Ilayaraja and Maniratnam-II
Having taken a look at IR-Mani Ratnam combo’s earlier movies, this post would look at their other two movies-Anjali and Thalapathy in detail.
I have already blogged on Gitanjali, and interested people can check out that post.
Anjali(1990) was a movie that dealt with a mentally retarded child. Shekhar( Raghuvaran) and Chitra( Revathy), are a happily married couple living with their kids Arjun( Master Tarun) and Anu(Baby Shruthi). They drop into a new apartment complex, that is populated by a bunch of noisy kids. Though Arjun and Anu, face some initial bullying, they are soon accepted by the kids and become friends with them. Their hapiness is however short lived, when Chitra comes to know that their third baby Anjali( Baby Shamili) , is mentally retarded and worse, is suffering with a terminal illness. Shekar had kept this a secret from Chitra, telling her, that she had given birth to a still born child. The movie deals with how the family, faces this situation, and whether Arjun and Anu will accept Anjali. In fact would Anjali be accepted by a “normal” society?
Mani takes a look at the issues of mentally retarded kids, and how society is reluctant to accept them. One thing i really admire about Mani, is how he is able to extract great performances from every artiste in his movie. This was the only movie in which i really liked Baby Shamili, in most of the other movies starring her performance was just plain irritating. And Mani also is able to extract natural performances from most of the other kids, including Tarun and Shruti. For me the best performances in the movie come from Raghuvaran as the father, considering that most of the time, i had seen him in stereotypical villian roles.
Some of the scenes are quite poignant and moving, especially when Raghuvaran, explains to his children, that Anjali is a “child of God” and that she is special. The best scene in movie is for me, when the apartment residents hold a meeting, demanding that Anjali be expelled and put in a hospital, and then Prabhu, playing a convict, lambasts them of their hypocrisy, telling them that if people who cheat on their wives and wife beaters can stay, what was Anjali’s crime? But some how would not rate this as Mani’s best. Some of the kids scenes are really over the top, and also Mani messes up big time, in the scene, when Revathy walks out on Raghuvaran, suspecting him of infidelity. Also the romantic track between two residents and their warring dads sucks. As a movie Anjali does have its moments, but it could have done with some editing, and a better handling of key scenes.
Ilayaraja again teams up to provide a marvellous score. The best thing is that he allows the kids to sing in their own voices, which gives it a very natural effect.
* Something, Something- Picturized on the kids, this song captures their mischievous, bratty ways. Pretty natural.
* Rathri Nerathil- This is a kind of dream sequence, where Raghuvaran, narrates his kids a story, and we have all kinds of space effects, flying saucers. SPB is just brilliant here, trust me, until i saw the casette cover, i really could not imagine it was SPB, singing here, as he totally modulates his voice.
* Iravu Nilavu- Pretty breezy peppy song, by Janaki. Sort of item number picturized on Shantipriya, and the kids.
* Motta Maadi- Song picturized on kids, as they spy on the love birds, romancing on the terrace.
* Vaanam Namakku- Another dream song picturized on kids, and the ET style graphics makes it worth watching on screen.
Also the title song which is really moving, and one of IR’s best compositions.
And yes the climax scene, which really touches you. Enhanced again by IR’s BGM.
That climax scene, had many in the audiences, totally moved to tears.
Thalapathy was the last movie in which IR-Mani came together. Mani took the age old Mahabharat story of the friendship between Karna and Duryodhan and set it against a gangster backdrop. Rajnikant is Surya, an illegitimate child, abandoned by his mother. In fact the name Surya itself, i guess refers to Karna being the son of Surya in Mahabharat. Raised by a poor woman in a slum, he comes into contact with Deva( Mamooty), the local slum lord. Deva is impressed by his character, and recruits him as one of the men in his gang. In no time, Deva and Surya become thick friends, and Surya is elevated to status of Thalapathy, or the commander. The conflict arises when Surya comes to know of his birth, and also the fact that his real brother Arjun( Arvindswamy) is now the collector of that area. To complicate matters Arjun launches a drive against the anti social elements, and targets Deva, who swears revenge. Surya now has to choose between his friend and his real brother.
The movie became famous for its depiction of Rajnikant in a totally different light, away from his usual image. I would rate that as one of Rajni’s best performances. Mamooty is as usual brilliant as Deva, and in fact one of the strong points of the movie is the chemistry between Mamooty-Rajni, both of them sharing an excellent vibe. To be honest, i did not like this movie much on first viewing. Though it had some excellent scenes, the short dialogues put me off. But some how on repeated viewings, i must admit Thalapathy has sort of grown on me.
Though IR as usual has given a good score in the movie, for me, more than the songs, it was IR’s BGM that i really liked more.
The BGM in the scene, when Rajni and Mamooty meet for the first time, is just brilliant. Also loved the way Mani, sets up the scene, and the camerawork by Santosh Sivan is just brilliant.
And comming to the songs
* Rakamma Kaiya Thattu- This was the hit song of that year, IR using the violin beats effectively here. Item number picturized on Sonu Walia and Rajni.
* Sundari Kannal- The best song of the album for me. IR wonderfully uses the orchestra effect in the musical interludes. Mani picturizing this song in a kind of Japanese samurai backdrop.
* Kattukuyilu- This song is a Pongal celebration song, picturized on Rajni and Mamooty. Observe the way IR uses the drum beats in the musical interludes. Very much the rustic flavor, which IR usually brings at times in his songs.
And that was to be the last of Mani-IR’s collaboration. I would still love to see another Mani movie with music by IR.
