Endhiran - The Robot !!

When the whole of the country and especially the southern region is ablaze with celebrations of the southern superstar Rajnikanth's blockbuster Endhiran, it should be really interesting to peek into the the brains of the creator - An interview with Director Shankar on Endhiran -The Robot... (a movie for which the teaser's were out by as early as 1996 through the movie Indian (Hindusthani) in the song 'tada' where Kamal Hassan as a Robot pets a Robot dog)

Me : Director Shankar, first of all congratulations on the movie, i think it will be really satisfying to you that response has been good - great from all quarters.

Shankar: Yes absolutely. Every creation is aimed at a critical analysis. Appreciation is always overwhelming. But what is indeed the most important feedback is the critical analysis. This really demonstrates how well the critic (an audience) has understood the film ... which indirectly throws light on how deep he/she has involved with the movie.

Me: Well thats certainly an encouraging answer.

Me: To begin with, Why Rajnikanth, why Ash and Why Rahman ?

Shankar: As i have already mentioned, this script is close to 10 years in hold, has been exchanged with various big artists starting with Padmashree Kamal Hassan ... until the last unsuccessful attempt at roping in SRK. But when things did not materialize, i took off some time on contemplating "what now". There is always the scope of pushing the movie to future and raking up another project instead. But the success of Sivaji and my previous movies had obviously helped me in conquering the trust of producers. Moreover, going round the country in confirming the artists, i also had to worry about someone else hooking onto the project before i cud start off. In fact, as it so happens, SRK is working on a Sci-fi himself. So i had decided that this better be the time i did the movie to whatever extent possible. For a long time i thought of roping in some big actors simply because the reach is huge. But then after the big guns of the bollywood industry like Hrithik and SRK and Aamir busy with other movies or uncomfortable with aspects of the movie .... i had to settle to think of a south indian superstar for the movie.

"Billa-2006" - a remake of the yesteryear Rajnikanth movie created a huge wave of slick entertainment in the south indian industry and i was then thinking about casting Ajith. But known for his debacles and consistently poor performance ... entrusting such a huge project on him i felt was silly. Then one day when i was holiday camping at Ooty it occured to me why not rope in Rajni Sir for this role. On the positive side, his commitment is independent of his age and his mass reach in unmatched. On the negative side though is that he shud have not accepted any other project and he shud be willing to stress hiimself at this age for a sufficiently long-shoot movie. But things clicked when we talked, and an initially hesitant Rajni Sir accepted the role trusting my opinion. As to Ash and Rahman its simple, this is a movie that will involve a huge budget. And hence to fully load the responsibility of carrying it over successfully on Rajni Sir is unfair. Moreover, as always Ash's prettiness and Rahman's name sells. Considering the fact that these are also two people who are best in their trade currently, they had to be my first option.

Me: Rumours i hear, inform that many top notch cinematographers declined the offer to work on Robot.

Shankar: Two things - the duration of the movie was expected to be atleast two years (which incidentally shot up to 3 years including pre-production and post-production). And it was not just roping in the big names, it was getting their consent for a committed work all throughout. Further, i generally prefer some of my cast and crew members to not sign in on other films while working on mine. Pretty much the way most top notch directors do in bollywood and hollywood so that the full concentration is on one work and the dates are not a problem for the shoot. Thus, many cinematographers like Ravi K Chandran , Neerav Shah didnt want to commit on to the project and i got the consent from Randy (Ratnavelu).

Me: When i entered the movie theatre, there were only 40 odd people (while i expected a huge crowd pomping and womping and enjoying the festive mood. Well thats more becos of some insensible marketing at Pheonix, Az for the premiere show. But when the movie ended, there was a standing ovation for more than a couple of minutes as the titles ran ... and i felt that i didnt really need the 'Rajni'- atmosphere to enjoy this movie. How did you manage to pull that off ?

Shankar: See, as i have repeatedly announced right from 2000, this movie did not need a star cast. Avatar didnt really need a star cast to pull it off. The script was tight and well thought of ( considering that i had revisited it with revisions three times at least before finalising on this one). The only reason why i wanted a star cast is because of the budget that the movie invests itself into. Star brand can make far more people come to the theatres. And this initial impetus really helps the directors. Once that is done, now it is easier for the directors since all they have to do is to have a good script that the audience will appreciate to make them feel happy about watching the movie. All this said and done, i have always had my own way of approaching movies. If you look at my earlier movies, none of them have a powerful or mass-pulling introduction scene. It is always simple and straight. In fact, Mudhalvan, which was first offered to Rajni sir also had no real introduction hype as such. U wud wonder what about Sivaji then, well thats what peer pressure can sometimes do ... the producers AVM didnt want to take a risk of not having an intro song and intro scene and punch dialogues. And in fact thats y it was added as a last minute addition, just a few months before the movie release. But in this one, i was rock solid on the script and at no point i wanted to make changes. And hence wat u get to see is a movie devoid of typical Rajni gimmicks and mannerisms.

Me: Ok, now lets go into specific sections of the movie. 'Speed 1THz and Memory 1Zettabyte'

Shankar: If i understand your question rite, u are inquiring of the content of scientific dialogues in the movie. Well its a Robot, and i cannot just have it do un-imaginable things and claim that it is the greatest Robot of all times. Whether it be the Raga identification or the Fibanocci series or the Achilles Paradox, i feel a great sense of gratitude to writer Sujatha. Only he has such a vast sense of knowledge in so much depth that those ideas cud be incorporated. In fact, the 'Rangusky' mosquito scene is in total dedication to him.

Me: There have been some really brilliant scenes in the movie:- i) the "Chellatha " scene ii) " Is there someone called God" iii) "Black sheep" iv) " Saving the naked girl from fire " and many others. But yet such a reckless and careless twist in the plot ? A Scientist who is utterly careless about waste disposal ? Now that being the turning point of the movie is really hard to digest !

