Neel Adhikari at his Raja Basanta Roy Road residence. Picture: Arnab Mondal

Singer-songwriter Neel Adhikari, 38, is composing the music for filmmaker Anirban Mukherjee’s yet-to-be-titled Bengali film, starring Rahul, Swastika and Rii. Neel, who had collaborated on the music for films like Gandu (with his former band Five Little Indians), Aami Vs Tumi (with Fossils members Rupam Islam and Allan Ao) and Tasher Desh (with filmmaker Q and celebrity sound engineer Miti Adhikari), is going solo with this soundtrack. t2 tunes in.

Take us through the music you are composing for Anirban Mukherjee’s film...

I have composed three songs. I have asked the singers — Rupam, Q and Anupam Roy — to write the lyrics, so that the songs sound true. All the singers are composers/ songwriters and I know how a songwriter feels when he is asked to sing lyrics written by somebody else. There is one more reason: I don’t write lyrics in Bengali. We could have got a lyricist but that would have fallen into the industry format. After doing Tasher Desh I really know the basic methodology of doing collaborations. There is an unsaid etiquette, a particular way to behave in a collaborative situation that brings about good results.

Anirban’s film is an urban mystery-thriller. There is a heist, a murder and things that are fast-paced. The songs set up the context, atmosphere and contribute to the texture of the film. I’m also doing the background score. As a musician, if you are doing a background score, you have to reach a level where you can draw goose pimples at will.

Why do you think Anirban came to you?

There is a buzz around the music of Tasher Desh and people in the industry know about it. And then there is the music of Gandu. People are getting a sense that here is a person who can write songs which sound a little different from what is going on in the marketplace.

Are you cool with composing music for more Tolly films?

It’s not about me being cool with it but whether the industry is cool with me! If the industry likes this kind of sound then they’ll go with me and I’ll do music. I have to find my space. Of course I’ll read the script first and then decide. But I’m not in a snobbish state of mind. I know everything has a purpose. There are certain things I’m good at and there are certain things I can’t do, since I don’t know the musical language. I’m honest about it. I have a specific space. I’m currently with Gandu Circus (electro punk rap) and Neel and the Lightbulbs (indie), and doing film music. Miti [his UK-based cousin, who has worked with the likes of Nirvana and Floyd] and I have our own production outfit, Mana. We have produced, funked up and contemporised music of Rajasthani folk artistes. We have a funky Punjabi folk project in the pipeline. I am trying to grow as a musician which is why my active interests in indie, singer-songwriter music, electronica or folk music. I am broadening my horizons of what things I can compose or what other styles I can integrate.

How does Gandu Circus define your identity?

There’s a yin and yang in all of us. I’ve been playing English music since the early 1990s, and you can well imagine the frustrations I’ve felt. You can well imagine the things I have gone through to make this a career — like not getting paid, waiting in receptions for hours and hours, doing follow-ups and then getting paid after a year, jobs promised being taken away. I’ve gone through hard times and there is a certain degree of aggression inside me and it has to go somewhere.

I’m very happy that Gandu Circus happened in my life. Through Gandu Circus, Neel and the Lightbulbs and the film scores, I’m being able to take out every single bit of frustration or happiness I have inside of me. I’m being able to express whatever I feel through music. Gandu Circus is working on a new album. We have three new songs and we are in the process of recording them.

The chorus from your song Lights and Tunnels (a Neel and the Lightbulbs song) goes: “Light at the end of the tunnel, it’s getting so much brighter, but if you happen to know my luck, it’s probably just a train coming down the track”. That’s bleak...

It is the voice of a musician performing English songs in India. It’s quite frustrating since there’s not much hope but we are happy with whatever little that happens. We want to play a lot and make a dent on festival circuit. If you want to be a musician, you have to do it for the love of music. I am one of the few guys from my generation who is still playing. I write my music as a reflection of the environment I’m living in.

What’s your take on today’s Tolly soundtrack?

Production qualities have improved and composers like Neel Dutt and Anupam Roy are giving films a fresh sound and they are making songs that have good melodies.

Neel’s picks

Composers:

Alexandre Desplat (The Tree of Life), Mike Patton (The Place Beyond The Pines) Trent Reznor (The Social Network)

Movies:

Y Tu Mama Tambien, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, A Separation

Books:

Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore, Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, Howard Marks’s Mr Nice

Drink:

Water!

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