Hari Dafusia’s studio in Valasaravakkam is barely steps away from producer CV Kumar’s office. And so, the music of their Gangs Of Madras was done in the most old-fashioned way possible. “It’s the age of the Internet these days, and people sitting in two different parts of the globe can create musical content. But, Gangs of Madras was the complete opposite,” he says, “Since my studio is so close to his office, he’d come every day. It was literally hands on.”
The duo was supposed to work on a romantic comedy initially, but that didn’t take off. When Gangs of Madras was conceived, Kumar wanted Hari for it. “It was a very collaborative process. In fact, Kumar narrated the first draft of the script in the studio... and I played the piano in the background.”
They came up with five songs, including two gaana ones and a folk number. Hari mentions the ‘Agayam Suduthey’ and ‘Malai Malaruthada’ numbers as the ones he had a lot of fun with. “Kumar is known for his minimalistic approach, and that translates into many aspects in his filmmaking. The string arrangements of those two songs have come out well because we tried to tap into the core of the subject.”
Hari says that creating a unique sound becomes extra hard in the film industry. “The director is like the captain of the ship, and as a composer, you’re one of the compartments in the vehicle.” That could be easy or difficult, depending on how you take it, he says. “Sometimes, there is a freedom in being limited. Think about being asked to compose in a specific raga. It could either be thought of as a limitation or a guidance.”
Tapes and tunes
Hari started music when he was just five, when his 25-year-old father gifted him a keyboard. He’d hear songs playing on TV and play them out, and that caught the attention of his parents. That audio cassettes of AR Rahman and Yesudas were always being played at home helped — he’d listen to them and play on his piano. “I was besotted with collecting audio tapes, of music from across the world. I soon had an entire wall filled with tapes.”
After a stint in West Asia and a couple of years in Chennai, he enrolled in a music college in Canada, where he studied contemporary jazz. In 2013, when he was still in Canada, he got an opportunity that would gently nudge him to pursue his music composer dreams in a big way. “Thanks to Pravin Mani, I got a chance to work on the ‘Wat Wat’ number in AR Rahman’s Tamasha ,” he says, “Rahman is very open minded when he gives you an assignment. He almost says, ‘Pottu Adi’ (‘Go crazy with it’).” That’s exactly what Hari did — and the song ended up as a separate remix track titled ‘Vengence Mix’.
It was a game-changer for Hari to know that his work was getting so much love. “I felt like someone was tapping on my shoulder and saying, ‘Come back to India’,” he smiles. Once back, Hari started collaborating with Rahman more regularly as a programmer, on projects like Mersal and Sarkar .
Coming up....
After Gangs of Madras , Hari is looking forward to working on a couple of films for CV Kumar’s production company, and another Tamil-Telugu bilingual crime-thriller by director Nagaraj, an assistant of Vasanthabalan. He also has a Telugu film for producer Venkateswarulu lined up. “I feel that my USP is that I have very Chennai sensibilities, having grown up here, and have an outsiders’ perspective, thanks to my years in Canada.”