Shankar: See you shud understand one thing. Andro-humanoids are imaginative beings in the sense, to the extent that i know we dont have thinking Robots as yet. Now as to how a thinking robot wud behave is totally imaginative. Robot is the total opposite of a human in the sense, it takes decisions based on facts, we take decisions based on our bias (which may be right or wrong) amongst many other such differences. When a character that is in between these two is potrayed its really tough to draw a line as to what the logistics defining the character wud be. In the particular scene that u are talking about, ur apprehension is about how Dr Vasi cuts the body of the robot and literally throws it without making sure it is technically 'dead'. There are two ways i wud like to justify this. Whether a scientist or not, mistakes happen, and emotions take over man (which is what makes us imperfect) and when we lose control of ourselves we end up not being normal enuf to decide on the best possible solution to a problem (like how students who get tensed in an exam tend to perform poorly than those who are relaxed). And this is exactly what i hav already showcased in an earlier scene when the Robot first gets angry. When the reverse synthetic feelings were fed to the robot and it doesnt seem to understand/reciprocate, Dr Vasi gets angry. Though at that point the attention is towards Sana who identifies that the robot starts to feel ... whats hidden is that the emotional hang over that Dr Vasi was in at that juncture was only disrupted by Sana's observation or else, typically u cud expect Dr Vasi to have gotten mad at the robot and into one such angry interactions. Moreover, even in the initial parts of the story, like the 'saving the girl child' scene, Dr Vasi does get upset although the intensity grows slowly and steadily. So given Dr Vasi's nature of getting angry and emotional it is not surprising that he cud hav ended up losing sense of what he was doing.

A second argument that i cud probably provide u is something more subtle. History has it that, the greatest of greats have fallen flat, at the height of their talents, because of under-estimating their opponents. It is very much a human tendency to overlook the capability of something that he/she believes is not as capable. Take Ilayaraja for example. Rahman worked with him and during that time, Raja never really felt challenged by the kid. Thats y he never tried oppressing or suppressing the kid from leaving the group when he wanted to. But as time wud have it, he wud be the one to dethrone the Raja empire. In our case, Dr Vasi created the Robot and although he knows that it is capable of doing what 100 men of the best calibre in each activity can do, it is supposedly his pet. So he believes that it will do only what the master says. A gross under-estimation considering the fact that he has fed emotions to the machine which thus allows it to think by itself. Moreover, a machine is more powerful and capable than man in everything other than thinking. And when that also is added, the machine outdoes man in every possible activity. Dr Vasi under-estimated the potential of this robot because he feels he hasnt done anything bad to 'it' and Chitti is still 'it' rather than 'him'.

Me: Well, thats an interesting point of view. But what about the three Rajni characters. The Chitti characters were well sketched and well executed. But Dr Vasi looked pathetic, least heroism that one could have expected from Rajni. Although fans seemed to be overshadowed by Chitti to think about Vasi, i am not.

Shankar: See, how many scientists have u noticed in real life who can beat up a body builder ? For that matter how many of them are normal in social activities like dancing or interacting with public and many other such stuff ? Scientists ... atleast those who look at it more than just a profession ..... are really passionate about their research. In fact the term 'scientist' itself was supposed to have been coined to tag all those who study and research fundamental logic behind why things are as they are, in the same league as a pianist, a violinist, a paintist, or more generally an 'artist' . Now all these characters, when they are really passionate lose the normal behavorial instincts. Dr Vasi is one such person, just another scientist who is a normal guy passionate about research. He is not a robinhood hero. U can think of it similar to 'Chandru' in the movie Indian. Here its much more elegant. A scientist who really doesnt have any other option other than kicking mud on the face of a rowdy to elope with his girlfriend, so much so frustrating to her that she admits - to have had Chitti in that situation wud have been great. That is Dr Vasi. Imagine how senseless it wud be if he acknowledges to a crowd of distinguished dignitaries in a conference that the robot is ... blah blah .... 100 times are capable as humans in everything ..... etc etc ... and then he kicks the robot and it falls down totally fractured! Dr Vasi is a character designed to be underplayed and the very fact as u admit that the normal movie goer and the Rajni fanatic didnt really remember or worry about Vasi in comparison to the robot is the ultimate applause the Rajni sir and the character can get.

Me: Technically the movie has put India on the world map. Srinivasulu, the supervisor of the VFX team who has collaborated with u on several of ur previous projects admits that the only reason u fetched the Stan Winston or any of the other non-indian artists and engineers was because the script demanded that justification and that such technology was unavailable and people with expertise on such technology were also unavailable here.

Shankar: Dot... none of my previous movies , except Indian has really involved any substantial contribution for VFX from non-indian technicians. I have always stressed that we are not short of creativity or talent here. Its only the budget and facility. Since this movie required certain facilities that we did not have, we approached others outside our country.

Me: The comedy track in the movie i felt was inconsistent. Did Santhanam and Karunas necessarily have to be involved ?

Shankar: See different directors have different ideologies with which they approach a movie. My approach is as follows - if i feel that the movie has a wide range of audience to cater to, my scenes, whether they be comedy or sentiment or action ... the whole movie as such is cooked up in such a proportion that theres something for every movie goer. This along with a good gripping story line is generally what i ensure before a script is on floors for shooting. In this movie, if u actually notice, everything other than the Robot itself is insignificant. Or to put it in other words, the Robot is the fulcrum. Comedy, romance, sentiment, anger, action, and everything that has been a part of the story is totally centred around Chitti. The romance that Dr Vasi pursues is so structured that when Chitti is involved it makes a good convergence. And so with the comedy scenes. As i have told earlier in this interview itself, this story doesnt demand any starcast and any one outstanding performer. Which is also why i didnt want to go with a Vivek or a Vadivelu. But then, a lab without assistants wud look too empty and to give a flavour to the lab, geeky assistants are just fillers. Hence i needed characters who are totally side-kicks and are just involved in giving the scene more than its due. Comedy wasnt aimed to be heavy. In fact one tv reporter while interviewing me asked about the opening scene, where the Robot kicks both these guys. Let me tell you that it wasnt a comedy scene intended. Or rather to rephrase it, not for the grown up audience. The face expression that Santhanam and Karunas give shud have rung a bell to u that it is for the younger kids. For us the elders, the dialogue by Karunas is really what we shud be looking for - " If this is how the Robot kicks and plays with us rite at this initial stage, like does a baby inside the womb of the mother, i cant imagine how it will trouble us when it is fully ready". Well as said and done, theres no clear cut mark that one can put as to what wud go overboard and what is too less ... but as long as u dont feel them spoiling the mood of the overall scenario, i think their casting is justified.

