Raaja - A State of Mind

Rock, Jazz, fusion, world, hip-hop, folk, new age, pop, Indian classical, western classical, orchestral - In an urge to understand and appreciate various forms of music, I try and find the best in each of the aforementioned genres of music and listen to it. But sometimes I just get stuck with Illayaraja and think that listening to all those various forms of music is all but a waste of time. In times like these, Illayaraja (music) becomes a state of my mind and I say to myself, “Just listen to one genre of music - ‘Illayaraja’ and that is enough for this lifetime.” I often get into such a mindset and it takes a really fantabulous music of some other composer to shake me out of it. I guess I am not alone.

Dhanam Soundtrack

Kangalum Kavipaduthey, Uliyin Oosai and now Dhanam! Illayaraja is in fine form. The soundtrack is rich with Raaja’s typical melodies, amazing instrumental pieces in preludes and interludes, beautiful bass lines and catchy rhythms. The soundtrack is worth buying just for ‘Kannanukku Yenna Vendum’ song.

I can’t stop listening to the soundtrack except for the song ‘Ulagam Kidakuthu’. From when did Raaja included staves for samples in his score sheet? The first interlude of this song has the same melody sample that we hear in Citibank ad in raaga.com (earlier we heard the same in Yuvan’s Pudupettai) and that is not the only reason why I skip this song.

Saroja Soundtrack

Heard Saroja Soundtrack once. Waiting to listen Yuvan’s next.

Rock On Soundtrack

Sticking to a particular genre of music means a lot of restrictions for a composer, especially for the Indian film music composers. With same set of instruments accompanying the melody, the overall sound of the songs will remain the same. The composer has no choice but to try different ways of arrangement, different rhythms and choosing different tempos to break the monotony so that each song work. But this will make them concentrate more on the music and melody part of the song than the sound part of it. With genre pieces, a composer cannot escape by replacing a guitar with Veena in a rock arrangement and cheat the listeners in name of fusion. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy has not cheated us by playing around but has given us one of very few Indian film soundtracks that stick to a particular genre of music, i.e., Rock, in ‘Rock On’.

Listening ‘Rock On’ soundtrack, made me to think about the lack of pure genre pieces in Indian Film movie soundtracks. When most of our films still don’t conform to one particular genre, why should the music be? The makers want the film to be seen by audiences of all ages and by making a genre piece, one cannot satisfy all kind of audience. ‘Rock On’ could be the first soundtrack (Some say ‘Paanch’ soundtrack, which I haven’t heard) I heard that has songs strictly conforming to one particular genre of music that doesn’t belong to India.

Indian film music as we know is an amalgamation of 100s of genres of music from all parts of the world. With such a colorful mix of genres, Indian Film music has become a genre in itself. But no matter what genre our Indian composer picks for the song, the sound of the borrowed genre is mostly restricted to the orchestration and backing arrangements and mostly the melody gets the Indian touch.

I haven’t heard much of pure Rock music. But Wiki says that Rock music is a genre of popular music with a prominent vocal melody, accompanied by electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums. The western way of writing a melody for vocals, is to leave the notes orphaned (as told by Illayaraja), unlike Indian classical music, where there is lot of wavering and linking happens of and between the notes. In ‘Rock On’, I don’t see any such technique being used in any of the songs.

An Indian film song comes out of great amount of collaboration between lyricist and the composer. The music is bend to fit the lyrics and lyrics is modified to fit into a tune and it is a combined evolving process wherein which they find a balance between the two. So, obviously when a composer makes music particular to a genre, the language plays an important role in overall sound of the song. Lyrics by Javed Akthar fit so perfectly into the sound of Rock music, so much so that you can take out the Hindi lyrics and put English words in the songs, without changing a note in the melody and yet a non-Indian would find it as a true rock song.

With the melody remaining purely western and with arrangements strictly restricted to the rules of the genre, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s ‘Rock On’ is one great soundtrack that hits bull’s eyes with its guts, riffs and rhythms.

