Mithoon replaces Himesh for <i>Train</i>

By: Joginder Tuteja, IndiaFM

Monday, October 16, 2006

21 year old Mithoon has replaced Himesh Reshammiya as a sole composer for Raksha Mistry - Hasnain Hyderabadwala film Train. Produced by Aksar producers Shyam and Narendra Bajaj, the film stars Emraan Hashmi in the lead along with Geeta Basra and India's entry for Miss World 2005 - Sayali Bhagat.

Over to Raksha Mistry to know what exactly transpired? "It's hardly controversial dear", she says sans any tone of remorse, "Himesh was trying his level best to arrive at the film's music but he has been keeping extremely busy and has just been out of his over commitments. His coming days are extremely hectic too with so many things happening in his life. He is coming as a hero in a film which is keeping him quite tied up."

Hasn't that resulted in her movie suffering, especially with more than 50% of the film being shot? "But then it won't be fair on our part too to make him complete his work in quick time if we all are working in strict timelines", she defends.

"This is when we thought of Mithoon, whose songs we heard in 'Bas Ek Pal'. 'Tere Bin' has been an unbelievable composition and we had been hearing great things about him even before the album's release. He had worked with Mukesh Bhatt earlier for 'Zeher' and 'Kalyug' and Bhatt saab was clear in saying that if you want something new in your film, remember that Mithoon is just round the corner. We always remembered that and hence offered the film to Mithoon as soon as we realized that Himesh won't be able to accommodate the project", she explains.

But what happens to the ever successful Emraan-Reshammiya 'jodi'? "That's true, we do regret not having the superhit team of Aksar together [Bajajs, Hashmi and Reshammiya], but we are hoping that we are able to do that some other time", she says. "See, let's not really accuse Himesh here since he hadn't signed the film in the first place. Yes, it was a verbal commitment and that too coming from the fact that he had worked with almost all Bajaj films in last 5-6 years and hence out of goodwill, it was expected that he would be a part of Train too. But then in this case, poor chap is genuinely very busy."

"Good part is that it was only 20 odd days back when Mithoon was intimated about the project and though he is concentrating hard to arrive at the soundtrack, he has given us two songs already that were so crucial for the Bangkok shoot. While one song is for the film's climax, another is a part of the background score", she says gleefully while shifting topic to Mithoon.

And has Mithoon lived up the expectations? "Oh, very much. We really love his work and it is heartening to see that the young boy is so focused. He has so much in him to be explored. We have 6 songs in the film and for the remaining 4 he has understood the situation and would give them to us once we return from Bangkok. He is truly in swing of things already!", she says excitedly as she lauds the boy.

Now since Mithoon has come in place of Reshammiya, how different would the songs sound? "See, we loved the songs in 'Woh Lamhe'. It had one of those emotional soundtracks that haunts you for long. For a film like Train too we wanted songs belonging to a similar class and feel. Well, even if Himesh would have done the score, we would have asked him to create something unusual, something different from what we have heard of him in last 1 year or so. There wasn't a place for any 'jhichaak' score that he is so famous for. In fact even tough the team would have been same as Aksar, we were not looking at a score like that with only one club number. Remaining tracks in the film are meant to be more melodious. Something which is Sufi, something which is Oriental since the film has a substantial portion in Bangkok, something that comes across as world music! We are sure Mithoon would give us all what we want", she explains in a single breath.

With an 'emotional' subject like Train, who is the person behind all the writing? "Sayeed Quadri", pat comes the reply, "He is such a darling? You won't believe me but he is so very cheerful, humorous and jolly in real life. Why do I say that? Because if one looks at his writing, it has so much of depth with most of it being sheer poetry about love, emotions and relationships."

So how is the film shaping up? "As I said, we are already through with more than 50% of the shoot and leave for Bangkok tonight. We would be back by end of November and after about a couple of days shooting in Mumbai for the climax, the film would be complete. While Emraan is already a seasoned performer now, Geeta has definitely improved further in her second film. Sayali Bhagat is a sweetheart too and has a meaty role that would get her noticed. About the film, if you see a title like Train, it conveys a lot of things. It says that if unfortunately some things get screwed up in your life, you may tend to fall off the tracks. But later becomes even more difficult to get back on the 'patri', howsoever harder you may try", she says before signing off.