Exploring the music of Iruvar :: Introduction - II

Tamil cinema music

In the early days of the talkies, Tamil films were similar to their Northern counterparts. Cinema plots revolved around mythologicals, devotionals and social dramas, and actors had to be competent singers as playback was as yet unemployed. As a result, leading actors like M.K.Thyagaraja Bagavathar (K.L.Saigal is probably the best Hindi equivalent) sang their classical and semi-classical songs under the baton of composers like Papanasam Sivan and G.Ramanathan. Later, the classical streak would continue with legends like K.V.Mahadevan (who had a long and successful career, and was incidentally (the first recipient of the National Award for Best Music Direction). (Tamil movies also had a surfeit of action movies, usually historicals, where swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks-types would wield swords and shields in often well-choreographed sequences. MGR was one of the leading performers of this genre) However, it was the emergence of the duo of M.S.Viswanathan and T.K.Ramamurthy that caused a paradigm shift in TFM. (So much so that TFM is often broadly divided into three parts, one for each era of Viswananathan-Ramamurthy (V-R), Ilaiyaraja and A.R.Rahman. Naturally, this is unfair on several other gifted music composers through the years, but these phases capture succintly the prevailing mood over time as their impact has been tremendous).

V-R's immense success was because they ushered in an era of "light music" that was a lot more accessible to listeners than the more ponderous classical influence that was in vogue. They used "western" instruments such as the piano and drums, created simple, hummable and dulcet melodies, and contributed greatly to the success of films that starred all the major actors and actresses of that period. (Ilaiyaraja would do something similar with traditional folk influences and then programming, while Rahman's eclectic inspirations and sound engineering would revolutionise the state of film music in their times.) The impression that V-R wielded cannot be underestimated - film and light music had become genuine branches of music that could be critiqued differently. Singers like P.B.Srinivas, A.M.Raja and wife Jikki, T.M.Soundarrajan, P.Susheela, S.Janaki, and others would become household names with their distinctive voices.

It was also at this time that political thought began to be woven into film stories, dialogues and lyrics. Annadurai and Karunanidhi had been doing so with their plays (a rich theatrical tradition usually formed the background of many who were now working in films - actors, singers, lyrics, musicians, writers usually had a significant body of experience before moving to this more glittering medium) and were now starting to do the same with their silver screen outputs. The DMK had the fortune of being the party that many of the film stalwarts gravitated to. They, and not the party in power i.e. the Congress, were making things happen in the state (the Congress had become identified with Brahminical status quo-ists) and a new change was in the air. Lyricists like Kannadasan and Vaali had political views of their own. Since almost everyone involved had a political affiliation and as in most cases, these were of the same orientation, the political content of their collaborations became very significant. This is not to say that all movies were politically flavoured. They still made movies with fantasies, social melodramas, comedies etc., but the political agendas were not too far away. (Contrast this with the Hindi film industry, which in those days did have lyricists like Kaifi Azmi and Sahir who were politically active, but this never quite spilled over to the mainstream like in Tamil Nadu.)

In later years, after splits and machinations, things would come to such a pass that it was common for people to join or leave cast and crew after falling in or out with the likes of MGR and Karunanidhi.

Useful web references:
1. A very informative thread about MGR songs, the people involved, and their political content: 1, 2
2. A TFM forum thread on M.S.Viswanathan songs
3. Notes on K.V.Mahadevan: 1, 2
4. An Outlook article on Tamil film music (link via Sambhar Mafia)
(unfortunately, on the Web, there seems to be a lack of credible and summarised information on the history and influences of TFM, especially on specific individuals)

---

Iruvar's cast and technicians

Several members of the cast and crew of Iruvar put in performances of a lifetime. The film was a commercial disappointment, but many of those involved came out with their reputations enhanced.

Mani Ratnam: Iruvar, is IMHO, his best work till date. It had everything you associate (and enjoy) with a Mani Ratnam film. Flaws apart, it showed why in several departments and in sheer conceptualisation, he is head-and-shoulders above many of his contemporaries. He also showed a keen sense of history, both cinematic and political, and just for being a documenter of tribute, he needs to be commended. The failure must have hurt (Dil Se(1998) would follow soon), and he went back to his other speciality of the small, intimate middle-class genre with "Alai Payuthey" for some much needed success.
Incidentally, wife Suhasini wrote the dialogues for Iruvar.

