Pix by Rashbehari Das

Ace music director Debojyoti Mishra is composing a global score these days. First came his acclaimed songs for Pakistani director Mehreen Jabbar’s Ramchand Pakistani, which released last year. Now, he has just finished composing for famed Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s latest movie, The Dark.

What’s more, Mishra, who first shot into national fame with Rituparno Ghosh’s Raincoat, has just collaborated with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra for Bhavna ‘Dharm’ Talwar’s forthcoming film, Happy. The composer is also working on an album with noted French pianist Jean-Marie Expilly. And he’s composing for Jabbar and Ghosh’s next works too. “It gives me a lot of satisfaction to see that eminent directors outside India are confident of using an Indian composer. Also, I’m able to reach out to a wider audience through these films,” says Mishra.

The composer, who began his career as assistant to legendary music director Salil Chowdhury, has come a long way since his first foray in Bollywood with Govind Nihalani’s Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma in 1998. Mishra, who has a sound grounding in classical music — he began learning the violin from his father, the noted violinist Janhavi Ranjan Mishra, at age seven — is busy moving across musical genres, and geographical boundaries too.

With Jabbar’s Ramchand Pakistani, Mishra became the first Indian to compose music for a Pakistani film. The songs, sung by renowned singers like Abida Parveen, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shubha Mudgal and Shafqat Amanat Ali, brought Mishra international acclaim.

Rabindranath Tagore was one of the inspirations behind Mishra’s compositions in Choker Bali; (below) with Mehreen Jabbar’s Ramchand Pakistani, Mishra became the first Indian composer to do the entire score for a Pakistani film

It was after hearing the film’s music that Iranian director Panahi got in touch with him. Mishra scored three songs (two in Iranian and one in English) for The Dark. The film, set in Palestine, is about a protagonist who undergoes six incarnations. Mishra has scored a mix of Asian and church music for it. He has used Iranian instruments and worked with Iranian singers as well as choirs from London.

Mishra is no stranger to serious directors. In fact, he has worked largely with art-house film directors like Ghosh, with whom he has done eight films including Chokher Bali and Raincoat.

His strong understanding of the grammar of music shines through in every bar. His father, who brought him up on a healthy dose of Western classical music, has remained a big influence, along with mentors like vocalists Krishnachandra Bandopadhyay and Bhimsen Joshi.

Mishra also imbibed the ability to fuse Western classical music and orchestration with Indian musical styles because of his other mentor, Salil Chowdhury. He worked under Chowdhury for 14 years, assisting him on hits like Nabendu Ghosh’s Trishagni and the Malayalam film, Vellum.

Percussionist Bickram Ghosh, who is a close friend, says, “Debu’s achievement is that all his work carries the stamp of his deep knowledge of the grammar of music. Although he had a strong mentor in Salilda, his own work is always original.”

Indeed, Mishra’s love for music is almost infectious. He’s always humming a tune and is easily excited by new sounds. He also believes that Indian musicians benefit from their strong exposure to Asian and Western musical traditions.

He’s bringing this mix to his upcoming album, Shantiniketan Blues, with pianist Jean-Marie Expilly. The two are composing 12 songs for the album produced by Virgin Records. Shantiniketan with its Baul and other folk music traditions influenced Tagore deeply, says Mishra, and it’s this influence that his album will trace.

In Bhavna Talwar’s Happy, Mishra has composed seven songs in collaboration with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Talwar, who shot into fame with the Pankaj Kapoor-starrer Dharm, has cast Kapoor in Happy as a hotel singer, who refuses to change with the times. “The film’s Chaplinesque in tenor and the songs are soulful,” says Mishra.

Apart from this, Mishra has just done the music for Amol Palekar’s English film, The Circle. And back home in Calcutta, he has scored for director Gaurav Pande’s Shukno Lanka.

Thanks to his association with Chowdhury, Mishra was introduced to regional cinema long ago, especially Malayalam. In fact, he recently won an award for his music in Malayalam director Blessy’s film, Calcutta News.

The 40-something composer is also writing a memoir of his musical journey and influences, including the Partition. A book on mentor Chowdhury is on the cards too. “He was a visionary. I think he was the Beethoven of India,” he says.

Mishra says that he’d like to showcase India’s musical heritage to the world. “Indian musicians must show the world that they’ve inherited so much of Western and Asian musical traditions that the West simply cannot beat us,” he asserts. Certainly, Mishra has begun with the first bars of that score.