‘Providing background music is more challenging’ – Milind Joshi

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Milind Joshi is not a new name to Marathi Music World. Thirteen years ago, when Marathi Cinema offered a super hit in the form of ‘Bindhast’, Milind Joshi was the man behind its music. He had also won Zee Marathi’s popular award for the film’s music. A student of Applied Arts, he had earlier worked for an ad agency as a visualizer and copywriter and later showed interest in set design for Marathi dramas. He has also won state award for best set design. But, when he learned Indian classical music from his mother Shaila Joshi, he developed further interest in this field and went on to learn light music from Pt. Yashwant Deo. He also learned western music from Joe Fernandez.
Milind Joshi, Music DirectorToday, he composes music in different formats, which has enabled him to find assignments from countries like Germany and U.S. Milind also keeps himself busy with conduct of workshops for singing and voice training. “Art is just a medium, through which an artist must convey something,” he feels. Using his creativity, Milind also presented an unusual musical concert on the life of Bahinabai Choudhary, where he composed western music on her original lyrics. At present he presents his own show ‘Rang Nava’, where he presents poems of well known poets like Indirabai Sant, Shantabai Shelke, Kusumagraj, Suresh Bhatt and Saumitra. Mukta Barve reads some selected poems in this programme. it is receiving a good response.
Milind has provided background music to the ongoing award winning Marathi play ‘Tom Aani Jerry'; but, he is looking forward to release of his new film ‘Ashach Eka Betavar’, where besides composing music for songs, he has also provided back ground music for this film. Marathi Movie World spoke to Milind Joshi in Pune, during the first look of this film. Excerpts from the chit chat with him:
Q: How important is music for the films, which are filled with suspense or based on real novels?
A: I have had the experience of providing music to an action packed suspense film like ‘Bindhast’ and also to a story based light comedy like ‘Golaberij’. Personally, I feel that music does play an important role in such films, adding that extra flavour.
Q: Do you think that composing music for the songs and providing background music for the same film, helps a lot?
A: No. In fact, both are different types of Job. When you are managing both for the same film, care is to be taken to study the screenplay well. In the case of background music, special attention is to be paid for a suspense filled film.
Q: Tell us something about composing music for songs in ‘Ashach Eka Betawar’ ?
A: In this film, there are three songs, which are picturised at different situations.Devki Pandit’s song ‘Ek Chaya javal yete…’ has meaningful lyrics. The second song ‘Kill me Kill…’ rendered by Mahalaxmi Iyer is a fun song and the third one is a relief song shot on a beach.
Q: Now that you are also providing background music for this film, how was your personal experience?
A: It was a great experience. In this film, the background music was used in two ways. First to increase the curiosity and second to reduce the impact. I had many such spaces in this film, where I could use the effects well. I am sure, the audience would appreciate the same.