Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya Soundtrack

Gautam Menon and Harris Jeyaraj delivered some of the best Tamil film soundtracks of the last decade. Yet, Gautam Menon chose to move on to A.R.Rahman for ‘Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya’. With Gautam admitting in all his interviews, that he has always been an ardent A.R.Rahman fan, his move is quite understandable. Who wouldn’t want to work with A.R.Rahman? Even A.R.Rahman needs to move beyond Maniratnam and Shankar, and work with more new Tamil film makers who could visually justify his music. The problem is that when such a combination happens, both sides will try to pull the other on their side and it is difficult to find a middle path. Will Gautam make A.R.Rahman to compose simple, instantly hummable romantic ballads that he has been extracting from Harris film after film or will A.R.Rahman drag Gautam to his ever experimental side?

After listening to the soundtrack 10 times, I am convinced that it is the latter that has happened. Rahman shatters every cliché of a Gautam Menon film soundtrack. It is so difficult to take it initially, and one can’t avoid a fleeting thought that Gautam should have stuck to Harris Jeyaraj. But these are concerns of nitpickers; these concerns are external to actual music. If we wither off such preoccupied thoughts, assumptions and expectations, it is easy to accept the soundtrack. While with some of the songs in this soundtrack Rahman tries to stretch and bend the rules of how the music for a simple romantic film should be, in some, he uses the experimental hat to gloss over the deficiencies.

It always annoys me when Rahman drowns the voices in a sound machine, even though the melody itself has all the needed pep and hip. Rahman still struggles with setting tunes to already written lyrics. The exquisite title track sung by Karthik is a classic example of how unpredictable a melody can be twisted to without losing the mood and flavor of the lines but the awful abruptness with which he rushes and squeezes the line ‘Kadhal Yendral Kaayamdhaan’ in an otherwise addictive number ‘Kannukkul ennai’ is puzzling. In the same song, the lines ‘Neeyum Naanum’ has an extremely convoluted solo-chorus interplay with lead vocal and chorus taking turns for singing the every next word of one single line of song. Yet all of this weird play settles down when the line ‘Anbae Ododi’ is set to a pleasing melody pushing us back to our comfort zone. This game that Rahman plays with listeners is so taxing and tiring initially, but once we understand the rules, we are sure to have fun.

‘Omana Penne’ suffers from both robotized voice and also fragmented melodic structures, punctuating a line at an unexpected word to fit it into a melody and rhythm. The sound play is so much so that we are not sure whether those peculiar vocal effects are of Benny Dayal or are that of Rahman’s music tweaking software. Rahman somehow covers all of this with that ubiquitous ‘Omana Penne’ hook and interesting Nadhaswaram bits.

‘Mannippaaya’ is a vintage 90s Rahman melody that overstays its welcome. Surprisingly, it is Rahman’s lines that drag the song and lessens the impact. The sympathetic strings, flute, piano and vocal harmony are layered in abundance to add depth to the melody but song works mainly because of Shreya Ghosal’s passionate singing. The way she curves the notes on the word ‘Mannippaaya’ with a sense of longing and desperation consummates the mood that the song wants to express in totality. The choir-orchestral version of Thirukkural verses sounds noble but it doesn’t sit comfortably within the template of this song.

‘Aaromalae’ is a kind of song that would set the stage in fire when performed live. It is also a song where we forget about the composer and start admiring the singer who instantly makes the song his own. While it is a revelation to listen to a Malayalam song set to a genre of a psychedelic rock (Is it?), Alphonse’s singing and expressions are beyond words. The song’s main melody is anything but hummable so Rahman packs in a hook line amidst those lines celebrating the hypnotism - which music from a liberated mind and soul, can achieve. For those who find songs like “Aaromalae” too alien, there are usual Rahman dance numbers to skip to. Rahman is at his playful best in the foot-tapping numbers “Kannukul Kannai” and “Anbil Avan”. While it is electric violin motif in the former, it is the unique rhythm pattern in “Anbil Avan” that Rahman nonchalantly keeps fabricating with e-beats and his favorite Thavil.