A.R.Rahman: By then, Rahman was the biggest composer not just at home with commercial hits for Rajnikanth (Muthu (1995)) and Prabhu Deva (Love Birds (1996) and Mr. Romeo (1996)), but also in the country after the success of Rangeela (1994-95), Indian/Hindustani (1996-97) and Minsaara Kanavu/Sapnay (1996-97) (for which he won the National Award for the second time). But this was perhaps his first serious "period" score and showed that he could produce the requisite (and exquisite) diversity for a complex script of this nature.

Vairamuthu: Vairamuthu is in the Karunanidhi mould in that he writes poetry outside of films, writes extensively for films, and is politically inclined. In this film, he also had to provide pieces of poetry and blank verse for the Karunanidhi character. It was an admirable piece of work from the lyricist as we shall see in later posts.

Prakash Raj: Prakash Raj is not a native Tamil speaker (IIRC, he is Kannadiga), so it must have been daunting to play the Karunanidhi role as he did. He turned in a stupendous performance, all fire and brimstone, won himself a National Award for Best Supporting Actor and announced himself on the cinema stage. It would fuel his rise as a much vaunted "intense" actor.

Aishwarya Rai: This was her first film, a couple of years after the whole beauty pageant jamboree, and it created a buzz. Rai actually acts fairly well in the movie, first as the demure and shy housewife and then as the outgoing girl-actress. The movie showcased her dancing abilities as well and well, it didn't at all foretell the downward spiral of her histrionic evolution. Mani Ratnam has often surprised all with his ability to elicit quality performances from his actors, and Rai would be hoping a return to the stable with Guru will provide a glimpse of the promise of Iruvar.

Santosh Sivan: India's best cinematographer (who also made his pathbreaking "Terrorist" that year) teamed up with Mani Ratnam again to create an work of pure genius. The tracking, the Steadicam, the crane shots in this film are mindblowing. His contribution was felt even in the songs, and would win him a National Award for his efforts.

Sameer Chanda: Mani Ratnam has always worked with great art directors and Sameer Chanda did not disappoint. The sets and the props were meticulous, especially if you realise they had to create sets for sets of older films.

The cameos: We had Revathy and Tabu as the Tamizhchelvan wives, Gauthami in the Janaki slot, Nasser with his distinctive dubbing as Annadurai and many more stalwarts in small roles (even had Kalpana Iyer as Anandan's mother!). (The characters of the wives were never quite fully developed - one of the flaws)

Mohanlal: And finally for Mohanlal. Iruvar would never have been what it is without this brilliant actor. I have seen many of his acting gems, which is why it is with great care I say that this was easily his best performance ever. That he did not win any major awards for that performance is no reflection on it (ironically, the National Award that year went to two of his fellow Malayali actors). As the young actor trying hard to impress with his histrionics and sword-play, in his moments of despair, as the reticent entrant to politics who realises his star-power, as the aging and now wily politician, and finally as the man playing MGR, you will not see a more first-rate show in a movie.

Useful web references:
1. The Wikipedia page on Iruvar
2. (update) Baradwaj Rangan's succint summary of the influences of the film (which covers many of the points I noticed and plan to write about) (link via S. Karthik)

Previous Post: Part I of the Introduction
Next Post: "Narumugaiye"

The new "Prepone"

Kindly revert back to me
If the above statement didn't cause some angry neurons to pop, then you need to read this post. For the abuse (even if unintentional) of the word "revert" to mean "reply" is becoming endemic.

"Revert", as any self-respecting dictionary will tell you (or try a bouquet of dictionaries), primarily means "to return to a former habit, practice, belief, condition etc.". No secondary or tertiary meaning indicates its use as "reply". So when you ask me to revert back to you, then me being (a) the escaped soul from your body, or (b) your Siamese twin whose snipped the connections or, (c) your slave-purchased-for-four-annas will make more sense than me writing you that response. You might as well use words like "rebound" or "retribute" instead.

The fact that this meme seems to possess a toxic potency only indicates that we often learn heavily from each other - we pick up words, gestures and ideas all the while. But many a time, we never question these acquisitions. Sometimes it's better to revert to an ignorant past. It can be argued that "prepone" filled a gap that presented itself, but do you think "revert" is a saviour of any sort? Kindly revert to me as soon as you can.

