Pyarelal makes a comeback with a retro number composed for Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om

Pyarelal Sharma of the famous Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo is back to film music direction. Or so one may think, courtesy the buzz around his composing music for a song in Farah Khan’s forthcoming film Om Shanti Om.

“Farah wanted me to do three songs, but I insisted on doing just one,” he says, adding, “I had initially refused her as I had gone a bit low on doing film music post Deewane Mastane (2004) but my daughter convinced me.” Farah’s only brief to Pyarelal was that she wanted the typical LP style of music from the ’70s to go with the flashback track in the film that revolves around reincarnation.

What’s the LP style of music one may wonder and he says after a long pause, “That’s for the music lovers and critics to decide but I think it’s something jo purana hote huye bhi fresh ho…”. And LP style makes use of a 150-plus orchestra, a rarity in today’s age of digital recordings. “Nobody works with an orchestra these days but Farah readily accepted my request to recording the song with an orchestra.

Moreover, unlike today’s music directors, I still work from home. So we had two rehearsals at home followed by one in Yashraj Studio and were done with the song in three days. It’s written by Javed Akhtar,” he says. “I am quite keen on seeing how it looks on the big screen,” he says.

Does that mean we will get to hear more of him? He adds, “I come from an era where music directors didn’t just chat up directors asking for work. Though we too had our share of struggles, but now I am well past that stage. I would like to work with directors with an ear for music like Farah, with whom I wouldn’t mind doing an entire film in the future.”

Pyarelal is also all praise for Om Shanti Om’s music director Vishal and Shekhar. “They are well behaved and are good at soft music.”

But it’s really a tough call to get him to pick a favourite film score from recent compositions. “I think the last film score that appealed to me in its entirety was AR Rahman’s Roja.” As of now, Pyarelal is gearing up to compose symphonies with the Royal Philharmonia Orchestra for the Royal Festival in London next year. Life indeed has come a full circle for him.

PiyushRoy, ExpressIndia