Item numbers and songs made for the market are rubbish

The last time music composer and violinist Ismail Darbar worked on a South Indian film was for the 2003 Telugu movie Vishnu. However, the film didn't do well at the box office and the music didn't work either, so

Ismail

' who rose to fame for his work on

Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam

' maintained he 'wasn't interested' in doing more work down south, mainly because of the language constraints.

But that changed when

Kannada

film director

Indra Babu

approached him to compose the music for the Shivarajkumar-starrer

Santheyalli Nintha Kabira

, which is based on the social reformer Kabir. 'The director's confidence won me over. He told me he had three options for the composer for this film: The first was Ismail Darbar, the second was Ismail Darbar, and the third was Ismail Darbar,' says the National Award-winning composer.

However, there was another problem ' the fact that Ismail doesn't know Kannada. And he's very particular about knowing what the film script is about. 'I work with the character and story in mind. That's why I don't do item numbers and compose songs based on what will work in the market, and all that rubbish,' he says, adding, 'So when I got the narration, there were four of us ' me, Indra, my wife (who knows English) and another lady who knew Hindi and Kannada ' at the session. Indra started telling us the story, but I didn't understand anything. But the two ladies in our group started crying because they got caught up in the emotional aspect of the film. And then when I got to understand why, I developed a connection with the subject.'

Ismail will cherish working on the film because of Indra and the producer

Kumaraswamy Pathikonda

. 'They gave me a print of the film with subtitles so that I could get a feel of the scenes and work on the background score. There was also an instance when I hadn't yet written the music for a song and had to do it in front of the director, the writer

Gopal Vajpayee

and lots of other people in the studio. There was a lot of expectation that day, but it turned out well,' says Ismail.

But most of all, the composer says that what made the experience special was that the film's team stayed true to his vision for the music. 'I've done nine songs for the film, and there wasn't a single time when they wanted another option. This was very special because filmmakers generally do suggest changes. I'm very grateful for their support,' he signs off.