Geo’s Talkies – Onayum Aatukuttiyum

Tamil Cinema has been going through a wonderful period recently where anyone who has a good story – even decent story -  to narrate is getting the avenue to make his or her movie. The audience is surprisingly receptive to these movies from rank newcomers in an industry that is dominated by stars, big production houses and larger than life premises. Cinema was always supposed to be the common man’s escape from his daily grind, which is true to a large extent but should cinema be slotted within or constrained by such platitudes ?"

In a year where even a Mani Ratnam’s movie had to bite dust at the theatres came Mysskin’s “Onayum Aatukuttiyum”. Mysskin is an intelligent filmmaker, too intelligent some would say. In this movie he brings the story of a medical college student whose life gets intermeshed in a vicious web of crime and deceit. On his way back home after a night of studies at his friend’s house, Chandru finds a man lying on the road with bullet-shot wounds. Earlier a lot of people pass by the hapless man, the usual apathy we exhibit at this situation is portrayed starkly. People who stop to see if the man has life and leave when they see he has. People who shoot pictures for social media. People who don’t want to do anything about a wounded man on the road.

The system is the next on Mysskin’s list. Chandru isn’t able to get medical attention to the wounded man in a hospital, neither is he able to get the law enforcement’s attention. One of the police men even steal the wounded man’s watch right behind Chandru’s back. Sheer desperation forces Chandru to take the man home and treat his wound with help from his Professor, who himself is bereaved that night, an event that seems to play a role in the Professor deciding to help Chandru perform the medical procedures after initially rebuking him sharply for acting irresponsibly.

The Crime Branch lands on Chandru’s house the next day because the wounded man was Wolf, who was fleeing after being shot by the police in an “encounter”. Wolf, according to the Police, is a most wanted criminal with over 14 murders to his name which includes a blind teenager. A lot of these facts help us join the dots together in the third act of the movie. Chandru and his elder Brother are taken into Police custody, unofficially, while Chandru’s sister in law is kept under house arrest.

The Police characters have been sketched well. We are used to templates of either too good or too bad cops in uniform in Cinema. Here you have a mix of policemen. The corrupt officer who is hand in glove with another dreaded criminals. Tons of policemen on night beats, manning check points, who are scared as we’d be at such times. High ranking officer who want to help Chandru but hesitates due to passive pressure from his juniors and yet when circumstances change has no qualms in calling a hit to rid the society of an alleged dreaded criminal.

The best writing comes in the form of a CB-CID duo who read between the lines all through the movie to pursue their own course of finding Wolf. One of these two has a brilliant dialogue explaining to his superior officer why he won’t let Chandru escape Police custody, despite the custody being unlawful. When the Wolf wants to meet Chandru the Police hatch a plan to eliminate him. Is the Wolf stupid enough to walk into a trap laid out by the Police ? Why does the Wolf want to meet Chandru ? The rest of the movie is about how Chandru is used by the police as a lamb to lure the wolf and how Wolf navigates the quagmire.

This movie has been shot entirely in the night, not the usual DI work of turning a day shot into night. Ilaiyaraja’s foreground score, as the titles put it, support the movie ably. Mysskin’s martial arts background set the stage for some brilliant action choreography, complete with two samurai’s nailed to each other in the end. Mysskin even stretches the Onaay trait by showing Wolf with a tail. God is an underlying character all through the movie showing up on the wall Chandru runs past, as screams from Policemen who get shot, in the cemetery etc. “Onaayum Aatukuttiyum” is a brilliant attempt from a filmmaker who is completely in control of his form and technique, a Tamil movie that can rival any other good thriller from anywhere else in the world.

Independence Day – India - play list

Along with wishing everyone a happy independence day I’d like to put forth an independence day play list of sorts. A collection of songs whose words and music have a strong patriotic spirit to it.

