OnTheBeatWith | Mithoon: ‘My technical upbringing helps me cast a singer better’

Mithoon was barely out of his teens when he began to work in the Hindi film music industry with Woh Lamhe Woh Baatein ( Zeher ) and Aadat ( Kalyug ) with Atif Aslam in 2005. While his lineage in music (grandson of Pt Ramprasad Sharma, son of musician Naresh Sharma, nephew of Pyarelal of Laxmikant–Pyarelal fame) ensured his exquisite musicianship, it didn’t do much for his career. His first song as solo composer, Bas Ek Pal was sung by the late legend KK . Mithoon’s music and his lyrics along with KK’s vocals made this one hugely popular, and despite the years, the song remains mint fresh after 16 years of its release. When a music composer also writes his songs, it tends to reach another level because he kind of makes the words he has created come alive with the music he puts them to. And the fact that Mithoon wrote songs, composed and also arranged and produced his songs, gave his work a different edge over the years. There is a special thing about Mithoon’s attitude towards music. He’d once told me something that will always stay with me, “When I enter the studio, I go in like a kid who is entering an amusement park. That’s the spirit with which I go to work every day.” ‘Multiple releases in 2022’ At a time when dance songs were popular in films, Mithoon created a Tum Hi Ho (Aashiqui 2). This love anthem that he wrote and composed was the reason people really noticed this talented composer-songwriter, and his career catapulted. And in 2022 he has back-to-back releases and all are big films - ‘ Khuda Hafiz 2 ’, ‘ HIT: The First Case ’, ‘ Shamshera ’, ‘ Ek Villain Returns ’ and ‘ Gadar 2: The Katha Continues ’. Recently, two of his songs, from two very different films, two different production houses, both distinct genres, released on the same day – and interestingly both have done well so far – whether it’s the charts, the numbers or the sheer love from fans. “I hadn’t planned any of this. I have been working on Shamshera for long, and it’s a full score that I have done for this film - all the songs and the background score as well. Being a period film set in the 1800 it was quite a creative process and I collaborated with Karan Malhotra . This is my first with Yashraj Films. Around a month or so ago, the makers of HIT: The First Case approached me with this Rajkummar Rao and Sanya Malhotra film. Bhushan Kumar Ji wanted a song in my space. It is something that I share with Arijit Singh and Sayeed Quadri - he wanted a love song in that zone because the film is very realistic in nature and Rajkummar is playing a police officer. So I met the director Sailesh Kolanu. He gave me the background of the story and I jammed with Arijit who had just returned from his US tour and had come to see me. So the song just blossomed together. It just feels so very good as an artiste and not just about the numbers, to see the songs do so well. Just to put out in the universe what you feel and to get so much love - it was just very special for me.”

‘The first time I realised that I was part of a hit song’ When Mithoon’s initial songs with Atif Aslam were released in 2005 he was a newbie. It was almost two decades ago. He was sitting on his sofa in his living room and there was an auto that passed below his building and he heard the lines of his song blaring loudly from that auto rickshaw. He shares, “I have a very distinct memory of this. It was the first time I heard my song playing back to me from a public area. It was an extremely fulfilling moment for me. Believe me that feeling was beyond numbers and beyond all the million views that we keep talking about today.” ‘I knew that the voice of Tum Hi Ho could only be Arijit, no one else’ In 2013 with the release of the musical  _Aashiqui 2_ , Hindi film music history was rewritten. Mithoon swept up most awards that year and the songs for the film became a superhit. This album saw the birth of one of the most magical jodis of the music world – that of Mithoon-Arijit. Talking to us about the cult hit Tum Hi Ho, Mithoon says, “Mohit Suri and Mukesh Bhatt were looking for the voice of Aashiqui 2 and they actually even ran a public contest to find the right singer for the voice of the protagonist. While the process was going on, in my spirit I was extremely clear that the voice of Tum Hi Ho could only be Arijit, no one else. Not that I imposed my choice on them but I just had the confidence on Arijit and on my melody put together. When I played the Tum Hi Ho track to Mohit Suri, it was already recorded in Arijit’s voice. The first thing he asked me was ‘who is the singer?’. And I said that the singer’s name is Arijit Singh and Mohit said, ‘This is bang on. I want him for all the songs in the soundtrack’. And that was a very fulfilling moment for me because creativity won at that moment.” ‘I have always had the confidence on Arijit and my melody put together’ Arijit and Mithoon go back to 2006. “We literally started our careers together. He just came out of television that time and he was looking for work to do in the fraternity. I had just done Bas Ek Pal at that point in time. We happened to meet through a common label that we both were in touch with. I met him at my studio one day in 2006. On a creative level we immediately connected. Both of us speak very little so we have never really been socialites and even today we speak very less but when the music comes out it’s just so beautiful.” Arijit has a deep interest in sound engineering and production and that definitely helped a lot. Talking about him, Mithoon says, “He has really worked on himself. I always tell a lot of aspiring singers that everybody can see his success but not many people know the amount of effort Arijit has put in with so many years of training, practice and perseverance. I think for him it worked magically and even today he is always excited about music production and sound design. For some people it works, while there are some singers who do not really connect at all with this. Ultimately it comes to the composer’s vision of the song that is the most important thing. If the singer can understand what the composer wants and drenches himself in those waters, that is when the result comes out to be perfect.”

