After years, I came back to this mellifluous song. I first heard this song in one of my relative's marriage which was held in Valliyoor way back before 25 years. Then, being a school boy, I didn't pay much attention to the song. Besides this, I have a clear memory of another song too - Muthamma Muthu Muthu Muthalamma.. from the movie Thanthuvitten Ennai. Again, yesterday, when I listened to this Oh Unnale Naan Pennaane... the song had a profound impact on me which made me listen continously for few hours.
This is one of the Ilaiyaraaaja songs with a subtle orchestration and mild rhythms. However, the very melodic tune and Mano's heavenly vocal(the way, Mano starts Thedatha Neram illaye... haunts us) have put the song on the pedestal.
Yet another rare gem from En Arugil Nee Irundhal. One of the heavenly preludes ever composed by Ilaiyaraaja - lilting Classical guitar woven with another Guitar to form a Counterpoint and this magic continues in both the interludes.
Watched a handful of short films in YouTube, using a keyword "Best Tamil Short Films". Nothing seems to be impressive except one or two. Of course, it is too much to expect from a novice film-maker. There can be some lapses in getting the natural performances from the actors, film-making and other technical departments. These slips can be excused and can be corrected in further attempts. But none of these amateur attempts doesn't care a bit about the relevance of a strong script. Most of these short-films don't come out of love.
The protagonist is either an Engg. student or an IT worker.
Coffee Shops, ECR feature almost in all the short-films. Are there no other places in Chennai?
The usual gadgets: Smartphones, Bikes, Beer.
Silly jokes on consuming alcohol and in degrading women.
Why these short-film makers can't come out of these cliches ? There are scores of books, novels, short-stories being untouched. They can select a suitable script based on their needs and is that all need for a decent short-film.
Of the 10-15 Short Films, this is the one that thought beyond love and coffee shops. The story is by Suba.Veera Pandian.
After a tiresome day, This song Vanthaale Allipooo.. made my day. One of the finest little gems of Ilaiyaraaja. Song starts with a classical rhythm and shifts to Guitar strummings with Raja's voice. Poornima... an epitome of beauty in this song. Her Cotton Sarees, smile, body language - absolute pleasure to watch. What a beautiful tribute to her.
The first scene opens with a death scene; the interval block pauses with a death and finally the movie ends again with a death. Could you imagine a Tamil Movie like this ? Well, there is. It came before two years - Madha Yaanai Kootam. This is the movie I watched last Friday. Well, I won't say Madha Yaanai Kootam is breathtaking, it lags a bit in the second-half and has an unwanted love portion. Nevertheless, a promising debut from Vikram Sugumaran for his raw portrayal of Thevar community's lifestyle in and around Theni.
Madha Yaanai Kootam is not a usual community-based Tamil Film, which, either glorify the violence or sing paeans to the heroes but show their vengeance, bloodshed, betrayal and the effect of it on their families. The entire movie is so dark; even cinematography intensifies this mood by the gloomy color tones used in the funeral sequences.
The foremost strength of the movie is its casting. Besides Viji and Oviya, all are lesser known faces. This makes us get into each characters skin easily and we get completely involved with the movie. Among the casts, one man stands out. He is Veera Thevar (Tamil author Vela Ramamoorthy). In fact, he doesn't have much dialogs but comes throughout the movie and gives us a solid performance. His body language, the way, he has worn the dhoti with rolled up sleeves, and his eyes convey all the emotions and expressions without much dialogs.
As like in Aadukalam, Vikram Sugumaran's struggle for perfection in bringing Madurai accent, Thevar community customs in the funeral sequences, petty fights during those moments has come out brilliant in the movie ably supported by the composer Ragunanthan and the Lyricist Yegadesi.
Montage songs - Mukkulathu Veerarayya, Unnai Vanangaatha Neramillai, Enga Pora Magane - nicely helps the story telling and the characters details.
In the climax, there is a scene where Viji poisons a character and comes out of her home to report this to her brother. This shot has been filmed beautifully with a single Long Take in the lines of Ganja Karuppu's betrayal in the movie Subramaniapuram.
