Recently, I read that the Chennai streets, which were named after historic British officials, will be changed to Tamil scholars’ names and one such street name is Taylor road. Though I know it’s not tailors road, I have my own thoughts, calling the street name as Tailors road. ஏன்னா.. இருபத்தஞ்சு வ‌ருஷ‌த்துக்கு முன்னாடி.. [ ஆர‌ம்பிச்சிட்டாண்டா :) ]

My father strictly followed his own dress code policy ; his wardrobe had pairs of clothes which never gets interchanged – the light yellow shirt can only be seen with his navy blue trousers. He has great taste in dresses, food, books, kids and life, of course. He was somehow attached very much with the senior tailor at RC Tailors, which is located in Taylor’s road [ it was named after James Taylor – member of council in 1828 during British rule.  Believe me.. He was given 11 acres of land as grant in Chetpet those days — Madarasap pattinam  days! ]. I remember going with my father in 15B from Aminjikarai to Taylors road, give measurements and then collect the new clothes at a specified date. He was costlier then, when compared to the local KSB or other tailors in Aminjikarai area but a classic craftsman. Interestingly, his son runs the shop now and I was a regular customer until a while ago – before the readymade dressing era. The generation cycle would be complete when my son wears a shirt with RCTailors label, inside his collar.  

Another Tailor.. Another episode [ Vettaiyaadu villayaadu theme :) ]

I had travelled from Bangalore to Hyderabad and then took another 5 hours journey in bus to Nizamabad - a murky little town in Telengana area. The town is filled up with wholesale cloth merchants, electronic items [ broadcasting “Naaku noovu.. neeku nenu” in sub woofers with some Mahesh babu songs ], Sai baba named shops and an usual bazaar road. I visited that place after almost 20 years.

My father was posted in Nizamabad during his last service term in the govt office.  We had our evening tea [ Lamsa tea at its best ] and visited a special person – Mr. Venu. The person greeted me happily and amazed with the usual expression that a kid he used to carry has grown tall as a man [ Babu intha pedhavaadani anukaleka poyyenandi :) ]. He meant it .. Because he was the one who stitched clothes in my kinder garden days– my father was working in NZM then, before we moved to Chennai. He was holding my hands till the entire shopping was done in some local shop. He didn’t even give the clothes to me and directly took to his shop. He was happy to stitch 2 sets of dresses for me. It was more than a relation between a customer and a tailor. More than his work, he was satisfied that a kid, who visited him even after ages [ similarly, school teachers ]. The label stitched inside the collar doesn’t carry just the name of the tailor but the memories behind it.

Going back to the school days.. the pre festival days were occupied mostly by following up with the local tailor for the new dresses [பைய‌ன் வ‌ந்துறுவான்..காஜா ம‌ட்டும் வைக்க‌ணும்.. ஒரு 1 அவ‌ர் பொறுத்து வா]. The delays and the visits to the tailor shop were countless, before the festival and school reopening days. One more best tailor in my life is our family tailor Haaja Moideen in my home town. We used to collect the cut pieces of different colored clothes and play with them in his shop. It’s a very small shop which can accommodate just 2 tailors in sitting position. [ remember Kaaliannan tailor shop in Suvar illadha sithirangall – ச‌ரோஸா..குப்பை கொட்றியா.. கொட்டு ].

I remember the famous Bombay dyeing calendar with the famous actress of the yester years. I remember seeing Radha, Nadhiya, Urvasi in those calendars. Haaja had the special memory to stitch clothes mostly by seeing the person and doing the math mentally.  As any good tailor, procrastination and craftmanship are his 2 eyes. Other than the men clothes, he stitches pattu pavadai [ ட‌க்கு புடிச்ச‌து ], frocks and some special dresses like Safari suit [ எப்பேர்ப‌ட்ட‌ ட்ர‌ஸ்சுங்க‌ அது :)  - I hate that pattern of dressing].

Mathan, my classmate, used to introduce the latest fashion from the city [Chennai ! ] to our hometown. Baggies, shirt with collar button, filts [ even in shoulders ], parallel baggy, Kurtha [ but looks like chudidhar :) ]. He had his own tailor and almost designs his dress [ உத‌ய‌ம்ல‌ நாகார்ஜுனா போட்டிருப்பானேங்க‌.. அது ].  The other place we come across these tailor shops are the ciname theatre interval advertisement cards with Rajini or Kamal photos mostly [ Sometimes Michael Jackson ! ]. Skylab, New Rand, Fashion tailors were some of the shops. Women at home used to go the “ennaikadai” tailor for their needs.

ச‌ல‌வைக்குறிக்குப் பின்னே
ஒரு குடும்ப‌த்தின்
சின்ன‌ ச‌ரித்திரமும்..

ச‌ட்டைக் கால‌ரின்
டெய்ல‌ர்க‌டை லேபிளுக்குப் பின்னே

முக‌ம் ம‌ற‌ந்த‌ டெய்ல‌ரின்
நீண்ட‌ க‌ட்டை விர‌ல் ந‌க‌மும்,
பாதி டேபிள் அக‌ல‌த்திலிருக்கும்
பெரிய‌ க‌த்திரியும்,
ச‌க்க‌ர‌ங்க‌ளின் ச‌த்த‌மும்,
துணிக‌ள் குத்திய‌
ரெஜிஸ்ட‌ரும்..