Me: :) .. there have been some trademark Shankar's touch in the movie. One of them as u have just said is that dialogue by Karunas. Do u think, understanding those characteristic moves that each movie will consist of, idiosyncratic of each director really differentiates someone who watches the movie for fun from the others ?

Shankar: If i say that they are all the same to me, i am lying. Definitely it gives immense pleasure when people note small and subtle things in movies and report them to u. They are happy to note those intricacies and as a creator i am happy that they have noted! Otherwise the art of movie making wud become mundane.

Me: If everything is not spoon feeding, then y a straight forward story and narrative style ?

Shankar: Non-linear narrative is exciting as both to create and appreciate. But let us not forget that our target audience is not the western audience used to such high end story visualisation. In fact there are some fantastic directors in our country who can weave such wonderful subtle and non-linear stories. But how many of such movies have u witnessed being box office hits ? The sensibility is always the biggest question and since i try to cater to as wide an audience as possible, i try to have subtler issues and ideas put in a different manner.

Me: But then, those not accustomed to analyzing in depth wrt each moviemaker, will under-estimate the movie ...

Shankar: Well one cant satisfy everyone in every aspect. If i had made this movie with Kamal Hassan, not 10% of the common public that are fans of Rajni and those of similar social strata wud have come to view this movie. But i cud hav gone into further depths of science and people will still buy it. So firstly, there are compromises that come with each part of movie including caste, crew, budget, time etc. Moreover, my story is generally layered in such a way that the person expecting a 'not too tough to digest' storyline gets satisfied and so do those who are used to watching movies of the likes of Spielberg and Nolan. They can identify nuances and intricacies that are characteristic of me hidden at various points. Which is also why some scenes (esp comedy) sometimes are more childish while some are better off. u wud surely not expect a 9 year old kid to understand what Goundamani and Senthil share in the office. On the other hand, when Senthil justifies to Manisha Koirala that the car is not his and has algae thrown on his face, this is straight and simple comedy not so much for us grown ups rather than for young kids.

Me: Does Shankar the director, ever feel thathe has been setting the trend for the highest budgets repeatedly and this inturn can hurt his image ?

Shankar: I sincerely hope it doesnt. My aim is not to make a movie with a bidget bigger than my previous venture each time. Its more of a co-incidence. Robot was supposed to be done 10 years ago , and had that been the case it wud hav broken the trend of the next venture being costlier than that. On the other hand, when producers approach me for movies, they dont want low budget ones from me. They insist that they hav a lot of other directors who can give them low budget movies. They want those big movies. In a way, these big movies put them on the cine floor with a giant leap and reach and hence they insist on such big bidget movies when it involves me as the director.

Me: Is this some kind of type-casting that u admit u are not able to get off ?? Is ur production company a sincere attempt to cast off this image ?

Shankar: Yes - to both. I wudnt say that someone will want me to make a movie worth 500 crores next. But 50-60 crores surely yes. It can be a genuine attempt by a procuder because today's multiplex concept basically ensures that a good opening can recoup the investment within a week of the release. And then considering that the movie fares decently well (as long as it is not a bomber) it wud surely ensure profits.

Me: The emotional quotient of this movie was slightly on the higher side. Any particular reason ?

Shankar: I dont really plan on these things. I cant say that 20 out of 30 scenes shud hav high emotional quotient. I hav a basic strategy as to what all i can involve, how long will the scene be roughly. and then i make an edit to bring it to roughly the time limit of the movie that i wud want it to be. Then each scene is given its due. Chitti's character is loveable. Which is also why u attach emotionally to the character in each sequence. Chitti saving the girl, but doing so without ensuring she had something to cover herself has an interesting dialogue that proceeds -

Vasi : "ava kitta thuni illa nu onakku theriyalaya ? atleast oru thuni vechi mooditu kootindu vandurukkalam la" ?

Chitti : "So what, enakkum than thuni illa".

Vasi - "ippo ava manam poche "

Chitti - " ana ava uyir irukke " ....

something like that ... which brings out a wonderful concept of how the robot understands the world and how humans understand. The final answer by Chitti is unassuming, but to us it does move us becos we relate to it as an innocent young boy who has saved a life. As chitti grows, we grow with it. When it initially comes full fledged, we dont visualise it as a 61 year old man with make up made look like 40. We look at it with awe and a motherly love. As the character grows, we relate to it like that of the growth of a child. This scene can be thought of equivalently of a young boy who is just entering his adolescence and doesnt really know the essential differences between a male and a female body. Make this relation with every scene of Chitti and u will get a totally new dimension of how lots of things that chitti does can be viewed. The first kiss that he gets after the exam .... like a typical kid ... he asks why Ash waters his cheeks. But later when the emotions are programmed, the reaction to the first kiss is typically what a guy in his adolescence wud feel if kissed the first time. The mosquito scene is Chitti's own way of showing his girlfriend that he can do whatever she asks for. And thus, u add an emotional quotient to almost each scene.

Me: Its really nice to know that u hav so much embedded within ur story. But to admit that i did not really think in these aspects, in fact in many of ur justifications that u hav provided earlier, makes me think, if the layering strategy that u utilize itself is the making u a victim.