• National anthem: Featuring Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Vikku Vinayakram, Ravikiran, Kumaresh & Ganesh, Pt. Vishwamohan Bhat, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pt. Jasraj, this collective instrumental version was produced by AR Rahman for the album "Jana Gana Mana".
• Missing: Loosely based on the iconic “Vande Mataram”, this piece was composed and produced by AR Rahman for the album "Vande Mataram".
• Vande Mataram:  Written by Mehboob and sung by the ‘crown princess of Indian playback music’ Lata Mangeshkar, this song was composed and produced by Ranjit Barot for the album "Vande Mataram 98". It combined the best of the modern and the yesteryears, a feat Ranjit Barot  effortlessly manages to accomplish given his strong classical training and a background in rock music. The choir’s harmonic rendition of “Suchalaam sufalaam” that opens this song is unique and a spell binding effort.
• Maa Tujhe Salaam: Rendered, composed and produced by AR Rahman (Does anyone still remember Yak Bondy?) for the album "Vande Mataram", the words for this song were written by Mehboob. The brief given to him was to not write a song that the youth would like but never sing.
• Desh mere desh: Sung by Sukhwinder Singh & AR Rahman, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "The legend of Bhagat Singh". The words of this song were written by Sameer.
• Yeh jo desh hai thera: sung, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Swades". Javed Akthar’s words bring a melancholic and fond feeling to friends living in foreign lands and to natives alike.
• Theme music from "Bombay": Composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Bombay", this song is alleged to have taken 3 months to complete delaying the release of the movie. Based on the same raag as Mohandas Gandhi’s favourite song, this piece of music kicked off the trend of having instrumental compositions on mainstream film music albums, although AR Rahman has been doing it since his first movie “Thiruda thiruda”. “Bombay” is also the best selling casette tape of all times in India, if the accounting was transparent in the industry it would have rivalled MJ’s “Thriller” too in terms of copies sold.
• Azadi: Sung, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Bose, the forgotten hero", the words were written by Javed Akthar. This movie didn’t get quite the attention it deserved, it was a good effort and the music was top notch. This was one of AR Rahman’s lengthiest albums with a total of 19 tracks on the soundtrack CD.
• Thamizha thamizha: Sung by Hariharan, written by Vairamuthu, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Roja". (Bharat humko jaan say pyaara hai is the same tune in Hindi)
• Desk ki mitti: Words by Javed Akthar, sung by Sonu Nigam, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Bose, the forgotten hero".
• Sarfarosh ki tamanna: Written by Sameer, sung by Sonu Nigam & Hariharan, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "The Legend of Bhagat Singh". 

“Chak de” composed by Salim-Sulaiman due for the movie “Chak de India”, “Mera mulk mera desh” from the movie “Diljale” composed by Anu Malik are some honourable mentions.

This writer has a strong bias towards AR Rahman which would be evident looking at the songs in this play list. There have been timeless gems from the olden days, since my understanding and exposure to music from that period is limited I’ve restrained myself to only mention songs that came out after 1992.

Are there any other songs in the last 2 and 1/2 decades that should have been mentioned?

Geo’s talkies – Kadal

Its an exciting prospect when Mani Ratnam makes a movie that isn’t being made in Hindi in parallel. One of Mani Ratnam’s strong points about a movie is how grounded in the milieu that the story is set in is.  Jeyamohan’s writing on “Angadi Theru” and “Naan Kadavul” were good to put it mildly. Both stories were gritty, grounded and hard hitting. The latter had a lovely philosophical and religious subtext that ran in parallel to the narrative. Therefore when Jeyamohan teams up with Mani Ratnam expectations are surely going to peak, who’d not want to see what the master of modern day urban romance (in as artistically it can be within the boundaries of the mainstream) do to Jeyamohan’s story.

This is a story about good vs evil, about Sam and Berchmans. Sam Fernando, a scion of a rich family wants to become a priest, goes to a seminary where he meets Berchmans, who is from a poor family, the place in the seminary being his meal ticket. The clash of personalities manifest right at the outset with Berchmans’ playful prank playing nature contrasted by Sam’s silence and frugal eating habits. Sam happens to catch Berchmans, both sworn to celibacy, with another woman and there begins the journey of Berchmans wanting his revenge on Sam. He spouts lines about the Satan stopping short of calling him a fallen angel, but you get it by now.

The story moves to a fishing hamlet on coastal Tamil Nadu. A small boy is taking a nap, lying on top of his mother. When a man comes knocking and asks the boy to go out and latches the door behind him we realize that his mother is a prostitute. A few seconds later the lust borne man rushes out of the hut after discovering that the lady’s been dead for a while. The small fellow goes back and tries to wake his mother and goes back to hugging her corpse. The clergy refuse a place in the Church’s cemetry to the dead woman which results in her being buried by the sea, her leg having to be broken to be fit into what’s her coffin.

The simile this brings is to a prostitute who couldn’t keep her legs closed, it hits you hard. This is not the Mani Ratnam you know. At it’s best this could be Bala’s territory. But then you realize this is the Mani Ratnam trying to push boundaries. The kid gives a priceless expression mourning the death of his Mother looking into the camera. When he lands up at the house of who he thinks is his Father, the cinematography is raw, you can see the cracks in the wall, almost smell the dry fish that is laid out to dry in the verandah. The little boy, named Thomas, grows up in the same village, ridiculed and ostracized by the local populace.

This is when Sam, who has now become a priest, lands. Sam wants to reinvigorate faith in the fishing community that has lost it’s communion with God. He goes about setting his Church and manages to weave his way into the heart of the boy and the community. The Priest now has a son, a Father becoming a father to put it in a colloquial way. In a story of good vs evil how long can you move the narrative without the antagonist in it. Berchmans, now  a wealthy fishing contractor, lands on the shores where Sam lives, shot by a rival gang and left to die.  Sam nurses him back to life and Berchmans plots his moves in the fight against good to establish his supremacy.