தைய‌ல் மெஷினின் கால்மிதி போலே
நினைவில் ஆடிக்கொண்டிருக்கும்.

Happy rewinding

:)

Toto.

PS : Nostalgia is nothing to do with my mid life crisis :) .

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2. Chair, Balcony and Box
3. Shadows of my cycle.
4. Nuovo Cinema Paradiso — My hometown theatres.

Though we have multiple genres of cinema, we also sometimes need “no nonsense” cinema without violence, vulgarity, big star cast, unnecessary hype [ mainly Sun pictures :) ] etc., The last “no nonsense” movie was Pasanga in Tamil cinema. The simple purpose of a movie should be engaging the audience and of course, entertaining. This movie does.

The equal characterization of Kallavaani I have seen is Abagnale of “Catch me if you can” — A character which can tell any kind of lie and act according to the situation, in an extreme selfish manner. Such a character is our hero and the story is one another jobless young chap loving a school girl — an avoidable theme :( .

Story

 Hero “Arikki” is jobless and gets money from his family which consists of affectionate mother, school going sister and father working in Dubai, dreaming about the family future. Arikki falls in love with Mageswari, a school going girl. Both of their villages have some enmity. What happens in their life is the story.

View

 Fresh ideas and interesting packaging makes a simple story to enjoy the movie. [ Remember, “Thooral ninnu pochu”, Aan paavam ]. The foremost thing is the area where the story happens. Thank God ! It’s not Madurai or Thirunelveli. It’s Thanjavur. It’s very enjoyable when you see the town names where you have been and know the people.. Pattukottai, oratha nadu, mannarkudi and their dialects. Right from the first scene, the director wants to make use the best of the available people, locations and ideas. Small sequences which traps the characters and getting them out of those traps [ like Manohar with Divya calling Chandramouli for a coffee ! ].

 After the script, it’s the casting — you have right people in place and it will take up the burden easily. I couldn’t even think of any other hero or heroine doing these roles. Though the movie slightly travels in a slow pace before interval, the gripping climax takes the full credit. I like the way songs are used in this movie. SSKumaran [ MD of Poo ] has done a neat and wonderful job which is very apt to this movie. Short songs and soothing BGM [resembling IR ! ] are his strength areas.

 Interesting aspects — uneven shirt button, Bike bar, flex banner, broken items at home, LC112, travels car, hiding in a bus, fertilizer bottle, hijack. I just named a few to avoid spoilers and you can enjoy similar aspects while watching the movie. The complete credit goes to Sarkunam and his team [ Om Prakash, Raja Mohammad ] for making this clean family entertainer, watchable with kids.

Simple n entertaining.

 A beautiful snap of Frangipani. Photo courtesy : Krishna .

Happy watching

:)
Toto.

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Song  1 – Thought  1 [ Scene 1 Take 1 maadiri ille ?! ]

I have heard about film songs expressing a particular situation, a flashback or even summarizing the entire story. Have you heard of a song summarizing a common man’s life ?

When celebrities write their autobiography, they can write pages about themselves, good / bad, experiences etc., what happens if a common middle aged man is asked for a short autobiography? If the same task is given to you, how would you respond? I have a simple answer which I take from this song.

 Ordinary lines of Vaali makes this song and SPB’s voice make this song extraordinary. I just gasp when he finishes that time is already gone !

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7X316JzJUo

My story so far !

 துள்ளித் திரிந்ததொரு காலம்
பள்ளி பயின்றதொரு காலம்
காலங்கள் ஓடுது பூங்கொடியே பூங்கொடியே
இன்பத்தை தேடுது பூங்கொடியே பூங்கொடியே

அன்னை மடிதனில் சிலநாள்
அதை விடுத்தொரு சிலநாள்
திண்ணை வெளியில் சிலநாள்
உண்ண வழியின்றி சிலநாள்
நட்பின் அரட்டைகள் சிலநாள்
நம்பித் திரிந்ததும் பலநாள்
கான‌ல் நீரினில் சிலநாள்
கடல் நடுவிலும் சிலநாள்
கன்னி மயக்கத்தில் திருநாள்
கையில் குழந்தையும் அதனால்
ஓடி முடிந்தது காலங்கள் காலங்கள்.. பூங்கொடியே.……

On the similar note, the other good song sung by IR is “Kaatu vazhi “  from Athu oru Kanaa kaalam. More than the song, I again like the lyrics and the lines which we normally need to take with a pinch of salt.  

 ந‌தி போல் வேக‌த்திலே
அந்த‌ நாளும் ஓடுத‌டா !

Song 2 – Thought 2

I can’t digest the truth of philosophies and we need to go back to the fantasy world, to relax. To contrast from the previous song, I hear this antidote song  with a beautiful cadence.  The word cadence means a recurrent rhythmical series – Sandham. The classic example is Muthai Thiru Paththi thirunagai song [ Dei.. Dei ! ].  

The song is “Chittu Kuruvi” from the film Chinna veedu. I still remember those days where all my relatives go as pairs to this movie only during the 2^nd show. We were not allowed to watch this movie, which in fact increased the curiosity on this movie.