‘Hosanna’ is the most accessible song of the soundtrack with a definite structure, a simple hook line, typical synthpad beats and an elegant orchestration. The lyrics and the melody take twists and turns in this song too but they are not as sudden as it is in the other songs, so it flows like a clear river stream letting the listeners to easily dive and sail in its direction. The interludes with Suzzane’s silky ‘Hosanna’ slides, angelic choirs and soothing string section are so smooth and transcendental. Rahman ends the songs in his typical choir-orchestral way with subtle bell bangs and strings accelerating to a close as Vijay Prakash reprises what could be possible be the Pallavi with least number of lines and words in a Tamil song ever.

It seems in Chennai audio launch, Rahman told that he doesn’t know whether this album matches with high standards set by Gautam-Harris combination and that this soundtrack is a quirky one. Quirky – Yes, but without those aforementioned problems, the soundtrack might have been more satisfying.

Director's Composer

In film music business, for a music composer to have a long standing career, a good working relationship and successful track record with a movie director is vital. Instead of presenting the huge list of successful director composer duos who made it big, I can make it vivid by quoting one composer who couldn't make it big inspite of being most talented than most of the composers in Tamil Film music today. Karthik Raja. This man has immense talent and potential. Inspite of some brilliant soundtracks, he couldn't sustain simply because he has not continuously and consistently delivered good music with one particular movie director. In Tamil Film Music, year 2008 has seen most number of popular director composer break ups. But none of the break-ups worried (as much as I would have worried if Balumahendra broke up with Illayaraja) me, because the directors have gone either to a better composer or to a composer at par.

The biggest surprise is Charan picking Colonial Cousins (Hariharan and Leslie Lewis) for his next ‘Modhi Vilayaadu’ over Bharadwaj. From what little I heard in television interviews, it sounds interesting. Together, Charan and Bharadwaj (and Vairamuthu) gave some beautiful melodies and one hit kuthu or item number was an inevitable in their soundtracks and sadly that is what they would be popularly remembered for. I am sure Colonial Cousins would bring a totally different sound to Charan’s (occasionally intelligent) masala entertainment.

More than Selvaraghavan it is an opportunity for G.V.Prakash, as he is going to replace Yuvan Shankar Raja’s sound and music in a Selvaraghavan movie. I always felt that Selvaraghavan interferes too much in the making of his movie’s music (and probably why Yuvan had to plagiarize for some of the songs and background score), and extracts the best from the composer. I hope he does that with G.V.Prakash too (without pushing him to plagiarize). G.V.Prakash became a routine masala movie composer doing one kuthu song, one peppy song, one pathos song, two romantic melodies after Veyil. Now he gets an opportunity to compose music for a movie director who knows how to carry the story forward with music and songs. I hope he utilizes this opportunity and reach the next level. Another important aspect in a Selvaraghavan movie is background score, and infact all Selva + Yuvan’s background score were released in a separate CD after the release of the movie. G.V.Prakash who already has shown some promise in this area as he has been doing and including at least one instrumental theme music in most of his soundtracks (recent one being from Aanadha Thaandavam - that serene flute playing the beautiful melody of Poovinai on a happy note which after a bit of turbulent rhythms turns trembling and shivering, conveys almost the entire narrative arc of the movie), would definitely have to work hard for background score of a Selvaraghavan movie as the visuals in his movies demands so much drama from its music. I am eagerly waiting for ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ soundtrack, to know how much of Selvaraghavan is there in his movie’s music.

According to me, Gautam Menon is at no loss because of Harris Jeyaraj’s decision to not work with him again. Harris Jeyaraj gave his best is Gautam’s movies, but those are the songs that would have worked in any other movie equally well. After Ameer’s controversial remarks about A.R.Rahman working only in high budget commercial movies, here he is working with a upcoming movie director’s, the budget of which could be well below what Rahman usually takes as fee for his music. (It is little puzzling that Rahman who now says that he wants to work only in such independent cinema like Slumdog Millionaire and not in big budget Hollywood movies where he will not have creative freedom does exactly the opposite when it comes to picking the movies in Tamil). I am really anxious about ‘Chennayil Oru Mazhaikaalam’ soundtrack as Rahman returns of youthful love story in Tamil after quite a while (I hope he doesn’t use his songs from Jaane Tu).

