"Uthama Villain" - the magic of music in Kamal Hassan's films continues!

Kamal Hassan’s “Uthama Villain” raised sky-high expectations as the Telugu audio got launched last Sunday. It was entertainment to see Kamal Hassan’s spectacular entry splitting at the centre of curtains after amplifying late K Balachander’s memorable tribute to the great actor. SPB’s lyrical affections on Kamal elevated the mood to infinite nostalgia. I had followed Kamal Hassan’s films since childhood and despite the fact that he didn’t have the mass-hysterical following of Rajinikanth, he had his own indomitable footprint in South and North Cinema (the few Hindi films he starred in). But this is not the subject today. I wanted to write about  the audio of “Uthama Villain” and make a fleeting mention of Kamal’s taste for high-caliber, different sounding music.

“Uthama Villain” has music by Ghibran, the most happening music composer in Tamil and Telugu cinema today. Not the first time he scored music for Kamal - he did for “Vishwaroopam-2” and “Paapanashanam” earlier. Before that Kamal rotated many music directors  - DeviSriPrasad, Himesh Reshmiya, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Jayachandran, Ramesh Vinayakam and even his daughter Shruti Hassan for one of the films which came in Telugu (“Eenadu”). What I find intriguing is that but for the great Ilaiyaraja and the inimitable MS Vishwanathan, Kamal never really settled with any music composer throughout his career post that phase of MSV-IR. If you take out MSV and Ilaiyaraja’s overarching influence on his films, his sense of sound and music scores that provided such rich variety for the maestro to compose for almost 130 films or more, Kamal remained restless for the last decade hunting for the perfect composer after Raja. He tried AR Rahman twice (“Indian” and “Tenali”), Shankar Ehsan Loy twice, Deva twice, Vidyasagar and Harris Jayaraj once (or twice) but never repeated them afterwards. I read in some of his interviews too that he never liked the approaches of some of the gifted composers like Rahman or Vidyasagar despite getting good output from them. He was the only one who never got carried away by the Oscar-wins and the global adulations greeting Rahman; Rajinikanth on the other hand continues to enlist ARR for taking bigger bites into overseas distribution markets - having Rahman on your side as music composer is a sure-fire passport to box-office success and global appeal. The only person from Tollywood who got calls from Kamal for OST few times has been DSP - but that maybe more than just because DSP is an open admirer of Ilaiyaraja. DSP’s remixing and rerecording  stood out in most of his movies thanks to his energy and relentless handwork. Surprisingly, Mani Sharma - the best RR specialist in Tollywood never got a call from Kamal. Kamal Hassan movies, if one observes, never needed an over-melodious music director like Vidyasagar or Harris Jayaraj to imaging things that were never intended as per  the actor-director's film grammar. You just had to score one or two melody songs and some minimalistic but thoroughly realistic portrayal. But that one song is remembered forever in his films. This was the easy part that most of his music composers missed except Ilaiyaraja - thats how their chemistry endured for film-buffs because it left a rich legacy that will be studied by musicologists and music fans for many decades. 

With Ilaiyaraja, Kamal’s last film was “Mumbai Express” that was in 2005. In ten years, Kamal never worked with the Maestro and fans are waiting when the two will create magic again. Over the last decade, Ilaiyaraja has matured beyond what Kamal Hassan may have expected - Raja worked with almost all the new kids on the block who are directing Tamil films with dangerous themes and vivacious outputs - Bala, Myskin, Balki (in Hindi) ,Gautham Menon and many others who are hailed as the new trailblazers leaving the likes of ManiRatnam and old stalwarts to bite dust. Of course, Mani Ratnam himself never worked with Ilaiyaraja after parting ways bitterly before Rahman burst at the world stage. But that’s another matter. In the last ten years, there was no dearth of new music composers in Tamil and Kamal tried most of them while Ilaiyaraja exerted himself with different genre films ranging from biopics like “Bharati” to “Pandavas” to “Ajanthaa”. I sense somewhere we are about to see the coming together of the original Maestro and the actor extraordinaire in the coming years because the old wine has matured to give us richer, orchestral music and Kamal’s plots are becoming more complicated and multi-dimensional - even if they appear highly contrived. The budgets have also gone up for Ilaiyaraja, I am told, making it easy to assemble a 400 member orchestra from London or Budapest to configure a particular symphony.