Shankar: As i hav said earlier, entertainment is the single largest reason for maximum number of people to watch a movie. And then depending upon their exposure, social influence and various other factors, the audience has different capacities of appreciating and criticising finer details. And since i aim to not categorize myself into making movies for just one type of audience, i layer my films with different depths of nuances. But as u correctly mentioned, the plainest view is more like a one line story with events unfolding. It may be true and some people have informed me that, many a time, the overall entertainment quotient in my movie captures audiences' minds more than the subtleties. Well, i cant really help that by cutting down on the plaintive screenplay because not only am i risking the repeat audience from not warrantying a visit to the theater, but i also lose out on my primary ambition to satisfy every kind of person watching my film at least to some extent. I know for a fact and i strongly believe that this is the aim of every director. No director likes to be type casted to an audience of a particular sensibility. But certain other factors restrict the movie from really attracting a varied audience. I want my movies to be acknowledged and approached by people of varied taste. People with craze for songs, heroines, heroism, story, comedy, screenplay, dialogues, punch or watsoever. What this does is i also get the satisfaction of extracting the best out of each department of the movie making and thereby helping all those behind the scenes to reach out with their talents to the audience also.

Me: Well ... how does one justify then the climax of the film .... an electromagnet as the pinnacle of climax ? Dr Vasi seemed a feeble match to the towering villain in Chitti 2.0...

Shankar: See, as i have always insisted Dr Vasi is a normal guy, if he cant fight a single Robot which is equivalent of a hundred guys, how can he single handedly fight 1000s of such robots joined together as a single unit. Although typically a good masala flick wud hav a capable hero and an equally capable villain, this is not one of those regular masala flicks is it ? The only power that Rajni has is his brain. He can think better than the Robot, and after being outdone on several of his ideas, one of the most basic and fundamental things that went into building the Robot is what saves the city and him. Well its exactly the same logic that went into the careless disposal of the Robot but applied in reverse. There i gave a justification of how he makes a severe under-estimation of the Robot. Now its the reverse. And a small but subtle sub-moral .... how ever much it is capable, it is still a Robot , a machine. But u can ask me it is a thinking machine and how then can u compare it lesser than a human ... and the answer is .... humans have evolved over eras, the thinking robots are first of its kind just in this present time. So although Vasi has fed the robot with facts from various resources and books and hard disks .... man is capable of discretionary powers from times immemorial and that holds him higher than the Robot .... of course .... as long as he knows what he is doing. Vasi doesnt make the mistake of going overboard and under-estimating the Robot again. He is severely humbled (esp. after Bohra's death ... which is yet again a classis example of under-estimating a thinking Robot) ... and so now is very careful in each of his plans .... and after all its a machine so all it takes is a giant electromagnet. If u wud like to analyse it this way - Man , is troubled by his weakness - emotions .... Machine is troubled by its weakness - the material that makes the machine. And both individually cause the downfall of each other. The movie, as i have mentioned earlier, focuses on Chitti - the robot. Moreover, as u can see its vintage Rajni in his antoganist role .... so both together set tone for a screenplay that makes sure that Chitti is the only focus of attention.

Me: Thats enlightening. Seems like a lot to be commented and a lot more to be known ... but as a conclusion for this segment ... what can we interpret from " naan sindhikka aarambichitten (i have/had started to think)" ?

Shankar: :) i liked to end it that way more than anything else. After the Robot dismantles itself ... it wud be really annoying to have a joint family elegy in favour of the Robot (like in Varalaru) ... or any such thing. The movie was made with a particular standard of story telling and i wanted to end at a high note. The aim of the movie is to make people think. Think about everything they saw. think about what they feel was right or wrong about each thing that happened in the movie. Some may feel certain actions of Dr Vasi to have been right, some other may feel that to have been wrong or careless, some others confused for choice. But thts the whole point. One has to think. The Robot was able to 'think' and that made the difference. Well it ended up being a disaster ...or atleast thats how i wrote my script ... but well that helped us think and understand that we dont need Robots that can think (by we i mean the public in the movie ... as a reaction to chitti's horrendous activities in its latter life). No big jolts, no big drama and weeping, no nonsense in the end ... a simple and straightforward request to the Robot to dismantle itself.

Me: Thanks Shankar, for sparing ur time. U have certainly left me wanting to watch the movie once more before i bug u for some more clarifications and criticisms ... it gives me a great pleasure to end the conversation with a note that ur movie has officially grossed the maximum amount by any Indian movie beating even that of 3-Idiots. So people have given their verdict :)

Shankar: Thanks ... :) ..... its my pleasure too.

Endhiran Music review

Well thats my first music review of an album. And what better than the most happening movie of this year Endhiran - The Robot !

Well the music launch as usual was less than 1% dedicated to music, which is expected. Now some people asked me of whether directors were less interested in emulating Gautam's style of VTV audio launch .... Well my only answer to them was, its more a producers event. The music launch nowadays is held generally a month before the movie release so that the hysteria surrounding the movie peaks during the release. And lets not forget, VTV is a different case in the sense, Gautam needs ARR more than the other way around. Truly, ARR is the biggest star of the movie closely probably followed by Trisha. So to centre an event around ARR actually was a good way to promote the film. With that perspective, Endhiran is too big a star cast to center an event over ARR. Infact theres a whole political motive behind the SUN pictures producing this movie. As to what we all think is a patch up between the SUN group and the Kalaignar Group is more of a cold war playing politics for now to oust any third party gains. It is more than evident that Dayanidhi Maran and Kalanidhi Maran want to establish an empire as strong as that of Karunanidhi ... now thats not easy considering he has a Mu Ka "... " everywhere in the state ... including my latest realisation Mu Ka Muthu in Coimbatore ! The event was anything but a Rajni and Maran label. So much so that even Shankar who generally does well in proudly stating his crew and himself couldnt beat the mass appeal that Rajni or the producer had. Well all this explanation only to concur with the fact that probably thats all he deserved !