Sam gets thrown in jail for murder which plays out as an accident while he’s being tried by the congregation on allegations of immoral behaviour involving Serena, a superb and short portrayal by Lakshmi Manchu. The condemnation, judgement and arrest plays out like The Passion of the Christ in how it unfolds and the imagery used.  Thomas falls for Beatrice (called Bea), a young girls living with nuns in a monastery, she’s apparently some sort of a nurse or paramedic. Thomas, who is orphaned yet again, is taken into the fold by evil incarnate Berchmans. He’s a sinner, he later confesses to his beau, who is playing hopscotch. She says he’s forgiven, that’s all it takes for him to redeem himself. But has he completely? The rest of the movie is about how the fight of good and evil plays out and who wins in the end.

The complete nonchalance at how some artistic, political and social issues are mentioned casually in the movie is a delight. Berchmans killing Thomas’ father, who lands in Thomas’ arms to breathe his last after having spent his whole life disowning him is poetic. And there after Berchmans mentioning it casually as a death due to firing by the other side, a reference to the Sri Lankan navy which is always in the news for firing on Indian fisherman, is subtle. The now powerful Thomas being able to exhume his Mother’s remains from the beach and give her a burial in the Church’s cemetry is a nuanced portrayal of the double standards that the Clergy mete out to the poor.

This story has done what few mainstream movies manage to do and that is to not explain everything moronically. Between what’s shown on screen are gaps which are filled in the mind. Sam is never shown conducting a mass or giving a Sunday message in oratorical flourish to establish how he wins over his flock. Berchmans deceit in using Serena to accuse Sam isn’t spoon fed. AR Rahman’s music (songs and background score) is fabulous. Chithirai Nila plays when Thomas loses his Mother in the beginning of the movie and again when he loses his Father. Magudi is the title card song, it’s also the “falling of Thomas” song. Adiye is the love lorn youth’s lament song. Nenjukulle plays out amidst chatter. Moongil thottam is classic Mani having his fun on the beach. However, the songs comes at points where the story is paused for the music videos to play out, that’s a bummer. Nee illai is the end credits song.

Rajiv Menon’s cinematography is excellent, but do we need DI in every frame that the skin tones, the sky, water and the horizon look “photoshopped”? One has to mention that the steady cam work was top notch all through the movie. Art direction is just fascinating in this movie. Sashidhar Adappa, not the regular Sameer Chanda, does the production work and it stands out in a non-obtrusive manner all through the movie. Be it the Kasimedu type fishing stalls on the beach, the churches or the boats. The dialogues are in a dialect that is unique to the Southern parts of Coastal Tamil Nadu which many might find a little difficult to keep up with.

Arvind Swamy is wonderful as Father Sam Fernando but it’s Arjun Sharja who takes the honours for the best part in the movie. He lives the role he’s playing and his eyes sparkle with venom when he espouses vengeance. Gautam Karthik performs decently, though this isn’t an all out star-kids-debut movie or subject, he manages to hold his own. Thulasi Nair has a nice and unique smile, but one smile cannot a full movie make. Her performance is woefully inadequate which leaves me wondering if the romantic and spiritual angle would have gotten more depth if her role was portrayed by a more consummate actress? I also wonder if the character was written as “child-like” as an after thought to keep with the actress’ juvenile portrayal? Why does Mani cast such woefully inadequate actresses in his movie? This after casting excellent talent like Revathi, Shobana, Amala, Saranya in the past!

Mani Ratnam is also someone who stretches this suspension of disbelief aspect with respect to locations in every movie. He continues the same in this movie by shooting in Kasimedu, Manappadu, Dhanushkodi and backwaters in Alapuzha (Chitira Kayal, Vembanad Lake) to edit them together as one place. Is the church shown in the end titles Kuruvilangad St Mary’s Forane Church? And the church shown in the medical camp Cheriapally in Kottayam?

Kadal is a wonderfully layered attempt at charting out a new territory  in terms of content and execution.

Geo’s talkies – Departures (Japanese)

Departures was the winner in the best foreign film category at the Oscars in 1999. The movie is based on a novel titled Coffinman and was directed by Yojiro Takita and has English subtitles.

Daigo Kobayashi is a cellist with a modern Japanese orchestra which closes down due to lack of patronage. This leaves Daigo without a job and forces him to sell his costly and professional cello, move to the town he was born in to occupy the house left back by his deceased Mother. Daigo responds to an advertisement about a job with Sasaki and manages to bag it only to realize it wasn’t what he thought it to be. The job is to prepare dead bodies for burial, encoffination is the term used by some.

Reluctant Daigo learns the trade from his boss Sasaki, a man of few words but who portrays immense respect for the dead and living, who meticulously work on dead bodies with respect to wash, clean, clothe and make them look their best in the last few moments left on Earth. Daigo’s wife Mika doesn’t like his job when she get’s to know it, he becomes a pariah with the only other association he’s shown to have in the movie.

Daigo nurtures an almost perfect relationship with his boss and eventually learns to respect and practise his trade with art like precision. Having raised by a single mother, he nurses a grudge for his Father who deserted them while he was a child. His wife leaves him asking him to decide if he wants to continue the profession or live with her.