I don’t know if I have to say it as break-up, but though they worked together in just two films, the movie’s music and especially the kuthu songs were one of the prime reasons that drew the crowd to theatres to watch the movie and thereby making both the movies a big hit. I am talking about Sundar C.Babu and Mysskin. By watching recent interviews I came to know how much Mysskin hates to have songs in his movies (and that is evident from the way he picturised the song Manasukkul in Anjathey) to an extent that he has chopped even two of Illayaraja’s song from his forthcoming movie ‘Nandhalala’. When it comes to Illayaraja, it is not the director who has a say, Raaja does what he feels like doing. And that clearly shows in ‘Nandhalala’, but still the simplicity and less complicated approach of Mysskin towards his screenplay is evident in Raaja’s compositions also. I am really looking forward for the background score of the movie also. Mysskin is also a director, who gives good importance to background score, and he even included the main music themes in the soundtrack CD of ‘Chithiram Pesudhadi’ and ‘Anjathey’ but this time it isn’t there in ‘Nandhalaala’. I hope they release a separate CD with the background score after the release of the movie.

Vaaranam Aayiram

Harris Jeyaraj indeed reserves his best for Gautam Menon. Harris + Gautam Menon + Thamarai have another big winner in “Vaaranam Aayiram”.

Pachaiklli Muthucharam - Sitharal

I came out of the cinemas after watching ‘Pachaikili Muthucharam’ with a question in my mind. When Gautam Menon (one of the most overrated directors of Tamil cinema) is going to give us a completely satisfying movie? I doubt whether he really means it, when he says, ‘My inspiration in Mani Ratnam and not Martin Scorsese’. Because the kind of commercial cinema that he has been making is not a fine mix of masala as in Maniratnam films, it is irritating like a sensuous song peeping out of nowhere in a Balu Mahendra’s movie. Infact I would say in treating realism, he goes a step ahead of Maniratnam (what I felt after watching just the first half this movie) and only when he tries to fit it in into the commercial format, he goes far behind Maniratnam.

Gautam has chosen a simple story and has given it a very realistic and interesting narration until Venky remains as Venky in the movie. The movie looses all its credibility, when finally hero Sarath kumar takes over Venky. Even the twists and turns in the movie are not surprising or shocking. It just falls flat. The moment you see Jyothika in the train, you can easily guess why she is there. But inspite of this predictability in the screenplay, I think the movie would have worked and worked much better, if Gautam had started rolling the end credits when ‘Kadhal Konjam’ song starts to play.

Though I left the theatre with disappointment, I liked few things about the movie. The relationship between a couple and love angle between two strangers are handled in a very realistic way. I found the conversation of Sarath and Jyothika, interesting. The camerawork of Arvind Krishna is very different from what we have seen so far in such movies. I don’t remember watching such tight close-up shots all through the movie and also there is no much of camera movements here unlike other Gautam’s films. That definitely adds to the reality of the film and easily takes us the audience close to their world. When there are so many close-ups involved, actors have to be really experienced and a lot of help from director is required to pull it off convincingly.

In this movie, I think Gautam succeeded in getting those right expressions in actors’ faces in all those continuous close-up shots. And the same adds more difficulty for editor Antony, because the expression on actors face in the close-up shot and the next usual frame should sync and Antony has done a brilliant job in maintaining this continuity of expressions. Harris Jeyaraj yet again shamelessly copies the theme of Forrest Gump as background music for scenes involving Sarath and Andrea. I completely lost faith that I once had in his music. Sarath is very natural and so is Andrea but Jyothika overacts towards the end. Watch the movie once but if you want to like the movie leave the theatre immediately after Kadhal Konjam song is over.

Pachaikili Muthucharam Soundtrack

Intha Padaththin Padalai Patriya en karuththai Ingae Kaetkalaam