Maestro Ilaiyaraja New Albums 2011 - Hello Jaihind / Sri Rama Rajyam

[K]

http://cablesankar.blogspot.com/2011...amarajyam.html

[Sureshs65]

raja_fan,

As Plum says it will help all of us if you read what he has written carefully. If you have understood it, you will probably delete your post or ask the moderator to do it!!

teja: Thanks for the upload. What a wonderful piece. Just before this starts, there is a Rama chant, which is also fantastic. Anyone going to the theaters, kindly record that as well.

And Plum: Matterukku vaa yaa. Anyway, I agree with everything you have said. Wanted to add one extra thing about Nayantara. There seemed to be a bit of natural sadness in her face, which suited this role perfectly.

[V_S]

Finally! Bapu, the 80+ Director, who firmly keeps belief in his old fashioned techniques - at one stage you have Rama speaking out his thoughts to a statue to give us a clue of what the scene is about - he shrewdly invests on two major strengths - a) his own aesthetic sense; an artist first, he helps in shaping the rather middling graphics to tasteful ends, his magic touch straddling the line between garish and grand very effectively. Even the Smooth Blue on Rama isn't as jarring as it could have been. b) his second shrewd choice is to bring Raja's music as the central force of the movie - a choice, it must be emphasised, is not the most obvious. The earlier movies in the genre, while they had pleasant and classic music, paid extra ordinary attention to verses and lyrics, so much so that the tunes and music themselves were subservient to that aspect. Bapu has been shrewd enough to realise that in this era, the one man in his crew who stands heads and shoulders above is the music director. I firmly believe the choice is conscious and pays off brilliantly.Known for his sensitivity, and focus on human relationships, Bapu succeeds in portraying Rama, the human being, for most part. Inescapably, there are several screenplay moments when he has to succumb to the Godliness of his characters - and these are the least engaging moments that bring down the movie from what it could have been. It seems to me that while Bapu is old-fashioned, he is not that conservative to not see the human aspect of the story but is restrained by the need to cater to the divinity-seeking audience. Nevertheless, he captures several sensitive moments of Seetha and Rama, and these are the moments that give the movie its emotional quotient. Sadly, it is not fully realised thanks to the sensitivity of the audience which cannot face a full length human drama starring these characters. In the end, Bapu is part of that audience as well, and I think the movie is exactly what could have come from this internal conflict of Bapu himself - between a free thinking artist sensitive to femininity, and the conservative, religious male underneath. Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine Raja will get a better vehicle and a better director who can dignify his songs/BGM with prime position in the movie. For that, I shall be grateful to the veteran.

Great going Plum! especially the bolded lines. I completely agree on the latter bolded lines. Even though I have not seen the movie to appreciate the BGM, but the songs and the pictures of those gifted musicians from Europe with Maestro itself proved how the BGM was going to be. Yes, this should be a complete one from Maestro and after a long long time Maestro should have quenched his music thirst through this movie. As you said, many many thanks to Bapu.

Please continue sir. Your write-up on Nayantara's performance was too good. Delighted to read your wonderful write-ups.

[teja]

The BGM when Sita comes to see her own statue

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One more BGM from the above scene. http://soundcloud.com/pkiran/sri-ram...-theme-track-1

@Suresh, Indeed, that whole 5 min sequence is simply superb! This theme track is a wonderful transformation of the 3rd charanam from 'Devulle mechindi'.

[rajkumarc]

Lovely posts Plum, great insights, makes me want to watch the movie right away. Waiting for your posts about the music.

[Sureshs65]

teja,

Exactly. The way he uses the 'Devulle Mechindi' and enhances it with harmony is mind blowing to say the least.

[Sureshs65]

Here is what I wrote about the BGM when Sita comes to see her own golden statue. (on twitter). Ofcourse I am hoping Plum will elaborate that part even more. He is quite inspired now. Waiting for his posts on music.

"Raja uses the ending of 'Devulle Mechindhi' to create the BGM When you listen to the song / BGM it is instructive to see how Raja brings in the harmony concept into play here enhancing our experience 'aa sparshakku' part. The most important thing is that the music exactly conveys the state of Sita. As I have always said, Raja always restricts himself in such a way that the music finally has to service the emotion. And as the veena comes in with 'sreekaram manoharam' Sita's emotion is completely revealed to us and we feel that emotion as well. This can only be composed by a person who understands music, its grammar, emotions and movie making. And no one does all these better than this man."