(And if you think this is merely an Indian phenomenon, then you would be mistaken. Look for a comment by "Neil" on this page.)

Exploring the music of Iruvar :: Introduction - I

MGR, Karunanidhi, the plot

There are many Tamil film viewers who consider Iruvar to be among the best films they've ever seen. I'm one of those. Now, the film is far from being perfect, but as flawed efforts go, this one is a gem of the highest order. Film criticism has it that a good film has its whole greater than its parts, but Iruvar had several brilliant (and I use the adjective carefully) parts without being completely satisfactory. Clearly, the film was based on real people and events, and the very nature of that depiction was going to be highly controversial, mainly due to the levels of almost fanatical devotion these people have generated. To my mind, that seems to have affected the overall cohesion of the film.

Iruvar begins with a statement saying "this is not a true story" - a statement which is correct only in the extremely technical sense. For about 80% of the film is based on true people and events to such an extent that it serves as an almost accurate biographical account of the major milestones in the lives of Marathur Gopalamenon Ramachandran and Muthuvel Karunanidhi. In several films, Mani Ratnam has made coy references to real people and incidents, but never more overtly as in this film, which is why the opening disclaimer is either a case of chickening-out or a concession to those who'd have bones to pick. Unfortunately, I could not follow the local press in 1997 and since it was just before the WWW era where every aspect could be recorded in intense detail on a webpage, I couldn't find any notings on the controversies that dogged the film. That political opinions were raised I do remember, but not much else. I have often wondered whether the voice of the film was muzzled at points - there are some scenes where the dialogue is masked by background music, and the denouements of the Jayalalitha analogue and the ending as a whole seemed rushed and unsatisfying. Hence, my opinion of the film as being flawed.

Now, this film is unlikely to have the same kind of impact for those who do not know much about Tamil filmdom and the history of the politics in the state. They will miss the nuances, the multiple visual and audio references, the characters in the sidelights - a great pity for it is such a wonderful film. Hence I thought I'd make a quick gist of the context of the film without which any discussion of the music will be difficult.

Politics and films have been bed-fellows in many parts of India, but no coupling has been more passionate, potent, tempestuous or animated as in the case of Tamil Nadu. The almost seamless union between the two domains reached its apogee during the 40-odd years of the two men who ended up as the poles of their respective parties. "Parties" not "Movements", for the axioms of the *DMKs were fundamentally the same - the parties became (and still remain) personality-driven, which is perhaps due to the memes of filmstar egos. The Iruvar (or "The Duo") were MGR and Karunanidhi.

Now, most today remember MGR as the emblematic CM of Tamil Nadu who started life as an actor, became a superstar, and provoked a rash of inexplicable suicides during the most critical phase of his illness and after his death. So it's interesting to know that MGR was an outsider to Tamil Nadu, with his Malayali origins (note the "Menon" in his name) and his Lankan Tamil geographical roots (he was born in Kandy). Compelled to join a theatre company due to poverty, it wasn't until his early thirties and many setbacks later that he became a successful actor. The film that made his name was Rajakumari which was penned by a vigorous young script-writer and political activist named M. Karunanidhi.

M. Karunanidhi followed his mentor and leader C.N.Annadurai's model of brilliantly fusing political ideology in his plays, essays and later films. It was a natural progression for these litterateurs who realised the potency of such an amalgamation. Movies like 'Sivaji' Ganesan's acting debut "Parasakthi" fuelled the DMK's rationalistic, anti-Brahminism, lower caste empowerment movements. Karunanidhi would also cause a national flutter by leading the protests against imposition of Hindi in the state. Soon, he was the number two of the party after 'Arignar' Anna (who became the state's first non-Congress Chief Minister) and succeeded him after his death. MGR was pulled into the party, who benefited from the immense popularity of this actor, while MGR in turn also gained further stardom as the movies that these combinations provided were huge hits. MGR also acted in several of the non-political commercial romantic and fantasy hits and though his main rival was 'Sivaji' Ganesan, they would make the separation between the 'actor-star' and the 'star-actor' a paradigm that Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth would later pick up the mantles for.

Soon enough, the personalities and egos would lead to a parting of the two swords from the same scabbard, resulting in the formation of the AIADMK and sowing the seeds for a bitter political rivalry that only seems to worsen every five years. The women in the lives of these men also played a major role - Karunanidhi's two living wives, MGR's marriage (in all, he'd had three marriages - the first two died of natural causes at a young age) to a not-so successful actress and later CM, Janaki, and the much more public companionship of Jayalalitha Jayaram.