There isn’t too much dramatic tension in the narrative, all such setups are resolved before they can sink in. The movie has been shot very beautifully with classical or classical-like orchestral music to back up the shots. The third movement (popularly known as Ode to Joy) from Beethoven’s 9th plays in it’s full 6 track glory in the early section of the movie showing Daigo’s orchestra. Daigo find more music and looks inward as his learning of his trade progresses.

The ending reunites Daigo back with his wife and brings closure to his inner turmoil in a very nice way. The Japanese have made an art of folding paper, which goes by the name Origami. Even routine and mundane activities like manufacturing in an assembly line is practiced like an art in Japan. It’s hence not very surprising to see how much of a care and devotion is laid out to prepare dead people and give them a fitting farewell from this world.

There are many scenes that stand out due to content that’s emotional or soul stirring. A dead wife’s husband crying “Naomi”, Daigo’s boss Sasaki’s methods while working, Mika starting to take pride in her husband’s profession, the Japanese people’s liking for good food, all have been portrayed exquisitely. A scene depicting salmon trying to swim up a river while dead one’s float downstream is profound in meaning. The scene where Sasaki & Daigo show up 5 minutes late to be shouted at mirrors the fact that the Japanese are sticklers for punctuality.

Departures is a must watch on any movie lover’s list, for the way characters have been laid out and made to play; around the theme of mortal certainity, of death and loss, yet would make you exclaims “What a beautiful movie!” instead of anything negative.

Christmas Day

Distant stars, at home up in the heavens.
Wonder what they see, are they watching me?
Christmas Star, you spin your strands of silver.
What a sight to see, are you there to guide me?
Star light, shine bright.
See me through the dark night.
Light mine, half way;
Guide me home for Christmas Day.
Midnight stars, they sail the sky in silence.
Hearing all they see, are they hearing me?
Christmas Star, you watch the world so wisely;
At my journey's end, will you be my true friend?
Star light, shine bright.
See me through the dark night.
Light mine, half way;
Guide me home for Christmas Day.
Christmas Star light,
See me on my way.
Light mine, half way;
Guide me home for Christmas Day.
(Composed by John Williams, Words by Leslie Bricusse, Featured in the movie Home Alone)

We are the world 25 for Haiti

Fans of music have been stunned by “We are the world” written by Michael Jackson & Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones for the group USA for Africa. This song featured Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Rogers, Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles to name a few.

25 years later the co-writer of the song and the producer team up yet again to re-create the magic, to help raise funds for Haiti. Michael Jackson is no more and Quincy Jones is probably a tad too old for today’s consoles, synthesizers and other equipments, I’m kidding, this man can still work his magic on a record.

RedOne, is a producer-songwriter who collaborates writes-produces works for Lionel Richie, Akon, Enrique Iglesias, produces the new version, Paul Haggis shoots the video. This song features a whole range of artists from across the world, almost 75 is what the official website says.

Jamie Foxx, Nicole Scherzinger (Lewis Hamilton’s ex girlfriend, Pussycat dolls), Celine Dion, Barbara Streissand, LL Cool J, Jamie Foxx, Miles Cyrus, Josh Groban, Janet Jackson, Usher, Lionel Richie, Carlos Santana, Michael Jackson, AR Rahman and a lot of other artists.

The new rendition is as good as the old one if not better, I’m glad it didn’t end up like the “Mile sur” experiment conducted in India, that was a disaster. Aishwarya Rai strutting on screen lip syncing to Shreya Ghosal’s voice is unacceptable, by any weird suspension of disbelief logic. Rahman on the continuum fingerboard was lovely and so were many of the real musicians featured in the video.

Coming back to world25, to compare how long an artist features in a collaborative track is debatable. However Nicole Scherzinger getting the most frames in this song is a little too boring. She’s pretty but is she the best vocalist? Hardly. Jamie Foxx however does a nice Ray Charles gig towards the end of the song.

Apart from the rap towards the end there isn’t anything new done to the music. AR Rahman is relegated to the choir, no solo act and even in the choir he’s lost despite being on the front row. I personally feel AR Rahman should have produced the track as a whole or co-produced.

I believe AR Rahman could have added that extra bit or charm and clever interludes or orchestrations if he was enlisted to join the production crew, paucity of time could be the reason. Doesn’t bode well for Rahmaniacs like me. I liked the inclusion of Michael Jackson’s footage and Janet Jackson singing a duet with him.

If you wants to show some concern for the tragedy in Haiti and contribute towards the relief effort do buy this song from iTunes, don’t download it for free. If some of us can stand up for celebrity no-brainer causes like MNIK we certainly should do our bit for worthy causes like this.

Erratum - Indians can win Oscars too - AR Rahman, Reesul Pookutty

In this article written right after Rahman and Resul won Oscar's this year I went on to say "AR Rahman is the only Indian to have ever won two Oscar's at the same show". This statement is not true, James Horner won two Oscars for 'Best music' and 'Best original score' in 1998. Thanks due to all my friends who pointed out this discrepancy and to James (not James Horner) specifically.