[Plum]

Suresh, you asked for it - a detailed review . This is why the Chinese said "Be careful what you wish for - you might end up getting it". And then you regret...anyway, I finally will come to the point in the next post. Before that, a final observation - this movie, in the style it is presented, is only possible in Telugu - although one would wonder how it would be if Bapu could stick to the human drama aspect alone. Nevertheless, telugu preykshalu can be proud because otherwise they have the crassest, mass-est moviedom. Perhaps this is their redemption. One can go to Kerala and rendaam moozham for the human aspect, after all.

[Plum]

At long last, we come to the man of the match - the man whose shoulders have clearly been identified by everyone concerned with the movie as the one to place the burden of interpreting the movie for the audience, and for the commercial success. And he delivers spectacularly. Suresh has pre-empted me on a few scenes so I ought to skip them. Before that, the songs. Most of the songs have a specific purpose and so, are part of the narrative - and this was observed in the audio reviews itself. The 3 story telling songs have been very well used - I had been imagining that they'll play out the scenes as Lava-Kusa sing out the story but rightly, the director let's the Camera stay in the present for a reason. Devulle Mechindhi is the practice song before they leave for Ayodhya and gives us Lava-Kusa's blind acceptance of Rama as the ideal based on what they have been taught. Then the song in the streets of Ayodhya - aptly getting to the point in the first line as "ramayanamu..." - captures their invovlement in the story and the tireless willingness of Ayodhya to hear the story sung. The one thing I missed here was the Emayya Ramayya phrase, which is left unpicturised. Three of my most expected songs and phrases - linger as they do in specific situation and emotions - were left out, which left a bitter taste. Of all of them, this was the most glaring one. That phrase "Emayya Ramayya" is supposed to be the emotional peg to capture the past(leaving for vanavaasam) as well as present(the mirthless aftermath of Sita's banishment). One of the Palace insiders breaksdown at the end of this song, and runs to Kousalya to tell about these new raconteurs. Inexplicably, the phrase most suitable to capture that has been left out. The other misses were the mutliation of Sree Rama Lera which had to be captured in full to show the brief period of bliss after returning from Lanka. Instead, it is broken into pieces and another of the key phrases I was looking forward to - "andharu okate le ramuniki" - left out. The third miss is the melodramatic "Gaali ningi neeru" not being used in full. 2 minutes saved perhaps at the editing table but then the movie worked for me only when it lingered in moments and milked the emotion out of them as opposed to the divinity moments and story-forwarding moments - this was one plum opportunity and therefroe, a sour miss for me. This perhaps was the opportunity to let Srikanth mouth the lines. And finally, Kalaya Nijamaa, where we have Vindoo Dara Singh hopelessly miming out the stanza. While the skip of the pallavi and sudden jump to stanza as a reply from Hanuman to Valmiki worked for me, Vindoo's fifth Standard miming of the lines(no doubt prompted by Assistant Directors) left me wondering if a seasoned performer like Srikanth could have been given these 2 minutes in the other song instead. Those are the minor grouses on the choices made on the songs usage. Otherwise, it is the songs - even more than the BGM - which capture the soul of the movie. As I observed, the segue of Sita rama Charitam between KRV's breakdown worked brilliantly. The choice of this particular portion of the story to be told in the palace worked as well because of the relevance of the Agni Pariksha episode to the unexplainability of the absence of Sita in the palace to Lava-Kusa. Once again, I remember the singers Anita-Keertana with awe. For two unknown singers before this album, they are so professional, and bring out the emotions so beautifully and this is confirmed while watching on screen. Hope to hear more of this pair of talented singers. (Contd)

[Plum]

The first delivery of the match is a tricky off-cutter - a prosaic return of Rama/Sita and party from Lanka - and the reunion. This is handled in a low-key manner. But Raja starts off spectaculrly with a sixer - Jagadhanandha Karaka sets the mood perfectly for the Rama Rajyam to begin. One would expect that after this spectacular start, one cannot experience another high but then Raja is a combination of Viv-Viru-Sachin-Gower-Laxman-Dravid so this is merely an appetizer. The next few moments weave in and around Sri Rama Lera as Rama-Sita experience their few days of marital bliss in their whole life. I wish they had played out the song straightly instead of weaving in and around but it still works. You can feel the brief peacefull bliss hthe King and Queen enjoy before their wretched destiny takes over. I felt Gaali Ningi Neeru should have been leveraged better during this phase than it actually was. But, the Sri Rama Lera variations during this phase ought to be captured too(task for you Teja).