There were several more nuances to this relationship and even the cameo players such as various mothers, sidekicks, enmities and political strategies would make their story a very compelling one. One can see why a filmmaker like Mani Ratnam would be so seduced by the plot. That he made a superb film out of it is partly to do with the source material, and the perceived blemishes are probably due to the complexities of the times.

Iruvar was initially titled Anandam in reference to the MGR analogue played by Mohanlal. This would also have been an apt title, as the film's story splits roughly 70:30 in favour of 'Anandam' rather than 'Tamizhchelvan' (played by Prakash Raj). The sympathies are arranged in favour of Anandam as a result, and it is through him that we progress in the film. The film spans from Anandam as the struggling actor through his dizzying ascent to stardom, first box-office wise and later political, and upto his death. The intersecting story of Tamizhchelvan as the firebrand poet, writer and politician who befriends Anandam, ascends to the highest chair in the land and has to suffer defeat at the hands of the same person he considered his political protégé forms the remainder of the double-helix of the story.

(Now that Iruvar isn't a true story is a laughable claim because of the exceedingly careful detailing in many of the performances, setpieces, references to names, body language and events. We shall discover many of these looking at just the songs which as I said were a wonderful dedication to an entire generation of Tamil film music.)

Useful web references:
1.M.G.Ramachandran - a summarised bio
2.M. Karunanidhi - a bio
3.MGR - a bio
(note that the two above links are laudatory in essence, so don't expect too much objectivity)

Previous Post: Prologue
Next post: Introduction to the music scenario of those times and the people behind "Iruvar"

Champions at the Trophy

* This is actually turning out to be a fairly interesting tournament - the first time in a long, long while for a multi-nation tournament. With two of the last three matches being knockout, it is winding up nicely. Also, there have been no gazillion run-jamborees, some old-fashioned keep-wickets-in-hand, bowler-friendly surfaces, hat-tricks, upsets - we've had them all. Fascinating to watch.

* I've just seen Mark Boucher pick up probably the best catch by a wicket-keeper off a pacer that I've ever seen. And Pakistan being crumpled at Mohali. If the Indians are watching, they'll be terrified - the Aussies on a lively pitch await.

* We're in danger of having no subcontinental teams in the finals. But the teams that have made it have been the best so far at bowling and at scrapping their way through tough situations.

* Ian Chappell just made an excellent point - he says a large part of the current generation of world batsmen have got so used to expecting flat tracks that they have never learnt how to battle tough pitches.

* And finally, are the new Pepsi "ooh aah India" ads surrogate ads for Iodex? Nothing else explains the inanity of the jingle (if you can call it that)

Exploring the music of Iruvar :: Prologue

Period music, 'Iruvar' by Mani Ratnam and A.R.Rahman

The term "period music" is a fairly misused term in Indian film music. Now, I strongly believe that we don't quite give our film music a lot of the credit it deserves. Hardly elsewhere would you see such demands made of music composers and song-writers to come up with songs that have to fit such a diversity of contexts, orchestrations and purposes. Many of the best world musicians specialise in their own genres and get better as time goes by, while some of our best film musicians have grappled with and overcome the challenges of geographical and historical variety that film makers have thrown at them. Many of these challenges have involved creating a score for stories that are set in particular points of time and hence do not allow the film composer a free rein of the usual "two love songs, one sad tearjerker, one lullaby, one reunification melody" formula.

