Goa: At the Lata Mangeshkar Talk during IFFI 2025 in Goa, filmmaker and composer Vishal Bhardwaj affirmed that songs and dance will never fade from Indian cinema. Despite OTT trends reducing musical sequences, he said music is rooted in India’s folk culture and storytelling tradition. Bhardwaj added that “singing and dancing around the tree” will remain a vital cinematic narrative element.
Lata Mangeshkar was not just a singer; she was also a composer in her own right and remembered every note that she sang in a single take. Her instinctive perfection, while also suggesting adjustments in the tune, reminded Vishal of the song “pani pani re”. He cited how the trickle of water influenced his composition. About the spiritual influence on music, his philosophical reply was, “The closest we come to silence is music. While composing music, a tune arrives from somewhere; it’s a divine force.”
Vishal recalled his challenges in composing music for the language he did not fully know while working for Malayalam writers O. N. V. Kurup and M T Vasudevan Nair, and discovered the intricate interplay between language and music.
He described Kantara’s music as one of the finest themes composed in recent times and praised its young composer, Ajaneesh Loknath. Ajaneesh Loknath, composer of Kantara, said creativity just happened. The insane pressure of composing for the film Varaharoopam in 20 days before Kantara’s release was an experience, he recounted.
Ajaneesh said the impact of AI on lyrics and the future of Indian music will have its uses, to which Vishal said there was no need to panic. Technology evolves, and we will learn what to keep and what to discard. He said Kantara relied on folk music and almost on tribal instruments, especially the Kodaga community (in Karnataka), which communicated through unique dhol patterns. He said he was influenced by Vishal’s work and hummed the “chappa chappa ” tune from the film “Maachis”.
Filmmaker Ravi Kottarakara introduced Vishal and Ajaneesh, and critic Sudhir Sreenivasan moderated this memorial. Though there was little time to discuss the vast subject “The Rhythms of India: From the Himalayas to Deccan”, the musical talk was emotional and interesting.
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