MUMBAI: In an age and time where Bollywood has moved towards digital, in respect to creating music there is someone who wants to stay close to the Indian roots. This man is none other than ‘Commando: A One Man Army’ and ‘Commando 2: The Black Money Trail’ music composer Mannan Shaah.

Shaah is known for using Indian musical instruments and recording live musical instruments for his compositions. In fact, he recorded Chennai Strings, a 16-piece symphony orchestra for one of ‘Commando 2’ tracks and he wishes to record with a 72-peiece orchestra. “Live instruments create grandeur for your songs,” stated the composer who is currently learning the Taar Shehnai, an instrument created by combing the Dilruba and Sarangi.

Also Read: Live musical instruments increase the value of a song: Mannan Shaah

Taar Shehani is an instrument created by Shaah’s late guru Pt. Vinayak Vora, who passed away in 2006. Post his demise Shaah felt the need to learn the instrument. “I trained under Panditji for 11 years. He taught me classical music, but I never had the opportunity to learn the Taar Shehnai from him. I have been learning Taar Shehnai for two years now. It is a popular Indian classical instrument that was played in old films. In today’s films it’s not a regular. But, the instrument is widely used in Punjab and Kolkata. You will find a lot of Taar Shehani players there,” stated the music composer who wishes to use the instrument in one of his film songs.

He further added, “I would like to modify the nuances of the instrument for my film music.”

Furthermore, the music composer wanted to use an authentic Taar Shehnai piece hence; he turned to Pt. Vinayak Vora’s family for the instrument. “There were around 20 to 25 pieces of the instrument. Some of them were in good condition, but some needed repair work. So, I took a few as they are a musical treasure,” pointed out the composer.

Talking about the boom of digitalisation in the music industry he stated, “I believe in using the digital instruments in the right way. Plus digital is great because you can have multiple retakes and then select the best. It is indeed a boom in the world of recording art.”

Shaah’s next film will be directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah and Javed Akhtar will be penning its lyrics. “It’s a great honour to work with Javed Saab. His spirit of work is great and he is so, young at heart,” expressed an overjoyed Shaah who will give music to the entire album of this untitled film.

Apart from using the Taar Shehnai, Shaah wants to use the Santoor in his film music. “I hardly see the instrument being used in films. I would like to make proper use of Santoor. One can use it to bring in a semi-classical element,” ended Shaah.