Rudramma Devi

Living in the motor city puts a responsibility on "longer-time-residents" (like me) while also providing some unusual opportunities

First, the respo part :

The presence of auto biggies (for over a century) possibly contributed to the "weakest-among-any-metro-area" public transport system   For most newcomers, it is practically non-existent. OTOH, the area is like any place in USA by way of distances (i.e. any place at 5 mile distance could be considered "near" or "close"  ) With taxi quite expensive (5 miles could meter $25 or so) and thus affordable to only billionaires and those on company trips, freshies to the city - especially those on work / student kind of visas - typically rely upon locals to drive them around initially. 

So, me and my co-workers / friends often find ourselves to be giving rides  Not tough work but a respo that could ask for time, a valuable resource.

Next, the opportunity :

For fellows like me who cannot ride without music (and 90% of the time IR), it often gives opportunity to talk about music  Well, I never like to be "pushy". What does it mean? While I insist on playing only "my fav", I don't do "social gospel" business  (i.e. I get irritated by the concept of "do a favor and get them baptized into your religion in return").

So, it is strictly "no talking about IR / his music" UNLESS the co-traveler ASKS me / TALKS about it / is CURIOUS etc.

And there had been quite a lot of them over the years (as the music does the trick  )

So was the guy last night whom I had to give a ride and it happened to be my fav 'punnamippoovai' running on the van. (Actually only aunA & punnami were running on the vaNdi the whole of yesterday).

More on the guy and the situation in the next post

When my 22 yr old told last night calling me from college that he had another work and I need to drive a freshie from India (who studied in EU and now here for more studies) to a store to get essentials, I was really tired and wasn't looking forward to it  

But, then, there was no other option.

So, when this "north-indies" looking guy with a generic northie name got into the van, I was quite tired - as it was almost bed time.  Like I mentioned in my prior post, the whole day it was either auna neevEnA or punnamippoovai on the vehicle and it was punnami when we started.

I got surprised to know that the boy is Telugu from Hyd and he too got surprised that a Thamizh man was listening to a Telugu song in his car 

So, he asked me : "Do you know Telugu"?  

"No"

"Interesting to see you listening to Telugu song"

Now this was the "opportunity" I talked about in my last post  So, here came my reply...

"This is Ilayaraja song and his music is in many languages - I listen to his music in multiple languages because I like it the most"

He has never heard the song before. 
(It's a sad fact, the songs haven't reached the target population very well  
In fact, as I find out later during the discussion about his background, I would say the reach is much below average  )

He saw on the LCD screen the name "Rudhramma Devi" and got surprised and asked me "Is this the new movie with Anushka?"  

I said yes and also added that the movie had not been released but the audio came out months back and I really like the songs.

Then I said the singer is SG. When he said "It is very relaxing music", I increased the volume and encouraged him to enjoy the bassy tablA sound which is superb in this song

Well, even for me, a longtime HCF of IR's tablA, the tablA in this song is extra special.

The boy thoroughly enjoyed the song and commented that it is so good. There's no need to mention that I was very happy! 

He then started talking about bAhubali and how it turned around the industry that had been thru a lean patch prior. There came the interesting part about this boy!

He talked about him being part of the "disti" of that movie in Munich (München) that helped them earn about र 5 lacs profit in just two days, at the ticket cost of € 25 per each seat! He also recounted how many other movies before that lost them money etc. 

I got surprised that this boy, despite being a student, was able to get into such business (possible background at home state).

That is the end of this story - that someone as unconnected to the industry as myself had to introduce the songs of Rudhramma Devi to an "overseas distributor" of Bahubali

https://twitter.com/Gunasekhar1/status/643267013926744068

One of the responses wonder if the director is sure about the date

 நமக்கு வேண்டியது என்னவோ அது குறைவில்லாமல் இருக்கும்

Ilayaraja music is said to be main asset particularly the Back ground music was too good. 

Though there is much time for the release makers got to go for the censor soon as the director wants to declare the distributors about the new release date.

Looks like this date is firm

Maestro Ilayaraja has composed the music for the soundtracks and background score of the film. His work is going to be one of the major highlights of the film.

Video about "rerecoding"

http://errabus.com/videos/watch/political%20news?o=XvYrrn5qpH0

India Today

They are writing "collaborated"

Looks like this is an official one :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty23HlLQAgc

(one minute of aunA neevEnA video)

While that video seems to have only the 'uLiyin Osai' level of production value  , the heroini seems to be quite confident :

http://www.indiaglitz.com/anushka-interview-telugu-news-143952.html

Fortunate

I am not qualified enough to talk about Ilayaraja sir. But, I am really fortunate to have acted in a film, for which he worked. I was really surprised to see his simplicity.

