Pokkisham Soundtrack

Cheran’s filmography can be easily seen as pre-Autograph and post-Autograph. Post Autograph, whatever he does, whether it is good or bad, there is a certain amount of earnestness, sincerity and passion in it which I like very much. He is now concentrating on every technical aspect of film making like cinematography, casting, and production design to elevate the core emotional impact of his narrative. The one department which indeed got great amount of Cheran’s attention is music, which was there even before Autograph, but in those movies songs were mere fillers but now Cheran treats the songs as a part of the narrative through which he tries to cover an episode of his screenplay.

Cheran gets closer the scripts demands as in 'Pokkisham', there is bangla song interpersed with Tamil lyrics as the male protagonist lives in Calcutta. The female Protagonist Nadira, who is a student of Tamil literature addresses her lover as ‘Seyyul’, ‘Ilakkanam’, ‘Thirukkul’, ‘Natrinai’ (thank god for these lines being sung by a Tamil singer). There are 4 songs that fill the soundtrack using the same melody like a motif expressing the thoughts and emotions of the protagonist in the journey of his life throughout the movie.

Perfectly blending with Cheran’s vision is the composer duo Sabesh-Murali, who with Pokkisham soundtrack proved yet again that with a good amount of push from the director they can come up with songs that would make up a good movie soundtrack (not essentially a hit music album). Lyricist Yuga Bharathi has worked hard to translate chapters of the story into poetry and he has succeeded to a great extent.

The only problem in the soundtrack is the slow songs that are meant to be emotional, sad and make people cry. They are not punchy enough. Just by stretching end note of each and every phrase, a melody cannot evoke sadness. These songs sound more sentimental than sensitive or emotional.

Yet, Pokkisham definitely is a good movie soundtrack, which would appeal better after watching the movie. If the movie is good, people will definitely go back home and put this CD on to relive those moments as they did with Autograph and Thavamai Thavmirundhu.

Maayakannadi

When I saw Cheran’s Autograph and Thavamai Thavamirundhu, I thought how great the movie would have become in Illayaraja’s music. Especially the kind of scenes Cheran conceives is perfect ones for Illayaraja to come up with soul stirring background scores. These two movies had some good variety of songs and different situations which I thought Illayaraja would have done justice in his way. So, when I heard the news that Illayaraja is the composer for Cheran’s next, I was eagerly waiting and expectations were sky high. But after listening to ‘Mayakkannadi’, I felt Cheran has got Illayaraja for a wrong movie. We cannot blame Cheran, because Illayaraja came into the project because of the producers of the movie.

In present scenario, the directors who have no guts to reject a tune of Illayaraja could better stay away from him. Even for Balumahendra, Illayaraja gave just above average tunes recently. I think as of now, if there is someone in the Tamil films who can get the best out of IR; it is Kamal or may be Bala. Illayaraja is not taking film music seriously these days. IR said he initially took 15 days to write music for Thiruvasakam and after finished writing it, he was not satisfied with the music and then started writing again from scratch. Why can’t he follow the same in film music? Why can’t he give the same importance to film music? Frankly speaking, he himself won’t remember the song he has composed for this movie a few months down the line. I am not saying that the songs are bad, it is good but it is repetitive and boring. I feel IR should stick to his own style, I mean the synth, e-beats and jarring sound loops doesn’t really gel well with his typical melodies.

Yet, the sweetness in ‘Konjam Konjam’, IR’s singing in ‘Yele Enga Vanthey’, interesting rhythm pattern in ‘Kaasu Kaiyil’ and ‘Kadhal Indru’, the orchestration of ‘Maya Logam’ and especially ‘Ulagilae Azhaghi’, and interludes in all the songs are some likeable aspects of this soundtrack. And of course, I still have hopes on the background score of the movie. Let us wait and watch.

Sivaji - Maayakannadi

There is a rumour that telugu soundtrack of Sivaji will be released on March 15. But there is no official confirmation and there is not even a tentative date rumoured for the release of Tamil soundtrack. I think it is a nice idea to sell more Telugu CD's and Cassettes in Tamilnadu. Because, hard core Rahman fans are gonna buy it for sure as it is getting released first. And definitely everyone will buy the original Tamil version also. From what little I heard in making of Sivaji videos, music seems to be highly techno and too sophisticated for normal people. But let us not jump into any final conclusions before listening to the complete soundtrack.

Did you visit A.R.Rahman's official website. Doors are not yet open but you can watch a short exclusive interview of A.R.Rahman there.

Illayaraja's Maayakaanadi audio is releasing today. Can't wait to grab my copy.