‘Monica, O My Darling’ composer Achint Thakkar: There’s nothing like making music to your own narrative

Achint Thakkar speaks about the music in film, his journey since he composed for ‘Scam 1992,’ and more

Achint Thakkar’s theme song of Scam 1992 currently sits at around 26 million views on YouTube. After successfully creating music for two web series — Scam 1992 and Rocket Boys — Thakkar is set for the release of Monica O My Darling, the Netflix film starring Rajkummar Rao, Huma Qureshi and Radhika Apte.

In a chat with Achint, he speaks about the experience of creating music inspired by the 70s, his journey in the music industry, and more.

‘Monica O My Darling’ is different from your other projects in terms of it being a full-blown Bollywood film. Did that make a difference to how you approached it as a composer?

Yes, it did. Monica Oh My Darling is a full-on old-school Bollywood subject. I’m a 90s kid, so though I was not there in the 70s and 80s. But the 90s had people like Jatin Lalit and Nadeem Shravan, who were carrying on the music of Pancham da (R. D. Burman), Kalyanji, Anandji, and Lakshmikant Pyarelal. That’s the music I grew up on. I’m a big fan of old, vintage music, but for this project, I had to actually study it.

What can you tell us about the musical landscape of the project?

The musical landscape is inspired by the 70s. The kind of music that Pancham da, Kalyanji, Anandji, Shankar Jai Kishan, and S.D. Burman used to make. It is in that zone; that sensibility of what film music used to be. We tried to incorporate that throughout the film. A lot of songs melt into the background score as well.

So you had to go back for over four decades. What did that process look like?