One has to probably blame rahman that for the 10 crore that he has been allegedly paid, the album doesnt sound that sumptuous. The album consists of 3 songs that will probably occur full fledged in the movie and three others that may be used in part or as BGMs. I shall go from the worst to the best since that builds up well to a end on a positive note!

Boom Boom - Yogi B - Well least said about this composition, the best. 4 minutes of unclassified music very unlike a Rahman one (which is now becoming his style!). There are few patterns here are there which are pretty nice usages but its like ... see this is supposedly tough and so its good .... technical scrutinising to argue in facour of Rahman has become a disease now ... although people probably dont realise that just patterns dont make a good composition or any art for that matter! The technical aspects are just good for a scientific analysis .... music has nothing generally to do with it .... rather to rephrase it ..... the complexity of any part of a song has absolutely nothing to do with how good / bad/ normal / abnormal it sounds ....... But this is more of escapism .... in the sense .... a musical concert is the best analogue of the situation i can think of .... There is a very revered and experienced singer who sits in the dias .... he is so very knowledgeable that people are in complete awe at his prudence .... now the question is .... whether the singer will try to work towards audience's sentiments and sing rough and tough patterns that although may not be very pleasing to hear .... are technically sound ... or he will balance the concert with skill but pay attention to whether audience really are moved by his performance ? With live performances its really tough becos each day is different. With movies, music albums thats an advantage ... u can comment .... add flavour and listen and re-listen and watch and re-watch to understand the nuances ... this is not possible for eg. in a stage play. Which is why live performances demand that audience understand and enjoy what u do otherwise it is equivalent to shit. Well typically this shud be the aim irrespective of the form of art. I dont expect someone to click with every creation of his .... but if someone is going to claim a mediocre presentation as creative and say that art appreciation is basically te viewer's own discretion .... i am sorry .... this cannot be an excuse to escape.

Puthiya Manidha - SPB - Techno stuff .... typical of ARR and typically what i wud hav expected for an intro song with a robot's description. I wud have rated it average but for the interludes in second charanam. Somehow i am very uncomfortable of this commonplace usage of two melakartha and janyams of theirs - Natabhairavi & Kharaharapriya and occasionally even Shankarabharanam. Guys please, western music style is too different in many aspects. The variety they hav is very different from the variety we use. Predominantly many of their compositions are in these two janyas. But in our musical style we have too much of a variety. I earlier was of the thought that only Yuvan had this habit of re-using to the nth limit tunes from the same janya - the whole album of Manmadhan, and many of his most loved songs. The next to join this party was Harris Jeyaraj (HJ) ... i dont feel like commenting on him .... so of the last 4 years ... pick up any of his hit songs ... and mostly it will be in either of these two janyas. Now ARR in the past three years follows suit ! - Dil gira Dafatan, Masakali, Balleilaka, Athiradee, Aaromale, usure poguthe, kaatu sirikki, naan varuven .... and now .... Puthiya manidha, Arima Arima !! Well , having tried my hands on some similar things .... let me help u guys with this ..... these are some of the easiest melakarthas and janyas to score songs on ..... name some of the most famous cine songs and they will be in this .... but typically from the big guys u expect something novel in the usage of these ragas. Ilayaraja fumbled in this place .... re-using lots of his tunes .... novelty shrudded in basic tunes in the late 80s. He fell prey to the same idea of complicating songs becos people admire complications .... well many of his songs in the post 80s were not really great to listen although technically they were high end! Rahmanji is now followiing this safe route ... .a couple of songs in almost every movie from this janya which is not really novel .... Usure poguthe though a nice tune is not sounding different .... Enge enathu kavidhai was ... even though its a completely digested sindhu bhairavi. Aaromale was actually a good song to bring in Bhagyashree ... but common the plaintive idea was similar to Dil Gira Dafatan .... Westernised notes to indian lyrics ... even the stretching of the lyrics and pacing of the song from the second charanam was very similar in both. Puthiya manidha .... has some unusual notes in sangathis .... for that matter ... its start itself is unsual ... from a mel sthayi Ga at " Naan Kandathu .. " but the sampling of " puthiya manidha " at the start is bad .... the female voice is soothing ... but yeah Rahman i know that u did " Maale Manivanna " in Sivaji in Suddha Dhanyasi .... and it caught almost everyone's attention ..... y do u want to make it sound similar and remind us of waht u gave earlier. I can understand less capable heroes doing it. Some directors do it ... but u neednt. U are a celebrity whom people follow to the toe. U neednt remind us of ur previous albums ..... or are u feeling insecure that u cudnt give ur best in the right places and so are trying to compensate that by reminding the audience that hey ... look theres one place i did something decent ... if u havnt noticed till now ... atleast do it now !

Irumbile - ARR - he had to sing ..... and thank GOD it was this song ...... well the hindi version sounds just suited for the hindi audience .... dunno if was made with them in mind ..... when i first heard this ... i spent a lot of time thinking of how to classify this one. But then i thought .... forget it ..... its so ordinary that i shudnt worry too much ..... i am trying desperately to find something typical of rahman atleast ....if not something novel and nice ..... but in vain. Its that kind of a tune that u feel " heyy yea its very familiar " .... not copied or something ... but u just feel u hav known this tune somehow .... its starts straight with " naina mile ( irumbile)" Generally Rahman's songs never start striaght and simple ....Ilayaraja's does.... "poongatru ... from Muthal Mariyathai .... is the one i immedaitely recollect ..... this one is just like that .... some touches of sindhu bhairavi westernised .... hypnotic supersonic and all such adjectives .... i think rahman has left this one to be carried by the video. I thought "Style" was a much better attempt ... here i cant identify one.