What I liked is the rhythmic lines of Vairamuthu and the beauty of Tamil. Kindly don’t deviate yourself by the amateur graphics and dance [?!] performances of Bhagyaraj, in the following video. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ3CGh0Rm08

த‌த்தை த‌த்தித் த‌வ‌ழும்
தோளைத் கொத்தித் த‌ழுவும்

முத்த‌ச் சுவ‌டு
சிந்தும் உத‌டு

க‌ள்ள‌க் க‌னியே
அள்ள‌ச் சுவையே

I am not going to talk about IR’s inspiration from Dvorak — New World Symphony — 3rd Mvt. I ‘m not qualified to praise the greatness of Dvorak, either. Dvorak is a Czech composer.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp0-FVuLtOk - If interested, follow his other works on “The New World”.

Titbit as usual.. Once a dance master approached Bhagyaraj for the song shooting and asked hm to come for rehearsals. Bhagyaraj replied that he doesn’t need rehearsals. Instead he asked the dance master to see his earlier dance steps and rehearse accordingly :)

:)

Toto.

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A true traveller never knows his destination and a true cinema fan doesn’t return from theatre without tickets. [ Pixmonk Philosophy :) ]. I watched this movie on the first day !

If you can differentiate between Aayirathil oruvan and Magadheera, Pictures of C.Kondaiah Raju [ Calendar artist ! ] and MFHussain, that’s the key. A creator looses and limits himself  when he enters into write about sprituality, epics etc., [ ex : Ezuthu chiththar ! ]. Thus the creator is restricting his boundaries when he writes about arupadai veedu or about Kumarakurubarar. Even with Sujatha, I liked the preface in his Thirukkural book rather than his explanations — short or big it is what it is.

I still like few scenes and concepts in Thalabathi [ the fine love between Rajini & Shobana, இது சூர்யா ஸார்.. ஒர்ஸாதீங்க‌ ]. To an extent the symbols he has taken from Mahabharatha was stylishly taken and it lacked the package. Time changed and Mani has entered into multiple traps like producing his own movies [ not this one ! ], making in multilingual, international market, iconic ARRahman, Bachchan couple. I never mentioned anything about GURU [ Video wiki of Dhirubhai ! ] in my blogs, which disappointed me a big time.

One of my simple expection in a movie is the movie should have a story and shouldn’t trigger any question from the audience, at least while watching. Why ? Who ? How ? — Raavanan has so many such questions. Why Ramayanam ?

Story

Veera kidnaps Ragini, wife of Dev, a honest police officer. Dev goes in search of her and Veera. Why Veera kidnaps Ragini ? Because it’s the way Ramayan was written :)
 

View

The movie has a tone — Grey, which expresses neither Ram or Raavan is completlely black nor white. Their characterisation is in the middle — Grey. The components of the movie are wind, fire and of course water in various forms [ rain / mist / dew / river/ waterfalls ]. That’s the high level factors of the movie.

The interesting aspect of any story is it’s suspense — open ended or close ended. Suspense or unknown flow makes the story interesting — for ex we never knew what happens next in a simple story like “The white balloon”. But it slips when you see Kandan Karunai, Karnan, Gandhi — as the flow of the story or history is known [ exceptional is Inglorious Basterds ]. There’s a serious concern about the efforts which may easily be superceded by the epic, which we already have in mind. 

I like the marketing techniques of Maniratnam. As an atheist, he never performs film pooja, no stills/promotions/news until the release and finally his work speak volumes rather than his interviews. I always get surprise in any of his movies with some new character  coming out — who never came in posters, promotions or songs [ Umapathy in Agni Natchathiram, Kushboo in Alaipayuthe, Kapoor in Roja, SPB in Thiruda Thiruda ]. All of his major positve marketing aspects are missing in Raavanan.

The grip is entirely missing in the story with logical questions except in few scenes. Yes ! Some of the scenes have come out brilliantly with stunning visuals, ideas [ broken Idol ] and music but the entire package disappoints.

The impressive performance of Vikram [ though repeating ], looks n performances of Aish and Prithviraj, extraordinary locations, visuals, splendid score, brilliant production design, action sequences [ and low cut costumes ;) ] are the positive things in the movie. The flaws are from the script, dialogues [ MR misses Sujatha ], characterisation [ Priya Mani, Karthik ! ] and the detached/unappealing songs. The outcome is that the movie fails to impress on a whole but I was left with few scenes. Effortful art direction, scene which Aish prays the broken idol, the confrontations of Vikram / Aish, a surprise fight, mist covered locations — the list continues but without the meaning.

I am suprised to see the characterisation of Karthik and his intorduction to explain who he is [ Thank God he didn’t have a tail !]. The director  impressed in one scene which he tried to depict the characterisation of Indrajith though he is understood as Vibeeshanan [ Sakkarai ]. The last few scenes are effectively handled and the questions that any common man has about the goodness within Raavanan and bad in Ram were also handled. The director thus tried out combining cosmic energy [ Ramayanam ] coupled with atomic energy [ Rashomon — it influenced a lot ] in the evolution of mankind, programmed by Java :) .

