, forgive the implication, take after their masters in terms of looks and behaviour, a fact evident in Roadside Romeo, a Yash Raj Films and Walt Disney Pictures presentation, to be released on 24 October. The story of three dogs ~ Romeo, Laila and Charlie Anna ~ has been narrated by Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Jaaved Jaaferi. In terms of looks and body movements, the three animated characters bear close resemblance to the voice artistes. Unlike most animated features India has produced, this one has top notch artwork, good voice modulation and great music, thanks to Salim-Sulaiman. Director Jugal Hansraj should be looking at a hit this Diwali. Salim Merchant speaks to The Statesman.
First, the story. Romeo is a “cool dude” living in a mansion, goes around in expensive cars and is considered by most somewhat of a “man” about town. Nothing could go wrong... well, almost. The family that owns him decides to relocates, abandoning Romeo on the mean streets of Mumbai. He is forced to come face-to-face with four idiotic stray dogs, who soon take to him. Next, Romeo falls in love with Laila. Finally, he encounters the villain ~ Charlie Anna. This is a typical Bollywood story told in animated form. By the way, Laila earns a living singing and dancing at Moonlight Nightclub, the chief patron of which is Charlie Anna. She, it goes without saying, is on the lookout for the “dog” in shining armour.
Scoring the soundtrack of an animated feature vis-à-vis a few tracks for a Bollywood film is quite a difficult task. “These are not real characters. Their dancing, singing and acting skills were left to our imagination. Animated films are usually seen by children and this means we had to come up with foot-tapping numbers, tracks with repetitive loops that kids can catch on to,” says Salim Merchant.
In animation film, background music is of extreme importance and during most of the running time, music in some form or the other is played. “Music alone takes a story forward. Background music in animation films create the environment, gives rise to certain situations. A good background score forces audiences to leave their seats and enter the film. The two of us started off as background music composers because we always thought this aspect was not paid enough importance in the Hindi film industry. Times are changing and Hindi films are becoming known by its background music.”
The brief given to the music directors was simple: a movie to be released around Diwali and would be watched by the entire family. “Looking at the characters one keeps adding to the soundtrack. We have come up with numbers that children would sing even in their sleep. The secret is simple ~ repetition of hook lines, of certain words, like ‘Romeo’ in the title track.”
Composing for a Walt Disney feature was not too much of a bother. “It doesn’t matter who we compose for ~ directors on shoe-string budgets or giants like Yash Raj Films. We always put in our best.”
A highlight of the soundtrack is Saif’s rapping. “He’s incredible. Since he has a sense of music, it was easy for him to rap an entire song in 17 minutes!”
After Roadside Romeo, we would hear the efforts of the two music directors in films like Fashion, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Aashayein.
By the way, please don’t think Romeo bashes up the bad guy himself. He takes the help of his sidekicks ~ Hero English (Kiku Sharda), who was born in a slum, Guru (Vrajesh Hirjee), the oldest of them, Interval (Suresh N Menon), a film buff, and Mini (Tannaz Irani), who “refuses” to be a cat! Charlie Anna is protected by Charlie?s Angels and Chhainu (Sanjai Mishra), a spy.
-- Mathures Paul