Telengana CM

Anushka Shetty's Rudramadevi is one of the most awaited movies of this year. This movie will hit the screens'tomorrow'(October 9th) and the fans of Anushka are eagerly waiting for it. Now the film has received entertainment tax exemption from Telangana government.

Today'film director and producer Guna met KCR along with star producer DIl Raju and KCR announced tax exemption to Rudramadevi during the meet. Rudramadevi is given entertainment tax exemption in Telangana. This will be definitely comes as a breather to producer Gunasekhar who spent nearly 70 crs. The gesture of KCR is looking similar to the Kollywood film industry, which offers tax reduction for films which has film title in Tamil.

Film stars Ansuhka, Rana, Allu Arjun in lead roles and Mega Star Chiranjeevi gave voice over. Ilayaraja is the music director for the film. Gunasekhar did not compromise on the quality and he made the movie with an utmost care and dedication.

Not-too-bad kind of review by The Hindu

Ilayaraja’s music and the narration by Chiranjeevi are an asset.

A leading telugu portal say the BGM is not good 

http://www.telugucinema.com/reviews/Rudhramadevi-Movie-Review

rajaclan wrote:A leading telugu portal say the BGM is not good 

http://www.telugucinema.com/reviews/Rudhramadevi-Movie-Review

I watched this film last night (the only reason why I choose to - is BGM) and I (hate to) admit - it was nothing like stellar. The soundscape was all symphony kind, but I felt... to be very candid... there was some overkill. I mean, I missed that Raaja where he would begin pieces at those right moments/pauses. at lot of places, it sounded that they just overlaid the BGM cd on the film, so irrespective of actors talking or not talking in those scenes, music was playing on. Of course, when they are not talking, one pays attention to the music pieces and it sounds all grand. But it just doesn't add up to the scene. And when music plays when actors are talking, it feels like some intrusion. There were films when BGM starts from no-dialogues moments and continues to dialogues moments, which is to build up the emotions through music. But honestly, that was not the case here.

That said, if they sell the BGM cd, I would still run and buy it because I like the "sound" of it. I liked the strings, the french-horns and all that stuff. But just that I felt it all didn't stick that well ON the film. And did any pieces stick in my mind while walking out of hall? Yes, but unfortunately, those are just instrumental versions of the songs, which appeared in the BGM (not frequently though). Any other notable pieces? NO. And THAT, is tad disappointing to me as a fan and also after that hype.

Still, someone get the BGM cd. I'd keep it as a non-film album of Raaja and erase the memory that it was a film's BGM that somehow didn't add up. 

(That telugu portal's rationale must be very different)

indhi version, IR music had mixed response it seems...Indian Express

Just came from the movie.  Almost did not go after seeing Kamalakarsh's post. I do see what you mean by BGM overpowering dialogues in places.  However, as someone who does not understand any Telugu (no subtitles too!) I was happy to just listen to the music and be mesmerized!  I really wish  they officially release the bGm for this movie.

panniapurathar wrote:Just came from the movie.  Almost did not go after seeing Kamalakarsh's post. I do see what you mean by BGM overpowering dialogues in places.  However, as someone who does not understand any Telugu (no subtitles too!) I was happy to just listen to the music and be mesmerized!  I really wish  they officially release the bGm for this movie.

You Echo my thoughts…Same feelings. .Enjoyed the musiç…Thàts all.

Puriyathà mozhi…
Chraçterin feelings puriyaradhu…angae irukar IR.

There is something to what aakarsh says, the whole movie reeked of there is something to this, yet not mixed in the right proportion. Inconsistency rules, it is definitely a good attempt, and unlike Baahubali, the characters stay true to themselves(think Tamanna abandoning her lifetime of passion towards resisting the autocracy of Rana, and willingly transferring responsibilities to Prabhas, because, well you know he is the hero), and no overt attempt at hero worship of anyone including Anushka.

But the script lacks something, which is basically, life. It just limps from one sequence to another, while not exactly being boring, doesn't set the screen on fire either, which is why it isn't Baahubali. The BGM appropriately sounds limp in some places too, although you'd probably be raptured by it on the CD.
I wonder if the BGM CD can be given to Rajamouli, and he be allowed to work with IR closely for using the same pieces in Baahubali-2. I bet the same portals would say Grand BGM if that happened.