Kadhal anukkal - Shreya Ghosal - Well ... nice song .... but fades poorly .... its a pity that both " sahana saaral " from sivaji and " kaadhal anukkal " here are good numbers fading badly. A very youthful tune and from the promos of the second trailer seems a really well thought of choreography and situation fo the song. Especially the long shot where SS walks across the river in between the desert is cool. Everything is fine until " Odugira thanniyil ... " starts ...... whats happening there on man ? Shreya does some absolute crap of a brigha which is not clear even on headfones. And the sangathi there was very ordinary .... And the male lead after that "Asaye va va ..." until the end of the charanam is really ordinary for the start. I am pretty much sure only one of the charanams is going to come in the movie ...this is going to be a short song 3:30 minutes or so on screen .... so basically no point talking about the second interlude and onwards ... But interludes again ..... dude we know Corrs .... u hav give us "Dil Gira dafatan" with a similar feel .... " Yaley - Sakkarakatti " with similar feel and ur cousin gave "On mela aasa dan " with slow motion of the same .... Why again a similar interlude ..... are u guys seriously out of ideas. Bloody 10 crores for such an inspiration ?? Save the intial guitar ensemble and the saxy voice of the male .... forget Rahman u are past ur peak. Ur consistency seems to drop.

Arima Arima - Hariharan - Open ..... trumpet ..... followed by chorus and a brilliant orchestration of percussions ..... followed by a pathetic start off by Hariharan faulting in Shruthi at three place in the first three lines ... all at the pick ups .... Hariji ... please stop judgin other students .... aapka performance pe dhyan rakhiye .... For a live performance ... while throwing energy its ok to slip from shruti here and there .... but on a record .... when crores of people are going to play and re-play the error prone version .... Rahmanji ... u hav too much of a confidence... Y not just request Hariharan to have a retake ?? afraid that he will not be really happy about it ?? But yeah, but for that unfortunate negligence ....this is an ultimate climax entertainer .... full of persussions .....really a long time since i heard such a song from Rahman. And this is why i would not mind pardoning Rahman for such a simple and trite tune. The beauty of the song is the tempo and magnificence .... and rahman ensures that it is maintained brilliantly all throughout. Although Hariji slips initially i think his pick up of " Rajathi ... " is too good .... if there is anyone else who cud hav managed an equal precion and throw ... i cannot think of anyone else other than Shankar Mahadevan. Moreover, the weight transfer of the voice at the "thi" to make it soft yet loud and vibrant is amazing... becos in "asai thee " u need a stress at the second word ...since its a different word. So that balance of softening of the first usage and stressing the secon subtely .... hats off !
The interludes have not much to be spoken of .... while the charanams have enough. First Vairamuthu's lyrics ..... i think he has thoroughly enjoyed this album ...and instead of "aambals and ink fillers" he has much more sane and reverberating lyrics. I thoroughly enjoyed them, although i am receiving mixed reviews from many others. Nothing much to say about the tune of the charanams .,... the Jonpuri touch .... rite from Athiradee ..... but very different in usage ..... I wud have expected Sadhana to be slitely more open in her voice ... it was too soft for Hari's and the overall mood sombers down ...i can understand the situation of the lyrics ... where the leading lady is pleading that she needs someone more soft and with feelings ..... but theres an overall energy of the song which sufferes at this juncture .... rather at almost every point where the female lead sings. Vaaji Vaaji was better that way .... the mood was carried right till the end and madhushree though had a tough time with tamil .... carried the energy well. But if theres one thing that shud be commented positively in this song, it is the use of violins and other percussions ..... in recent past i havent heard any other song boast such a brilliant orchestration. The seconds and chords neednt be diferent and outstanding .... but the way it enriches the overall richness and feel of the song is amazing .... truly that is the crux of the song. I like it!

Kilimanjaro - Javel Ali , Chinmayee - I heard few portions of this song when there was a video leak almost a couple of years ago ..... the first portion of the movie to be shot ..... and for the small bits that i heard then itself ... i knew what this song is going to be .... i have always enjoyed entertaining numbers that hav been born from the Shankar-ARR combo and this is one of them. Funnily though, Pa Vijay's lyrics hav clicked with me for the first time and it seriously rocks ! ....several points ...... the mettu of the song itself is a tough one to frame lyrics on. .... but probably my most favourite is : " nee nooru gram than idai, unakku ini yaaru naan dan udai "; " aindadi valarntha aatu chedi ennai meyndhu vidu motham , pachai pasumpul nee aanal, puli pul thingume enna kutham? " .... i wud have surely considered vairamuthu as a candidate for such a simile. and of course " Yeavalukku thangachiye en kooda than irukka, aal uyara olive pazham appadiye ennaka ! " ... Clearly, each place the mettu with the rhythm has perfectly synced with the lyrics. If there are any compromises it affects botht the tune and structure and so a big thanks to Pa Vijay for such wonderful links seriosuly Paaaa ! The song as such is a peppy tribal number with a para-tribal tune ..... nothing much to say specifically ... the mettu in itself is the magic .... but of course .... the tabla ..... some awesome improvisations in the charanams ....i liked the one in the second charanam a lot. But the part of the song i enjoyed the most is the last line of Charanam1 " Udattayam Udattayum pooti kondu .. oru yugam mudithu thira anba " What a wonderful rendition by Chinmayee .... sooperb control ..... she was just in excellent form all throughout the song.... but had a subdued exhibition becos thats how rahman wanted her to sing .... but this place is where she sings normal throat although at a lower scale ...... but she rocks here big time ..... And i maintain my stance ... Shreya may have a sweet voice ... but if theres one female singer who i consider is a crazy talent , its got to be Chinmayi. Rahman is experimenting too much with her in such an early stage of her career ..... its very understated .... but i think she is already a big singer ....the only other person Rahman has tested and tried as much is SPB ... " thazhuvudu nazhuvudu ....sakkara inikkara sakkara ..." and the likes. Javel Ali suits the tamil version pretty well. Overall a very good song. Not to forget the chorus, which joins in the first three lines of each of the charanams .... i liked that thought .... a really nice one to end at Pa, Pa and then Ma. So for guys who didnt pick up the swaras ... its basically the note at which the line ends ..... the chorus echo at that note except for the third time when they give the lead ... as in the swara from which the fourth line starts ..... nice thought! Aha Aha ... Aha Aha

