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.

Nandhalaala

The song ‘Mella Oorndhu oorundhu’ that sounds like a simple kids rhyme on surface (ofcourse the song seems to be backing a kid’s journey in search of something) is so intricately orchestrated with amazing vocal harmonies, keys, consistently running guitar strains and bass lines. Raaja usually just freaks out in his interludes and goes out far from main melody, but it is pleasantly surprising to see him playing with so much restraint on a brief guitar motif that appears on different instruments with little variations in the ludes and this brevity and restraint works so beautifully for this simple sounding intricately woven song.

With the movie titled ‘Nandhalaala’, how could you not have a song with abundant flute pieces in it and who can use flute in its true sound in the songs better than our Raaja. ‘Onnakunnu’ begins with a flute piece and ends with a flute piece but what Raaja does with it in between is something we haven’t heard much or atleast I don’t remember listening much. The flute at times follows the main melody backing the lead vocals (smoothly rendered by K.J.Yesudas), sometimes it takes its own route and travels all the way around to reach back to the main melody, sometimes it just fills in the space between the lines and sometimes it is louder than the main melody, sometimes it is there and yet it is not there leaving just a haunting presence felt from behind. For a song that sings a lot about companion, and a companion of love, there can’t be a better substitute than a flute and a Raaja’s melody on it which serves as the perfect companion for the main melody and remains as its soul till the end.

If only the song ‘Thalaattu’ as a whole could have evoked the same feel as the flute piece that starts off the song (that sounds like a derivative of the flute piece from the classic Nayagan theme) it would have a much greater impact on the listener. Not to mean that the song is bad, but something is missing, and the melody doesn’t hit us with the emotion like say a ‘Kannil Paarvai’ did in Naan Kadavul. Ofcourse, Raaja’s voice and singing naturally has that pinch of sadness and added to that the instrumental pieces in the interludes and that appears along the vocal parts are indeed emotive, just that all just don’t fall right together to have a greater effect on listeners. May be the situation demands such a sound which is less sentimental and which gets more sensitive and meaning when it becomes rightfully functional in the narrative. I am not going to arrive at any conclusion until I watch the movie.

I can’t stop listening to ‘Kai Veesi’ song which is catchy from the word go. The effervescent melody that just doesn’t sit easily on the rhythm, the omnipresent keys and strings, the ambient flute ludes, all sum up to an entertaining musical journey. For the kind of atmosphere that the song tries to paint, it is set in a surprisingly slower tempo but for it the feel in the melody and its unpredictable flow manages to compensate. And talking about the flow, it is amazing how the flow of the melody is as unpredictable and yet as beautiful as the nature that the song exclaims about.

‘Oru vaandu kootamae’ has an instantly relatable melody in the beginning, with right amount of innocence and casualness but the grip fades in the later parts. The interludes hugely deviate from the main feel of the song, which may be because Raaja wanted to match the music with situation in which the song was going to be placed in the movie, but with the song being excluded from the movie, we won’t get to know the real intention behind those deviating interludes.

The gypsy song ‘Elilae Elilae’ with strong vocals of Saroja Ammal is an effective piece of music, but it is difficult to understand the intended emotion.