With that background, I am relieved that Gibran’s latest composition for UV is spectacular and worthy of the high standards set by Kamal’s films. The original Tamil score has 17 numbers with elaborate interludes, situations and symphonies as if you are listening to a Hollywood musical OST. The Telugu version is cut down to 9 numbers and as expected the audiences on the day of the audio release lapped up the two songs  - “Kaanuke Bondu Malli” and “Lovee Lovee Single KissKe Lovaa” for the outrageous melody and the stretch in the songs. “Kaanuke..” has an extra lilt and a sensuousness that is rarely captured in today’s songs where the male singer and the female singer sing in their own time and the original purpose of duet is lost in remixing. You can hear the O-shouts and murmers of the male singer and the seducing spell of the heroine Puja Kumar in the song very well. Ghibran gave a completely different score in UV compared to the techno-thrills and fast-tempos seen in some of his latest films like “Jil” or “Run Raja Run”. Obviously, Kamal’s kitaab for Gibran both before and during the audio launch settles it that he is the right choice for the film which has a 7th Century theatrical plot intermixed with contemporary settings. I always love the background scores segued with the songs in the audio because it is such a treat for music lovers  - don’t we miss all of that for Ilaiyaraja whose BGMs float on the youtube channel with an ever-swelling following. If only music directors take note of this, they can raise the standards for audio and make the audiences stand up to rich music -of which many are capable of. The last time, a catalogue of this length - which includes songs and instrumental versions of the various scenes - came was for “Mask”(“Mugamoodi” in Tamil). Music by K  -that was from a different planet. And this album “Uthama Villain” belongs to the same class - Ghibran must take a bow. Can’t wait for the movie.

#UthamaVillain #Ghibran #KamalHassan #Ilaiyaraja #ARRahman #Vidyasagar #TamilMusic #TamilMusicComposers #TamilFilmComposers #HarrisJayaraj #Kollywood

25 Years of "Shiva"

You have to give the devil his due sometimes. Just as director Krishna Vamshii remarked: "Shiva" is indeed the "Sholay" of Tollywood. Ram Gopal Varma definitely deserves credit for unleashing it on celluloid.

When the film released on Oct.5, 1989 I was in college. The promos looked exciting. A busty wall-like logo of the film with the Telugu letters "Shi" and "Va" symmetrically attached in vermillon red color and a hand-fisted cycle chain piercing the letters sounded like a promising film. The backdrop was black. And no one was highlighted in the poster. You only find four names - Ram Gopal Varma, Venkat Akkineni, Yarlagadda Surendra and of course, Ilayaraja. It was too tempting to go to college that day. So a bunch of all of  us - old friends - bunked college and decided to do what is a safe bet those days - Morning Show - at Devi70mm. Someone got the tickets easily - the last thing you ever heard relating to this film. After the release and the talk from matinee show, tickets were near impossible in almost ever single-screen theatre those days even in places like Bengaluru and Chennai. We knew when we watched the opening scene of JD smoking fumes on the face of a lecturer that there is a blockbuster in the making. And then the tempo built frame after frame after frame. In 142 minutes of taut screenplay, stylish presentation and crisp dialogues embellished by Ilayaraja's never-before soundtrack and songs - RGV has arrived. The film's greatest achievement is that it has redefined the film grammar for an entire generation of Tollywood audience that will set the agenda for the next 25 years. In my view, despite the glorification of violence in the film which is the only unfortunate byeproduct of the blockbuster, most film-makers follow the pattern of "Shiva". It had such a gargantuan impact.

I remember we were stunned into silence after watching the film till interval time and then right till the end. We were ecstatic and thrilled to watch something our minds were not used to processing on screen. Like someone once said about "Sholay". It seems there was one exhibitor in Mumbai who told Ramesh Sippy that "Sholay" will be the biggest blockbuster because when the interval curtains were down, nobody from one of the theatre halls moved from their seats - because they were thrilled to see the film and they can't wait for the next scene after interval. A similar experience greeted everybody who watched the film "Shiva" in 1989.  On that day, after the morning show, I somehow felt my family also had to watch the film - so I struggled for balcony seats for the second show and took my parents and brothers to the film. They were equally thrilled to bits by the unique presentation and punctuation of the film.