Chitti Dance: I would have had Kilimanjaro as my best song of the album and Arima Arima an equaly good and catchy one ..... except for Chitti Dance ..... no words to describe .... just the beats ..... this one if captured at its best by Shankar ( which i hope he will and hav a strong belief he has) will really rock. Fantabulous thought to hav jathi ..... Some really intricate patterns ....and it suits .... its not that just the cmplexity rocks ..... the whole mood and tempo and gethu is uplifted ..... the best part though is reserved for the last ..... the ending of the piece is a mega booster ! U can witness that in the trailer .... jsut gives an unprecedented hype to the directors name when it pops up with that music .... its a total high ...... similar to " thalangu thakajunu ... thadeem tha thakanujunu .... in Ra Ra at the end .... but only ten times better " the beauty is that until then speed was twice that of the last ending phrase ..... and drummers will immediately recognize that its a very drummable beat .... just phrased in terms of sollukattu (jathi). One jarring instance is when the piece really picks up and Rahman scales up the overall pitch of the piece and then within the sangathi itself brings it down. ..... But ... its quite common in western music to do this .... so can be exempted .... the purely western strings in between is a welcome intrusion and the jump back into rock and roll is a complete fantasy .... This is already a sensation in the little but ironically big community at ASU so much so that even the hindi speaking counterparts like this a lot. If there is one place Rahman scores big time ... its here.

Overall .... the album is better than many of his other albums .... Raavan and VTV he has had good songs and bad songs ... here .... nothing is non-listenable .... but i wud probably say ..... this is more likeable becos most of the songs are not great but are good ..... whereas with VTV and Raavan ... except for a song or two ... others are catastrophies.

PS: I wish to review Raavan music becos its the first Rahamn album of which i liked atleast a couple of songs, since a long time that i liked. But I would be happy if someone blogs so that i can comment. Sometimes it just sucks to enter in words ... wud as well have something similar what Stephen Hawkings has ..... its easier that way!

Where "Raja Kayya vechu ..athu Wronga pochu" ...

Many music composers have given the world of music some really excellent compositions that at once melt the hearts of thousands of music lovers all over the world. India's contribution in this list is a very significant one because right from the time the film industry has laid its foot at the centre stage, cine-music has been in tremendous highlight reaching almost immediate popularity amongst all classes of the public. We have seen some really amazing composers in the past 75 years or so ... Naushad, Shankar- Jaikishan, S D Burman in the Bollywood and K V Mahadevan, MSV-Ramamurthy, Raja, Rahman in Kollywood. Each and every music director mentioned above has gifted us with some amazing contributions through their songs and BGMs but today's post is memory of one man who quite single-handedly towered the value of music in movies from mere appreciation of nuances to a royalty. No other music director has had thousands of people crowd outside his recording studio for more than 5 hours awaiting a glimpse. No other music director has had producers queue in front of his office begging him to score music for an otherwise ordinary movie in order to rise himself out of the burden of growing debt. It can be and has to be -Raja.

Generally the career of any artist / sportsman (an indvl) has a growth period, a peak and then a deterioration
period. Very few people make the first two last long and cast a non-failing impression during the same. Sachin Tendulkar is one such imminent example i can think of who has pretty much safe-guarded his image and reputation though we all know that he is not what he was. He is making his twilight a much more admirable. But a genius has some traits. One of them ( and probably the most important one) is that he/she doesn't confirm to a generic set. There is a typical anisotropy that one can relate them to. Einstein had such an anisotropy in the fact that until his death he could just not bring himself to accepting Quantum Mechanics. Many of the then famous scientists like Dirac and Schroedinger requested Einstein to just at least virtually work on this field because they knew that if he did, surely some miracle would result. The egos of geniuses never go hand in hand, but with Einstein, there were many who had foregone their ego to go and request him as far as possible to just give a cursory look into the quantum theories. But he just wouldn't. Not because he had any enmity or counter-ego clashes with these scientists. It was just that moving on to work on something that he couldnt bring himself to believe was just not possible. It is like those orthodox grandparents of our generation who would as well stay hungry the whole day if they couldnt find a pure-veg hotel when out for a tour. ( Warning - Anisotropy is a characteristic of geniuses, but the rule doesnt work the other way ! ). Raja in the same lines had his own reservations. He sets the rules in his game since he knows what he is doing. There is another thing that Raja possessed which is quite unique to him (at least in comparison to someone i shall talk of later) - he was never flattered by money.

Come Thalapathy and Raja scaled a height that no other Indian music director has ever scaled before. His intro-song for Rajnikanth (Rakkama kaiya thattu) was selected in the top ten of the world's most popular songs that year. Remember, that this was the time when Mani had not still weaved the Roja magic; a time when Rajni was still a great hero but not yet the super-star that Annamalai and Baasha made him. And lets also not forget that its not just the popularity of the reigning duo that would have made some really strong critics consider a song while rating it. It just had to be this song because of the extreme violin play right at the start of the song. To my knowledge, it still stands out as the finest piece of violin orchestration in Indian film music. how many layers and all with violins !!! the London Philharmonic immediately arranged our Raja to come and perform for them and give some Lec-dem kind of thoughts on how he assembled his music - which include nuances of music they were the finest at like chords, harmonics, seconds etc etc - that is quite an acheivement. But what Raja missed was the timing.