He better don’t reread Aesob fables, Pacha thandira kathaigal, Vikramadhithan stories, Silappadikaram, Kundalakesi. That’ll save the innocent Tamil cinema followers. When he [ or Shankar or Raaj Kamal] produces movie, it’ll be sleek in content / budget and defintely not when they experiment in other’s money.

A true cinema fan never gives up and innocently waits for the next product. I remember coming out frustrated after returning from a night show [Ji — Ajith ] and some fans consoled themselves that the next movie Varalaaru will compensate everything. [ அடுத்த‌ ப‌ட‌த்துல‌ அவ‌ர் பின்னிடுவாரு.. என்ன‌ ஒண்ணு.. இதுல‌ ந‌ம்ம‌ள‌ பின்னிட்டாரு :) ]

I still expect something good in Raavan — the Hindi version [ though it’s like verifying the xerox copy :) ].That’s the minimum expectation of any true cinema fan. I hope that the creator corrects himself in the next movie.  I’ll watch it one more time. Good or bad..  movie watching is always an interesting task, especially in theatres.

Kamal was proudly mentioning that he found a flaw in ‘A Wednesday’ that Shah uses a table [ where does it come from ?! ] in the terrace but he used a slab on 2 drums, it seems.  Adadada.. He remade a bomb blast movie which is not relevant to TN at all and concentrating on minute details like this.  Making make sense only when the content is good.

இந்த‌ப் ப‌ட‌மும் க‌ட‌ந்து போகும் !

–Toto.

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Manivannan asks in one of the films, about what happens to the lovers after they cross the river / bridge or the state. [ The irony is that he wrote “Alaigall oyvathillai” ]. Alaipyuthey has exposed the other side of the coin — post marriage session.

 Let me begin from the title. Maniratnam [ Sir ! ] always use pure Tamil words and a short title [ with a nice selection of font ].The title is not exactly for the stand point of the lead pair but the entire concept — unsettled or back and forth. Even the script is tried as shuffling between present and flashbacks. This is reflected in almost all the shots.

The story is the simplest possible story that’s told the nth time on Tamil screen. I was little upset that the director of directors has moved towards Hindi cinema and a larger market after Roja.  This was a consoling effort that just happens in our native area. A pair getting married opposing their families. The script is done both by R.Selvaraj and Maniratnam. The entire packaging is a commendable experience but let me try to touch upon few nuances which I liked very much.

Capitalism meets Communism: The 2 parents meet for the first time and watch out for the excellent and crisp dialogues which express the characters’ nature very fluently. Varadarajan generally comments about the same look of railway quarters where Selvaraj. Selvaraj says that the way middle class lives in. The sarcastic dialogues of Varadrajan and the defnesive replies of Selvaraj not only expose their agony with families but the way a communist expresses his views against an upper class lawyer. The way Selvaraj is portrayed as communist is by few redbooks [ IBM ille :) ] and mentioning his name as “Thozar” once. The other example of character biography is that there’s a dialog about the hair type of 2 sisters and their character type. You know.. Shalini’s house and the hospital were sets. An excellent work by art director Raghavan.

Locations.. Except Istanbul in the film Guru and Srilanka in Kannathil Muthamitaal, Maniratnam never shot any unwanted songs or sequences in any of the foreign locations. “September Madham” song was shot in Port Blair and the pleasing “Snehidhane” song was shot in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh. I have never seen that exotic location again in big screen. The song itself is a poem and it also expresses the characteristics of the characters — a confident girl and loving husband. If you watch closely [ adhaane namma velai ! ], the lines from the song gets it picturisation in the other song “Kadhal Sadugudu” [ Undhan sattai, nee kullikkaiyil ].

Chezian [ he assisted PC in this film ] once explained the  making of “Snehidhane” song in Mageshwar and the other song “Yaaro Yaarodi”. he explains that the way the song picturisation goes with the speed, beats and the levels of the music. The lighting was taken care accordingly. Coincidentally, the sunlight gets covered by clouds when the line comes as “Garvam Azhindhadhadi” [ konjam over dhaan ! ]. I expected “Vaseegara” from Minnale in this level of picturisation and it was shot like just another junk song

The Snehidhane song took 3 days and the other good song “Yaaro yaarodi” was finished in 7 hours. The steady cam and crane was combined to have a fast pace according to the song. One of the simplest marriages shown on screen — this was also shot in Mageshwar. The colors shown in “Pachai nirame” was fabulous and none of them were done with CG. I like a shot wherein Madhavan alights in Kerala — shown from a river bank. The beauty of Maniratnam film songs are that they carry the story to the next scene and move along with the film.

The assistant director Azhagam Perumal comes as a friend and his dialogues are a great one. Interestingly, the other person who inquires a conflict at railway station was “Susi Ganesan”. The associate director UVBaani [ worked as associate in Idhayathai Thirudathey – another classic ! ] did the post production for this film.

The shot where they sign the marriage registar is shown in dark depicting that as a secret marriage — it was told by PCSriram once. The good thing in my opinion is that Sujatha was givena break from Maniratnam combination. He didn’t write much about this film except that he liked few scenes. Katradhum Petradhum sometimes worked as promotion for the films he worked with [ Craps like Anniyan ].

This film is one of the finest examples of great technicians Maniratnam and PCSriram; they never presented anything as flat as it is. Maniratnam  is like Sachin and they never speak but their performance speaks a lot for them.