The film ran for 155 days in Devi and more in many theatres in AP and outside. It collected almost Rs.7crores in those days with all the runs across India. If you translate it in today's terms inflation-adjusted to current factors, it works out to Rs.44.50 crores. A mighty figure because the population must have been half of what it is today. The film had freshness, energy, intensity and spine that was rarely seen in Telugu films of that era. To Nagarjuna's luck, most of his films before "Shiva" except "Gitanjali" had the same mugshot appeal. "Shiva" made him a youthful superstar. And he never looked back. For Ramu, "Shiva" will remain a much-studied classic because he made the film on a bootstrapping budget and delivered a modern classic for the ages that will be referred to, again and again. The crew who celebrated "Shiva"@25 recently at Annapurna Studios rightly said that there were more than a handful who became directors after working under Ramu. Krishna Vamshi, Rasool Ellor, Teja, Puri Jagannadh,, S Gopal Reddy, Gunasekhar, Siva Nageswar Rao, etc. all have become independent directors from the RGV school of less melodrama, higher intensity and epic intensity that scales up from buildup.

The film's background score by Ilayaraja must make it one of the best soundtracks of all time from anywhere in the world. All those rhythms of drums beating up in rapid succession with a fear-mongering  effect whenever Nag's friend is chased and killed will haunt you. Then there is that melodious refrain that defines the romance between Amala and Nagarjuna that has entered Ilayaraja's "Hall of Fame" soundtracks available on I-tunes. The tune is so burnt in our minds that one of the antagonists of the film JD Chekravarthi used the tune as a BGM in one of his sensational films released as a no-title film which later was renamed as "Paape Naa Praanam". The songs in "Shiva" also played an anchor role in getting the youth repeat viewing in droves. "Anando Brahma" and "Kiss Me Wrong Number" are my personal favorites. Amala looks ravishingly beautiful in the songs and little wonder, sparks flew between her and Nag from the start of this film to the remake of the film in Hindi  - a courtship that ended only with "Antham" another RGV starrer that actually bombed. Years later, RGV was asked why he never worked with Ilayaraja again in his career (until "Shiva 2006" a reprise of the original in police uniform).  RGV said the intensity of Ilayaraja's music and his interpretation of the scene was so unique and unparalleled that RGV simply couldn't come up with a script as equal in magnitude to merit Ilayaraja's output. Of course, Sitarama Sastry the lyricist had his presence noted in some of the best modern lyrics that connected with the audience. 

The film turned out to be Tollywood's answer to ManiiRatnam because Mani was upping the ante in those times with hit after hit. Later, buoyed by the success of Ramu, Mani sought his collaboration for one film - "Donga Donga" ("Thiruda Thiruda" in Tamil). "Shiva" was dubbed in Tamil as "Udayam" which ran successfully. Only, because of alleged lukewarm response to the song "Sarasaalu Chaalu Sreevaaru..", the distributors deleted the son in Tamil version. That song was actually directed by noted director Vamsee and won applause for a creative kitchen song full  of sounds created from shining utensils and homely love-scenes.

"Shiva" definitely was an epic in Tollywood that had its unintended consequences - unleashing violence on a scale the world has never seen before in Telugu films. Of course, besides the mythologicals, only one movie directed by T.Krishna depicted violence so grotesquely before - "Pratighatana". In that film, Vijayashanti uses an Axe to behead Charanraj in the climax. That was in 1987. But in "Shiva", RGV has made ordinary instruments into weapons of mass destruction - cycle chain, compass divider, gold chain, mini-pick-axe and so on. In most Tollywood films before, you only hear gunshots from silly pistols and sten guns. But in "Shiva" what you commute with and play with have become murder-instruments that even flight attendants must take note of. I wrote about this in a letter to the Indian Express after waiting for nearly 100 days of the film being released because I wanted Nag and RGV to celebrate 100 days of run. It was too late! (sic). "Shiva" already entered our society's consciousness. 