Geo's Talkies - Kaminey

This is going to a little difficult, trying to write about a movie I enjoyed completely without spelling out it's plot. 'Kaminey', the newest Vishal Bharadwaj movie comes with a lot of baggage. The man at the helm of affairs doesn't treat the audience with kid gloves and is adept at making movies for kids and adults with such aplomb that you wonder if he suffers from multiple personality disorder, and I'm not even talking about the fact that he writes his own music.

'Kaminey' is Vishal's take on the time tested hindi movie 'twin brother' plot. The movie is a roller coaster with lots of thrills, it's twisted and take off into various directions, however the grand finale comes across as fitting. Charlie and Guddu are identical twins who are opposites. The former has a speech impairment which makes him pronounce 's' as 'f' and the latter stammers. Charlie works for a group of Bengali Brothers who fix horse races while Guddu is associated with an NGO. Guddu is caught in a situation when he impregnates Sweety during an outing, the irony here is that the song just before this revelation is about protection, condoms and AIDS. Sweety is the sister of a linguistic chauvinist who mouths 'jai maharashtra', whose name is Bhope Bhau. Bhope cannot fathom the fact that his sister has fallen for a guy who is an outsider, another lovely piece of screenplay where Guddu's real name Sanjay Kumar Sharma (hails from UP) is portrayed on screen.

Any more of the story would really be a farce, the movie is best enjoyed on screen. It takes about half hour in which about ten or so characters are introduced on screen and you might end up wondering what's going on. But you got to let the movie play out and by the time it's interval you are almost familiar with everyone. This movie is infested with 'kamineys' in the form of drug lords, cops, politicians and what not.

This movie also is so grounded in today's world, the world where a guy from UP is perceived as an outsider in Maharashtra, a world where Trivandrum has become Thiruvananathapuram, Bombay, Mumbai, Calcutta, Kolkata and so on. There's a lovely scene between Sweety and Shahid on screen where she proclaims her love for him using the city names (read politically correct), Vishal can combine love and politics so subtly into the screen play. Charlie and Guddu's Father who hails from UP works for the Railways, the anti-narcotic squad cops who are hand in glove with the drug trafficking mafia are some examples.

Trains play an understated role in this movie, some of the sweeping moment in this movie are framed on screen with a train passing by or still which almost plays conscience or mirrors the flow of thought in the head of the character on screen at that particular time. Colours in the movie are muted to give it a noir feel I suppose. Most of the filming is done using the steadicam which transports you right into the action.

The writing is probably the star of 'Kaminey', every character get's his/her own time on screen and it takes a while to get used to this kind of exposition. Shahid has done a superb job of portraying Charlie & Guddu and almost makes us believe that they are two different people, Priyanka finally has done very good acting. I believe they've used sync sound in which case the work done capturing sounds and dialogues are amazing. Amole Gupte (hint: Taara Zameen Par) excels in the role of Bhope Bhau. There are many more people who have played their part to perfection. 

Tassadaq Hussain's camera work is exquisite. Vishal's music is as much a star as the writing of this movie. The background score complements the narrative without screaming for attention, a quality that is rare. This is one of those movies where you have someone in charge who is sure of the direction he wants to go and comes out with flying colours in his effort. Vishal's fascination for Shakespeare is well known, he's done a brilliant job of adapting Shakespeare to the Indian milieu in two of his previous outings. On this one he's tried to incorporate some plot elements of the Bard along with screenplay elements of Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie and the like. A nice song plays in the background during the gangster show down in the very end almost like the title song in 'Omkara' which was filmed with scenes of action and violence.

I'm not going to talk about the laconic black humour that is lined up in almost every scene, they keep the laughs coming. The result is an excellent movie which keeps the viewer enthralled during it's playing time and doesn't indulge in insulting the viewer's intelligence by playing out long drawn flashback sequences for every plot twist. Bravo Vishal, can't wait for the next movie which would complete his Shakespeare trilogy.

Requiscat in pace - Michael Jackson

The undisputed 'King of Pop' and one of the largest selling artists in the history of modern pop music Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest in California today. The death of this star leaves a huge void in the minds of his fans. Michael Jackson was the undoubted leader in fan following whose life was very controversial but never his music. MJ is the winner of 13 Grammy awards and is rumoured to have sold 750 albums across the globe.

Bad, Thriller, Dangerous, Blood on the dance floor, History turned into record breaking albums as did Michael's popularity. With such great hits as 'Bad', 'Smooth Criminal', 'The way you make me feel', 'Beat it', 'Billie Jean', 'The girl is mine', 'Jam', 'Dangerous', 'Heal the world', 'Remember the time', 'Black or white', 'You are not alone', 'Scream', 'Stranger in moscow', 'Earth song', 'Cry', 'Speechless', Michael's knack for churning out lilting melodies and beat heavy songs earned him millions of fans.

My brother and I used to wonder if Michael would ever get back to his old self and give his fans one more best selling album despite the lacklustre sales of 'Invincible' which was released after MJ walked out of Sony over a dispute about publishing rights of his music. The music company which has a separate division for MJ (Epic Records) didn't take this kindly and a lot of bad blood was spilled over in the media. 