Now, what "authentic period music" really is depends on what the listener thinks the music of that period was. In many cases, it is merely the avoidance of certain kinds of instruments (no electric guitars or drums for songs of the past!) or presence of certain genres (classical or jazz is often used to convey a period mood). The bottomline being: anything but that which is contemporary. Retro has been used to pay tribute or to parody ("woh laDaki hai kahaa.n" - Dil Chahta Hai), "jhankaar!" - Jhankaar Beats, "kyu.n aage piiche" - Golmaal-Fun Unlimited), but here we shall focus on the more serious (at least in intention!) of the efforts. Anu Malik's Asoka was much pilloried for not quite being out of a Mauryan soundscape, but who really knows how they serenaded each other then? In contrast, Naushad's Mughal-é-Azam and Khayyam's Umrao Jaan received both critical and commercial acclaim for their songs. Each had managed to satisfy both the psychological needs of their listeners (classical, court, devotional songs in the opulent Mughal-era film in the former; aristocratic mujras flavoured with the essence of the Lakhnawi tradition in the latter) as well as provide a great film experience, being accompanied by lyrics and performances that enhanced the music. No wonder they remain ageless classics. Hollywood films make a lot of movies set in particular time-periods, but since they usually don't make the same kinds of demands, they typically solve the problem by using a lot of diegetic music (The Shawshank Redemption) or soundtracks that use real scores of that era (Almost Famous is a wonderful example). Of course, this is a bit of a generalisation (see Chicago as an example to the contrary), but to my mind, it's not the same as in Indian films. (For a great example of diegetic music in Hindi films, see Hazaaron Khwahishen Aisi (2005).)

(Given that anything "period" calls for careful detailing of the mise-en-scene and the music emanating from the frame, and given mainstream cinema's usually lackadaisical approach to movie-making in general, you can often spot a lot of incongruous howlers where a flashback to a previous janam or to execrable college-lives is often accompanied by music and choreography so post-post-modern that it borders on prescient science fiction.)

Coming to the main purpose of this post, Mani Ratnam's Iruvar (1997) was quite different than many "period" movies. Not because it was based on several true incidents and more importantly, on some very specific people who had a great deal to do with both the Tamil film industry and Tamil politics in a very specific time frame, but because it had to completely reference actual film song styles. The setting wasn't temporally too far away unlike the Mughals or 19th century Lucknow and also had a great deal to do with music. The men behind the music for this film consciously chose to stay within the constraints of the context and in doing so, IMO, produced one of the best film albums ever heard. The score pays rich tribute to the Tamil film music of that period, captures the essence of the musical yield of those times without ever parodying it and provides a wonderful gist to those of us who haven't heard too much of the early masters. In following posts, I explore this album in order to understand the musical influences and references. I am not capable of a technical analysis of the songs, but have used this as a great opportunity to learn a bit about music from an era gone by. The team of Mani Ratnam, A.R.Rahman, Vairamuthu, Santosh Sivan, the choreographers, and the actors collaborated magnificently to produce an album and film of great significance, as we shall see in successive posts on this topic, and I found it a very fascinating experience. Incidentally, Mani Ratnam's next film Guru seems to spread across a large span of time like some of his fictional bio-pics (Nayakan, Iruvar) which may suggest a soundtrack that reflects the music of the related chronology. (The piece of music on the official website has a very promising rock-and-roll theme.) The music is due to be out in a month's time, so this is a good time to look at this team's harvest in the past.

(The usual disclaimer of not claiming complete authority over the subject applies. Factual errors are very likely because I'm going to rely on childhood memories for a lot of details about some of the film songs - in fact, I'd be very glad to find errors being pointed out and further information on any of the aspects. Whatever minimal research I did showed a lack of resources on the Web - especially in comparison with Hindi film songs - with many of the song forums predictably degenerating into name-calling and turf-wars :-))

Next post: Introduction to the real-life protagonists

Simply awesome

Hirak runs the Chicago Marathon. Stand up and take a bow!
(on second thoughts, don't bother standing up :-))

Don - the review¹

Came back to Pune this morning and went straight into a showing of "Don" ² (I love watching movies in the morning, even if I end up doing so alone). It was really a "cool" movie and highly recommended if you haven't seen it. A few words on the movie for everyone's benefit.

Now, of course, the story isn't quite new and we've seen the similar theme before³. But there are variations and twists in the tale that are worth your attention. It's a fairly tight suspense drama, but with the usual Bollywood garnishing of song and dance. But unlike the insipid film fare, the songs are nicely placed and provide just the right kind of relief. Some of the songs, such as "Mai.n huu.n ##Don##" are even integral parts of the storyline.