Yaaru.. theriyudhaa ???!!!

Happy watching

:)

Toto.

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This is not the effort of listing the best of IR — it needs a bigger community to collect and share about the entire good numbers from IR. Rather, I would like to share the songs which I liked and didn’t hear much in the Thiraiganam or in FM channels. I have categorised these songs as not very popular in my experience and opinion. For ex Oram po song was very famous and Vaanengum vanna vinmeengall [ Moondram pirai ] song was infamous. With that scale, I have listed some of my favourites which got a dim spotlight then and now. It’s more like remembering just a day of the childhood or schooldays, whereas the complete period was too good.

Devanin Kovil [ Aruvadai Naall ]

Some songs make you to remember some journeys. “Olai kurutholai” from Aruvadai naall and “Chinnna chinna vanna kuyil” from Mouna ragam makes me to remember my frequent bus journies to Chennai, in my school days . Somehow, I missed this good number from Aruvadai naall those days. I happened to hear the interlude music in one of my FM days and caught the beginning of the song. That was another topic about hearing some music part or lyric part and keep trying to get the beginning of the song — we played this as a game to find the beginning of the song with that bit music [ evlo ubayogamana vellayaatu :) ].

I like the last line, especially.. “Maranthaal thaane nimmadhi” :). The lyrics was written by Gangai Amaran. The song has got the weird combination like it starts like a peppy background, pathos is shown only in voice n lyrics, wonderful interludes. A rare pathos song which is based on slow tempo and interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9pE6gSN7ic

Kaadhal ennum koil [ Kazhugu ]

I remember seeing this tourist bus movie in Balan theatre for no reasons. The “Ponoviyam”  song was a catchy one but ‘Kaadhal ennum koil” is close to my heart. I mistook that it was sung by IR and included in my 90 min cassette collections. Surprisingly, later I found that the song was performed by Sulamangalam Murali. One of the foremost songs, which I knew the complete lyrics [ you know the first song which I fully sang with my friends — Dhinam dhinam un mugam from Uyirullavarai Usha :) ].

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UF7vHKYy3Y

Poovile medai [ Pagal Nilavu ]

There is no doubt that the Poo Maalaiye song in this album, is the best. However, I listen to the other less freuqnlty aired song ppovile medai. A simple piano n flute backdrop with Jayachandran’s voice is very soothing to listen. Suprisingly it’s a short song [ 2.30 mins ] matching the soft jayachandran’s voice for Sarathbabu on screen [ what a nice match ! ].

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew3ydyh3pKI

Uravenum pudhiya vaanil [ Nenjathai Killaadhey ]

It’s a pleasure to listen to this song and the initial violin bit. It starts with SJ and SPB joins the later part of the song. It’s the usual song for a slow motion duet kind of song [ may be on a horse in the beach :) ]. In between, it resembles the other good song “Chinna pura ondru”. The signature ‘Pa ba pa ba’ kindles the memories of bell bottom days. As usual in Mahendran films [ mostly ], the characters don’t sing the song — an easy way to remove dramatic expressions as well as not to damage the work of IR. Similarly in ‘Paruvame’ song.

It makes a big difference to see the background song , when a woman with problems thinking about life while spending time with her kids — Azhagiya Kanne from Uthirp pookkall. It would have been so artificial if Aswini might have sang for the situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cji2ns0D1MU

Poonthendral Kaatre vaa — Manjal nila

A beautiful number from IR with Jayachandran and Suseela.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naEzYPaVlaQ

Few more songs

Manjal veyil maalaiyitta poove — Mudhal Iravu — Uma Ramanan

Paniyum naane — Panimalar — SPB / Jency — Suprisingly from Shankar Ganesh

Alli thandha boomi — Nandu — MV

Paadi vaa Thendrale — Mudivalla arambam — Jayachandran

Dheem Dhiranana ; Then aruviyil — Aagaya gangai — SPB/SJ

I read a quote about money and it goes like this. “You can come to the Ocean with a teaspoon, a bucket, or a tractor trailer! The Ocean doesn’t care! The Ocean just wants to outflow!”. I can relate this to the IR songs.

Happy listening.

:)

Toto.

Related Posts

1. Para para kili — New songs
2. Kuru Kuru thogaiye.. Kurunthogaiye
3. Pesum Minsaaram.. Fantastic four
4. Tranquil tunes..
5. Time to blow the speakers..Baby !!

There are only 2 categories of cinema — Good and Bad. Every small story is told or written for somebody else to listen or read. One interesting genre of films, is a grand fantasy based movies and the visuals they offer are memorable for lifetime. I can bet that those who have seen these movies in big screen agree to remembering the great visuals from films like ..McKenna’s gold, Ben hur, Cliffhanger, True Lies, Jurassic park, Titanic.. to name some in Tamil.. Karnan, Aayirathil oruvan [ MGR ], Indian, Thiruda Thiruda. The greatest enabling tool in modern day story telling is computer graphics, which entered Tamil cinema in the early 90s [ leaving ‘Raja chinna rojavodu’ song :) ]. Unfortunately, it’s used as a comical elements and not carried away with the story. [ excluding films like Amman and exceptions like Eeram ].

