"ராசா படத்த கண்ண மூடிக்கிட்டே பாக்கலாம்" - The IR BGM discussions

I've used the sensational statement by my collegemate to name this thread

Just finished watching the movie 'vAlmeeki'.

The best IR TF album in recent times (IMO) - that is, prior to NEPV.

The complete movie is available on youtube:
youtube.com/watch?v=E3D1rFSlRzA&feature=related

Actually I liked many parts of the movie Ofcourse, the actors are not up to the mark (and so is the director, falls short here and there). With the same story (and almost the same screenplay & other technical aspects) another director or lead pair could have made it a big success, IMHO.

Of course, rAsA BGM is as lovely as the songs! Especially on important scenes, it has the 'manasaippizhiyum' effect - on that dept. IR's skills are unmatched to this date!

Songs are well-known to us -kooda varuviyA / thenRalum mARudhu / oLi tharum sooriyan / poo sirikkidhu (booze irukkudhu) / ennadA pANdi / Rekka kattippaRakkudhu - what a terrific album!

BTW, the original NEPV song of NN (sung by SPB) has been used as BGM for one of the scenes in vAlmeeki.

What a song!

>>>The best IR TF album in recent times (IMO) - that is, prior to NEPV.
It never got it's due, that's for sure (except from us Raaja fans :lol2: )
"Rekka Katti", "Oli Tharum" laam top...

Valmiki - great album, yes. I liked naan kadavuL / nandhalaalaa better than this one. The film has been on my watch list also. Mysskin had some nice things to say about the film...

I saw (just listened to most of the film while assessing credit card statements among doing other chores) idhayaththai thirudaathE last weekend at the insistence of wifey. Used to be my favorite romaans film. Still quite good but so many EKSI scenes/moments bring the film down quite a bit. But Raaja's score, whoa, one of the bestest ever. The 'Mozart I love you' bit comes suddenly out of nowhere and the effect it brings out is unbelievable. Raaja has always done something special especially in the re-recording of Mani's films. Watching most Mani saar films minus the score is unimaginable.

True. And while if it were the other forum, Mani fans would have taken you apart for that statement, I actually think that is a compliment to Mani. Music-ai apdiyE padathOda integrate paNNittAru

Mani Sir ku thevaiyillaadha chellam kuduthu vechirukkaanga namm inaiya nanbargal.

I was quite impressed with the picturization of the short song 'ennadA pANdi' in vAlmeeki (from 1.44:00 onwards) and so revisited the same on the youtube.



As good as 'pichchaippAththiram' in NK (though this one is quite brief and so more likeable...of late, I don't like songs that much in movies)

Which one came first?

Thanks app for vaalmiki link. Will watch it tonight.

First time watch of the Padmarajan classic, moonnAm pakkam. Yes, definitely classic!

Thilakan - no words to describe his performance in this movie!

Another hero - rAsA - text book on how to do BGM!

Digression on Mani-IR-Kamal: (with a small detour to justify the post under this topic ;-) )
Muktha Srinivasan has retorted to Kamal's comments on his tight-fistedness and old-schoolness in producing Nayagan.

He says the movie would have been nothing without IR's BGM and Lenin's editing. Honestly, even a staunch IR fan like me wouldnt say that

But this whole spat between Kamal and Muktha, I found as I analysed, is most discomforting if you put yourself in the shoes of a Mani fan,

- If you try to agree with Kamal, it seems like Kmal had significant contribution to the movie's conception and execution, threby taking away their staunch assertion about Kamal just being a gun for hire and "mani is the whole and sole owner of all credit for Nayagan, including the Time magazine accolade"
- If you agree with Muktha - and anti-Kamal Mani fanatics would be tempted to, wont they? - then, the movie, as it exists, is purely Kamal's brainchild. Mukta means it in a derogatory way - he seems to mean that Nayagan is an unabashed blind copy of Godfather, and that Kamal is responsible for such blind copying. Apparently, Mani had a superior original script that Kamal scuttled, which would have been a true, original masterpiece.