Tags: illayaraja, Indian movie Songs, Maniratnam
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Ratnakar: I can write much on Anjali’s BGM but I am going to trail my microscope on an insignificant part of the movie which, nonetheless, tells us why Ilaiyaraja is an unparalleled genius.
You were talking about the irritating track with the love-birds and their warring dads. Mani always had this irritating comedy track – atrocious, if I may. The sardarji track in Mouna Ragam, the lakshmipathy track in Agni and the height of it all, the Disco Shanti track in Geetanjali. But I digress.
You remember that last scene involving these love-birds and their dads. Well, this was the comedy track and normally, in Indian movies you expec that “Ku-van, ku-van, kuvan, kwwwwwwaaaaan” music in comic scenes. If you dont know what I mean, rewind to any Hindi movie of the 80’s and pick a comedy scene. But then this is Ilaiyaraja we are talking about – the king of BGM. Look at how he uses Tabla and Mridangam to backup this comic scene. Poornam Viswanathan’s antics are mridangam-ed while Charuhassan receives the tabla treatment. If you look at the movie, PV is ultra-traditional iyer-vaal while Charuhassan is a slightly liberal “pan-india” Tamil brahmin(I think). This is not spelt out but you can feel the undercurrents – the veshti sattai of PV and the kurta-pyjama of hassan is an indicator. The brilliant percussion-only BGM for this scene was noticed by me only in the 5th viewing. And there, too, to contrast Tabla and Mridangam for the characterisation of two such minor characters. How many would have noticed that? What kept this man going and creating such outstanding BGM pieces? I wonder in awe even today.
And since you have digged Mani-IR, I suggest you go forth and check out PAP and Unaroo. PAP has a telugu version – Nagu Endhide is an out-of-the-world melody with unbelievable orchestration and structure. If you want a rough approximation of the structure, you might want to remember “Navodayam Nadam” from Kokila, and to a lesser extent, “Mooga Veenai Mrugena” from Kirathakudu.
Raj: Dude, you better post something on IR soon. Your knowledge is just superb. You really bought out a new perspective something i missed, though i have seen Anjali quite a number of times.
One memorable IR BGM i can recall is from Idhayam. We have this scene, when Murali wants to tell Heera his love for her, but is hesitant. You have IR starting off with a slow mournful tune. And then as if to reflect the conflict in Murali’s mind, he just goes through a series of modulations. And finally when Heera walks away, Murali feels all is lost, and you have IR hitting a pretty pathos tune. Mindblowing i would say.
Raj i have heard Nagu Enidhe, its more like “Navodayam” song in Kokila.
Interestingly if you listen to the song “Yenati Bandhamo” from Sri Kanaka Maha Lakshmi Recording Dance Troupe, the same tune was used as the BGM for Swatimutyam.
I am doing a post on Avathaaram soon. in the meanwhile Keep em coming Ratnakar!!
Also recommended for a Telugu – Title music of Aradhana – If you dont get images of Coastal Andhra in your mind (but not coastal Karnataka or Coastal TN), then beat me up. I think Kadalora Kavidhaigal, the tamil version, had a different title score.
Best of all, look at this:
http://maestromagic.blogspot.com/2008/10/44-same-scene-different-bgms.html
It is the same frikking scene but the movie was just re-released in 1996, and he has obliged with a completely different, but equally mesmerising take on the BGM! Thats, like, re-releasing M-E-Azam but in Color – multiply this creative/technical effort by 1000 and you get an idea of what he has done here
Breaking news!!
Vegan Radio would be featuring Ilaiyaraaja’s music coming Thursday the 30th of October, 2008., at 7pm Eastern time.
That should be around 6.30AM on the 31st of October, 2008, in INDIA
Ilaiyaraaja’s music will be streaming live at www.valleyfreeradio.org and the podcast will be available in a couple days after that at www.veganradio.com.
Ratnakar
Thankyou for the write up on the great Ilayaraja. One of my favourite is a song picturised on Mohan and Suhasini …when they are jogging in the morning. Song started with Paruvame….pudhiya paadal padu….
Could you pls tell me which movie is this from…????
@ Jai Ganesh: Looking to ur post on Avatharam.
@ Raj: Aradhana was shot near my home town, Vizag, in the coastal town of Bhimli. And IR’s music, suits the millieu perfectly. Interesting the way IR comes up with 2 different BGM’s.
@irir: Thanks for that link.
@ Jayakumar: That movie was Nenjathai Killathe, which in fact was the inspiration for Mani’s Mouna Ragam. And the song you mentioned is one of IR’s best.
although you wrote about songs of thalapathy, u missed my favorite track “chinna thai” …..amazing score
wonder why maniratnam has discarded ilayaraja completely
Guys,
I think u need to check out ir’s songs from malayalam as well.
1. Guru
2. Moonam pakkam
3. Olangal
4. Kaalapani
5. Pappayude swantham appoos.
Guru is top notch.
another awesome BGM by IR is the movie NIzhalkuthu(Shadow Kill) by the master director Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
Ram, GURU is probably the best WCM-based track to emerge out of India. Aruna Kirana alone deserves a separate article. Let me see if I can do justice to that immense song. Problem is while I can discuss the impact, I lack the musical sense to articulate the intricacy of that composition
In Malayalam, there is another film – Achuvinde Amma. I have not watched the film so do not know about the BGM. But man, what songs!!
Raj: Please do write about the Guru track. To eat Semiya Payasam is great, and to hear someone describing how he enjoyed the taste of it is even greater :-D