We might have heard the stories starting with ‘Once upon a time, in ghora kingdom..’ Sindbad kind of adventurous stories. But we had the limited opportunities to watch them in some other languages and not in our native style [ at least in the recent past ].

 Out of all the Indian movies which used CG, I would say ‘Magadheera’ is the single movie which explored the best possible limits of CG to enable narration [ not to just woo the audience ]. I wouldn’t prefer Shankar movies in this category as they were used mainly for songs. I am fascinated to know that I never came across these Telugu technicians and still I found the best n technically extravagant entertainer.

Story

The fantasy tale happens in 2 different periods — one in 1609 BC and the other in 2009. Other than this part, the story has the Stone Age characters of a hero, heroine, villain and a love. It’s not the story but the narration which makes this story brilliant.

View

I wonder how the director might have narrated the story and visualised this fantasy tale. Of course, it’s the experience of Chiranjveei to accept the content [ involved in discussion ] and the talent of the crew. The credit goes fully to SSRajamouli and his supportve producer Chiranjeevi.

Rarely, the director gets the right n talented crew to convert the scenes from paper to screen. This film has got the best talent and makes all the aspects very interesting. You name  anything right from the costumes, sets [ Bhairavakona,  Shiva ], color, period stunts, horse chasing, exotic locations [ salt lands in Dholavira ! ] and splendid effects.

More than the film, I liked the way the script has been categorized. A mini flashback, action, intro song, heroine intro, lighter scenes, song, villain intro, love ignition, song, hero meets villain, action and intermission. This was class and has been executed at its best. One of the finest intermission sequence, where the audience are asked to get ready for the big part of the story [ like the intervals of Baasha, Indian, Johnny Gaddar ].  There are many sequences to explore grandeur of heroism [ ” Bairavve Gelusthaadu” with gloriuos BGM :) ] and meticulously planned ideas throughout the film.

It’s lifetime film for Ram Charan Teja [ Chiranjeevi’s son ] and he has utilized it at his best [ got a better voice ]. Secondly, the heroine Kajal Agarwal [ Punjabi princess ! ]  - In the first half, she looks unsuitable and her casting as beautiful princess is justified in the later part of the film. More than the actors, it’s the crew which has done their best of their professional abilities. the entire credit goes to SSRajamouli and his best picked team. Story writer Vijaendraprasda, M.M.Keeravani [ MD ], Senthilkumar KK [ Photography ], KVRao [ Editor ], costume designer, Peter Heynes [ Stunts ] and of course, art director Ravinder [ yes ! he same waster technician of Aayirathil oruvan — See his best in Magadheera ].

The songs are very usual except Dheera dheera song [ beautifully sung by Nikitha Nigam and MMKeeravani  ].But the background score was extraordinary and very apt for a film like this. You know.. the MD MMKeeravani is better known as Maragadha mani in Tamil film industry [ remember Kambangaadu .. MD of Azhagan, Vaaname ellai ! ]. I love his other song from the movie ‘Sye’ . Just try.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQQ9slNIWMQ .

One line about the visual and sound effects.. Effects were never explored in such a magnitude in Indian movies, before. The good part is that you don’t realize any of the above said views, when you watch the film. We can ignore some of the cliches used and they were tolerable [ Villain saying ’ If I like, I’ll get it otherwise I’ll kill it’ :) ]. No wonder this picture created numerous records in Telugu cinema.

The finest antidote to my ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ experience.

–Toto.

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1. Para para Kili
Film : Rettasuzhi
Singers : Rahul Nambiar, Deepa mariam
MD : Karthikraja Lyrics : Pazhanibharathi

It’s long time since I heard KR’s music — a talented and wasted [ due to his ego, I understand ] music director of Tamil ndustry. Good songs catch your attention when you hear it at the very first time and this is one such number.

The tune just flows like a stream and it’s enjoyabale. Both the singers have done a wonderful job for this interesting song.  You can feel him as a modern IR and gives pleasure, which a good number offers to us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQDLWroZcRI

2. Rayilin Paathaiyil
Film : Appavi
Singers : Hariharan, Shreya Goshal
MD : Joshua Sridhar Lyrics : Na. Muthukumar

Once again it caught me at the very first instance and the package was attractive with Hariharan and SG. It could have been given to any other pair of singers but the essence might be easily missed. The experiencesof Hariharan and SG have been used easily in this enchanting number. Somehow, the lines sung by SG was not as clear as Hariharan. Na.Muthukumar has given an interesting and peotic cinema song once again.

I am more interested to see how this song would be picturised - the song travels like a train and reminds the rayile song picturisation in ‘Five Star’. And in between, it reminds ‘Kumari’ song from Anniyan. However, a sparkling number from Joshua Sridhar. Few lines from Na.Muthukumar’s poetry [ in this song, of course ]

ர‌யிலின் பாதையில் பூக்கின்ற‌ பூவே..

க‌ண்ணீரை சேர்த்தே
அது முத்தாக்கும்

க‌ண் பார்வை வாளாகும்
நான் தேற‌ நாளாகும்

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfGE9D1V-Z8

3. Aval appadi ondrum
Film : Angaadi theru
Singers : Ranjith,Vinith Srinivas,Janaki Iyer
MD : Vijay Antony, Lyrics : Na. Muthukumar.