In short, the problem is the visuals are anodyne, and it takes away from the BGM. Admittedly, not a problem you'd associate with IR in general. But at this stage of his life, I think he is giving his best in opps like this irrespective of thow the film has turned out. (Think sarru munbu being too heavy for NEPV). I'll take it.

On the movie itself, it is not bad at all. As ever with Gunasekar, there are germs of good ideas there, and there is some intrigue with the characters, but he fails to exploit it to full potential, which is again a characteristic trait.
There is a lot of drama out there, but he presents it all flatly - be it Rudra's compulsion to marry a female, the drama in the public turning against here merely because they got to know  she is a female despite all her good deeds and their devotion to her(in her male avtar)  all along until that moment but all this comes across flatly.

What he does capitalize on is Allu Arjun's presence and Gona Ganna Reddy's telengana hero status. He has always been good at presenting heroes, and he does that here well with Arjun. Allu Arjun himself shines well in the telengana slang, which is again an important milestone for Telugu Film industry, because that slang is usually the butt of the jokes, and those sporting it are the comedians and side kicks in an average telugu movie. Here, it is Ganna Reddy who has all the smart lines, and he is the one insulting the privileged land owning castes(vassal rulers of Rudramadevi, who I think are Reddys, too, but of the land owning privileged class or at any rate, their descendants today would probably be reddys even if they weren't called that then) in proper telengana slang, which is certainly a refreshing change for a telugu movie. Again, it is backed by history, so Andhras can hardly complain, so well done Guna there.

The film also resolutely sticks to the character of the lead actress, unlike Baahubali which simply threw Tamanna's character graph down the same ravine that Prabhas escorts her safely through during the snow storm.  Anushka here is the warrior queen, and while her dilemmas in her dual identity, her emotions as a suppressed female are all sketchily explored, she comes across as a wholesome character. One up on SS Rajamouli there.

I am also okay with the expository nature of the dialogues - for example, Krishnam Raju sees Rudrama fighting an elephant and visualizes her as a lion. This is helpfully depicted with the help of Graphics, and then Raju helpfully quips to Prakash Raj, his minister, that he is seeing a lion in Rudra. This could be seen by Cinema fans(of the brangan type who read film grammar books and go by it) as unnecessarily expository but after all, he would visualize it AND quip about it at that juncture, wouldn't  he?

Later in the movie, Allu Arjun in the climax is taking on the side kicks, while the main villain, fittingly, is left to Anushka to deal with. Now, this is obvious, and needed no exposition. And any cinema buff would frown at a dialogue which notices this, but that is exactly what happens as a side character questions Arjun why he is leaving Rudrama in danger fighting with the main villain. Guna has him quip that he could easily take care off the villain but given the people's disowning of Rudrama earlier at a crucial stage, it is important that she is seen finishing the villain off.
It simultaneously appeases Arjun fans who might quail at seeing their big hero playing second fiddle, and also brings attention to this to the lazier fan. which is needed in a movie of this type, which, after all, was not made to please brangars of the world. One doesn't go into a Gunasekar movie expecting Shyam Benagal aesthetics.

Apart from this, Guna of course does the usual telugu film thing of "have heroine, will flaunt their assets" as the main commercial compromise but heroically stops short of shredding the dignity of the leading female character, which is what SS Rajamouli failed to do in Baahubali.

Graphics etc, of course, are laughable, and since I am not much of a visual effects fan, it doesn't  bother me much.

The advantage of not having a major caste demographic that identifies with the Kakatiya dynasty now works well for Guna here, and I don't think anyone can explicitly object to any depiction here, save for Andhras feeling jealous at telengana slang being portrayed positively.

Coming to that, I have a theory, which our munk has also independently thrown, that this might be the reason for the negative reactions in media, especially internet media and leading newspapers, which, no prizes for guessing, is dominated by the dominant caste groups from Andhra/Seema, which means they are bound to put down a movie glorifying telengana history and although there is only a loose connection between Kakatiya dynasty and telengana glory of today, mainly because telengana folks haven't been allowed to uphold the glory all these days(which is going to change of course now with KCR firmly in saddle, and Telengana charting an independent path)

In this crossfire, I think some of them may have deliberately put down the movie, going in with an eye to find faults. Since not much can be said about the history itself, I think the technicians have taken the brunt of criticisim so BGM might be collateral damage.

The BGM is good, if unremarkable by IR standards, and at any rate yaanai paduthaalum gudhirai  mattam. As I said before, we could use the same BGM in Baahubali 2 and let Rajamouli take the visuals and there would be a different reaction.

