In the world of cinema, sight often steals the spotlight — the sweeping visuals, the actors’ expressions, the choreography of light and shadow. Yet in A White Horse’s Neigh, director Aneek Chaudhuri has made something far more intangible feel utterly tangible: sound as narrative. The film, poised for a 2026 global release, blends mythology, memory, and mythic longing not just through imagery but through a meticulously crafted acoustic world — one that owes as much to silence and texture as it does to melody.

At its core, A White Horse’s Neigh — an adaptation of Norse myth from an Indian point of view — is a non-linear journey through solitude and memory. Traversing imagined geographies and deep emotional terrains across its 150-minute runtime, the film’s soundscape becomes a co-author of its storytelling, not merely an accompaniment.

This sonic universe owes its depth to two artistes whose crafts are often unseen by audiences: sound designer Arun Rama Varma and composer Alberto Bellavia. Together, they shape an aural architecture that enriches emotion, evokes place, and amplifies theme.

For Aneek Chaudhuri, the conversation around sound in cinema is no longer academic or polite — it is urgent and long overdue. Speaking candidly about A White Horse’s Neigh, the filmmaker refuses to romanticise the neglect faced by sound designers and technicians.

The Sound Sculptor

“Sound is treated like an accessory, something you add at the end. That mindset is fundamentally wrong. Sound is not decoration — sound is cinema. When film critics and audiences debate cinema’s great auteurs, seldom does sound design enter the conversation. Yet the impact of crafted sound on A White Horse’s Neigh is seismic. The film’s ambient whispers, environmental cues, and layered sonic textures were shaped by sound designer Arun Rama Varma, a veteran of many films across multiple languages — a testament to his versatility and depth," said Chaudhuri.

Varma’s filmography spans Indian cinema’s diversity: from critically acclaimed Malayalam films to Hindi projects such as Delhi Belly and the Tamil blockbuster Enthiran. This is his second collaboration with Chaudhuri after The Zebras. His role, however, goes beyond technical execution; it is about shaping how audiences feel every moment they watch.

"In A White Horse’s Neigh, Varma has used sound to ground the ethereal narrative. Horse hooves seem to echo beyond their physical presence. Wind carries whispers that feel like a memory rather than noise. And silence — that hardest of elements — is exactly where the film often breathes. Every rustle of grass or distant breath of wind deepens the film’s mythic world," said Chaudhuri.

The Composer’s Odyssey

Complementing Varma’s sound design is the film’s background score, composed by Italian musician Alberto Bellavia — a distinctive choice that reflects the film’s transnational ambitions. Though based in Italy and known for his contemporary and expressive music work, Bellavia approached this project with an unusual challenge: to integrate elements that resonate with the film’s Indian introspective soul. Though the composer himself is rooted in European classical and contemporary traditions, the result reflects a musical conversation between worlds — a sonic weave that mirrors the film’s cultural and narrative fusion.

"Bellavia, whose work includes scores for films and theatrical productions, has consistently emphasised the visceral power of music — not just to accompany, but to embody emotional truth. In broader conversations about film scoring, composers like him often testify that music must serve not merely as background but as a guide, giving viewers a lens into the characters’ inner lives even when visuals remain oblique. In A White Horse’s Neigh, Bellavia’s score doesn’t just underscore emotion — it shapes it. Percussive patterns resonate like heartbeat echoes. Strings vibrate with longing. Rhythmic pulses carry the cadence of mythic time itself. Through these elements, the music becomes a living presence, breathing with the film’s metaphysical pulse," said Chaudhuri.

Why Sound Still Lacks Its Due

Despite such transformative work, both Chaudhuri and his collaborators have been outspoken about a persistent inequity in how films are discussed and celebrated. In recent conversations, Aneek Chaudhuri insisted that sound design and score are among the most crucial aspects of storytelling — yet they seldom receive recognition commensurate with their impact.

“People talk about cinematography, editing, and performance, and those elements are absolutely vital,” said Chaudhuri. “But imagine a scene without sound. The visuals might be beautiful, but the emotion stays flat. We’ve seen this time and again, not just in A White Horse’s Neigh, but across many films where sound elevates the experience yet remains behind the curtain.”

This observation echoes a long-standing truth in cinema: sound design and music are often invisible to audiences until — and only until — they are absent or poorly done. But when crafted with intention, they become the emotional compass of a film. From the subtlest environmental cue to the full swell of orchestral drama, sound shapes our perception of every cinematic world.

“We live in an image-obsessed culture. But emotion does not come from images alone. Fear, longing, memory, silence — these are sonic experiences. When sound designers don’t get credit, it exposes how shallow our film discourse still is,” Chaudhuri added.

Sound That Illuminates, Not Distracts

Academic studies in film sound theory emphasise that audiences absorb sound subconsciously — it alters perception, memory, and emotional engagement without always registering consciously. In this film, that principle is elevated with precision: sound and music become companions to the viewer’s experience, not mere supplements.

"Professor interviews and film research often point to classical scores like John Williams’ work on Jaws — a rarity where the music is instantly recognisable and central to the film’s identity. Yet for every Williams, there are hundreds of composers and sound designers whose contributions quietly shape how we feel a story. The film’s success is a tapestry woven from many threads. Sound is one of the strongest — yet it’s rarely credited in the same breath as the performances or visuals. What Arun and Alberto have done is not post-production work. It is narrative work. They are not technicians fixing things — they are storytellers building meaning,” said Chaudhuri.

Legacy and Moving Forward

With A White Horse’s Neigh, the hope among its creators is that the film not only resonates emotionally with its audiences but inspires a shift in how global cinema honours its sound architects. "The archives of film history are replete with narratives shaped as much by audio as by image — from the chants in Apocalypse Now to the minimalist soundscapes of modern arthouse. Yet popular discourse rarely gives sound its rightful pedestal. As festivals and awards circuits increasingly recognise excellence in sound, projects like this film might become milestones — not just for the artistic achievements of their directors and actors, but for foregrounding the craft that makes cinema felt as much as seen," said Chaudhuri.

The work of Arun Rama Varma, with his rich body of credits across Indian cinema and beyond, and Alberto Bellavia’s evocative score, offers a powerful reminder: the soul of a film often lives in its aural heartbeat.