Composing seamless music for Bheemasena Nalamarharaja was a challenge: Charan Raj

The music director says it was a big opportunity for him to team up with director Karthik Saragur, who has been an integral part of the compositions
Composing seamless music for Bheemasena Nalamarharaja was a challenge: Charan Raj

"It requires the combination of various ingredients to create a complete dish. Likewise, Charan Raj’s soulful music is an integral ingredient of Bheemasena Nalamaharaja, which explores the different emotions of a family attached with food,” says director Karthik Saragur, ahead of the film’s release on Amazon Prime Video on October 29.

Bheemasena Nalamaharaja will be one of the best albums from Charan Raj, and the film’s background score is going to be a musical treat for the audience,” adds Karthik, who will be unveiling another song from the film — Kannaa Muchche — on Wednesday.

Calling Bheemasena Nalamaharaja a slice-of-life film, Charan Raj says composing seamless music was a challenge since the songs had to gel with the film’s screenplay and narration. The music director, who has come up with six full-fledged songs and two bits, in flavours of jazz, Bhavageethe, folk (laavani) music, Kanda Padya, Carnatic, and ghazal style of music, says, “The best part of Bheemasena Nalamaharaja was that the team gave me the freedom to experiment.”  

Charan feels it was a big opportunity to team up with Karthik, who is a musical person himself. “We belong to Ramkrishna Vidyashala Mysuru, and he was my leader when I was in school, and guided me with music. He has been an integral part of the compositions in Bheemasena Nalamaharaja,” says the composer.

He reveals that his favourite in the album is the climax song and he is happy to bring a Kannada flavour to the compositions. “We also managed to include poetry in a couple of tracks — Bhaavageeta by prominent poet Sri SV Parameshwara Bhat, and a Carnatic composition, Baaro Krishnayya by Kanakadasa. This song was shot in Doddamalur, near Channapatna where Purandaradasa had composed Jagadoddharana. We also have lavani tunes for lyrics written by Sri Ankanayaka, a retired government school teacher from Saragur. The rest of the songs are written by Karthik himself,” says Charan Raj.

Bheemasena Nalamaharaja is jointly produced by Rakshit Shetty, Pushkar Mallikarjunaiah, and Hemanth M Rao. It stars Aravinnd Iyer in the lead role, along with Aarohi Narayan, Priyanka Thimmesh, and Achyuth Kumar as part of the cast.

Related Stories

No stories found.
Cinema Express
www.cinemaexpress.com