‘My technical upbringing helps me cast a singer better’ When casting a singer, Mithoon follows a system of his own and he always has a very clear vision about what he is looking for when he casts a singer. “It is all based on technicalities that I have learnt as a musician. There is something called range, something called register, there are different singers who sound different in different keys. If you’re doing a song in G-Minor and you cast a singer and you train the singer but the singer’s voice on G-Minor might not sound the same in that particular key. These aspects are something that I really pay attention to when I cast a singer and that really eliminates a lot of trial and error for me because my technical upbringing helps me to cast very close before I call somebody. That makes it a lot simpler for me but that said and done, it has happened to me also that I have recorded an artiste and I haven’t got what I wanted. Not because the singer did not perform - it’s never that. Sometimes that the vision of the composer just does not match the singer’s voice and the song does not go where it is supposed to.”  He explains, “Sometimes it is an issue of lip sync. In one of the songs I was doing in Shamshera I had to change the singer at the last minute because on-screen the voice was not suiting Ranbir as much. So I think it is a very justified reason, a very dignified and technical reason to change a singer. I don’t believe in experimenting with many singers but these things do happen and I just make it a point that I inform my artiste that it is not working out. That is the best I can do, because I love and respect all the artistes.” ‘I have a very good work rapport with Shilpa Rao’ Mithoon’s ability to cast singers and his vision of the voice he wants for a particular song goes a long way back. In 2007, he was looking for a voice for the movie Anwar. Singer Shilpa Rao had reached out to him through a common friend and they met at Mithoon’s studio for the first time. “She entered the studio and I saw this very gentle, polite, extremely well-mannered person. At that time I was looking for a slightly dominating voice, but I thought let’s see how this meeting goes. And then Shilpa took the harmonium (she plays the harmonium really well) and sang something. It sounded so powerful and so beautiful that there itself I knew that this was the voice I wanted for Tose Naina Lage. I immediately told her that we have to record a song and within the next 48 hours I called her and we recorded. I was a new composer that time, very fresh but I was still very clear that these are my singers, this is my song and this is how it is going to be. I have a very good work rapport with Shilpa even today.” ‘I don’t believe in the North and South divide at all, we are one people’ Mithoon has a repertoire of songs that is varied and genre bending with Darkhast, Tujhe Kitna Chahne Lage, Bas Ek Pal, Maula Mere Maula Mere, Tose Naina Lage, Ji Huzoor, Kitni Haseen Hogi and so many others. His recent Shamshera songs have had a simultaneous release in Tamil and Telugu along with Hindi. “I’m getting a lot of love for Tamil and Telugu songs as well. I just want to give my love to my listeners in the South as well. There is an entire conversation about the North and South going on right now. But I don’t believe in the divide at all. We are one people and we all have to come together and let the creativity flow from every part of the country. Today people are talking about the South, but tomorrow even Eastern cinema, cinema from Rajasthan and other parts of the country should also grow and will strengthen the entire creative movement of the country.” Debarati S Sen is a consultant journalist and writer who writes on music, culture, theatre, films, OTT and more. Instagram: @DebaratiSSen Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.