A winning score from day one

He got a dozen offers to score music after the cassette release of `Minnale'. By the time the movie was released, this talented music director found himself buried under three dozen offers, including a handful of them in Hindi.

After weighing them meticulously, Chennai's latest musical sensation settled down to choose one out of every four projects that he was offered. Yes, the twenty-something (actually, he just got over his mid-twenties) musician has his hands full till 2003, having signed about 8 films already.

``I never expected this. It came as a big surprise,''

Harris Jeyaraj tells Sudhish Kamath, of his tryst with fame and fortune.

IT WAS just a few weeks ago that `Majunu' hit the stands and cassettes disappeared in no time. `12B' got a similar response when it was launched last week. So we start off, talking about 12B, the album that's still fresh in the news.

``This will be more of Western Country music with youthful numbers. I recorded most of the instruments in Manhattan. I got it mastered in New York,'' Harris reveals.

It took him about 3-4 months to compose for 12B. ``I had agreed to do 12B before the release of Minnale. It was the fourth project I accepted,'' he adds.

`Majunu' was what he had been working for, even before he got started with `Minnale'. Both these movies are produced by Cee (I) TV. Incidentally, Cee (I) TV also is getting Harris to do its latest Arjun-Lara Dutta project `Arasatchi'.

`Samurai', the Vikram starrer was the third film he signed (three songs are done) and then came `12B'. ``12B went like a Concorde,'' he says.

But how did the first film happen? We ask him a bit about his history in Kollywood and about reports that say he was Rahman's associate.

``I just played for him. I was a keyboard player. I have been a keyboard player for 20-25 music directors. When Mr.Ravichandran, director of `Majunu', was looking for a music director, I was busy as a keyboard player. I couldn't make up my mind. When I knew Cee (I) TV was producing the film, I knew it would be a big opening,'' Harris recalls.

``The producer had a lot of belief in me. When I heard about the second project, I was very tired. And I didn't want to do routine stuff,'' he continues.

The mental challenge continued as he spent hours at the recording studio alone. Nervousness followed and he started putting that extra effort into his compositions, even his background scores.

When he was doing it for `Minnale', he had to come up with a piece for the Madhavan-Abbas clash. ``I wanted a good charged up kind of an English number when the college guys play rat and cat. I planned to do it for the stunt. But when I finished it, the director liked it. We thought it sounded great,'' he tells us about the `Maddy' number in `Minnale' which was added into the album later, because of public demand. `Maddy' was not the only number that was introduced after release, there was another bit song that went `Nenjai Poo Pol' and a piece he composed for the introduction of Reema Sen, a chorus instrumental bit which Bollywood has already started copying (the same bit appears in `Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai').

So, every time Harris sits with the background score, he comes out with extra `bit' songs. ``Now, it's become like a signature. It's a additional headache for me. But people would expect it from me. So I have to keep doing it,'' he says with a smile.

We ask him a little bit more on the creative process-which comes first-the tune or the lyrics? ``I usually start off with the tune and the lyric writer fits in the words. But when I have a block, run out of ideas, I turn to the lyric writer to give me the cue. The `Gulmohar Malare' song in `Majunu' happened that way,'' says Harris Jeyaraj.

What is it in a project that attracts him towards it? We ask him about his criteria of choosing projects. The producer, the script and the musical challenges it throws up, he says. That's why he is excited about his next music release, `Samurai'.

``I like this kind of a subject. Adventure, action, lot of youth music, melody. The commercial elements are also there. And there's more scope for the background music in the movie''.

The other films he is doing are: ``Vikram starrer `University', Ajit's next probably titled `Vaman', a Telugu yet untitled Venkatesh starrer, Minnale's Hindi remake `Rehana Hai Tere Dil Mein' with two additional tracks, director Goutham Menon's next and one other Vijay starrer''.

The reason he is choosy about his projects? ``I want to live inside the project. Otherwise it will be mechanical. I can work only like this. I can't get involved with 10-15 movies at a time. I want to be dedicated to each movie that I am doing''.

He might have arrived with the lightning, the thunder of his music continues to roar on.

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Section  : Entertainment