The driving force of any Mohit Suri film is its music. Probably the main reason for Aashiqui 2 to fare so well is the film’s melodious and breathtaking musical score that struck the right chord with the audiences. Talking to Mohit Suri about the music of Ek Villain and about the success of melodious music of his films, the filmmaker said, “Music of Ek Villain is doing really well. Both Banjara and Galiyan is doing tremendously well. Galiyan has the edge because it came out first. Zaroorat is a great song and it will pick up better after the release. But for me, in my films, songs aren’t out of place. The song doesn’t cut out of the blue to people dancing with background dancers in some foreign locations. Invariably they connected to my film.”
Suri continued with, “If anyone tells me, it is a situation-al song that won’t do well or can’t be a hit, they are talking crap. In a dark non romantic movie like Murder 2, we had a Phir Mohabbat making it well for itself. ‘Iss picture mein music ka scope nahin hai’ is lame and doesn’t work that way. I guess those people are not trying hard enough.”
Ask him how much pressure he creates on his musicians and music directors and he puts simply, “I have never gone up to music director and asked them to create for me a hit song. I have always just worked for the film. If anyone says that there is a special mutant gene which makes me have a good ear for music, they are completely lying. No one has a good sense of music. It’s all about how eager are you to work hard on the music.”
It is famous that Mohit Suri works long spans on the music of his films. Suri confirms that and replies, “I worked very hard on my music. Even my flop films have had great music. I have never restricted myself to a popular person for music. I have always found new people who keep the music alive. Every film of mine always has one new person and that is the only similar thing I have. The Soch band for this film. There is a joke in my office and family : Invite Mohit for a party and he will never come but tell him there is a new music director in town with a great tune and he will go across Bombay to hear him.”
Mohit has always encouraged and launched new talent through his films. Even in Ek Villain, Suri has roped in a new band. Talking about it Mohit said, “The Soch Band after signing the contract for Ek Villain were calling me and thanking me for the film but it was actually they who were going to help my film by giving me a brilliant song. A sense of complacency sets in when you start believing you know music when you actually don’t. I always behave like a struggler in the first few days when I am working on a film. I make everyone hear it and take feedback from people. I make unconnected people hear tunes in its basic format sans instrumentation before it is jazzed up. I work for almost 2 months on one song. I don’t settle for it and listen to a lot of new people. But the credit is solely of my music directors who have been the stars of my life. If I didn’t have Atif Aslam for Woh Lamhe or Rahat Fateh Ali Khan or Mustafa Zahid, I would be a nobody. Ankit-Ankur came to me with the lyrics already. It was as if it was written solely for my film. The tendency to work with the same team eventually leads to death!”
Ek Villain starring Sidharth Malhotra and Shraddha Kapoor along with Riteish Deshmukh is gearing up for release on 27th June. The music of the film is immensely famous and the buzz for it is hence insurmountable.