Early nineties is the time when radios and televisions started becoming a household possession of all classes. The media reach through electronic medium rose in the last decade of the 19th century. And raja was 30 yrs old into fim music by then. Electronic media (esp TV) was younger than Raja and Rahman who was parallel to this period struck the right chord. Moreover, Rahman suits Mani the way Raja suits Bharathiraja. The brought up, the ideologies, the period ( Raja is much elder than Mani ) all decides on how good you are able to relate with a theme. This is why no-body has extracted Rahman as good as Mani and Shankar. Mani's movies are the typical middle class pro-sophistication pro-elegance type and this reflects the way he was brought up. Its very similar with Rahman and it clicked the best in Roja. Roja music is not rich as such, but the sync with the story is what makes it such a memorable album. Raja was out of sync in this respect. People started having the taste of digital media and Mani represented want the common man liked. Shankar showcased what a overall audience would like. The generation gap is what Raja missed. He had the opportunity to update himself since Rahman was born only 7 years after Punnagai Mannan which is the first tamil movie to use a sequencer (or whatever, basically the digital music era that can avoid an orchestra). But he under-estimated this revolution. And Rahman who knew that it would spin wonders struck gold !

Otherwise who in his right mind would have even thought of displacing Raja. It had to be Balachander who produced Roja requesting Mani to shift gears and when Mani and Balachander present a change .... a change as good as Roja ... theres not much on can do ... not even the mighty Raja : reality revealed itself untidily over Raja's face - The producer is the king-maker in a movie.

To tell the truth Raja never had a really good hand over the technical gimmicks since from Punnagai Mannan onwards .. the usage of the sequencer and synthesizers made Raja's music too simple and out of content. The Punnagai Mannan theme starts off brilliantly, but has an equal abyss in the middle portions until the violins rescue it back. Raja couldnt master the nuance of mixing the sounds of a synthesized tune and an orchestrated tune which is where Rahman excelled. Raja worked on a format that he invented when he arrived, a format that was 30 odd years old and a format that needed modifications. Raja was known for brilliantly embedding various styles of music in one song. the perfect example is " Enda poovilum vaasam undu - Murattukalai ". (the initial guitar piece though is lifted from a brazilian guitarist). The point of comparison lays flat if one carefully listens to that song. The start is western and the pallavi is also oddly rendered by the female vocalist but in the charanams the song is very folkish (typical raja). So the shifting of styles clearly has to happen in the interludes and this is exactly what Raja does in a very very convincing and smooth fashion. But note curiously that Raja shifts styles maintaining the inherent chastity of each style intact. This is what he introduced. But Rahman on the other hand followed what i would accredit as the MSV-style. He maintained a predominant style always in which he subtly mixed other styles as and when required. The best example that i can think of here is " Aaja meere bahoon mein - Yuvraj " ... we can clearly see that there is no unique style at any point of time during the song. (You may ask that " Tu muskura " from the same movie has two distinct styles .... but thats a story compulsion that anil kapoor sings a classical hindusthani which blends as a fusion with the western style). Rahman's overall style is nowhere. Its a mix of western music, some digital gimmicks and some tiny inventions all tidily wrapping around a carnatic base. So every listener gets what he wants though its not available in discrete.

The unfortunate point here for Raja was that, the digitalization of electronics necessary for recording was more suited to the western classical music than ours. It was more of a sound engineering which suits well with their kind ofwhere the gamakams and the brighas are absent. Raja in the late eighties , i must confess, did qutie a poor job of handling the then recent advancement that technology had provided. "Pottu vaitha Kaadhal thittam " was good ... but im not convinced that it is great example of the digital culture .... " Nee paartha parvai - Hey Ram" was. the definition of richness of a song or the completeness in a composition had changed .... " Senthoora Poove " - is a perfect song that i can think of in the 70s but in the 90s it had to be " Veerapandi kottaiyile ". How smooth one instrument blends into another was defined as "A" by Raja but was re-defined as "B" by Rahman.

But still if there is one thing that separates Raja from Rahman, it is his sincerity to the art. Never can i imagine Raja working in a movie just because he gets a shit load of money in it. But i know very well that Rahman may produce a shit album but still work in a movie as long as the banner is big. And it is this very reason that even during his decline Raja produced an amazing album in Veera. It was a big movie since Rajni was the hero. He had a very good chance to convince the audience that he was still there ... but alas .... the Rahman wave had swept across the state by then and all Raja's fans could do was appreciate the fact that their generation was over. The younger generation got what they liked exactly as they got what they liked and hence its farewell to Raja. And Raja has always been a people's man in the sense that its the continuous appraisal that helps him going. It was as though the moment the attention of the crowd diverted ... all his musical skills plummetted. Yes Pithamagan was a good album ... but wasnt the song that was a very famous hit " Ilankatru veesuthe " reminding us of " Thendral vandhu theendumbodhu - Avataram " ??

Wasnt Hey Ram sounding like the cries of Bheeshma ridden on a bed of arrows courtesy Arjuna, facing someone he knew was good but only that he couldnt go against his loyalties to be on the same side and remain the greatest warrior ever ?? Ironically similar is the situation of Rahman that he does things that is atypical of Raja so as to establish his ground because he knows that in the areas that Raja has touched ... it would take a lifetime of an extreme genius to better. Arjuna knew that it would be impossible to destabilize Bheeshma from his chariot and the only way had to be to attack in a manner that Bheeshma would not participate in. Only there in the Mahabharat ... both loved each other and fought against each other unwillingly owing to differences in loyalties. Here ... God only knows !! Bheeshma on his death bed gave the "Vishnu Shasranama" which is what he is connected most with. Raja in his twilight has given us a song composed of just three swaras (Sa, Ri and Ga) which re-iterate my stands:

" pAda piRanthathu pAttuththAn - enathu kUda piRanthathu pAttuththAn!

(Music is born to be sung, it is born along with me)

vAzha piRanthathu pAttuththAn - enathu vAzhkkai muzhuvathum pAttuththAn!

(Music is born to live, my life in totality is music)