Composer Vishal Khurana has shared the importance of "The Bhagavad Gita Song" in the Sushmita Sen-starrer web series "Aarya".
Composed and produced by Vishal, the song is sung by Siddharth Basrur, Delraaz Bunshah, Anurag Panwar, with a rap portion done by Virti Vaghani.
"The use of the Bhagavad Gita Shlokas is in the climax juxtaposed with the headspace of Aarya who is at crossroads at that point where she is delving with betrayal from her family, and this symbolic use of shlokas with the analogy between Mahabharat and Aarya's character, struggling between her 'Dharam' towards the family and her 'Karam', this was an idea conceived from the very start of the show," Vishal told IANS.
The song is co-produced by Siddhanth Madhvani, who has also played electric guitar, acoustic guitar, charango and steel drums.
"The idea behind the Bhagavad Gita song as a storytelling method was a thematic and conceptual idea very much bound to the journey of Aarya and the characters around her. The philosophy was to portray concepts of Karma and Dharma towards one's family and I feel that comes across during the climax as each person's duty and action unfurls," said Siddhanth.
The family crime-thriller drama's co-creator and co-director Ram Madhvani shared: "The verses of the Bhagavad Gita have been with me as a child. I have been seeing them on my father's bookshelf and then on my father-in-law's bookshelf too. I carry the Gita in my bag and learn more from it every time I re-read it."
He said: "We wanted to create a soundtrack which would suit the storyline as well as be relatable to our audience. Reading about the admiration of the series as well as the praise the song is receiving, makes me feel that the hard work put in by the entire team has paid off."
As for the other songs of the series, Vishal shared: "The entire soundtrack of 'Aarya' is based on an emotion of tragedy and depicts the ominous fear that is always looming around the central characters. The approach to the soundtrack for 'Aarya' was thematic and I have tried to cover a wide variety of musical styles in the different themes, yet staying within the zone of the show, creating a haunting feeling in few themes and also giving a pulse and drive in relevant parts to the narrative. There is also a use of Indian ethnic instruments like the Shehnai and Sarangi that add the rooted and cultural element to the themes, but these sounds have been played around with and distorted to keep it modern and in line with the show's urban tonality."