#Shiva #ShivaMovie #NagarjunaShiva #25YearsOfShiva #RamGopalVarma #Ilayaraja #Tollywood #MovieReviews #ShivaBoxOfficeCollections #RGVSchoolDirectors #AnnapurnaStudios 

"Ulavacharu Biryani" (Telugu)

Prakash Raj has a knack of picking off-beat stories and backing them all the way if there is striking point in them. Almost all his films produced by him in the past carry a subtle message with clean entertainment - "Movi"(Tamil) is about coping with challenges of mute and deaf people, "Aakasamantha" (Telugu/Tamil) is about the pleasures and pains of parenting and "Dhoni" (Telugu) captured the mood of today's  young who get sandwiched between parent pulls and youthful aspirations. "Ulavacharu Biriyani"(UB) his latest is a remake of Malayalam "Salt n Pepper". This is a film about lonely hearts and late-marrying men and women who delude themselves into false cocoons of achievement and inferiority complex at the same time while keeping good things waiting. I neither knew about nor saw the original film before watching UB. I watched UB for only one reason: Ilayaraja's music which already became a hit, I wanted to see if his BGM outscored his music in the film. I was not disappointed. More of that later, but short view first - it is a decent film with feel-good factor and terrific performances by the short cast - Prakash Raj, Sneha, Samyukta Hornad, MS Narayana, Tejus and Brahmaji. Worth watching once.

The story is about a foodie called Kalidasu (Prakash Raj) who at age 45 hasn't yet found a companion yet. His main interests are purely epicurean but for earning daily bread he works in the State Department of Archaeology where he works with a team in excavating relics of past and rehabilitating the tribals who live in forests. At home, he is helped by a cook MS Narayana who persuades him to get married. In one such meeting for a marriage alliance, Prakash Raj bumps into an old-time chef Brahmaji who makes delicious "vada"s for the bride. Prakash Raj dumps the prospect bride and returns home with his prized catch - cook Brahmaji. At work, his desire to do good to tribals makes him shelter an old tribal who makes herbal medicines - sought to be exploited by a mercenary businessman. So, it is now four males at Prakash Raj household. In fact, it soon becomes five people with the joining of Prakash Raj's nephew Tejus who comes looking for a job in the city of Prakash Raj. On the other side of the same city, a beautiful-but-aging lady Gowri (Sneha) lives with her sister Urmila and her gang comprising of her transvestite helper and niece (Urmila's daughter) Samyukta Hornad. Sneha is a successful dubbing artiste for film heroines but she is still struggling to find her soul mate. Pressure mounts on both of them to find a suitable match. Call it syncrocity or coincidence, a wrong number dialling by Sneha seeking an order for Kutti Dosa lands on Prakash Raj's mobile. First fire, and then roses all over, sweet small talk leads to mature blossoming friendship. Will it convert to love and marriage? How do two successful professionals who are in their late 30s/40s find their mojo in life - in the sweet companionship of a soul-mate? Are there any hilarious twists? Or a twist in the tail? Watch UB for all of that. In 126 minutes, Prakash Raj has given a watchable narrative thats remarkably clean, straight and fresh. 

The only incomplete chapter is  the troubled lives of Adivasis which are exploited by profiteers in the name of development. Despite an intense-looking characterisation of an old tribal, Prakash Raj lets go a great opportunity to create some drama or infuse more perspective on their plight. All we see is a fierce-looking old man who squats or stands for hours vehemently defended by Prakash Raj but meekly surrendered by him when confronted by human right activists and policemen. If this sequence couldn't be climaxed well, the film's length could have been 15 minutes shorter and that could have been another miracle for an otherwise good film - it could have breached the 2-hour limit for a feature film - a feat that is now regularly being attempted by film-makes in Kollywood, not Tollywood.

Technically, the film stands out in cinematography and music. For a film of this kind emblazoned by the orchestral magic of Ilayaraja, Prakash Raj uses safe distance picture shots avoiding any close-ups even during the most intense moments of the film. That is a rarity these days, when cinematography doesn't dominate direction but rather the eloquence of the music director and the minimalistic intentions of a director call the shots. The titles of the movie scroll in the backdrop of a Kailash Kher song with great original shots of the best street--side food and restaurant food available in India. There is another song shot on the youthful pair of Tejus and Samyukta which show them at their vivacious best using a mixture of natural and golden glow color frames. The cinematography's work aces up in one of the most memorable reels of the film - where Prakash Raj gives out a recipe on phone to Sneha. The recipe called Joanne's Rainbow Cake has been well-shot with Ilayaraja scoring classical music - a slurrpppingly delicious cake with layers of strawberry, pista and orane, made simultaneously by both the narrator and the listener on phone and then the first bite into the cake by both the creators at their respeective ends - it will give any foodie a melting memory. Dialogues are also crisp and urban-cool -wonder why we can't have more of these in our films rather than those elephant-and-mice-and-tiger-likening one-liners.

