When he’s not co-producing a Billboard top-chart friendly electronic song like ‘Resistance’ on Nescafe Basement, Jamal Rahman is also running True Brew TV that features artists of all kinds, particularly ones who are not deemed either meritorious enough or popular enough to be invited by other platforms.
In between all this, Jamal Rahman is also a music producer with a strong focus on producing music for films. He’s been involved with Manto, the Sarmad Khoosat film and an online film, Oye Kuch Kar Guzar.
Baaji, Saqib Malik’s upcoming debut feature film, is in some ways, Jamal’s most mainstream project yet. With an all-star cast that features, among others, Meeraji and Amna Ilyas, Instep asked Jamal what he is doing in terms of scoring for the film with such prominent actors to create sound for - as we are learning slowly that background score is as important as the music of any film. It represents the unsaid and helps building the narrative when done right.
Speaking to Instep about Baaji, Jamal explained how he’s creating the score for the film. “I received the film a couple of weeks ago,” began Jamal, and continued, “I’ve been working on it since then.”
Jamal noted further, “I was writing some ideas down, composing things and getting ready to compose but now that the film is here, I am composing one song for it and the background score; just kind of working day and night to make sure… you see it’s the third score I’m doing. The first one was Manto and I was in a very different place and Manto is a very sensitive film. My input in The Reluctant Fundamentalist was more of an engineer so Manto was the first and was about the inner turmoil of the characters on screen.”
“Baaji is a completely different beast; it’s a fast-moving drama, there’s a lot of movement, lots of characters, sort of interweaving plots and things. So, with Manto I wrote a new piece of music for every scene that came out. The first half is different and the second half is different. I enjoy the process of scoring so every time a new character comes onscreen, there is a theme associated to that person.”
Jamal reiterated that though Meeraji is an actor and an individual, the score in Baaji is about her character and not her as a real-life person. “I’m not seeing her onscreen as Meera, I’m seeing her as a character she’s playing. Part of the job is disassociating with the person off-screen for the character onscreen. And read between the lines, all the emotions and exchanges. I’m kind of removed from the things you read about Meera in the media or any of the actors in the film, for that matter. I’m not looking at scoring about their life outside. I’m kind of in the bubble that way.”
Jamal admitted that though he is also doing one song for the soundtrack, he cannot speak about it except to say that it is a rendition of an old song and is a contemporary take on it.
