The sound of furtive distance

“A hybrid of different musical influences”. Welcome to Distance, Dhruv Ghanekar’s debut solo album. “The album’s a journey of a musician. This is a culmination of 18-20 years of my life with jazz specifically jazz harmony. I grew up listening to a lot of hindustani classicals and a lot of R.D. Burman and while Indian music has a strong melodic tune, it lacks a certain harmony that jazz has. For me jazz has a very deep and natural extension to the environment its been played in and the album is an organic blending of the harmonic complexity of jazz. Jazz has the highest form of complexity and it just turned me on,” says Dhruv with reverence.
With that very “organic” blend of jazz, classical and world music, it has taken the talented musician almost five years and a journey across the world that has culminated to collaborations with numerous other talents, some of which transpired into music in the album. “Music is a team sport. Certain things you create in isolation but, magic can happen when you come together with other musicians. Especially with jazz, it’s completely essential. Composition can be created in ways that sound can never be created without,” he says. A pool of the collaboration include Joey Heredia, The Ploctones, Husain Jiffry, Carl Clements, Ashwin Shrinivas flute and Nicoli Freisman.
Besides being one of the founding partners of Blue Frog Productions that seems to have revived if not unearthed the live music scene and brilliant artistes — local and international — and bringing in a new dawn for a mass of music lovers, Dhruv has also composed music for over 3,000 commercials, several feature films and music for television. “My commercial commitments put my album on hold for a while. I had to complete all of them and get it out of my system to mentally get into my music. Drona took a really long time, and while it was scheduled to be released last year, I decided to launch the other artistes signed on with us before bringing my own,” he says in a rather exasperated tone.
While the alumnus of the Berkelee School of Music believes that “there should be more Blue Frogs in the country”, he is still wary about the the “unigue” mainsteam music in India that solely piggy-backs on Bollywood. “We need to create something new rather than emulate others. We need to take our unique creations to the world rather than ride on the wave of the Justin Timberlakes and Britney Spears of the world. Unique, talented artists are at most times a product of the underground. While I live on both side, I always try and bring mainstream values like marketing concepts into the underground scene,” Dhruv says.
And his music? “It’s a niche within a niche,” he states.
And yet as a musician, producer and businessman, the man doesn’t seem to fazed by apprehension that the economic slowdown might do anything to album sales as he puts it, “I don’t think it would really affect the music. Of course the business aspect of it — lesser artist, lesser commercials etc., — no doubt, but I’m not worried really.” A captivating album ain’t that far away. Distance is available for Rs 200 at Blue Frog Records.

Keep off the celluloid

With the international film awards season kicking off with subtle surprises and some obvious ones, predictions are on with writers, bloggers and the works throwing in their two cent worth. While Danny Boyle’s Slum dog millionaire — an adaptation of Vikas Swarup’s bestselling novel Q & A — is winning its way to the critics good books, closer home international media giants are taking a keen interest in producing films in India. Close on these tracks, Mosaic Media Group — the producer of blockbuster international hits Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Talladega Nights, Get Smart etc. — will be collaborating with Ben Rekhi, the 29-year-old whiz-kid producer-director of cult, independent Hollywood hits, Waterborne and Bomb the System to bring Karan Bajaj’s best-selling novel, Keep Off the Grass to the big screen. “Like thousands of other readers, I was immediately hooked on to Karan’s story and his distinctive literary voice. Being of Indian descent and moving to India to work, I instantly connected with his characters and internal monologue. My dad was an IITian and the mix of campus life coupled with a spiritual journey was a fascinating juxtaposition. I have yet to see a film like this in Hindi cinema, and for me it is exactly the type of story I want to tell,” says Ben on taking the book to the celluloid.
And just as we have learnt with Chetan Bhagat’s One Night at the Call Centre (Hello) and wait with bated breath for another of his book adaptation Three Idiots, an author must surely be apprehensive about the portrayal of his word onto live images. But with Karan, the confidence and faith might just get the better of him as he says, “I have a sneaking suspicion that the film will be way better than the book. This is because I have met the Ben (director) in person and his vision for the book is extraordinary. I almost wished I had met him while writing the book since I would have added some scenes in the book!”
And the admirations is somehow mutual. “Karan has a hilarious way of building anxiety and doubt internally that will have to play out externally on screen. For example, the way each chapter ends with the title of the next chapter - this is a tool that I want to build into the film version in a new way. In any adaptation, things will condense, change, and evolve from book to screen. Even if the details change, my goal is to retain the heart of the story. The trick of any work of storytelling is nailing the tone,” says Ben.
While Karan’s book was launched, he had said that ideally he would just sign the film and have no desire to be personally involved in any capacity with the film. Changed his mind ever since? “A little bit! I am helping the director with the screenplay a bit since he is making some major changes. But on the whole, I am not very involved with it. It’s a different medium and I will let the experts do their job without meddling in it,” says Karan. While he may be leaving it to the experts, Ben might just be swinging from his take on the book to a more stringent approach to adapting it. “It is too early to talk about what will come out of an adaptation. The ideas are still forming as we speak. The only thing I would say is that I see a lot of Fight Club angst in it, mixed with Good Will Hunting friendship and mentorship, splashed in with the Motorcycle Diaries road journey to spirituality. If people recognise these films as influences in our final movie, then we will have done our job,” says Ben.
Keeping in mind the sensibilities of the writer, Ben adds, “Everything is a challenge when you set out to make a film. One of the major challenges is making the conflict more immediate and external, whereas the book has an existential philosophy to it. The surrealism to me is very real — we all have our own notions and daydreams of the way we interpret the world around us. This is what gives the book unique character, and what hopefully will set the film apart from other movies.”
While Ben’s choice of actor ranges from Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire to Irrfan Khan, if they sky is the limit he'd “love to see Abhishek as a college student”. “After I saw Guru I said to myself, ‘this guy is the real deal’. Given the right roles, he can knock it out of the park. But first things first, let’s get the script ready,” he says. But the range ends someplace else for Karan. “:I think a younger Rahul Bose would have been great. Maybe Abhay Deol since I really liked him in Manorama Six Feet Under.” Says Karan. And just how is the cult of the overpaid, under-worked manager coming along so far? “With the job market and the recession the way it is, it is probably going to be the unpaid, unemployed manager!” Karan says. As he wraps up his second novel which isn’t “a sequel to my first, or has anything to do with the first” let the hilarious journey of Keep Off the Grass capture the sentiment of the new Indian youth.

Keep off the grass, step on the screen