Sakkarakatti and not cho chweet review

I can easily understand why some of them are angry about my views on ‘Sakkarakatti’ music, because I have found myself in their position so many times before when I read a review, highlighting only the negatives and understating the positives on a movie or a music which I love. Though there are positives to talk, some people get upset more by the negatives, because according to them what they feel lacking in, is the most important aspects they look for and so they find that overshadowing other good things that can be talked about.

There are definitely good things to say about 'Sakkarakatti'. I never said anywhere in my post that I didn’t like the soundtrack. I like it. But when my overall feeling about a soundtrack is disappointing, I chose to highlight what didn’t work for me than what little that works. And naturally, one doesn’t spend much time talking about what they don’t like. But I also think that I have become lazier these days, as one see can that even on those soundtracks which I liked very much, I have written comparatively lesser words.

I am not against Rahman or his music, I don’t deliberately criticize any composer or his compositions, and I only register what I sincerely feel. Talking about length, my thoughts on 'Ada' and 'Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na' were detailed enough I believe. I criticize Rahman, because I care. I sincerely care and carve for his music. I am sure that I won’t remember this soundtrack for a long time; it will not stand the test of time. If one is a true fan of a composer and his music, he/she will not understate the composer by declaring his lesser works as his greatest. And that is what I did.

Ameer has his own arrogant way to put his view points. But if you take all those arrogance away, there is a truth hidden in his statement. That is that Rahman is doing only movies with commercial interests. It is little too selfish to ask Rahman to come down a little bit to become approachable by new wave Tamil directors but these guys can give him greater challenges and help him in pushing the envelope of movie soundtracks further.

At the end, I have only one question. Is ‘Sakkarakatti’ music, the greatest ever that Rahman could have given for the movie? If your answer is yes, I wonder if you really remember or know what Rahman is really capable of and definitely I respect Rahman and his music more than you do.

Ameer in Saroja Audio Launch

A.R. Rahman is an Isai Puyal. He has created a sensation all through out the world, through his music. Now, he is not in this venue, but still, I have a question to be asked to him.

"He is composing music only for films with commercial interests. Why hasnt he composed for films which have a deep subject ?. He has composed music for K. Balachander with 40 years of experience, Bharathiraaja with 30 years of experience. why hasnt he composed music for Directors like me ?. Whats the reason for him not to consider ourselves as a Director?"

This is exactly what I was trying to ask in my post on Sakkarakatti music.

Sakkarakatti Soundtrack

‘God Father’, ‘Jillunu Oru Kaadhal’, ‘Sivaji’, ‘Azhaghiya Tamizh Magan’ in Tamil, ‘Guru’, ‘Jodha Akbar’, ‘Ada’, ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa’ in Hindi were Rahman’s works in recent past and with that you know the kind of comparison I draw in here. I too agree that it is unfair to compare chalk and cheese as the kind of movies Rahman chose to do in Hindi and Tamil were totally different. But my problem is mainly with Rahman’s choice of movies and then comes the quality of music. No doubt all the aforementioned Tamil soundtracks were big hits but Um… Forget it. Coming to ‘Sakkarakatti’

We have another sure-shot winner from Rahman in ‘Sakkarakatti’ soundtrack which is full of Rahman clichés. He kills a Tamil song again by using Madhusree; he explores Chinmayi’s voice further in a song, the template of which is one of the weirdest experimentations of Rahman in recent past, uses two of his already released Hindi tracks from ‘Meenaxi’, composes a ultra cool number with Blaaze’s rapping in between and it has a single word repeated twice as its hooky phrase.

‘Yelae’ is the most interesting song of the soundtrack. An instantly catchy guitar riff and a flamboyant violin running across wildly in conversation with the vocals, harmonica bits, the musicality of the word ‘Yelae’ and the amount of casualness it brings to the mood of the song, the cool singing of Krish and Naresh Iyer all put together makes ‘Yelae’ an easy stand out of this soundtrack.

The one good thing about listening to ‘Sakkarakatti’ is that it made me to revisit the soundtrack of ‘Meenaxi’. ‘Meenaxi’ is so special to me because it was the first ever soundtrack CD I bought after buying Philips 5 in 1 player. Aah… What an experience it was. It was a real stunning soundtrack of Rahman and not so surprisingly it still is.

