‘Taj Mahal is beautiful and hopefully my music is too’

Some politicians might consider the monument of love a “blot on Indian culture” but Anoushka Shankar couldn’t be happier making her debut as a composer for a film based on the Taj

those films and his teaching is the biggest influence in her life. About her work in the film, she says, “This is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done but tantamount to how much it has been difficult, it has also been rewarding. I had seen the film in its un-restored form and saw the journey of it coming out in all its glory with music being part of it. It’s incredible what we all have achieved. When I first saw the movie a year back, I found it very moving, as I had not seen anything from that time period. I was watching moving images of real people who lived about 100 years ago in the form of epic scenes with huge cast. It’s a piece of our history and it’s lovely to share that again. However, it wasn’t engaging to watch the film without music and I have done the music score to the best of my ability to bring the film back to life.”

She found the whole process very intense as the music was meant to be performed live too. “I had to choose an ensemble with which I will be performing in concerts. My music had to stand alone as well,” she says. “The whole film needed to be filled with music as there are no dialogues. That was quite terrifying. Love, power and destiny are the big themes of the film and I wrote melodies that symbolised those emotions. However, the first performance of playing to a film was very intense, as I couldn’t relax. The film sort of goes ahead without you,” she laughs.