Other face of Vijay Antony. A melody from VA after ‘Azhagaai pookudhe’ in Ninaithale inikkum. Ranjith/Vinith Srinivas has provided a rustic n natural voice  This song was interestingly penned for Na.Muthukumar’s marriage invitation and dropped later :). The flute and santoor magic comes through out the song, fluidly. The lines were really shocking because till this time truth was never written about a normal girl where as in reality you won’t find the walk of annam, the lightning smile and of course Kodiyidai !! ;) .

There was a dark n blank period in Tamil film music, where words were just used as fillers [ even during IR’s period.. check ‘Nilaakaayum neram saranam’ from Sembaruthi ]. Now, it’s not the situation and we get more poetic lyrics than ever and not from the same lyricist. We do have varieties now and that’s more important for a fan.

Some unused line from this song [ Na.Mu told ! ]

அவ‌ள் விளம்ப‌ர‌ம் எதுவும் செய்த‌தில்லை
அவ‌ள் விற்றால் விள‌ம்ப‌ர‌ம் தேவையில்லை 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snZjsVaif0k

4 : Thuli Thuli
Film : Paiyaa
Singers : Haricharan, Tanvi
MD : Yuvan Shankar Raja Lyrics : Na.Muthukumar

 Its start simple with a guitar and gets in to an attracting tune. Haricharan has justified his voice in this soft and solo song. Tanvi has provided the supporting humming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXquhAdENCs

5 : Poove poove
Film : Siddhu +2
Singers : Yuvan Shankar Raja, chinmayee
MD : Dharan [ Paarijadham, Laadam ], Lyrics : Na.Muthukumar

 A simple but catchy number from Dharan. It’s a western based song and YSR voice fits the requirement easily [ Newton sonna vidhi !! ] along with his humming at the end. It’s good to see a music director lending his voice in another music director which shows a healthy environment.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEDZoNApdzc

 Other new songs that I admire recently are

Karikalan kaale pole — Vettaikaaran

Yeno yeno panithuli — Adhavan [ Akkam pakkam yaarumillai ..vaa en pakkam :) ]

Vaarayo vaarayo — Adhavan

Immaterial of the music directors, singers, album.. Na.Muthukumar [ my fav ] rules the tamil lyrics world and comfortably took place of the senior lyricists in the recent past. I still remember admiring his first attempts in Dum Dum Dum. Time has at least few answers for every unanswered question. [ not always ! ]

Happy listening.

–Toto
 

Photo courtesy : Krishna.

Related Posts

1. 2 Songs — 2 Shots
2. Kuru Kuru thogaiye.. Kurunthogaiye
3. Tranquil tunes..
4. Thirai Gaanam — 2008
5. Adadaa vaa asathalaam — New good songs

 Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you — Rashi.[ French Rabbi ].

 There are 2 types of personalities [ ஆர‌ம்பிச்சிட்டாண்டா ! ]. Knowledge based and Emotions based. Sujatha explains love as the hormonal disturbance and Balakumaran as some icy matter running through the spine. Problems are always with the later typed personalities. It appears true when mother and wife narrates the same incident, in their own perspective like Rashomon story. Which one is true? Do we really know it ?

 Family, Work, Promotions, Indefinite home loan amortization charts, troubled kids, unknown or unexplored disorders of us, elderly parents, unfriendly society — These are few of the matters that bother us heavily and we talk about them with a friend at the bar, with an elderly relative, with an astrologer, with a psychiatrist, with a lawyer, mostly with self :) and even with GOD. What we do is ask for instant answers and solutions. The truth is neither they know the answer nor they have solutions. Why they happen to us ? What’s the solution? Why me ? What should I do to overcome[ escape ] this ? Can God answer for this ? When? How? Is it destiny? Is it circumstances? Is it because we chose them ?

 There’s a fine one word answer: Nothing.

 This is the lovely concept of this complicated film ‘A Serious Man’. I like Fargo and No country for old men of Coen brothers product [ not ‘Burn after reading it’ :( ].

 Story :

 The very first frame grabs the attention and gives us the idea. The story is set to happen to a Jewish professor who lives in Minnesota suburban area, in the late 1960s. His troubles are divorce seeking wife, her new would-be, work related issues, problematic kids, parasite brother, troublesome neighbor, increasing expenses, nightmares and what not. How did he solve all of these problems ?

 View :

 Coen brothers are the fantastic story tellers who make the audience to think and offer an unusual movie watching experience. Though I am not matured or knowledgeable to completely understand the craft [ the Jewish part ! ] , it’s a pleasure to watch the way the story is narrated to us. The making is near perfect. The disclaimer here is that one can interpret the way he sees this movie with his own understanding. 

 The story starts with a short Jewish folk tale which the audience has to attach with the story. Then it travels to the time late 60s and gets us into the life of a Jewish person Larry Gopnik and his family. Any middle aged man can see his reflection with one or more of the Larry’s situations [ ப‌ழ‌ம் வேற‌ ஆனா பிர‌ச்னை ஒண்ணுதான் ].