Jam Jam

Here Comes The Man

Hot Damn

The Big Boy Stands

Movin' Up A Hand

Makin' Funky Tracks

With My Man

Michael Jackson

Smooth Criminal

That's The Man

Mike's So Relaxed

Mingle Mingle Jingle

In The Jungle

Bum Rushed The Door

3 And 4's In A Bundle

Execute The Plan

First I Cooled Like A Fan

Got With Janet

Then With Guy

Now With Michael

Cause It Ain't Hard To...

That was Heavy D's rap in 'Jam' from the album 'Dangerous'. To call MJ a phenemenon would still be an understatement. His command over rhythm programming and orchestration was second to none in the pop arena. In an age where an artist had to depend on a producer to score the music, MJ belong to a elite group who most often wrote their own music. MJ started off his career with Quincy Jones producing his songs. This trend changed with 'Dangerous' after which he co-produced his albums with Bruce Swedien, Bus Kohen, Ted Riley. R Kelly started working with MJ from History onwards, 'Cry' from 'Invincible' was also a collaboration with R Kelly. 

MJ's song 'Will you be there' featured in the movie 'Free Willy' was counted to be one of the all time best songs to be associated with a movie. MJ's personal life was troubled all through. He converted to Islam in November last year and came to be known as Mikaeel. He was working on an album with Steve Porcaro in Bahrain, he's known Steve since his Thriller days. MJ was on track to perform live from the 13th of July which would have signalled his return to the live stage. The voice has been silenced, we won't get to see any more moon walks. I've seen the legend at it's peak and then being overshadowed by lesser mortals whose music though mediocre in quality was louder than MJ. 

Did MJ not anticipate the changing tastes of new generations? Why couldn't he transform into a trendsetter like he did in the late seventies, eighties and early nineties? Was there ever a performer like MJ who could set the stage on fire? Will there ever be one? I sincerely hoped MJ would come out with just one more album and silence his critics, captivate this generation and cast a spell on them, but alas that's not going to happen anymore. This not even if the album he's been working on is released. With hearfelt prayers I mourn the loss of my musical hero, someone whose string and voice arrangement still gives me goosebumps, whose moonwalk on stage could prompt me to get up and shake despite the fact that I have clay feet. Michael, we'll miss you, our prayers will always be with you. 

Like A Comet

Blazing 'Cross The Evening Sky 

Gone Too Soon

Like A Rainbow

Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye

Gone Too Soon

Shiny And Sparkly

And Splendidly Bright

Here One Day

Gone One Night

Like The Loss Of Sunlight

On A Cloudy Afternoon

Gone Too Soon

Like A Castle

Built Upon A Sandy Beach

Gone Too Soon

Like A Perfect Flower

That Is Just Beyond Your Reach

Gone Too Soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight

Here One Day

Gone One Night

Like A Sunset

Dying With The Rising Of The Moon

Gone Too Soon

(This song was written for Ryan White, a young victim of AIDS, by Michael Jackson in 1993)

Music - Oscar hopefuls - 2009

I was tempted to post when I saw a pic of such distinguished composers on Hollywood reporter. Here's a short description on each of them. 

From left: Jan AP Kaczmarek, Alexander Desplat, Danny Elfman (Top most), Howard Shore, AR Rahman are the composers posing in the picture above.  [Image copyrighted by Hollywood reporter and used here in a non-commercial context, will be removed if objections are raised by the copyright owner]

Jan AP Kaczmarek is a Polish composer who has won the Oscar award for Finding Neverland. Jan effectively was able to create melodies on the piano and merge it the the orchestra in his soundtrack for Finding Neverland which was instantly appealing at the same time was layered enough for hardcore classical music fans to discern in the long run. He is also known for two symphonic compositions done in Poland - Cantata for Freedom & Oratorio. Jan's tickets to the awards nite this year is 'The Visitor'. 

Alexander Desplat is considered French and has composed music for such films as Lust, Caution, The Luzhin Defence, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Syriana, Birth, Hostage, Casanova, The Nest and The Painted Veil. He got noticed for his score for 'The Painted Veil' for which he earned a Golden Globe for best original score. His score for the epic 'The Queen' was nominated for the Academy award (Oscar). This year he's rumoured to be nominated for the score done for the movie 'The Curious case of Benjamin Button'.

Danny Elfman is an American composer whose scores to movies have been described as wild, maniac, romantic, lush, serious, dark, bright etc. Having scored the first Batman movie, Danny is know for his work in movies such as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare before Christmas, Good Will Hunting, Chicago, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Kingdon etc. Danny has been nominated for the Academy award for Good Will Hunting (Dramatic Score), Men in Black (Musical or Comedy) & Big Fish (Original Score) but hasn't won the coveted Oscar as yet, is this going to be his year for the work done on the movie titled 'Milk'?