As for the songs, I warmed up to them all in the movie. They are perfect for the situations Guna gave IR, and I loved and infact noticed the telengana type chorus in matha gajame only now. It is so well done, and I really came to love it by the end of the movie.

Punnami Puvvai is really well done, even picturisation, only Auna neevena has uliyin osai aesthetics.
Andhapuramlo is the "have heroine will flaunt" song and there is not much to complain there.

Choosukovoy, sadly is not picturised. Might have been a chartbuster if picturised well.

There is no reason to call the music bad, as many internet reviewers have done. But to each his own.

On the whole, I have warmed up better to the album after watching the movie. Anushka fans and IR fans have nothing to complain - worth a watch.

In short, Rudramadevi doesn't hit the high moments, crowd pleasing moments that Baahubali did, but nor does it hit the low moments and the laughably poor characterization and character graphs in the latter. I'd any day -Rudra over
baahubali

All of what I said, has also been independently corroborated by my wife, who is as unbiased a film watcher as you can get, and can be said to stand in for the average movie watcher with no affiliations and no specific expectations but for entertainment, sensible characters, character graphs etc

Usha wrote:

panniapurathar wrote:Just came from the movie.  Almost did not go after seeing Kamalakarsh's post. I do see what you mean by BGM overpowering dialogues in places.  However, as someone who does not understand any Telugu (no subtitles too!) I was happy to just listen to the music and be mesmerized!  I really wish  they officially release the bGm for this movie.

You Echo my thoughts…Same feelings. .Enjoyed the musiç…Thàts all.

Puriyathà mozhi…
Chraçterin feelings puriyaradhu…angae irukar IR.

Unmai Usha avargale!  Definitely  IR is in tune with each character's feelings and emotions in this movie.

plum wrote:In short, Rudramadevi doesn't hit the high moments, crowd pleasing moments that Baahubali did, but nor does it hit the low moments and the laughably poor characterization and character graphs in the latter. I'd any day -Rudra over
baahubali

All of what I said, has also been independently corroborated by my wife, who is as unbiased a film watcher as you can get, and can be said to stand in for the average movie watcher with no affiliations and no specific expectations but for entertainment, sensible characters, character graphs etc

Plum avargale,
Appreciate your detailed take on the movie.  It was helpful to see the social justice angle through your review.

Just finished watching Rudramadevi. Started reading Plum's post before the movie started but saved it for later reading.

For the record, I haven't watched Baahubali yet don't have anything to compare. I went in with very low expectations set by the trailers especially the visual effects. My prime reason for watching the movie is for you know who  and those expectations were further fueled by the London recording video.

I liked the movie - story, characters being their true self (Plum's earlier post talks about that in glorious detail). Anushka's performance was quite convincing, Allu Arjun had great screen presence and the other lead actors performed effectively.

Visuals were rich (art dept specifically) and brought back that time period in good detail. All the songs were visualized beautifully except for Auna Neevena which was all done wrong - lighting, location, choreography. This song has taken me to heaven many a times in my previous listens but won't anymore now.

VFX was as terrible as expected and glaringly tacky at times except for very few scenes (the last battle sequence). 

Lastly the score - its a magnum opus....as grand it can be at times and as mellow & poignant as well. It's a score that I will treasure all my life. I never found it intrusive in a single scene and never felt that it drowned out any dialogs. Rather, I felt it enhanced those dialogs. The scenes where the music stood out for me - rudhrama realizing that she is a girl, gona ganna reddy's entry, rudhrama / muktamba conversing and coming to terms with their plight (as poignant a score can be).

A must watch for any IR fan and please don't wait for the dubbed version. I doubt if the Tamil version would do justice especially for Gona Ganna Reddy's character.

A few preliminary enquiries regarding why some people felt it was "bad music" reveals that the newly aggrandizing hindu right in Andhra - note how CB Naidu who was anti BJP just in 2004 has gone all indhutva now - felt that the "symphonic" score is too "English" and "Christian" for a indhu saamrajya pourusham upholding movie.

I also wonder if internet reviewers watch the same preview show, and being too lazy or incompetent to have their own views, have an initial chat, and all of them echo the same view. It is rare to see differing views on any movie among telugu film reviewers. They praise the exact same things and diss the same aspects in any given movie.
Now, this could be due to extra ordinary matching of sensibilities or perhaps more realistically, that they compare notes before writing their reviews, and do it democratically.

