Composer Salim Merchant: Knew the music had to be minimalistic

Late actor Mac Mohanrsquos daughter Manjari Makijany made her feature film directorial debut with the Friday release Skater Girl based on a rural teenagerrsquos lifechanging experience when she discovers her passion for skateboarding Offsetting the rustic ambience of the film with a soundtrack thatrsquos contemporary and upbeat composer Salim Merchant sheds light on creative decisions taken during its makingEdited excerpts from the interviewGiven the array of projects you are currently working in not all of which are associated to cinema what drew you to this filmSulaiman and I like to explore genres that we havenrsquot dabbled in because therersquos always a wealth of knowledge to acquire from such projects Skater Girl has so many layers itrsquos about skateboarding and also the caste system We had to interplay the struggles of the other protagonist an American woman Jasmine played by Amy Maghera as well When you have to inculcate all these emotions within the music it makes for an interesting task Creating music for cinema is an evolved process and a beautiful oneI have worked with the director and writer sisters Manjari and Vinati Makijany respectively on a short film in 2015 The Corner Table was directed by Manjari Vinati acted in it with Tom Alter I knew then that these two sisters will go ahead and achieve their dreams When I saw Skater Girl there was no doubt that I wanted to be part of it I got emotionally involved even when it had no music I wanted the music to be minimalistic The storyteller had already captured the emotions well and music could spoil it I didnrsquot want that and so tried to do as little as possibleBut the team felt we should try making a song and a few sections for the skateboarding sequences So we did And they sounded so good that Manjari and Vinati got greedy The other number Mari chhalangein comes at a point when the film until then is at a low point and needs a lift This track brings in a sense of euphoria Since the film is in two languages I knew it would also be nice to have the song in English and HindiHow did you arrive at the singers for the tracksRaja Kumari is someone I have been wanting to work with for a while Shersquos a good singer and has been on my radar The person I wanted for another song was Bhanvari Devi She recorded the track and I liked it but Manjari was keen to have a younger voice render it We couldnrsquot find a young girl so we found a young boy Mohmmad Fazil who sounded like a girl For Mari chhalangein I knew it had to be Sharvi Yadav She has a poprock voice and belts out her songs stronglyWhy was the decision to limit traditional folk elements takenI wanted a Rajasthani flavour since it has been shot in a village But Manjari urged me to stay away from that With the contemporary poprock vibe that we created mdash only employing a traditional voice to support it mdash we were able to create a soundtrack that will be more palatable for the audience consuming it on Netflix Adding Rajasthani flavour would not have been bad but I donrsquot miss it when I see the film