Howard Shore is the most popular and decorated of the names we have on this post today. Having composed for such successful movies as The Silence of the Lambs, The Lord of the rings trilogy, Philadelphia, Se7en, The Departed, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Howard has won the academy award thrice - Best Original Score for The Fellowship of the Ring, Best Original Song (sung by Annie Lennox) and Best Original Score for The Return of the king. The year he's likely to be nominated for the score of the movie 'Doubt'. 

AR Rahman is probably the best selling composer in this list simply because of the sheer number of record sales his music is attributed to, it's rumoured to be close to 110 million putting him in the same league as Michael Jackson in terms of sales. AR Rahman is an indian born composer who changed the way music was done in mainstream indian movies. After breaking all records in Indian he went west to compose music for the hugely successful musical Bombay Dreams (premiered in London) and The Lord of the rings (premiered in Toronto). His work on 'Warriors of Heaven and Earth' a chinese production was well received. Rahman is rumoured to get nominated to the academy awards for 'Slumdog Millionaire'. 

I'm going to stick my neck out and make two predictions. AR Rahman is going to be nominated for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for 'Slumdog Millionaire', he'll win Best Original Song ('Jai Ho' sung by Sukhwinder Sing, Lyrics by Gulzar, Produced by AR Rahman). Over to the short list expected in Feb 2009.

Requiescat in pace - H Sridhar

The demise of H Sridhar has come as a rude shock to all fans of Indian music, South Indian in particular. Winner of 4 national awards for Mahanadhi, Dil Se, Lagaan & Kannathil Muththamittal, H Sridhar was one of those rare breed of sound engineers who were trained in music too. Born on 31st Mar 1960, HS was just 48 yrs old when his end came. I read on the internet that he returned back home at 2 AM after working on the soundtrack of 'Ghajini' and didn't wake up from his sleep. The doctors declared him dead around 1000 AM and the reason was attributed as a cardiac arrest.

South Indians in particular are known to look out for names of technicians and the name of H Sridhar as Sound Designer / Sound Engineer / DTS mix was a sure fire indication of top notch sound mix on multichannel soundtracks. Media Artists, an organisation which pioneered the use of DTS as movie soundtrack formats, was H Sridhar's main umbrella. H Sridhar has also mixed / engineered almost all of AR Rahman's soundtracks. It's simply no surprise that out of the 4 national awards he has won, the music for 3 were scored by AR Rahman.

We have all the technology one would need to create a near perfect sound for CD / DVD, HS belonged to an era that had to work hard at achieving that. It's probably from there that the sense of achieving higher things would have imbibed into his system, every movie mixed by him had his stamp on it. His presence will surely be missed by the industry, DTS technologies owes it's success in India majorly to Real Image and H Sridhar who worked to create some of the best software in DTS in our times.

# All pics used in this post are from KJ Singh's collection and permission is awaited for using this here. Content will be removed if objection is raised by the owner.

Thiruppavai in Sivaji

A 1300 yr old song composed by Saint Andal praising the Thamizh God Thirumaal (believed to be an incarnation of Lord Krishna) finds it's way into my aural arena and many other men/women/children of today, thanks to the soundtrack of 'Sivaji'. "Thiruppavai" is a collection of 30 verses in praise of Thirumaal sung primarily in the month of Maargazhi which falls in the latter half of December and early half of January according to the Gregorian calendar. It is also said that each of the 30 days in the month of Maargazhi is named after these 30 verses.

Now back to 'Sivaji', the reason I'm talking about these verses. The way the lyrics blends with such sublime music in 'Sivaji' is a moment of musical brilliance. All flamboyance and style is reserved for the hero in all other songs but what beauty, almost spiritual divinity, in this song that one can keep hearing it forever. I tried my hand at deciphering the words in this verse and then got it translated through one of my friends Mr.Shanmugham (70 yrs young and keeps pushing me to complete 'Ponniyin Selvan').

Maali! Manivanna!

Maargazhineer aaduvaan

Maylaiyar seivanagal venduvana kaettiyal

Njalathai yellam

Nadungamularvana

Paalvanna vanaththul paanjajaniyamay

Polvana sangangal poipaadudaiyanavay

Saiyarperum paraiyay pallaan thisaipaaray

Kola vilakil kodiyae vidhanamay

Aalin Ilaiyaay

Arulaylo rempavaai

Oh Lord! (The original is a reference akin to Black Diamond)

Give us the strength

To complete this penance in Maargazhi like you did to our elders

Give us oil lamps, flags, powerful big drums,

singers who sing praises and conches that sound;

like your pure multi hued voice -

the sound which makes the universe shudder

Oh Lord, bless us,

Let us do our penance

I tried to stay away from transliteration and would be glad to correct any mistakes in the interpretation of the verse. The verses are powerful, the music adds to it's grandiosity. Simple and minimal orchestration, Rahman knows when to sink us in the power of the divine aural spectrum. Splendid song, another of the treasures of Thamizh literature polished and embellished by Rahman.

