Pushkar Mahabal, who has helmed Black, White & Gray — Love Kills, discusses how music forms the backbone of his crime thriller
Pushkar Mahabal and composer Meghdeep Bose
Writer and director Pushkar Mahabal has a distinct process of crafting a scene. He often imagines the scene’s background music before its other elements. “When I think of a scene, I first hear the background score in my head, and then I think of the visuals. After that, my head is filled with dialogues,” says Mahabal, whose series Black, White & Gray — Love Kills dropped online over the weekend.
His dependence on music is understandable. Before turning to direction, Mahabal was a composer. So, it’s not surprising when he says that even though the SonyLIV offering is a crime thriller, music forms the backbone of the storytelling. He believes that composer Meghdeep Bose’s music played a crucial role in building the atmosphere. He elaborates, “Meghdeep and I are old friends. When I started writing the show, we had long conversations over the kind of music it should have. [After some sessions], he made me hear the title track, which was the first thing we made. He cracked the music completely.”
A still from Black, White & Gray — Love Kills. Pics/AFP, Instagram
The soundscape of the Mayur More, Tigmanshu Dhulia, and Deven Bhojani-starrer leans into retro influences, drawing from early electronic styles. “We had the intention of going slightly retro, so we used the sounds of synths when they came out. I remember sending Meghdeep a soundtrack from YouTube, and asking him which genre it belonged to. He said it was the synth wave.”
The director believes his connection to music has shaped his storytelling from his first film, Welcome Home (2020). A key learning of playing with music, he states, is to know when not to use it. “Music is extremely important to storytelling. The decision of when not to put music is equally important. Whenever a viewer feels the score embedded in a scene is unnecessary, that means the filmmaker is conscious of the scene.”
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