Tagaru defies rules, lets music take the lead

Tagaru defies rules, lets music take the lead

Director Suri took a new approach for his upcoming film, Tagaru, and developed its script based on the music

Tagaru was talked about for its title, and for bringing together Shivarajkumar and Suri for the second time after Kaddipudi. Now Suri tells us that the film's story was developed during the recording of its songs. The director along with young music director Charan Raj decided to change the usual pattern of scoring music and chose to go with songs based on different themes.

The filmmaker brought in upcoming talents such as composer and cinematgorapher Mahendra Simha on board for the project to break the monotony of the usual style of filmmaking. The director spoke to CE about his association with the music director, who has helped him bring in different tunes, and about how music holds a strong place in Tagaru.

Suri says that the script of Tagaru was developed based on its music. “I just had a line and knew the gist of the story. I got more clarity once the songs got ready. The story of the film progresses according to the sound.”

His passion towards music led him to associate with Sadhu Kokila and V Harikrishna. “Going back to my earlier days of filmmaking, before I got associated with V Harikrishna, I started working with filmmaker Sadhu Kokila because of music. Though I did not have any idea about the tunes, I only knew to identify what’s right and wrong about it, which I explained to the new music director.” He was just particular about the Tagaru album. “I did not want it be a usual album. Hence, we started off with that idea.”

Theme-based songs

An introductory song, duet, pathos and love songs are the regular norm of every film’s music album, and Suri wanted to change that with Tagaru. “I decided to go with eight songs, which are mostly theme-based. This was the first instruction I gave to Charan Raj.”

Suri apparently suggested various themes. “We started with the emotion of fear, and that gave rise to the track Nina Bayave.” The lyrics are written by Jayanth Kaikini.

“Similarly we had a theme-based song on trance, which we call as Nasha. The music director came up with Mentalu Ojjava. For this particular song, I had Kiran Kaverappa and Vardik Joseph writing the lyrics as they know about various drugs.”

The director suggested a theme song for Tagaru, for which Nagendra Prasad wrote the lyrics. “Then there are tracks on staying positive and on relationships. There is only one track on travel, and this stands out, with lyrics written by Yogaraj Bhat,” he says.

Montage technique used for all songs

Unlike a set song or a usual track, Suri and his team planned montage videos for all the tracks and that’s one of the reasons why they took 120 days to shoot. “We travelled that extra mile and we have featured 170 locations through eight songs. Interestingly, the dances were choreographed by Suri and Mahendra Simha, except for one dance song Hold on, which was choreographed by Harsha in half a day. I also had my team member Raju choreographing a few steps.”

He adds that he got a cue from some school boys from the slums for a few dance steps. “We shot a video of them dancing and later we included those steps in our film,” says Suri.

The project is now in the post-production stage and is gearing up for a mega audio launch on December 23. The grand event is planned to be held at Hospete.

KP Sreekanth, a big fan of Shivanna, is producing this film. The film has an ensemble cast featuring Dhananjay (playing an antaognist), Vasishta Simha, Bhavana and Manvitha. 

Related Stories

No stories found.
Cinema Express
www.cinemaexpress.com