The film industry compares Mickey Meyer's music with wine. Wine gets better with age and so does Mickey's music. His tunes take time to grow on listeners and go on to become hits. Even as he soaks in the positive feedback to his tunes in Leader , his latest offing Marocharitra is making people sit up and pay attention.
“I feel blessed I could compose for the original lyrics written by the legendary Atreya,” says Mickey. He was excited to compose for Marocharitra but didn't want to rehash old tunes. “When I have the ability to compose new tunes, why should I do remixes?” he questions. The makers wanted to have remixes for Ye Theega Poovunu and Bale Bale , but Mickey composed new tunes and won them over. “I had to show them something good to convince them to use new tunes. It was challenging.”
He feels the music scenario has changed since the time Marocharitra was made, 32 years ago. “The songs are remembered even today and it's a cult film. But the new film is based in the US and hence required a new flavour. The new album has a Western flavour but remains soulful. I've tried to achieve that balance,” he explains.
Unlike in the 70s and 80s, films that ride on music are rare nowadays, he rues. “This film gave me that rare opportunity. The songs are situational, and like in the original, the mouth organ plays a role. For the sad version of Ye Theega Poovunu , I've used the mouth organ. I wanted consistency in voices and chose Karthik and Shweta Pandit for most of the songs. Karthik is a good singer and I was impressed with his work in Kotha Bangaru Lokam ,” he says.
He is full of appreciation for the picturisation of Marocharitra songs. “Director Ravi Yadav, being an accomplished cinematographer, has shot each song on par with international music videos.
Mickey likes to work on one or two films at a time. “There is a tendency of composing similar tunes when one song becomes a hit. I try not to do that. Leader cannot be compared with KBL and the use of instruments and tunes in Marocharitra are different from my previous films.”
He is happy his efforts paid off in Leader . His personal favourite is Ovunanna Kadanna . “The Vande Mataram song too turned out well. I retained the original tune for the Maa Telugu Talliki portion; there's nothing you can do to outdo the original.”
Up next is the Tamil version of Happy Days . Later this year, Mickey plans to tour the US for concerts.