The problem for Mani fans in accepting this theory is that that would mean that all accolades for Nayagan so far have to be credited to Kamal -a nd having stood on the side of the film as a masterpiece so far, they cannot go back and call it an unabashed Godfather copy that was purely Kamal's creation - delikate possisan

Exactly! Manisaar lighta caught in the crossfire maadhiri dhaan theriyudhu. What supposedly started off as celebration of 25 years of a great film is now becoming, I'm afraid, an 'elephant throwing mud over itself' exercise.

Initially I wanted to make a movie inspired by the story of The Godfather.

Shooting commenced in November 1986 and the first schedule lasted 10 days. All the scenes that were shot were scrapped since Kamal Haasan did not like them. The screenplay had to be rewritten. Shooting was postponed. The new screenplay had lot of violence and I was shocked as it was a copy of The Godfather and Once Upon a Time in America.I told Mani that a good writer and director should get inspiration from life, and not copy from other films.

isn't that what they were set to do in the first place

Mani's account of Nayakan in Rangan's book also had less than savory things about Muktha and were mostly allthingskamal wrt makeup/shots/stunts

Plum
LOL


Exactly

Wizzy wrote:

Initially I wanted to make a movie inspired by the story of The Godfather.

Shooting commenced in November 1986 and the first schedule lasted 10 days. All the scenes that were shot were scrapped since Kamal Haasan did not like them. The screenplay had to be rewritten. Shooting was postponed. The new screenplay had lot of violence and I was shocked as it was a copy of The Godfather and Once Upon a Time in America.I told Mani that a good writer and director should get inspiration from life, and not copy from other films.

isn't that what they were set to do in the first place

Thalaivan vaayum athayum saathindu padatha release pannaama social media la over rousu :mad:

ok, I was wondering what article you guys are talking about...found it (Mukta's rebuttal in the hindu paper):
http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/living-in-past-glory/article4034360.ece

IMG, Kamal possibly expected some reaction (including the defamation legal thingy) and would have still gone ahead and made those comments

and what about mukta's assertion that he got saranya's character inserted in the first place - which is kinda backed up
by even kamal's account and whatta BGM for that track by maestro.. if so - mukta deserves a big round of applause and thanks from my side.

jaiganesh wrote: mukta's assertion that he got saranya's character inserted in the first place

That's a big surprise for me

During SKV shooting, there was this report in Kumudam (I think) about the 'nilA kAyudhu' song's "takes". It described in details the 'kiLu kiLu' part of it and included Kamal's comment - "ஊர்ல ஒரே வெய்யில் - தாங்கல - இந்த மாதிரி ஷூட்டிங்குகள் தான் ஜில்லுன்னு இருக்கு"

From that point, my impressionable mind took it that KH wants some 'jillu' during movie making - more than one if possible. (Another theory that he somehow manipulates the director / producer / team to have more than one heroine because of Chennai veyyil).

Now, Mukta has broken all that theory

app - idhellAm too much. avaru always steady supply maindain paNNittu dhAnE irundhAr - irrespective of whether they act in his movies or not. Also, if you thought of Nayagan also taht way, it does put a poor implication on Saranya's character no? (I mean real life character - net-net your original evaluation of her inclusion in the movie amounts to saying she agreed to be Kamal's jili jilu during Nayagan's shooting)

Actually, I think Kamal's casanova image puts unnecessary gossip on his professionalism
1. Obviously, he doesnt need to book a heroine to "enjoy" her. You'd agree he was man enough to woo them offline with much less expense, wouldnt you?
2. ada appdiyE jilu jilu vENumnA, why book a motherly new face saranya. oru Ramya, oru bombay nadigai, say, Poonam Dhillon apdinnu kEttirukka mAttArA? Shooting vERA mumbaila nadandhadhu..

3. Maybe during the typical AVM movies, he may cease to be the 100% professional and indulge in a few activities - but IMO, during the crafting of his masterpieces, aNNan karumamE kaNNA iruppArnu.