The action was a bit of a let-down - it gets a little silly towards the end. But perhaps that is in keeping with the original Don getting the more meaner fights than his replacement in the later half of the movie. The story and dialogue, however, are really good. You will spot many of the stock filmi scenes and developments, but on a few occasions, they were not quite so predictable. The bumping-off of Don early is a surprise if you don't know anything of the film. Also notice small touches such as when Shakaal admits to Vardhaan to having spilled some of the beans fearing for his life. In other films, there would have been a price to pay for the erring sidekick, but the fake Malik takes it in his stride. Also, the suspense is unbroken till fairly late (an achievement) because of him allowing Vijay to try and prove his innocence. And dialogues like "mai.n tumhaara dus minute chaahataa huu.n. paa.nch minute tumhaari piTaai karuu.ngaa aur baaki paa.nch minute tumse sawaal karuu.ngaa" are vintage Salim-Javed. The villainous bunch were not really setpieces (except for Anita) - Narang, Mac played it very believably. Also, the idea of a suave yet notorious Don was quite pathbreaking, IMO.

The acting is really good, with the characters of Don/Vijay, Roma, Vardhaan and DCP De Silva not wasting their time in getting down to business. Jasjit is definitely parody-material, what with the flared shirts and men-in-tights look! Still, the scenes where Vijay and JJ criss-cross each other without realising the connections that bind them were well conceived and executed. A few cribs of course: whatever happens to the real Malik after his brief struggle :-), the back projection in the corny rope-trick-escape, and what's with the all-purpose "Police Station, Bombay" board at the end?

Still, a great entertainer that doesn't overload you with its suspense and neither does it sag. Neither do the "all the hero needs to do when encircled by baddies is to leap backwards into the air" conventions annoy. A rare feat for a director with not much experience. A must-watch on the all-time list.

Update: am in the unhappy position of explaining my jokes (again!). I haven't seen the new Don - this is merely a cheeky review of the old one as I saw it the same day. I did say SET-Max channel below!

footnotes
1: should probably be "anti-review"?
2: it was telecast on the SET-Max channel at 9 am today
3: the doppelganger-infiltrator theme has been explored, though in an even more sophisticated fashion, in "Jewel Thief"

Puur joke alert

What your slightly bilingual Tamil dentist is singing as he looms above you with the numbing-injection:

pal pal pal pal har pal har pal
kaise cut-egaa pal har pal har pal

(note: I have had about 8 milk-teeth extracted as a child so your threats don't worry me)

Khaana Khaz... *choke*

Some day, we're going to see Sanjeev Kapoor and Karen Anand take part in a reality dance competition dancing to this:

Song Title: ##You are my Chicken Fry##
Movie Name: Rock Dancer
Actor(s)/Actress(es):
Singer(s): Bappi Lahiri, Sweta Shetty
Music Director(s): Bappi Lahiri
%
% Contributor: Rohan Chandran (rohan@Xenon.Stanford.EDU)
% Transliterator: Ravi Kant Rai (rrai@plains.nodak.edu)
% Editor: Anurag Shankar (anurag@astro.indiana.edu)
%
%
b: (## You are my chicken fry
 You are my fish fry##) - 2
 (kabhii naa kahanaa ku.Diye ##bye bye bye##) -2

s: (## You are my samosa
 You are my masala dosa##) - 2
 (mai.n naa kahuu.ngii mu.nDiyaa ##bye bye bye## ) - 2

b: haa ... haa ... haa ... haa ...
           
(s: saraso.n kaa tU saag hai  
 mai.n makke kii roTii 
b: jo bhii tujhako dekhe  
 ho jaaye ?? goTii  ) - 2
           
s: (##  You are my chocolate
 You are my cutlet [cut-uh-let]##) - 2
 (mai.n naa kahuu.ngii mu.nDiyaa ##bye bye bye##)

b: (##  You are my chicken fry
 You are my fish fry##) - 2
 (kabhii naa kehenaa ku.Diye ##bye bye bye## ) -2

b: haa ... haa ... haa ... haa ...
     
(b:  garamaa garam tanduurii tU hai 
 mai.n to aa.Nkhe.n sekuu.n
s: mu.nh me.n paanii aajaataa hai 
 jab mai.n tujhako dekhU.N ) - 2
     
b: (## You are my rossogolla
 You are my rasmalai##) - 2
 kabhii naa kahanaa ku.Diye ##bye bye bye##

s: (## You are my samosa
 You are my masala dosa##) - 2
 (mai.n naa kahuu.ngii mu.nDiyaa ##bye bye bye## ) - 2

b: (##  You are my chicken fry
 You are my fish fry##) - 2
 (kabhii naa kahanaa ku.Diye ##bye bye bye##) -2
%

lyrics: thanks to Navin Kabra and his friends

Rahman and Om Shanti Om

In an interesting development, A.R.Rahman is reportedly no longer composing music for "Om Shanti Om", Farah Khan's reincarnation flick. The coming together of Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Rahman would have been quite fascinating to see given the penchant of the first two towards the "mass-ala film" and that many have missed a A.R.Rahman score for an unabashed entertainer for a while.

