He has transformed the folk song ‘Kuttanadan kayalile’ into funk rock, Carnatic kriti ‘Alaipayuthe’ in Kanada raga into bossa nova, a style of Brazilian jazz, and the P. Bhaskaran – M.S. Baburaj song ‘Kadalivaazha…’ into honky tonk style. There are hundreds of other songs that have got a makeover at the hands of Bennet Roland, the master of rearranging and re-orchestration.
When we meet him at Gorky Bhavan in the capital city, wearing his trademark jacket and cap, he is in the middle of a jamming session with actor-scriptwriter-singer Murali Gopy for a programme Music Mojo for Kappa TV. “Doesn’t he sing well? He was a bit nervous initially,” says Bennet while having a quick lunch a little later.
He goes into the music that he creates. “Please don’t call it unplugged music, as it is often written or talked about. I rearrange songs, by adapting them to different musical styles or genres, whereas unplugged means performing with acoustic instruments rather than electrified ones.” His band has no permanent members; rather he brings together high profile session artistes depending on the singer who is associating with him.
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The irony is that there was a time when he didn’t like film music at all. A native of Kozhikode, Bennet was a hard core fan of rock music and had a rock band during his college days, Dreadlocks. “Coming from a musical family, it was natural for me to fall into the groove. I played the violin and then shifted to the guitar. I didn’t enjoy Indian music as much as I enjoyed Western numbers. Whenever I listened to a film song in Hindi or Malayalam, I always felt that the orchestration could have been different,” he says.
But when A. R. Rahman came into the scene, all that changed. “Crowds preferred listening to his numbers and rock bands like ours were confined to one corner of those hotels where we were given a platform to play. I was not ready for that change and very soon our band got dissolved.”
It is then that he shifted his attention to rearranging the tracks. And Bennet lists his reasons for thinking on this line. “A film song is always set against a particular context. I felt that when you listen to the same song on a stage, it is a totally different scene. So, what is wrong with rearranging it in a different genre? Another reason was that I wanted to give a better exposure to musicians. They get an opportunity to demonstrate their proficiency. My work is also an attempt to inform talented musicians out there about music genres across the world. I believe that the jamming sessions give an opportunity for singers to showcase their skills in improvising as well. In fact, Karthik, with whom I’ve worked for nearly six years, has gone on record saying that jamming sessions have immensely benefitted him as a singer,” he says.
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Though his band was conceptualised in 1998, Bennet got the big break with the programme Complete Jam Sessions on Rosebowl in 2007. “Sumesh Lal, the content head of the channel, named my band ‘Bennet and the band’,” he says.
While he has jammed with singers such as Anuradha Sriram, Srinivas, Haricharan, Karthik, Manjari, Jyotsna, Gayathri, Franco, Vijay Yesudas, Vijay Prakash, Naresh Iyer, Shwetha Mohan and many others, he has played for stage shows of Hariharan, K. S. Chitra, Udit Narayan, Shaan, Sujatha and a lot more. And he gives due credit to social media, especially YouTube, for taking his work to a larger audience.
However, puritans are not quite in tune with his kind of music. “I have heard that they despise what I do. But that’s fine. I respect their music and talent and they are entitled to their opinions.”
So, how does he work? “Every song has a soul, a key note which you have to identify. Then I keep working on it and by trial and error finally arrange at that perfect orchestration.”
Well, experimenting with music never ceases for Bennet.
Short takes
Bennet-Veetrag has composed for films such as Out of Syllabus, Dr. Patient, Gaddama , and August Club . Bennet is now working on an album with an international feel.