Infact, I will quote you a gossip involving Dasavatharam Andal. The gossip columns reported thus: " Nambi had an eye on Andal throughout the shoot but given his bent for professionalism on the sets, maintained the professionalism during the shoot. Once the shoot was over, however, he entertained andal in his private farm in Ooty, and Andal spent a few days in isolation with him in a "machan" deep inside a forest like place inside his farm".

It is a gossip column so we dont need to pay much respect to it but see how even gossip columns noticed his professionalism. There must be some truth at the kernel of it, isnt it?

So, I think, a lot of "Kamal ravished XYZ during the shooting of movie ABC, or Kamal booked Actress CYZ for just enjoying her" are a bit of prejudiced opinions. Not the least during his serious, critical, involved movies.

Jai - one can believe Mukta's claim for credit for creating Saranya character.
Because Mani and Kamal do come across as Godfather obsessed, and without much sympathy for phamily audience. These are guys who probably didnt see it from an average TN feller POV. They might well have created a script where females are incidental and dont figure at all.

Plum on Mani fans dilemma.

Actually, a note on Kamal's version (or Brangan's version of Kamal's version) -> that obviously indicates a collaboration. I mean something neither group (Kamal-gave-vaazhvu-to-MR and Mani-directed-kamal-the-actor groups) would have imagined

plum,



நீங்க வேற, என்னோட ஓட்டை தியரி'க்கெல்லாம் இவ்வளவு விளக்கம் சொல்றீங்க
(மேற்கோள் எல்லாம் வேற காட்டி)...

அதெல்லாம் ஒரு சீரியஸ் அல்ல

Translation of a small portion of BGM discussion between MR & BRangan, on one of the superb BGM pieces in nAyakam (nanRi Wizzy) :

பரத்வாஜ் ரங்கன்:
சரண்யா அறிமுகம் ஆகும் காட்சியை ஒரு அழகிய தீம் இசை சிறப்பிக்கிறது. இதுவே ஹாலிவுட் ஆக இருந்தால் இதையெல்லாம் தனி இசை வெளியீடாக விற்று இருப்பார்கள். இப்படி ஒரு கிளாசிக் ஆயித்தீர்ந்த பின்னணி இசையைப் பெறுவதற்கு இளையராஜாவிடம் அப்படி என்ன தான் சொன்னீர்கள்?

மணிரத்னம் :
அவரிடம் இது ஒரு காதல் காட்சி என்று சொல்ல வேண்டிய அவசியம் இல்லை. அது அத்தகைய காட்சி தான் என்பது வெளிப்படை.

பாடல்கள் உருவாகும்போது மட்டும், சில சமயங்களில், இந்த வாத்திய இசைக்கூறுகள் ஒரு தீம் ஆக செயல்பட முடியும் என்று அவரிடம் சொல்ல வேண்டி இருக்கும்.

அப்படிச் சொன்னதை பின்னணி இசை சேர்க்கும் போது மீண்டும் நினைவு படுத்த வேண்டி இருக்கும். அவர் அத்தனை படங்களை செய்து கொண்டு இருந்ததால், "நாம் இப்படி செய்யலாம் என்று நினைத்தோம் இல்லையா" என்று நினைவு படுத்த வேண்டும். அந்தப்பாடல்கள் இந்தப்படத்துக்குத் தானா என்று ஒருவேளை அவருக்கு ஞாபகத்தில் இருக்காது.

அவர் இப்படி சொல்லுவார் : "ஒ, அது இந்தப் படத்துல இருக்கா. நான் ராமா நாயுடு படத்துக்குன்னு நெனச்சேன்"

I feel this MR-BRangan book must be a very interesting book to read!

I heard it is quite pricey in amazon.com...need to shop around

OK, only the "hard cover" version is $64.75...there's kindle edition that's $19.69. I've never used a kindle edition - is it only for those eBook readers or can one use with regular windows machines?

(BTW, the "kindle" edition of MKG's saththiya sOthanai costs $0.99)