Seasonal vibrations

It is hot in Coimbatore, hot like I've never experienced in the past. I am known for covering myself under a sheet all round the year when asleep, this year I had to abandon that. Intermittent summer showers cool things down a bit but the afternoon heat is excruciating. The lull after the last race in Sepang and the race in Spain this weekend are heating things up too. Will McLaren continue their good run despite their car looking shaky at times (the blue haze from Lewis' car at every turn was scary)?

AR Rahman's "Sivaji" is another thing that is adding to the summer heat. This album is hot and shows what Rahman can do when he get's his own sweet time to work on a soundtrack. I hope the background score lives up to the demands of a Rajini movie. Waiting for this movie to release to see how it fares. Though 'Big B' was a dissappointment, it's music was the best to have come out in recent times. Alphons Joseph is the man behind the soundtrack which get's me to a pertinent question. Why is he not doing the background score for his movies? "Big B" is a case to point.

Haven't read anything in the past 2 months except weekly magazines and the daily newspaper. Call it laziness or not being able to allocate time for it. These days I sleep all day and then work all night. Catch up with some errands early in the morning before going back to sleep again. Heading toward to Madras this weekend and guess what? It's always fun to be with kids and the joy of being with Mia and Meeshma is unparalleled. Especially when you see them fighting for ownership over you, it's not to be encouraged but it's a nice feeling. I will drive them back to Coimbatore on Sunday and I hope the roads are better this time around.

On the back of my mind there's a thought to take a quick trip to Edapally and take part in St.George's feast this year, this is one of those random lightnings I keep getting so it may happen or simply may be dumped. "Roses in winter", "Destination Christ" - two albums Timmy brought back from the trip to Malayatoor released by the RexBand lives up to the expectations I had. The songs are simply fantastic and there's a particular song dedicated to the Late Pope John Paul II which moves me in ways I cannot describe. I am a fan of the late Holy Father and I cannot but submit myself to the power of the music and lyrics and experience his presence in my life. I would love to share the music with everyone on the internet but I don't want to encourage piracy, if anybody wants a demo track or something I'll put it up online. I'll also be glad to purchase and mail copies of this CD if anyone desires.

An update on 'After The End'

This series is yet to go online because I thought of putting up the sound clips in addition to writing about them. Currently I am trying to capture the sound and put them up as MP3's on this blog for readers to listen to the score too. This series will go online in not later than a week from now.

79th Academy Award Nominations

The nominations for the 79th Academy Awards (OSCAR) are out and this is one of those years when John Williams' score hasn't made it to the list because he didn't have any releases in 2006. Movies nominated for original score are :

“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Gustavo Santaolalla
“The Good German” (Warner Bros.) Thomas Newman
“Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight) Philip Glass
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse) Javier Navarrete
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Alexandre Desplat

Sadly AR Rahman's songs too failed to figure in the original song for a motion picture list. The following are the one's nominated :

“I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconvenient Truth”, Music and Lyric by Melissa Etheridge
“Listen” from “Dreamgirls”, Music by Henry Krieger and Scott CutlerLyric by Anne Preven
“Love You I Do” from “Dreamgirls”, Music by Henry KriegerLyric by Siedah Garrett
“Our Town” from “Cars”, Music and Lyric by Randy Newman [My favourite]
“Patience” from “Dreamgirls”, Music by Henry KriegerLyric by Willie Reale

"Apocalypto" figures in both the sound editing and sound mixing nominations and it should win the Oscars despite the presence of heavy weight competition from "Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest" and "Blood Diamond". I wouldn't be surprised if the sound mixing award went to 'Dreamgirls' though. The visual effects award would most certainly go to the minds that worked on "Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest", "Superman" and "Poseidon" are the others nominated in this category.

The best animated feature film of the year award should go to "Cars". "Happy Feat" is a strong contender and so is "Monster House". "Water" directed by Deepa Mehta makes it to the final list in the best foreign film category, I don't know the odds of this movie winning the oscar, but I hear it's got a good chance. Interestingly it was Canada's official entry in this category. "Rang De Basanti" apparently didn't make it to the final list. Go through the full list of nominations and take your pick, let's hope the academy finally breaks the oscar jinx and gives Martin Scorsese the oscar for best director.

Music and movies - After "The End"

Music in the movies always play a vital role and I am sure most if not all of us walk out of the cinema hall as the end titles start rolling in. There are cinema halls which simply stop projecting as soon as the credits start to roll which is unfortunate too. It makes sense to them to save on electricity and stop showing something which the audience is least interested in. On a personal level, most of the end titles of movies have some of the best music from the movie backing up the credits and I thought why not write about some of them which I've seen and tended to like. With this in mind, we'll be rolling out a new series titled After "The End" which has nothing to do with the Apocalypse or Armageddon, but will only try to talk about the music that underscores the movie credits after we've seen 'The End' on screen. I hope to post the first opinion on this service by the end of this week.

John Williams on music ....

“There’s a very basic human, non-verbal aspect to our need to make music and use it as part of our human expression. It doesn’t have to do with body movements, it doesn’t have to do with articulation of a language, but with something spiritual.”