We have to trace the one original reviewer who started this bad music thing on Rudramadevi. I think the rest are just echoing - what they think - is common sentiment.

I will keep a close watch on FM Channels here in Hyderabad to see how the songs perform among common public.

rajkumarc wrote:Just finished watching Rudramadevi. Started reading Plum's post before the movie started but saved it for later reading.

For the record, I haven't watched Baahubali yet don't have anything to compare. I went in with very low expectations set by the trailers especially the visual effects. My prime reason for watching the movie is for you know who  and those expectations were further fueled by the London recording video.

I liked the movie - story, characters being their true self (Plum's earlier post talks about that in glorious detail). Anushka's performance was quite convincing, Allu Arjun had great screen presence and the other lead actors performed effectively.

Visuals were rich (art dept specifically) and brought back that time period in good detail. All the songs were visualized beautifully except for Auna Neevena which was all done wrong - lighting, location, choreography. This song has taken me to heaven many a times in my previous listens but won't anymore now.

VFX was as terrible as expected and glaringly tacky at times except for very few scenes (the last battle sequence). 

Lastly the score - its a magnum opus....as grand it can be at times and as mellow & poignant as well. It's a score that I will treasure all my life. I never found it intrusive in a single scene and never felt that it drowned out any dialogs. Rather, I felt it enhanced those dialogs. The scenes where the music stood out for me - rudhrama realizing that she is a girl, gona ganna reddy's entry, rudhrama / muktamba conversing and coming to terms with their plight (as poignant a score can be).

A must watch for any IR fan and please don't wait for the dubbed version. I doubt if the Tamil version would do justice especially for Gona Ganna Reddy's character.

Good observations on the high points in the BGM. I didn't quite find the BGM interjecting on dialogues thingy that Aakarsh mentioned anywhere. It wasn't, at the least, noticeable, if it existed.

All said, I wouldn't place it among top BGM scores of IR. One of the reasons being the movie rarely hits high emotional points, hence no scope for high emotion in the BGM.
The screenplay goes along without exploiting the dramatic possibilities, and is content to be in story telling amar chitra katha mode, therefore no surprise that the BGM is also suitably generic "symphonic" or "operatic" as disgruntled Andhras are calling it, without really tugging the heart strings.

This mukthamba-rudrama scene that rajkumar alludes to, for instance, there is no drama in it. With such an explosive situation, Gunaa starts it off without drama, continues without drama, and resolves it very easily with the said characters not going through any emotional turmoil. What is left is both characters applauding each other's "sacrifice", in other words, they are living their lies, and they themselves aren't exploring their deeper feelings on this. What emotional BGM can you expect for this?

This is where one must appreciate Raja's ability to do justice to the director's vision. Gunaa's vision may be flawed, because the de-dramatization doesn't add much to the movie, and deflates a possible emotional pay off. But you cant accuse IR of not doing justice to Gunaa's vision here, which is to just touch upon this potential turmoil, and skim it lightly along the way

plum wrote:A few preliminary enquiries regarding why some people felt it was "bad music" reveals that the newly aggrandizing hindu right in Andhra - note how CB Naidu who was anti BJP just in 2004 has gone all indhutva now - felt that the "symphonic" score is too "English" and "Christian" for a indhu saamrajya pourusham upholding movie.

I also wonder if internet reviewers watch the same preview show, and being too lazy or incompetent to have their own views, have an initial chat, and all of them echo the same view. It is rare to see differing views on any movie among telugu film reviewers. They praise the exact same things and diss the same aspects in any given movie.
Now, this could be due to extra ordinary matching of sensibilities or perhaps more realistically, that they compare notes before writing their reviews, and do it democratically.

We have to trace the one original reviewer who started this bad music thing on Rudramadevi. I think the rest are just echoing - what they think - is common sentiment.

I will keep a close watch on FM Channels here in Hyderabad to see how the songs perform among common public.

Funnily enough, I don't think Kakatiya dynasty can be held up as a indhutva glory upholding samrajyam. Sure, they were *probably* shaivite, but don't think there was any history of them glorifying indhutva. This movie itself passingly refers to Rudrama's philosophy as one of sarava madha nalliNakkam.

And if you see, in recent history, you can find Telengana more leftist and liberal than Andhra/Seema. Which  may be because of recent history itself, as in their suppression since 1956 but one has reason to believe Telengana wouldn't subscribe to indhutva agenda as much as Andhra.

It is funny to see Andhra rightists jumping and owning Kakatiya as hindu samrajya and finding fault with the "Christian" BGM score LOL