 The success of art direction is that you don’t know that it’s a set [ unlike films from AVM ]. Some fine examples are the newspaper office in “All the president’s men”, Shalini’s house in “Alaipayuthe”. I loved this film’s setting. One can never know artificially that the story is happening in a different timeline. Cars, TVs, Radio songs, costumes, spectacles, telephones, avoidance of modern gadgets [ cell phone ], restaurants, motels. But none of them were artificially exploited to the audience like showing a close-up of an old Coke/Pepsi bottle. The cinematographer and the costume designer have done a fabulous job.

 The next admirable thing is dialogues. I am fascinated towards the philosophical dialogues — they are temporary pleasure which consoles us though we don’t take it seriously and apply. An example “The Uncertainty Principle. It proves we can’t ever really know what’s going on. The end of the story is left to our understanding. The script has too many relations and elements to carry the story without any sag. I don’t normally like the dark humor films and this is an exception.

 Is the cat dead or is the cat not dead? Who cares!!

 Note : The other good movie in this similar line is “Whatever works” from Woody Allen [ another master craftsman ! ]. His explanation of life is also similar.. No need for questions — just settle with “Whatever Works”.

–Toto.

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One of the prestigious and immediately available jobs in my hometown was ‘salesman’ in the local silk house [ ஜ‌வுளிக் க‌டை க‌ட‌ல்  :) ]. My uncle stopped working as a salesman when he happened to hear the abusive words thrown at his colleague. Later, he worked as a salesman in one of the ‘Setu’ shops at elephant gate for few years and their good relation still continues. I remember the old Venkateswara emporium in NSC Bose road [ comes in the title sequence of old ‘Polladhavan’ ] where all the salesmen were above 50 and shopping was an interesting n relaxed event those days.  It’s history and we can’t even imagine now to get somewhere closer to the sales counter in a busy shop.

 Different backdrops always elevate the interest of reading a novel or watching a story [ Pandi madam in Sedhu ]. I remember one such Balakumaran novel entirely based on the vendors of trade fair in island grounds. We know many such backdrops like beedi workers, industrial estate / SIPCOT workers, export garment, workers in eastern countries, electric train commuters etc., Vasanthabalan has tried one such movie with the backdrop of a big store in ranganathan street and shown us a different world [ definitely a better world than “Naan Kadavul” ].

 Once Mysskin explained how a main script can deviate from the story and have a sub plot ex : Gana Ulaganathan explains his love in ‘Chithiram pesudhadi’ which is not related to the main story. However, Vasanthabalan has tried to collate all such sub plots and present it. Hence the story doesn’t travel in one single direction [ like Pudhupettai, Katrathu Thamizh ].

Story :

 More than the story, it’s the life existing in a different world — Workers of a hypermarket in Chennai and their life.

 View :

 The only idea I liked about Veyyil was the theme of narrating a failure, which nobody volunteers to narrate. The main character is a tragic failure in life and apart from that the movie roamed everywhere. It’s the way Vasanthabalan is and hence his stories. Like Thi.Ja once said, that he writes what he knows and experiences [ என‌க்கு அம்மாமி ப‌த்திதான் தெரியும் ஆத்தாள்க‌ளைப் ப‌ற்றி அல்ல‌ ].

 The best contributor of this film is the dialog writer Jayamohan and Vasanthabalan for making few best sequences told on screen. The dialog writer has captured the maximum possible natural conversations that can happen in that world and of course they are interesting. The story has many characters and their own interesting short stories.

 Every character and their parts are explained with maximum possible symbols. [ hanger symbols in the title,Kolam, Legs, Sneha photos, uniforms ]. The best performer is the lead character ‘Kani’ [ Anjali ]. Everybody else has done their part well like Magesh, his friend Marimuthu, Annachi [Pazha.karuppiah –it’s not his first film.. he has acted earlier as a judge in a Vijaykanth movie ], Supervisor [ A.Venkatesh ] etc., I liked almost all the petty characters that come along the movie. Some of the sequences resemble the other movie ‘Poo’.

 Director knows [ mostly ! ] how to handle tragedies and leaves everything else in soup [ Songs, comical moments, crisp narration ]. Hence the story travels mostly in the tragedy side. Though he shows ‘hope’ also, only the sad part of the story stays with us. However, it is a new n watchable plot. The audience never like them to be questioned [ like Mahanadhi ] — either they need a solution or some interesting /fantasy climax at least [ like Indian ]. Once the director of “Ozama” was asked why he ended film tragically. He answered that originally he had a positive climax but after filming the entire story he said there is no room for hope in that happening.

 Except the song “aval appadi” [signature lines of Na.Muthukumar, beautifully sung by Prasanna ] the music is averagely done and sometimes don’t sync with the movie. Songs are just humps in the movie and they check our patience.  IMO,  I couldn’t go with the story as the workers in reality have multiple options and better packages. Too much of tragic characters like the olden day stories of KB [ Aval oru thodarkadhai ] — remember the story narration of Sathyan to Sathyaraj :).

 The backdrop and the characters are definitely new to us and that’s all. The movie is not packaged well. Though some of sequences are excellent and very interesting, it ends up like watching multiple vendors in an electric train. If this movie goes well [ I doubt ! ] Ayngaran may plan to release Nandalala [ ஒரு ந‌ப்பாசை தான் ].

 -Toto.

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