Now, the circumstances of this parting of ways are not clear, with the usual plague of "sources" muddling rivers, but one aspect (if not the only reason) seems to be Rahman's demand for publishing rights of the music to be shared between the producers (the Khans), the music director, and the lyricist (Gulzar). Now, in the world of mainstreams Indian films, this seems to be a fairly revolutionary request. When remakes or reusing of songs in India have been reported (as in a recent case with reusing "Khaike Paan" from "Don"), lyricists and sometimes music directors have known to complain about they having no say in the matters, essentially because in India, the film soundtrack belongs to the producers of the film. From my little informed opinion, a soundtrack in other places also belongs to the music composers, and so, what Rahman is asking for is quite fair. This kind of rights-sharing need has been whispered about because some of the creative backroomers such as writers of stories and screenplays, lyricists, playback singers have been historically given a raw deal in terms of credit and pay.

If memory serves me right, the likes of Salim-Javed used their clout to demand more fair credit for screenwriters. Rahman, who it can be recalled has seen a bit of life as the son of a struggling musician and spent years growing up among professional instrumentalists, has the clout right now to make this kind of demand. What "publishing rights" exactly entails is not clear to me, but there must be significant financial implications such as sharing royalties on use, playing, reuse etc. For instance, when the "Bombay theme" or "Chaiyya Chaiyya" are reused in ads or in "Inside Man" respectively, does Rahman get a share or do the original film producers get the sole benefit? With their music now transcending just the original film score (on many Tamil media outlets and even channels like Channel V, you can hear snatches of music from Rahman film songs), I think it's only fair the music director also gets compensated. Especially if he talks about sharing it fairly with the many instrumentalists and vocalists in his team (the average Rahman soundtrack will have a comprehensive listing of credits for all musicians on that album, which has helped raise the profile of many a talented musician). Rahman is, by all accounts, clearly India's highest-paid music composer and doesn't really need to make that extra buck. But the goal seems to be larger.

That said, I hope he has worked out a set of criteria as to this attempt to tilt at the windmills of the staus quo. Will he make this demand in each of his forthcoming albums? Will it be restricted to certain kinds of big banner productions? What will happen if on the next Mani Ratnam movie, the producer declines to share these rights? People are going to demand consistency and watch these actions like a hawk. However, the experiences of greats such as R.D.Burman make it imperative for some form of creative and financial protection to be extended to people who follow in their footsteps.

Update
* A clarifying note via a Subhash K. Jha article which confirms the issue, but absolves the producers - it's the music company (T-Series) that proved obdurate
* A post by Aravind with some info on where the law stands vs the ground reality

Pit meets Pitt

The front page news salivation today is that Angerad took a ride in an auto on the roads of Pune. That's bad news for Messrs Kalmadi and Kareer, for now there are two more people complaining about the roads.

Serendipinballwizard

Gaurav pointed to Pandora and instantly I knew he'd shown the way to something I'd been looking for a long while i.e. a way to "accidentally find music on purpose". Some cool matching of features can be visualised behind the scenes.

On the "Beatles station", a tune starts to play and it's so familiar. It's "Pinball Wizard" by "The Who" whose opening and a couple of interludes are the same as "jo sab karte hai.n yaaro.n" from "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar". Sure enough, I2FS has a listing for this. Nice way to stumble upon such things.

I can now listen to Bix Beiderbecke as well (thanks to Trevor Chaplin), which is great.

And Pandora is a great name; hopefully with a more positive effect than the original.

Qué?

I don't have a high opinion of socialising (that's why I'm a Page 0.333 personality). That's mainly because of the quality of the "socialisees" and "socialisers". Sometimes, the RJ on a local FM channel is more pleasant to hear. This doesn't quite completely explain the vehemence that has crept into my view of the social world, but suffice to say that I realised I liked humanity but it was the humans that I couldn't get along with (only to later find out that Charles Schulz - and many others - had got there before me when he said "I love mankind. It's the people I can't stand."). Perhaps I will eventually morph into one of those anti-socials who leave online trails of their misanthropism before gunning down shoppers at the local super-market, but it's unlikely - the Inconvenience Principle will prevent that.