Last Week, I saw a few scenes and a beautiful song from a movie which I haven't seen before. Later on, when I tried to find the movie name I couldn't, since I didn't remember the song name. After that, I tried searching in Wikipedia, using a combination of Radhika, Sivakumar, and Menaka's Filmography and did find the movie name - Urangatha Ninaivugal. Two things caught my attention in the movie: One, this song and the next one, Cinematography. It was a pleasant surprise to know the man behind the Camera was Balumahendra. The first thing that comes to my mind in Balu's Cinematography is Natural Lighting and his love for nature. We see the landscape, sky, lush greenery, streams as they are not with an altered color tones so as to elevate their beauty what we generally see in other movies.
Malare Malare Ullasam,..
Poongatru Pudhithanadhu..
Sendhaazham Poovil..
Poovannam Pola Minnum..
Kannamma Kadhal Ennum Kavithai
Ila Nenje Vaa...
All the above songs bear a solid testimony to his tribute to nature. Besides, his songs are a whiff of fresh air in one aspect. I suppose only in his songs, all the heroines comes with their natural faces rather applying ample colors and touch-ups on their faces.
Nowadays, most of the songs come with innumerable cuts as we wonder whether the song has been made by the Editor or a film-maker. This is not the way a song should be picturised. Of course, if a song demands rapid-cut editing like Poovukenna Pootu - it is OK to have a fast editing of many shots. But not for all songs.The song should take its time with Long Takes, Long Shots. Only, a good cameraman and a director can accomplish this. Else, all songs would suffer from heavy editing. These are not termed to called as songs rather Flipbooks which pass at every second.
When you look at Balu's songs they are as like his scenes they flow like a stream with minimal cuts. We get to see Long Shots, Close-Ups, Panoramic View, the Horizon, Streams, Dolly Shots. Even if he shoots in artificial lighting - Nalam Vaazha Ennaalum - the song doesn't cause an irritation to our eyes. It's simple and pure.
Coincidentally, this week, I am addicted to two numbers from the movie Vanna Vanna Pookal. Lastly, have you seen any hero, riding casually in a cycle, enjoying the woods, dancing and living alone. The Shot, when Prashanth crosses a set of people including a boy and a girl, having a load of firewood on their heads affected me a lot craving for their simplicity and their surroundings.
This simplicity we could find only in Balu Mahendra Songs.
Shivakumar has written a neat tribute to Shankar Nag in "The Hindu". Though Shankar Nag passed away 25 years before, still, he is an icon in Karnataka. In particular, if you have been to Bangalore, there's the least chance that you might have missed an autorickshaw with Shankar Nag's picture decorating the auto's front-side glass. Besides, his evergreen classic songs Jotheyali, Santhosange haadu Santhosange, Kelage nimageega.. still, being actively played on FM channels and marriage halls.
Being from Tamilnadu, my personal experience with Shankar Nag movies are nil. Apart from his classic Malgudi Days, I haven't seen any of his movies. I wish to see his movies though(in future). But, just seeing Malgudi days, I can clearly conclude that he was up above the normal film-makers in Kannada industry. Years before, during my childhood days I had seen the Swami and Friends Episodes. Again, after moving to Bangalore, one fine day, just to rekindle my Doordarshan day nostalgic memories, I bought a DVD and saw a handful of episodes. The second time viewing made me realise the Shankar Nag's brilliance in Direction.
Even most of the mainstream Indian movies weren't matched the class of Malgudi Days. I would like to quote this with an example of Swami and Friends Episode 1.
The Context:
When Swami asks an irksome question to his prejudiced teacher, he would receive a tweak in his ears as a punishment from his teacher. When he complains this to his father, he writes a letter to the principal asking to take an action on the guilty teacher.
1. The teacher intentionally mocks the Hinduism practice and praises the Jesus, thus irritating the Swami. Hence, he asks a tricky question to the teacher about Jesus.
