I&rsquo;m composing a couple of songs for movies such as Margherita With A Straw, Rohan Sippy&rsquo;s Sonali Cable and three films being produced by Bejoy Nambiar, including Kukku Mathur Ki Fand Ho Gayi,&rdquo; Mikey McCleary tells us, in response to our question about the films he&rsquo;s working on currently.
<img title="Mickey McCleary" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2014/mar/30-Mickey-McCleary.jpg" alt="Mickey McCleary" /> Mickey McCleary wants to show the timelessness of vintage melodies through his music&nbsp;
But before we can proceed, he interrupts us further, &ldquo;Sorry, it&rsquo;s Kukku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi.&rdquo; We laugh too, at McCleary&rsquo;s effort to get the name right, and can&rsquo;t help but comment on how much his Hindi has improved ever since the New Zealand-based musician made Mumbai his home six years ago. &ldquo;Yes, my Hindi&rsquo;s getting better. At this rate, I will be fluent in Hindi in the next four or five years,&rdquo; he jokes.
For a foreigner, it&rsquo;s isn&rsquo;t easy to break through in Bollywood and McCleary says it was a fun challenge for him as well. Starting with a couple of ad jingles, McCleary says he was able to understand the space of Hindi films and the kind of melodies that would connect with the Indian audience. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite a challenge to be able to write music that will connect with different cultures,&rdquo; says the musician, who recently composed the background score for Shaadi Ke Side Effects.
But it&rsquo;s not just films he&rsquo;s working on. McCleary, who already has a couple of albums to his credit, is nearly ready with his next &mdash; an album of his ad jingles! &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve included jingles from Vodafone, Lakme, Titan, Levis and others. While the jingles were really short &mdash; 30 seconds to 45 seconds each &mdash; the longer versions in the album will have new lyrics and melodies, but people will instantly identify with them as they have been played so many times on television,&rdquo; says McCleary, who&rsquo;s sung four of the ten songs in the album.

Mikey McCleary, songwriter and producer from New Zealand, who is known for giving a contemporary twist to classic Hindi tunes, says he&rsquo;s gradually getting a hang of the language

My Hindi's getting better, says New Zealand musician Mikey McCleary

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Home / Sunday-mid-day / Article / My Hindi's getting better, says New Zealand musician Mikey McCleary

My Hindi's getting better, says New Zealand musician Mikey McCleary

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