What I expect from Rahman is such a complete soundtrack, which Rahman once use to dish out movie after movie in Tamil.

To Muneer: The soundtrack has two already heard songs, one weird number ‘I miss u da’ which I am sure will soon be forgotten, another mediocre melody ‘Marudhaani’ (with some great interludes and humming parts) but with Madhusree, one cool and peppy number, one great song ‘Yelae’ and with this mix, I am little hesitant to call it a great soundtrack on the whole. But I like the soundtrack.

Uliyin Oosai

I am listening to Illayaraja’s ‘Uliyin Oosai’ songs for past one week or so. It is an absolutely delightful soundtrack with classical and semi classical melodies. Though the orchestration and overall sound of one or two songs is at odds with others and the period of the movie, the chaste Tamil lyrics and Raaja’s vintage orchestration make us forget the initial discomfort that we get from the alienating sound. It also made me to revisit the songs of ‘Ivan’ and ‘Pon Megalai’, the songs from the soundtrack which I often hum or listen in my mind though I don’t hear the actual audio frequently.

Mean while, Kumar, Vignesh and Emjay write some interesting articles about Raaja’s music in their blogs. Each and every post of them is educating and a pleasure reading. But while there are many blogs like these which tries to decode Raaja’s compositions from 80’s and to some extent from 90’s, I couldn’t find many (or any) such blogs or such write-ups in blogosphere on Raaja’s latest works. Aren’t Raaja’s recent works worthy enough to write about? Or is it that there still is so much to dig and learn from Raaja’s earlier compositions that the hard code Raaja fan bloggers tend to write mostly about them?

With soundtracks of Mayil, Naan Kadavul, Nandhalala and Dhanam, Illayaraja has an interesting lineup this year. Eagerly waiting for each one of them.

The Boring Goodness

‘Boring Goodness’ is how I would like to describe the music that has come out so far in Tamil films in 2008. There were many good songs with good melodies but very few of them have that extra something that would make the song stand the testimony of time. There weren’t many songs that blew my mind. I don’t know why I feel so. May be these days I don’t give a serious ear to Tamil film music. I don’t buy and listen to every other Tamil film soundtrack that comes out, which I used to do before. But here are my picks from whatever I listened to so far in 2008, which I may want to listen decades down the line

1. Yen Unnidam (Chakra Vyuham)
2. En Idhayathai Kaanom (Chakra vyuham)
3. Aagayam Kaanamal (Saadhu Miranda)
4. Vallamai Tharayo (Vallamai Tharayo)
5. Uyirilae (Vellithirai)
6. Venmegam (Yaaradi Nee Mohini)
7. Kanden Kanden (Pirivom Santhipom)
8. Manasukkul (Anjathey)
9. Aavaram Poovukkum (Arai En 305il Kadavul)
10. Aganthayil Aaduvathaa (Uliyin Oosai)

Reliance Mobile Vijay Awards 2008

While there are a bunch of award shows happening for Hindi Cinema throughout the year, there isn’t many for Tamil Cinema. Filmfare awards for South Indian Cinema and Tamilnadu state awards have lost their sheen and credibility long back. So, when ‘Vijay awards’ was commenced last year, I was more than happy. Last year it was kind of a tribute to 75 years of Tamil cinema, where they honored legends in all categories but from this year it is like any other award show recognizing the best of the talents for the movies released in the previous year.

There were 4 pre-cursor shows on Vijay Awards since one month before the actual awards were announced (on every Sunday afternoon 2 P.M), anchored by Gopinath, where popular film technicians, actors, jury members and selected audiences had a healthy discussion and debate about various aspects of Tamil cinema in 2007.

If you have seen this year’s telecast of Vijay Awards show (showing the making of the statue, red carpet interviews, nominations), the intention is pretty evident, which is to make ‘Vijay Awards’ as one of iconic recognition, a award which a film personality would want to proudly add in his profile. Two decades down the line, when an actor is introduced before an interview, they should add that he has won X number of ‘Vijay Awards’ for Best actor. ‘Vijay Awards’ wants to reach that status. And from the way this year’s award show was organized and conducted, I am sure that will happen.