If the film is enjoyable despite some lazy editing and laid-back screenplay by Prakash Raj, two-thirds credit must sit on the shoulders of Maestro Ilayaraja. Apart from original compositions for the soundtrack of the film which bought him as much fame as "Yeto Vellipoyindi Manasu" in recent times, Ilayaraja has given a great BGM score that will flood the youtube channel soon after the prints get released. Obviously, it is the luck of Prakash  Raj for roping in a heavy-weight name like Ilayaraja. Until "Dhoni", Prakash Raj always had Vidya Sagar score music for his films. Vidya Sagar is himself a gifted composer trained with IlayaRaja. In this film, Prakash Raj must  have given a free hand to IlayaRaja and it shows in the soulful re-recording. The entire film is masterfully punctuated by Ilayaraja and he uses different variety of instruments including vocal support to give one of his best shots. Except for Sneha and Prakash Raj, Ilaya Raja uses BGM for introducing the second youthful romantic pair as they appear and also when they meet for the first time. Then at every crucial juncture, he uses pulsating instrumentation. His music reaches a crescendo in one of the climactic points of the film where all the four lead characters travel in the same car - Ilayaraja uses high notes using extensive violin orchestration, something that would have required a huge budget. Ilayaraja fans will remember that there were few times in his career where he used elaborate multi-crew orchestra for composing music when it demanded - one was for "Dalapathi" and the other for "Yeto Vellipoyyindi Manasu". This must ave beeen the third occasion. Not surprisingly, I checked up with "Salt n Pepper" music director Bijlibal. Ilayaraja didn't even see the original film once to get inspiration for composing the songs and the BGM. Imagine the outpourings that come from ordinary souls when they see a scene of 4-5 minutes, bland without music. Now imagine Ilayaraja looking at a scene only once, making some notes in mind, going to his music room, dictating the musical notations  to the crew for what to play in the background and creating the magic that we aall see. This is exactly the process that Baradwaj Rangan described in his book of interviews with Mani Ratnam as to how Ilayaraja composes music. I am not surprised by the high-octane quality of his BGM in this film. Ilayaraja must have composed around 5 songs per film in a career composing 900 films plus - including original and dubbed films. But he has never relegated the job of re-recording to lackeys or assistants except on few instances. Now imagine the sheer magnitude of the output with the BGM output that comes with equal combinations of energy, velocity and melody - at an average of 900 films multiplied by 10-20 orchestration pieces. Lets settle at 15 pieces per film. Thats a staggering 13500 pieces of original, song-ready musical pieces  that may never be surpassed in quality and the language of film grammar, mastered by few other Western Masters. Hat-tip to you, Ilayaraja Sir for all that and for this film's output.

Finally, back to the film UB after that lengthy excursion on Ilayaraja (I owe myself a lengthy dissertation on his music one day). Good performances by MS Narayana, Prakash Raj and the newcomers. Sneha is good but sulky throughout. UB is a worthy watch even if you are not a foodie or a culinary expert or an expert on marriage- it connects with a lot of people on the planet who live lives of solitude or eke out their existence desperately seeking soulmates at work or neighbourhoods. Despite the few flaws of an elementary story and a slow narration,  the film doesn't bore.  If you do not like it well enough, blame it on the zombie films that are deadening your sense of good  and meaningful cinema. This one is definitely good and meaningful. More power to them. 

My rating: 3.25/5

"Mugamoodi" (Tamil) "Mask" (Telugu) Movie Review

"Mugamoodi" (Tamil) is dubbed as "Mask" (Telugu) released today amidst unprecedented expectations from one of the slickest directors of Kollywood - Mysskin. I watched a few Tamil movies in original in my life but I have largely followed the work of some great film-makers of the last decade like Bala, Menon, Murugadoss, KV Anand and now Mysskin. Mysskin is bibliophile, a director who infuses fire and imagination into his direction and galvanises all the 24 crafts to give an exciting cinematic output. He has made some acclaimed films like "Anjathe", "Chithiram Pesudadi". He has made a film called "Nandalala" where he brought back the orchestral beauty and composer's breath of maestro Ilayaraja. In "Mask", he prefaces with a dedication to the master Bruce Lee who's life story is somewhat revisited in the storyline.

