MUMBAI: If you are wondering why Priyanka Chopra is trending on social media site Facebook, then let us first provide you the names who have played a constructive role behind it – Rohan Gokhale and Rohan Pradhan. The two young composers, aged 30 and 35 respectively, led the charge of birthing and honing the music for their first Marathi movie venture, titled ‘Ventilator’. And Chopra has sung the extremely emotional female version of the track called ‘Baba’ (translated as ‘father’ in English), released today on Zee Music’s YouTube channel.
Chopra’s earlier contribution revolving around the language came through her feisty yet loveable character in Bollywood movie ‘Kaminey’, where she spoke, behaved and eventually nailed the role as a next-door Marathi girl. With ‘Ventilator’, not only has she sung her maiden Marathi song, but ventured into the industry for the first time on a bigger role. The movie introduces Chopra in the Marathi film industry under her production banner Purple Pebble Pictures, scheduled to release tomorrow. Following the global mainstream trend, the movie released the soundtrack before its release and although the other two compositions of the movie resulted into a deserved recognition for the Rohan-Rohan, Chopra’s version of ‘Baba’ has created a much-needed promotional boost. Having a popular face with singing experience obviously helped here. But the brains behind the compositions of the songs and the movie’s soundtrack, Rohan-Rohan, have provided an equally vital emphasis on the background score.
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“’Ventilator’ is a dialogue-oriented movie. You would not see an unnecessary item song or a dance-centric song in the movie for the sake of it. Usually, no one would know or care about the film music. For example, if you ended up watching a Laxmikant Berde movie, you’d end up talking about his acting. Not many would focus on the extensive efforts that have been put for the background score,” said Rohan Gokhale, the one-half of the Rohan-Rohan duo. The one-and-a-half-year long effort began with the duo’s informal meet with the associate director Rohan Mapuskar. Back then, the duo had no idea about the actors or Chopra’s banner’s involvement. The duo’s most recognisable work so far had arrived through a single under Universal Music India, titled ‘Zindagi’.
“Upon reading the script, we realised the two vital aspects of this movie were – ‘Ganpati’ and ‘one’s relationship with father’. We started working on the soundtrack, and as a matter of fact, ‘Baba’ became our first creation. The other two songs – ‘Ya Re Ya’ and ‘Jai Deva’ – (released just before Ganesh Utsav) focus on the Ganpati and the festival. These songs, unlike ‘Baba’, revolve around the usual Ganpati vibes, the celebration, the devotion and the entire essence during the festival. Rohan and I spend our previous Ganpati festival recording ‘dhols and tashas’ from mandals across Mumbai,” added Gokhale. The 30-year-old also informed that the two songs invited comparisons with Ajay-Atul, the prominent Marathi composer duo.
The song, originally sung by Rohan Pradhan, would appear in the movie in his voice. Chopra loved the lyrical and musical aspects of the entire composition, and suggested a female version of the song. “Everyone knows about Priyanka’s love for her father. The actress and her mother loved the song and thought there should be a female version too. We worked on it, and the result can be seen,” said Gokhale. The fascinating part about the entire recording session was the fact that Chopra – then in New York – recorded the vocals while interacting with the two composers – based in Mumbai – on a Skype video call. “We did a rehearsal a couple of times before Chopra stepped in the studio. The most important reason why Chopra could manage to sing the way she did was her emotional connect with her father and how well she could relate to its emotions.”
It is definitely not easy to step into unfamiliar industry and woo the audience, and although Chopra fairly managed to do it as an actress through ‘Kaminey’, the early reviews for Ventilator from MAMI festival suggest her production banner extended her cause towards Marathi audience. To conclude, it would not be unfair to say the actress has once again managed to provide the Marathi movie loyalists another reason to like her.
For the duo, ‘Ventilator’ is just the beginning. The recent surge of young composers being offered big production house initiated movies only further prove that the industry has evolved in every vertical and aspect. And the industry that has been widely recognised for its unique story-telling and cinematic challenges, now finds itself once again on the receiving end of long-awaited applause for its music. And music composers like Rohan-Rohan will play a crucial role for its growth.
