Little things, big results

Five years since he first composed the soundtrack of Little Things, Neel Adhikari — who subsequently crafted a name for himself in the industry — on the forthcoming leg

In a span of 20 minutes, Neel Adhikari discusses everything — right from the perks of living in a city that’s home to a sea, to the beauty of the scores of Wes Anderson’s films, and  even the parallels between Bombay and New York. It’s easy to see that he romanticise situations, a tendency that, he says, enables him to do justice to his craft. “You need to be a sensitive person to emote what the characters wish to, even in the absence of dialogues. If there’s an uncomfortable situation in a show, a music composer will score from that perspective,” says the score composer of Mithila Palkar-starrer Little Things.

A little over five years ago, Adhikari made his way to Mumbai from Calcutta with his wife and year-old son, to compose the score of season one. Scoring for the first edition of Little Things — also based on an ambitious couple’s desire to make a life in the city of Mumbai — was aligned with his own journey, at the time. Producing a score, he says, “doesn’t happen in any one defined way”. “Many sections of the music were things that I had composed a while ago, and they fit hand-in-glove with the visuals when we paired them. When you aren’t composing for a scene or a show, you are not constrained. When you compose for nothing, that, according to me, would be the highest grade of material one can create.  You can bend it to suit the narrative eventually. On other occasions, you must approach scenes intellectually. Aspects like opposite-scoring, where you incorporate slow scores in fast-paced scenes to make them unpredictable, are tools that can be employed. This ups the production value, if done successfully.”

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The upcoming season of Little Things will be its fourth

Adhikari believes an antagonistic approach makes certain scenes more pronounced. “Moving from fast [tunes] to slower notes, and from highs to lows, enhance situations. For instance, if there is an upcoming melancholic situation, you can make it [more impactful] by making the preceding  score joyous.”

An array of instruments, including strings, like electric and acoustic guitars, dotara, piano, and ukulele are among those he frequently employs. “Brought together, they can sound really nice. For instance, in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, [the composer] worked with a [bunch] of string instruments in an orchestra. It led to the making of an organic and arousing sound. That worked for Little Things too, but since this film is contemporary, it couldn’t sound like a classic.”

For Adhikari, the aim was to “make Bombay look like New York”. Having noticed several parallels between the cities, he says both “bustling commercial cities are buzzing with activity”. “A city’s geographical location plays a vital role in [establishing its vibe]. Those situated near water bodies carry magic in the air.”

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