Vijay TV has a very good rapport with Tamil film fraternity and that will definitely help them to go a long way from here. Vijay Awards is very well balanced with both popularity and talent being recognized and praised equally.

The show was well attended by the film fraternity. Yugi Sethu was a decent host for the show, though most of his word play and humor fell flat. Except for Krish’s, performances by dumb actresses and by Neha Basin were bad. The stage backdrop was good but the lighting was over done with too many colors.

Coming to Awards,

The jury includes Cartoonist Madan, Yugi Sethu, Lissy Priyadarshan and Director Baghyaraj. From the winners, it is very clear that Madan was dominant among the four, because if you have been watching Madan’s Thirai Paarvai regularly, you could easily guess the winners. From the nominations, it is clear that quite a lot of analysis and evaluation was done before finalizing on the nominees in each category. Paruthiveeran, Mozhi, Polladhavan, Katradhu Tamizh, Chennai – 600028 and Sivaji bagged most of the nominations both in technical and non technical categories. Kalloori was seriously overlooked except for a nomination for Hemalatha who played the role of Kayal in the movie. But they made sure that awards are evenly distributed among the best movies of 2007.

I was searching for a site where I could find the complete list of nominees and winners in Vijay TV and I couldn’t find any, not even in Balaji’s blog, so here it is

Best Dance Choreography

1. Ajay - Jalsa pannungada (Chennai – 600028)
2. Brinda - Unakkul naane (Pachaikili Muthucharam)
3. Dinesh - Vasantha mullai (Pokkiri)
4. Lawrence - Thee thee (Sivaji)
5. Raju Sundaram - June ponal (Unnalae Unnalae)

Winner - Dinesh for Vasantha mulai (Pokkiri)

Varied Nominations. I don’t know what the jury were really looking for, but nice picks.

Best Stunt Direction

1. Pepsi Vijayan - Pokiri
2. Kanal kannan - Deepavali
3. Peter hain - Sivaji
4. Rambo Rajkumar - Polladhavan
5. William wong - Billa

Winner - Rambo Rajkumar (Polladhavan)

Yet to see Polladhavan but have heard so many people raving about the climax fight sequence and so, I think award has gone to the right hands.

Best Art Direction

1. Jackson - Paruthiveeran
2. Kathir - Pokkiri
3. Milan - Billa
4. Saikumar - Polladhvan
5. Thotta tharani - Sivaji

Winner - Thotta tharani (Sivaji)

The Obvious.

Best Editing

1. Antony - Sivaji
2. Kasi Vishwanathan - Mozhi
3. B.Lenin - Chennai 28
4. Raja Mohammad - Paruthiveeran
5. Sreekar prasad - Katradhu Tamizh

Winner - Sreekar prasad (Katradhu Tamizh)

Katradhu Tamizh was technically brilliant. Sreekar Prasad deserves it. But congrats to Raja Mohammad for winning the coveted national award for Paruthiveeran.

Best Cinematography

1. K.V. Anand - Sivaji
2. Kathir - Katradhu tamizh
3. Nirav shah - Billa
4. Ramji - Paruthiveeran
5. Velraj - Polladhavan

Winner – Velraj (Polladhavan)

K.V.Anand and Nirav Shah are ruled out for obvious reasons. Though Ramji’s cinematography was great, it was overtly yellowish. Kathir did a great job in Katradhu Tamizh. And I think Velraj was chosen for shooting the movie is many real locations mostly under natural source of lighting.

Best Lyricist

1. Na.Muthukumar - Sivaji (Ballelakka)
2. Rohini - Unakkul naane (Pachaikili Muthucharam)
3. Snehan - Paruthiveeran (Ariyaatha vayasu)
4. Vaali – Chennai – 600028 (Yaaro)
5. Vairamuthu - Kaatrin mozhi (Mozhi)

Winner – Na.Muthukuar (Sivaji)

Though my choice would be Vairamuthu for Onbathu rooba nottu or Mozhi, I am okay with Na.Muthukumar winning the award, but I couldn’t digest the fact that he won it for ‘Ballelakka’ from Sivaji as Na.Muthukumar himself has written much more meaningful songs in Katradhu Tamizh. And what is so great about Rohini’s words in Unakkul Naane?

