'Zeher,' 'Saiyaara' and More: Mohit Suri Explains How He Uses Music As A Storytelling Tool

For Mohit Suri, music has never been an add-on. It is not something sprinkled over a finished film. He does not use music as garnish, but as screenplay.

Suri traces this belief back to his very first film in Zeher, when he was still figuring out how to tell stories on screen. He recalls writing about a couple going through a rough phase in their relationship, travelling together while working on a case. “It was a simple crime film. But I couldn’t crack it in the script. I was so young, I didn’t know how the actors would carry it,” he says.

Then he found Woh Lamhe Woh Baatein. “That one song over five minutes said so much more than how many scenes I could have written between them. So subtly, but so effectively. That was the eureka moment,” he says.

From then on, music became part of his writing process. “Wherever I get stuck, I realise, okay, this is a song. I actually work on my music while I’m writing the film.” Suri explains. He adds that he does not move ahead in the script until he has at least a scratch version of the song in place. “It’s literally like a scene. It’s part of the writing process. It’s a key thing.”

Ironically, he says, this approach now creates a different kind of problem. “People tell me, make it a little less like a scene and more like a song. But it’s a good problem to have,” he says. 

Suri is also clear about what he does not chase. “I’ve never put pressure on a music director saying, give me a super hit song. I’ve always asked for a song that works for the situation,” he says. He pushes back against the assumption that he goes hunting for chartbusters. “Everyone thinks I do that; I honestly don’t.”

He cites Sun Raha Hai Na Tu from Aashiqui 2 as an example. “People kept saying, why are you talking about a song where someone’s crying and dying? But it just worked for my film,” he recalls. 

The same instinct guided Saiyaara. When he heard a rough version sung by Kashmiri musicians, he knew it belonged in the film, even if others were unsure. “I told the Yash Raj people, this is the song. They probably thought I was mad,” he smiles.