Mat Kilau - the musical journey of Santosh Logandran
Given the furore over the film Mat Kilau’s portrayal of minorities, it is a surprise that not only were several non-Malays involved in work behind the scene, but the music director responsible for the soundtrack was an Indian Malaysian, Santosh Longandran.
The soundtrack album for Mat Kilau, which is distributed by Nadir Studios, has 13 original tracks from the film and is now available on major streaming platforms, including Spotify.
Before Mat Kilau, Santosh, 30, had already made a name for himself as a sound designer for films such as...
Given the furore over the film Mat Kilau’s portrayal of minorities, it is a surprise that not only were several non-Malays involved in work behind the scene, but the music director responsible for the soundtrack was an Indian Malaysian, Santosh Longandran.
The soundtrack album for Mat Kilau, which is distributed by Nadir Studios, has 13 original tracks from the film and is now available on major streaming platforms, including Spotify.
Before Mat Kilau, Santosh, 30, had already made a name for himself as a sound designer for films such as Abang Long Fail 2 (2017), a sound effects editor for KL Special Force (2018) and a sound designer for The Garden of Evening Mists (2019).
In an interview with Malaysiakini, Santosh said that he started as a sound designer and pursued his passion for music on the side.
But before the pandemic hit, Santosh left the studio he worked for to concentrate on his music career full-time.
“When Covid-19 hit, I decided to return to the studio and focus more on music.”
Santosh said doing sound design was a way to pay the rent, but music was always his premier passion.
Santosh’s solo project as a musician is In Pursuit of Santosham (happiness), an album he released in 2020.
“I am also a part of a band called Nadir, and we released an album called Synesthesia (2018). I was also with another band Swarasia, which is a traditional fusion band. The debut album is called Suara Asia.”
Taking a big leap
Santosh’s first foray into scoring music for a film was for an Argentinian horror film, Sagre Vurdalak (2020). He has since been busy doing the film score for the local film Rasuk which will be released in theatres soon, as well as the upcoming Don Dukun.
He has also composed the score for the TV series Histeria; and the animated series Astrology, in which he provides the voice of the character Taurus.
“I have been trying to be as creative as I can as I want to pursue composing music scores further,” explained Santosh.
“Right before the pandemic, I took a big leap and decided to focus on my music. I took the solo artists route, and when I released my album, I was quite excited.
“I was working towards organising concerts. I have friends who are concert organisers. I was trying to work things out when the pandemic hit. I was quite lost for about three months.”
That is when a friend came to him with Sagre Vurdalak, the Argentinian movie.
“It was a collaboration with One Way Media in Singapore and Aramis Films from Argentina. They won a grant from the Singapore government.
“They were looking for a sound team during the pandemic. It was basically through word of mouth, a guy called Leon Tan (head of Content Production/VP of Astro Productions Sdn Bhd) hooked me up. I have him to thank for.”
On how he landed the job of composing the soundtrack for Mat Kilau, Santosh said, “Mat Kilau was a hustle. They were initially going to use library music for the film.”
According to Santosh, there are many music libraries available. He was initially approached to edit some of this archived music for Mat Kilau.
“So I said since you are going to pay so much for library music, why not just let me compose the music? So basically, I hustled my way through it,’ laughed Santosh.
Getting the sound correct
The writer naturally brought up the race-related controversy surrounding the movie, from its producer to the perceived negative portrayal of non-Malays.
“I have no power over the storytelling part of the movie.
“But I was given a good amount of freedom to create what the director wanted in terms of the music score. The film score wasn’t entirely by me. There was also existing library music that he liked, and so we kept that.
“In terms of library music and original music, I would say the ratio was 70 percent my music and 30 percent library music,” said Santosh.
He collaborated with Mohd Hisharudy Mahmud, a traditional musician who plays the serunai (traditional flute), string instrument rebab and gendang melayu (traditional drum) for the film.
“I am a classical musician, and so I take classical and folk music very seriously. So I made sure I got the correct sound for the correct state.
“Different states have different styles and different musical accompaniments. In the state Mat Kilau is from (Pahang), the erunai plays a lead part in driving the silat performances. The same goes with the rebab, which is a string instrument.”
Serunai music is used as the character Mat Kilau’s signature theme music.
He and Hisharudy worked over a period of two days, and the end result is something Santosh says he is very proud of.
Budget limitations
Music is in Santosh’s blood. His father sings regularly at temples, and Santosh himself took up classical south Indian Carnatic music.
“After high school, I learned tabla from Prakash Kandasamy, who is now my bandmate.”
“I always knew I wanted to make music, and so I picked up a lot of things on my own. I picked up different styles, and I listened to a lot of music. After the pandemic, I have a more wholesome view of music. “
“I must say I was not prepared for Mat Kilau. I was not trained to compose film scores. I was trained as a sound engineer. I feel I have matured after Mat Kilau,” said Santosh.
Original film soundtrack albums are not common in locally produced films, and Santosh said he felt he still had a lot to learn when it came to his film score work for Mat Kilau.
“It is not that our country doesn’t appreciate music. There are directors like James Lee and Syamsul Yusuf who appreciate music a lot. The problem, I think, is budget, and directors have no choice but to work with people they can afford to hire. I think it is slowly changing.”
“I planned not just to release the music of Mat Kilau but also to get a viral audience. This is the highest-grossing film in the country, and I thought I could leverage that,” Santosh said.
Inspirations
His favourite film score composers include Academy Award and Grammy winner Ludwig Goransson, who is behind the soundtrack for Black Panther and Creed.
“He does a lot of interesting things by combining orchestral music with hip hop, electronica. He brings multiple genres together. This is what I am interested in doing,” he said.
Santosh is also a big fan of legendary composer and film score extraordinaire Hans Zimmer (Dune, Gladiator).
“He is a very good sound designer. He is not only using music but so many layers of sound ambience to create emotions,” he said.
That said, it was probably Tamil composer and Academy Award winner (Best Original Score and Best Original Song for Slumdog Millionaire) AR Rahman that attracted Santosh to make film music in the first place.
Right now, he is concentrating on upcoming live shows.
“Social media is great, but I am a live performer. I love interacting with the crowd,” he said.
Santosh’s song Yen Di (which was from his solo album In Pursuit of Santosham) will be featured in Abang Long Fadil 3, which is scheduled to be released in September.
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