Best Playback Singer (Female)

1. Chinmaye (Sahana - Sivaji)
2. Sowmya rao (Unn siripinil – Pachaikili Muthucharam)
3. Neha basin (Paesugiraen – Satham Podathey)
4. Akkam pakkam (Sadhana - Kireedom)
5. Madhumitha (Nee nadhaswaram - Azhaghiya Tamizh Magan)

Winner – Neha basin (Paesugiraen – Satham Podathey)

Neha Basin is a strange choice. Mine would obviously go to Chinmaye. Surprised to see Madhumitha getting a nomination, a well deserved one though. And ‘Un Siripinil’ from Pachaikili Muthucharam was not sung by Sowmya Rao, it is by Gauthami Rao.

Best Playback singer (Male)

1. S.P.Balasubramaniam (Yaaro – Chennai 600028)
2. Balram (Kaatrin Mozhi - Mozhi)
3. Haricharan (Arabu naadae – Thottal Poo Malarum)
4. Krish(June ponaal – Unnalae Unnalae)
5. Udit Narayan (Sahana - Udit Narayanan)

Winner – Krish (June ponaal – Unnalae Unnalae)

Udit Narayan???!!! Lol…
Balram for Mozhi, Rahul for ‘Para Para Pattampoochi’, Srinivas for ‘Maghaliyil kulichu paaru’ are in my list. It is really a tough category to pick just one name.

Best Supporting actor (Female)

1. Hemalatha (Kalloori)
2. Khusbhoo (Periyar)
3. Sujatha (Paruthiveeran)
4. Swarnamalya (Mozhi)
5. Nadhiya (Thamirabharani)

Winner – Sujatha (Paruthiveeran)

Best supporting actor (Male)

1. M.S.Baskar (Mozhi)
2. Murali (Polladhavan)
3. Prakash Raj (Mozhi)
4. Raj kiran (Kireedom)
5. Saravanan (Paruthiveeran)

Winner – Prakash Raj (Mozhi)

As Prakash Raj himself told, M.S.Baskar is a better choice. If you have seen Madan’s Thirai Paarvai on Mozhi, you will now how much Madan got impressed by the choice of Prakash Raj for Viji character and his casual performance and hence the award.

Best Villain

1. Kalabhavan mani (Vel)
2. Kishore (Polladhavan)
3. Milind soman (Pachaikili)
4. Pokkiri (Prakash raj)
5. Suman (Sivaji)

Winner - Kishore (Polladhavan)

Do we really need this category?

Best Dialogue writer

1. Ameer - Paruthiveeran
2. R.Madhavan, Seeman - Evano oruvan
3. Ram - Katradhu tamizh
4. Venkat Prabhu – Chennai 600028
5. Viji - Mozhi

Winner - Viji (Mozhi)

Right choice.

Best Actor Debut (Female)

1. Andrea (Pachaikili Muthucharam)
2. Anjali (Katradhu Tamizh)
3. Banu (Thamirabharani)
4. Tanisha (Unnalae Unnalae
5. Vijayalakshmi (Chennai 600028)

Winner – Anjali (Katradhu Tamizh)

It looks like that jury members have really struggled to make up the list with 5 nominees for this category.

Best Actor Debut (Male)

1. Aathi (Mirugam)
2. Akhil (kalloori)
3. Karthi (Paruthiveeran)
4. Siva (Chennai 600028)
5. Vinay (Unnalae unnalae)

Winner – Karthi (Paruthiveeran)

Obvious.

Best Music Director

1. Harris (Unnalae Unnalae)
2. G.V.Prakash (Kireedom)
3. A.R.Rahman (Sivaji)
4. Vidhyasagar (Mozhi)
5. Yuvan Shankar raja (Paruthiveeran)

Winner – A.R.Rahman (Sivaji)

My choice would be Vidhyasagar for Mozhi and Yuvan Shankar Raja for Katradhu Tamizh. And why there isn’t a category for best background score? Madan is one critic who doesn’t forget to talk about background score of the movies which he reviews in Vijay TV’s Thirai Paarvai, yet I don’t know why he didn’t recommend including a category for background score.

