Composer Midhun Mukundan presents Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana’s haunting track Demon in Me

When the trailer of actor-filmmaker Raj B Shetty’s Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana was released on October 15, the intense visuals in his underworld tale were widely appreciated. But one thing that pretty much everyone noted was just how hauntingly apt the accompanying music in the trailer was. In fact, after the trailer was launched, the team, especially music director Midhun Mukundan, was besieged with messages about the track, which was widely believed to be an existing number. “Yes, I got a lot of queries about the name of the track and artiste, as audiences thought it was a song by an independent musician. It took me a while to convince them that it is actually an original composition,” says Midhun, who is now presenting a lyrical video of the song for the benefit of those who liked it. “I also got questions if the trailer was cut according to the song. It was actually the other way around; the trailer was ready and the song was composed for every frame. Some of the instruments used are in sync with what is happening on screen. It was a one-off experience, but it was great fun,” he adds.

Called Demon in Me, the trailer track was not part of the original music album, says Midhun. Raj’s brief to him was to have a song that was in complete contrast to the visuals in the trailer. “I had no idea that he was cutting a trailer at that point of time. We were working on the score, and were constantly in touch, but then, one day he just called me randomly and told me about a particular piece of music that he heard in a commercial. He was looking for music to cut the trailer accordingly, for which that jingle seemed to work. He then sent me his rough cut with these rugged, dark and violent scenes and a deceivingly cute song; the contrast was very stark in that version. I really loved the idea and started working on it. I used the rhythm to which he cut the trailer, which he based on that earlier piece of music and then I went ahead and did my idea,” explains Midhun.

The composer then told Raj it would be better to have a song, and an English one at that, instead of just music. I wanted it to sound like an authentic pop single and yet have a cinematic quality to it. I had phrase playing in my head as I was watching the trailer – ‘Monster in me’ – which I thought captured Shiva’s character perfectly. My idea was to play on ‘Don’t unleash the monster on me’, so we took that forward and decided it had to be in a female voice, which gives it an even better contrast, since there are no women at all in the trailer. We then brought in Manek Dsilva to write the lyrics. I told him my idea, as well as a basic gist of the film and he came up with these absolute gems; I really can’t believe how perfectly he captured the essence of GGVV, without even seeing a single shot,” adds Midhun.

Thereafter, it was about finding the right voices for the song. Yes, voices; Demon in Me features Anjali Sankaran and Rakshitha Rao. “It was meant to be that you don’t easily realize there are two voices. But if you give it a closer listen with headphones, it will be more distinguishable. Anjali has a true fire element in her voice, while Rakshitha added certain layers with her husky voice, which give it an almost creepy vibe. And that’s how the song came together. And although this was not a song that was planned at the start, we will include it in the final album,” Midhun signs off.