2. The teacher not expecting such a question from a kid tweaks his ear for having insulted him among the other students.
3. Swami takes this incident to his father.
4. Father writes a letter to the principal.
5. Father reads the letter before Swami and asks him to give it to the principal.
6. Swami delivers the letter to the principal before going to the classroom.
See, how beautifully all the above scenarios are filmed in the Serial. Shankar Nag does this in just 3.19 minutes.(From 1.57 to 5.16) The Camera slowly zooms in towards the Ganesh idol, we hear the teacher's voice in the background as we are taken to a flash-back shot with teacher mocking the hinduism idol practice. Then Swami asks a question only to get his ear tweaked; as he cries in pain we see immediately the next shot with the letter fully composed and signed by Swami's father. In between, his mother asks for a pittance and finally when his father starts reading the letter, the shot has already moved to the next as Swami starts walking to the school with the letter in his hand, with audience hearing his father's voice reading the letter in the background. The timing is also beautiful as the letter completes exactly when Swami reaches the Headmaster's room.
What a film language Shankar Nag has pulled off, that too in a Television Serial. Besides, the excellent selection of artists, perfect locations to depict the pre-independence India - Agumbe - Karnataka, authentic houses, soulful Title Score(L.Vaidyanathan) has elevated a regular TV serial into a classic.
But how sad, that an artist in his prime, losing his life in a gruesome accident.
Exactly an year before, we lost one of India's finest editors. It took some time to digest the fact that Vinod Mehta had indeed left us when I saw the news on TV.
He was far different among the elite panel of Mainstream English Editors, who pose with costly suits and scare us with their verbose writings.
Unearthing infamous 1999 match-fixing scandal, Neera Radia Tapes were some of his important contributions to the Indian Journalism, besides influencing many young journalists like Krishna Prasad, Saba Naqvi, S.Anand and Tarun Tejpal. His commitment towards secularism, clean journalism are unquestionable even among his detractors.
Even though not a great writer, his simple writing, remarkable sense of humour, his vast experience in the journalism field makes his books - Lucknow Boy and Editor Unplugged worth reading. His monthly column Delhi Diary is an absolute delight read which I look forward every month with keen interest.
More than Outlook and his colleagues, I miss this beloved Editor.
8 Years before, When I listened to Pootukkal Pottaalum, I was awe-struck by the tune, brilliant orchestration and the rhythms. But, at that time, I didn't know that it was a Waltz style composition. Later, being exposed to various forms of music, made me figure out whether the song is a waltz or rock and roll or jazz. I do know this won't be right always as I don't analyse it technically but just tell it by listening experience.
Songs are an integral part of our Indian Movies. Yes, Hollywood films do have songs but they come in the musical category, not in the mainstream films. However, in India, when the cinema medium was in its baby steps trying to cement a permanent place, mythological dramas were ruling us as the sole entertainment. Gradually, films replaced these dramas but retaining songs and lengthy dialogs from the dramas.
Hence, in the early years of Tamil Films, all we saw a movie between songs. Apparently, our films were just an extended versions of our mythological dramas without a clear understanding of the visual medium. Those days, with no dubbing technology, the characters in the film have to sing the songs for themselves. As a result, professional singers like M.K.T, P.U. Chinnappa became heroes. And, being the movies were mere epics, all the songs sounded heavy Carnatic numbers. However in Bollywood, Anil Biswas, Ramchandra, Naushad started fusing our songs with Western Classical Orchestration, trying new forms of music like waltz, rock and roll. Gradually, this trend reached in South too. Saluri Rajeswara Rao was one such composer who had tried western classical nuances in our songs.
Probably, the best example is Kalyana Samayal Saadham (Mayabazaar). The whole song is rooted in Western Classical style - both the orchestration and the scale of the song. Noted Cinema Historian, Theodore Baskaran says: This is in the lines of "Marching Theme". If you hear, John Paul Jones Score, you could probably relate to this style.
Inadvertently, I find out this brilliant Waltz in the Navin Mozart's Soundcloud uploads where I actually landed to listen Vetri Karangal Title Score. What a shame, all these years I've been so dumb to miss this rare piece from the movie Sathya. Venkateswaran Ganesan has this song in You tube with the best Stereo Recording. Ilaiyaraaja Fans who aren't aware of this song, give it a try.