Award for Contribution to Tamil Cinema

Film News Aanandhan was honored for his contribution to Tamil Cinema for his passion towards cinema. He was also awarded a cash prize of one lakh rupees. The AV shown for introducing Aanandhan was nicely done.

Find of the year

1. Cinematographer Kathir (Katradhu Tamizh)
2. Director Ram (Katradhu tamizh)
3. Lyricist Rohini (Pachaikili Muthucharam)
4. Director Venkat Prabhu (Chennai 600028)
5. Director Vetrimaran (Polladhavan)

Winner - Director Venkat Prabhu (Chennai 600028)

Though the execution of Chennai 600028 was brilliant, I am still skeptical about Venkat Prabhu’s ability. I will have to wait for ‘Saroja’ to really form an opinion on Venkat Prabhu as a director.

Best Film

1. Paruthiveeran
2. Mozhi
3. Chennai - 28
4. Pallikoodam
5. Polladhavan

Winner – Paruthiveeran

I don’t know what made the jury to choose ‘Pallikoodam’ over a ‘Kallori’ or a ‘Katradhu Tamizh’. But anyways, the winner was always going to be ‘Paruthiveeran’.

Best Director

1. Ameer - Paruthiveeran
2. Radha mohan - Mozhi
3. Ram - Katradhu Tamizh
4. Venkat Prabhu - Chennai 28
5. Vetri maran - Polladhavan

Winner – Vetri Maran (Polladhavan)

This definitely came as a surprise. Though I haven’t seen Polladhavan yet, I thought Ameer would win it. I always had this doubt about how a jury selects someone else as best director instead of the director of the movie which is being chosen as the best movie of the year.

Best Actress

1. Asin - Pokkiri
3. Bhavana - Deepavali
3. Jyothika - Mozhi
4. Padma priya - Mirugam
5. Priya mani - Paruthiveeran

Winner – Priya Mani (Paruthiveeran)

Another obvious choice and recently she bagged the national award too. But Yugi Sethu unnecessarily embarrassed Priya Mani on stage, by asking her on the reason for choosing to act in a glamorous role in ‘Malaikottai’ immediately after ‘Paruthiveeran’. Right question in a wrong place.

Best Actor

1. Danush - Polladhavan
2. Jeeva - Katradhu Tamizh
3. Madhavan - Evano Oruvan
4. Sathyaraj - Onbathu rooba nottu
5. Sathyaraj - Periyar

Winner – Satyaraj (Onbathu Rooba nottu)

While reviewing the movie ‘Onbathu rooba nottu’, Madan interviewed Satyaraj and asked him about which role was tough to play or which character he feels proud of - ‘Periyar’ or playing ‘Madhava padaiyachi’? Satyrajar gave a diplomatic answer. But Madan told that playing Madhava padaiyachi is Satyaraj’s biggest achievement as to act in the role of Periyar there are lot of reference material which can help for and as Satyaraj himself has a very good knowledge about Periyar’s life, it wouldn’t be tough for him to play the role of Periyar but the same cannot be said about the role of ‘Madhavar padaiyachi’ in Onbathu rooba nottu.

Chevalier Sivaji Ganesan award for Excellent in Indian Cinema went to Maniratnam. Again, the AV on Maniratnam was really done well especially the slide show of behind-the-scene pictures of all Maniratnam movies was great.

The award for Best Comedian went to Vadivelu for Marudhamalai. And the best crew award went to the crew of Chennai 600028. I still don’t know the criteria for choosing the winners in this category. I don’t know the nominees in these two categories as I missed to watch these parts of the show.

In the categories in which people selected the winners by voting, Rajini is the favourite hero for Sivaji, Nayantara is the favourite heroine for Billa, Prabhudeva is the favourite director for Pokkiri and favourite film is not Sivaji, it is ‘Pokkiri’. Vijay got Entertainer of the year award; Surya was selected as the Icon of the year by ad agencies.