This movie "Mask" is something that held me excited for weeks. It is worth the wait. Its the story of a normal boy Jiiva who is the best pupil in martial arts in a non-descript school run by his Master who follows Bruce Lee. Like Bruce Lee who learns Karate but later invents his own stunts by "knowing self", his master encourages Jiiva to be an original hero instead of trying to become somebody. In his journey towards discovering himself, he falls in love with Pooja Hegde (debutante) who is the daughter of a Commissioner of Police (Nasser) who is on a mission to nab a gang of masked men who kill old couples at nights and rob them of gold. In a freak incident, Jiiva wears a "mask" to woo the girl and succeeds in the capture of the some of the mysterious gangsters one night. That "mask" eventually becomes his "identity" as a superhero as he becomes the most endowed person to catch the culprits. He gets some scientific help from his grandfather played well by veteran Girish Karnad.He gets the bad guy (Narain) who turns out to be an ace adversary of his Master and eventually wins the hearts of Pooja and all. But only after knowing one last trick from his master. Quite a simple but many-layered story that has a well-conceived starcast, and a classic three-act. A dashing introduction, an interval with a big-bang and an elaborate, spectacular climax.

Mysskin is surely the master of the movie as he reveals his gripping form in all departments. He ropes in exceptional foreign talent in editing, stunts, cinematography whose work shines brightly on screen. Dialogues are crisp but not dramatic and hardly humorous. Thats the intent of the film as the director deliberately builds tension from first frame till last giving a free hand to music director "K" to experiment with a range of electrifying compositions in the moods of the film. But "K" uses both symphonies and silences to punctuate the film in all its intended nuances by the director. Already "K"'s music is a hit in Tamil with three of its main songs making it to the top while the music CD itself has all the key orchestral themes as numbers on the track. I liked the two songs that give the best relief in the film - one of them squeezes in the very first jingle Ilayaraja composed in his career. Vintage Ilayaraja continues to inspire generations of music composers. "K" is another reason to watch "Mask".

Mysskin has got most parts of the film right making it quite watchable in spite of the length of 160 minutes. It could have been shorter. He has given an intelligent film with good starcast and narrative depth that will see his fan club grow in Tollywood. He blends the best of world cinema with a Hollywood touch - but he may have done better if had dumbed some scenes and narration for lay audience. Humor and mass entertainment (on the lines of Shankar) is missing in the film. Jiiva looks good and raring to go places with this film after "Rangam". Pooja Hegde is the most covered face in Kollywood before this film but I wonder whether such adulation is deserving for her after seeing the footage. The best part of the film is that Mysskin did not show one special effect in spite of being a "superhero" film. Thats because, he wants to show that it's all in the mind - you don't have to be a Superman, Batman, I-Man or Spiderman to become a superhero in life. Know thyself and project the superhero within- is the subtle message. I will give 3.5/5.00 for "Mask" because intelligent film-making must survive.

Sri Rama Rajyam Movie Review

“Srirama Rajyam” is worth the wait and worth watching all 150 minutes. Honestly, I was not bored even once despite that there were no fights, no item songs, no comedy tracks, no belly-dancing or bottom-pinching movements. On the contrary, Balakrishna who usually mouths blood-wrenching dialogues and Nayanatara who wears sleeveless sarees gave one of the best performances of their lives – Balayya with his “Avatar” Vishnu-blue colour body and impeccable makeup and costumes that are reminiscent of NTR and Nayanatara with her Satwic portrayal of Sita in elegant skin-protecting dresses is surprising.


The script - originally purportedly written by Sage Valmiki – based on the original “Luva Kusha” was well-fleshed out, articulated and embellished by Late Mullapudi Venkataramana garu. You see him in every line that every character speaks in the film directed superbly by Bapu garu. It is incredible that after so many decades after “Seeta Kalyanam”, Bapu and Ramana retained their affection for Ramayana so well as to carve out a mini-epic that will resonate splendidly with today’s audiences. In interpreting Ramayana in the light of today’s changing themes of polygamy, disharmony and dysfunctional childhoods, live-in marriages and celebratory divorces, children and parents who live on different planets, et al – Mullapudi Ramana gives his subtle take on many aspects for those who listen to the under-currents behind the voices coming from the characters.

