How many of you have heard of the film Kantara, which had released in 2022 and its sequel is yet to be dropped in a few years? Maybe many. A lot has been said about the film’s cinematography, it is definitely an exciting screenplay, a talented camera work and some convincingly put direction, which seems to be the new and futuristic film-making style using tradition as a holding mark. However,many don’t know about the film’s music. Much like the film itself, it was done through Karnataka’s famous instruments, with very little use of EDM and electronic arts. The film was taken in the famous karnataka forests and the composer of the music used very cultural instruments like the Ektara,Kanjiri,tambola,tampuram,pakhawaj and karthal along with the famous flute and violin in a carnatic manner for the OST, it was popular known as the JAANAPADA rendition or the JAANAPADA BAND. The film was made pan-Indian later but its music always remained true to the Karnataka sangeetham. Now, let us focus slightly on the music composing and the works behind the successful album. Usually, music directors prepare the music before the filming, based on the requirements of the director or based on the shooting sequence but Kantara was just magic after the filming. Ajaneesh Lokanath, became popular after the film, for his brilliant use of true art with no western shortcuts. After the film’s shooting, Rishab shetty, the Main character and the director of the film along with Ajanesh Lokanath reached the dense villages of karnataka, where they called for famous musicians there and recorded using a simple microphone and vocal and sound recording system, he recorded bits and pieces of the songs and mixed together with some superb vocals by Sai vignesh, who also became famous after this film, the background essence and the superb Swarangals and the beautiful rendition of the back-vocals made the song Aesthetic to listen and the spiritual essence was very well fitted to each and every scene.The background score as well as some of the Original sound-tracks were made by the music director using both traditional concepts and nature’s aspects, it was revealed that the villagers and instrument players were traditional farmers, who sing these songs to the crops and play these instruments. During the cropping season, the farmers sang and played as a tradition to make them harvested, preparing the crops for the harvesting season. The music director, Ajaneesh was superb in his mixing, it won several awards including the Galata awards in the south and received several acclaims in other parts of the world for not copying the western essence and using the pure Indian sound-tracking. I might neglect a lot of people in what I am about to say, but Indian music doesn’t need to be Pan-world or even Pan-indian for that matter. Certainly not, Indian essence is already well built, we don’t need to use the American film industry to grow, we can certainly take tips but a usual irritation in indian films in the previous generations is that the old tunes and beats that can make the album tremendously outdated, it might have worked two decades ago but now it is all about the real culture and a charismatic styling in each and every sound-track. AR Rahman, Ajaneesh, Sushin Shyam and Anirudh made it possible. It was their effort that made India’s purest beats a world-wide sensation. Rishab and Rajamouli proudly proclaims, “Kannada music or film-making doesn’t need western help or bollywood inspiration, with the release of Kantara and the KGF series, western people need our action and bollywood requires our brain and scripts-styling”
People should now understand that Indian music,culture and films don’t refer to only Bollywood or the north. With the successful Pushpa,Imminent KGF, blockbuster Kantara and the ruling VIKRAM, we can call the south-indian blockbuster, the new era of cinema. The greatest feeling for the producers was the support for kantara was thriving internationally, Rishab thanked the supporters by giving us details that, “ the feeling of home and tradition in music imparts a feeling that says, there is nothing better than our home, our culture, Even the western world understood that.”
With Kantara 2 coming up, we can only expect something a 1000 times better than Kantara 1, Ajaneesh says, “with a very spiritual script, the song lives up to the beat of the film with some spiritual and bone-moving renditions that will truly live up to the expectations”. A certain article and some revealing insider information gives us some exciting talk about the real use of the song, alongside B.Ajannesh Loknath, almost 45 musicians were brought along with him,working day and night in his studio, no matter the language they speak or the culture they follow, they were ready to create what they can best. This is what Rishab calls a success, “ After the release of the film, many were asking for the re-release with many other languages, yes we dubbed the dialogues but the music never, it is truly enjoyable, when it is in Kanada”. We hope to see 1000’s of kantaras popping with a lot of its own culture in India and I hope that at least one will attain the Golden Globes and The oscars. Come on Indian cinema, let us prove that the Nattu Nattu oscar award wasn’t a fluke.