However, it is highly convenient to sit and crib about others and that is precisely what I propose to do in this post.

Much of social conversation between two acquaintances who rarely meet each other is usually in the form of asking for status updates. These questions invite corollaries as well. Your entire life comes back to you, as bad nightmares don't, in sharp focus as you brace yourself in anticipation of the questions - what have I been doing ever since I met this chap? (ans: not much that can be revealed in public). Here are the worst questions fairly distributed among different stages of your life:

1. Age 1 to 5 : "Whom do you like more? mummy or daddy?". This probably, as they say, awoke the leviathan within and for the first time, I was aware of a temptation to do something rather nasty to someone with my plastic toy. What makes it worse that they feel compelled to treat you like a kid.

2. Age 13-15: "So Arts? Science? Commerce? Will you be writing IIT?". No, none of the above. I'm considering a career as a failed philosopher.

3. Two years later: "Which college will you apply to? What marks? Which coaching classes?" You must be mistaken, aunty. Defenestration and disembowelment need no schooling. Here, let me demonstrate.

4. 3/4/5 +2 years later: "So! Applying to the US?/Getting married?/Getting promoted/what's your package?" I make a handy profit, but counting the change takes a lot of time. I think I might emigrate - I'm told the guys outside the Eiffel Tower make a killing from the centimes, and the exchange rate is good now.

5. (unspecified years later, if you've provided satisfactory (not correct, mind you) answers to the above): "so when are you giving us the good news" (hopefully soon, the sperm should have reached base yet, wonder what's happened, I'll try calling up and will keep you in the loop) or "doesn't it look just like you?" (yikes! throw away the beauty pageant application, then).

I guess the reason kids come into the world is because their parents have grown tired of the interrogation and are glad to have someone else sit in the black chair, hopefully for the next 50 years.

"The world is full of clichés, and it is more than we can do to roar and rampage against it."

Last Book Loved

All Points North by Simon Armitage. Armitage writes with a sense of irony that seems to be the innate preserve of the British. Armitage is a poet who can write other kinds of "writings" well. Book is almost like a blog actually.

Even a little place like England has its North-South divide (consider that Scotland v England is a different beast altogether). Listening to members on either side of the hedge has always been fascinating, in the way it plays out in cricket (even further down to the Roses' counties), in football, in popular culture and even in the English language (listen to Mike Atherton and Geoff Boycott speaking on air). Armitage is a Yorkshire lad. He's lived and worked there. Now he's popular and one of the Booker Prize jury members this year.

The book has news articles from the region, public events such as putting up a pantomime in front of many, many people, personal journeys, househunting, poems, and musings. I wanted to put up a few poems like the one on the homeless, but alas, I have returned the book to the library. For what it's worth, a recommendation.

The papers are educational

You learn new things from the papers each day. On Monday, I learnt that I, due to my membership of the city of Pune, am thrilled and excited in anticipation of the mysterious visit of Pittolie (a.k.a. Jitt) to this city. Many of us, even those of us who only found out about this via the Pune Times, were reportedly queueing up for roles as extras, and some were probably trying to get adopted as well.

Today, we read that even the Police Commissioner of Pune has no idea when the couple are to arrive and where they will be during this golden once-in-a-lifetime period that we have been blessed with. From the article I found that "most of the shooting is expected to take place in the Aundh-Baner area." because the location was chosen as many parts of the city landscape had a strong resemblance to the landscape of Karachi and Islamabad, where most of the film is based . Golly! Didn't know that.

So in case the movie achieves international recognition, we shall probably be pointed out on the map as the city in which they shot "that movie".

Biased for sure

Too many inherent biases within myself prevent me from being nice to certain things. Example of this were views about the latest hit that has swept everyone off their feet - the views have just emerged within myself without conscious effort. I find that Harish says exactly what I had in mind (and both of us haven't seen it). And adds a couple of more interesting anecdotes.

My addition is to wonder if the makers of Omkara are planning an independent entry to the Oscars, given my own list of what the best films (so far! and that too only from mainstream Hindi cinema) this year are. Oh, and perhaps Mr. Afzal of Parliament attack fame could use the current wave as an argument.