The original “Luva Kusha” despite its celestial songs and immortal characterization came in techno color and all of 22 reels with higher Telugu proficiency. This one is 16 reels and full of crisp characterization and wonderful visuals and some ten minutes of outstanding graphics toward the climax. Not just Balakrishna and Nayanatara - almost everybody gets to shine once or often most notably ANR (who played a majestic role as Sage Valmiki), Srikanth (as Lakhsmana), KR Vijaya (as Kausalya) and Roja (as Sita’s mother Bhoodevi). The three kids playing Hanuman, Luv and Kush give us a full feel of what blithe spirits are – they are just adorable. At eighty, when most folks wheel away in their chair or eke their twilight years like a vegetable, Bapu garu has worked so damn hard on a subject that’s dear to him and his dear friend Mullapudi Ramana who passed away before the film got completed. Of course, it requires a gutsy producer like Y Saibaba to collaborate so well in bringing such an ambitious enterprise to bear fruit – and he is the silent hero who has to be appreciated. One movie like this will get generations back to its roots – and Bapu has taken great care in giving a top-quality visual which is crisp, neat, measured not once appearing either regressive in message or vulgar at all (like some of the other directors who attempt mythologicals get tempted for). Music by Maestro Ilayaraja is already a hit but in the movie he used it with calibrated orchestration as BGM that will stand out.

There are minor blemishes in the movie but hardly noticeable in the flow and very few cinematic liberties taken by Bapu and Ramana – but they don’t impoverish our worldview, they enrich the movie. Also, given the thin layer of the original Uttara Ramayana, I expected to see Bapu-Ramana team to delve more into the nuances of Rama Rajyam which people like Mahatma Gandhi and others talked about – give us a broader sweep of how a society used to live under Rama Rajya – rather than concentrating on the melancholy and twist of fate separating Rama and Sita yet again. That would have set “Srirama Rajyam” further apart from “Luva Kusha” as the final epic instead of mostly showing a brooding Rama. Sita’s character always shows greater resilience and courage than Rama – and that comes through ably through Nayantara.

Ramayana as a theme always finds takers for its undercurrents of love, family values and devotion. I am always intrigued that right from Valmiki to Kamba to writers like RK Narayan, C Rajagopalachari, Ashok Banker – success always crowns those who stick to the basic knitting. If you stray from the plot like Mani Ratnam or take liberties under the veil of artistic freedom, you will get dumped not for irrelevance but for irreverence. Recently, Delhi University has scrapped AK Ramanujam’s essay on 300 versions of Ramayana because the epic is burned so deeply inside our national consciousness that reading the original version gives more benefits than when it is not endured. To that extent, “SriRama Rajyam” is recommended highly. We are taking out our 83 year old grandmother as well as kids who see Telugu DVDs with English subtitles. And let me say this unabashadely, nobody makes Ramayana epics better than Bapu-Ramana or for that matter Telugu folks.

"Maro Charithra" Audio Review

Mickey J Mayer has scored some refreshing music than the usual 8 1/2 beat songs he did for movies like Leader, Kotha Bangaru Lokam etc. A product of Trinity College, London - Mickey J Mayer can turn out to be Tollywood's AR Rehman if someone can help him with variations possible in percussions and re-arrangement. Mickey has definite strengths in melody-making and orchestration. This movie has one or two outstanding numbers which are, boldly, not re-mixed numbers of the old Marocharitra - that legendary K Balachander movie which has haunting melodies of M.S.Vishwanathan - the Guru of Maestro Ilaya Raja. Malay Palay Magadivo  and Yeh Theega Puvvulo may not be as good as Originals but they cast their charms on your senses, lingering on.

"Paa" Movie Review

"Paa" is a delectably sensitive portrayal of an overaging kid by Sr.Bacchan with controlled performances by Vidya Balan and Abhishek Bacchan. You will but shed copious tears as climax nears. Ad-maker Director Balki keeps the narrative slick, enlivened with filial emotions. Ilayaraja scores well without a sign of fatigue.
11.12.2009