Music has always been part of AH Kaashif, who says he was forced to learn the art form at the age of four. What initially started as entertainment later developed into passion. “I was seriously into music during Class IX. I decided that music would be my career. I completed a course in sound engineering, after which, I started interning with my uncle,” says AH Kaashif.
Not many know that Kaashif is related to AR Rahman. “It wasn’t brand ‘Rahman’ that landed me an opportunity in films. If I’m here today, it’s because of my work,” he says rather proudly. Kaashif took a detour from music to enjoy school life. But even in school, he participated in most cultural programmes. Kaashif dropped out of college since he felt it wasn’t the “right place” for him. “That’s when I began to do mainstream work for my uncle. I started working on background scores,” he says.
Kaashif worked as a music producer for AR Rahman and has contributed to the background score and songs in films like Mersal and Beyond the Clouds . His most recent work, apart from Kaatrin Mozhi , is the Vijay-starrer Sarkar .
Despite the Rahman factor, Kaashif quickly admits that he’s a big admirer of music composer Yuvan Shankar Raja. “Obviously, Rahman is my mentor, guru and everything. But in Tamil, one composer who really inspired me a lot during childhood is Yuvan Shankar Raja. He was the one who redefined electronic music. Of course, my uncle brought it in here, but Yuvan based his entire career on electronic music. Everybody knows I’m a big Yuvan fan.”
Kaashif has been releasing independent albums through social media. It was the song ‘Kadhal’ that fetched him an offer to compose for the Jyotika-starrer Kaatrin Mozhi , which is a remake of the Hindi film Tumhari Sulu .
“The producer was very impressed with my work. I met Radha Mohan later and he asked me to compose a few sample tunes. The whole process took about three months,” he says. He hasn’t watched the original version yet.
Kaashif believes there’s good scope for independent music in Tamil. However, he clarifies that it’s all about channelising and packaging stuff. “The scope of independent music is always there. For instance, Sony did an independent thing, which worked big time. When you have a brand representing you to promote your stuff, then it’ll definitely work out. But in my case, there wasn’t any brand backing me. When I put out my music, people got to know about this. In a way, everything happened in a very organic manner,” he explains, “Having a brand might ease the process. But at the end of the day, it’s about content.”
The songs ‘Kelambitale Vijayalakshmi’ and ‘Dirty Pondati’ seem to have become a rage on the Internet. Kaashif says that the former is the central theme of Kaatrin Mozhi that resonates with Jyotika’s on and off-screen persona. The composer is relatively young to process a situation like say, the romance between husband and wife. How does he manage to convert this little piece of briefing into a soulful number like the song ‘Po Urave’? “I really don’t know. In fact, it was the easiest song for me. Once the director explains the situation, I keep running it in my head. And then, I sit for composition and the tune begins to flow,” he adds.
Kaashif has signed the forthcoming Malayalam film Pathinettam Padi , directed by Shankar Ramakrishnan. He has been getting a couple of offers in Tamil as well.
