IR & Maniratnam

Well, we have a thread for VM in this forum.

So, why not for MR?

Link of a post I read today, which is not too bad...

Sathriyan

Situation: Revolutionary star Vijayakant is a police officer in this movie. He quits his job after his wife is killed. Years later the villain comes back and threatens to kill his son too. So Vijaykant wants his job back, but his superior says he is unfit for the post. Vijaykant, goaded by his son's words of encouragement, becomes fit and joins the police force. Here is an elating background music from Ilayaraja when Vijaykant comes back to shape. ( fast-forward to 5:00 minutes for BGM)

thamizhppadam fellow uLaRikkottal

Some twitter discussion on the above kuppai here :

https://twitter.com/icarusprakash/status/605641379734110209

It is irritating that this fellow chose to bring in VM's name in such an article. VM's contribution to the IR-MR movies was just one song total (nAn pAdum mouna rAgam of IK).

That article is a good reminder of the not so glittering achievements of MR in the midst of the Mouna Raagams and Nayakans - Pagal Nilavu, Idhaya Kovil, Idhayathai Thirudathe all mahabore.  IR's music in these films, while stellar, also tends to fit into general patterns of his 80s work while the more 'concept'-based films like Mouna Raagam, Nayakan, Agni, Dhalapathi have very distinct music that was largely unlike his work for other directors at the time.  Then again, did those films, barring Nayakan which was a definite break from regular Tamil films, really have so much conceptual integrity or was it just IR painting a brilliant theme through his songs and BGMs to distinguish the films from the rest of the crowd?  I have never read BR's book on Mani's films and don't know if it discusses his approach to working with Raja in detail.  It would be interesting to know if he really did do something different to coax these scores out of IR or did IR have a soft corner for him for some reason.

crimson king wrote: It would be interesting to know if he really did do something different to coax these scores out of IR or did IR have a soft corner for him for some reason.

On that "soft corner" thingy, Nerd posted this youtube link on twitter recently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y5b_LQd9rM



Per MR's own statement in a mag (once again, I saw the .jpg on twitter, posted by Kanaprabha of Australia) that IR accepted a much smaller % of his then compensation - to help out with the budget of this new comer youngster director's first project! 

I guess IR did similar things not just to MR but to many new comers in that time period and this score is prior to pagal nilavu

  I have never read BR's book on Mani's films and don't know if it discusses his approach to working with Raja in detail.  It would be interesting to know if he really did do something different to coax these scores out of IR or did IR have a soft corner for him for some reason.

check pm

digression

ராசாவுக்கு என்ன ஒரு குறும்பு இருந்தா அந்தப் "பல்லவி அனுபல்லவி" தீம் இசையை இப்படி ஒரு சிலுக்கு பாட்டுக்கு அனாயாசமா மாற்றி இருப்பாரு :-)

(அதுக்கு அருமையான தாளப்பின்னணி எல்லாம் கொடுத்து!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qveg840rPDY



end-digression

GM to Senthil dialog of karagam on B'day

Ilaiyaraaja and youngsters? Today? We wondered how that ever happened too, but he had it all figured out “If you see, when I collaborated with Mani Ratnam first, he was a youngster and being associated with me, his fame grew. So I like to help youngsters grow,” he stated.
...
...
...
Turning to the current trend of audiences liking kuthu songs and peppy numbers and if it differed from his trademark style of composing, Ilaiyaraaja says that he has composed all genres. He also added that the music in the current project he is working on would be different. “We need to be different to survive. How long can people listen to the same old music!” he asks with a a laugh.

indhu paper publishes someone's nostalgia on MR's MR

இந்தப் படம் வெளியான அடுத்த வருடம் அதே ஆகஸ்ட் மாதத்தில் நான் பிறந்தேன். என் பால்யத்தில், கார்த்திக் போடும் சண்டைக் காட்சிகளுக்காகத்தான் இந்தப் படத்தைத் திரும்பத் திரும்பப் பார்த்தேன். படத்தின் ஆகப் பெரும் பலம் கார்த்திக். “தான் நடித்தேன் என்று சொல்லிக்கொள்வதற்கு கார்த்திக்குக்கு இந்த ஒரு படம் போதும். ‘ஸீல் ஆஃப் யூத்’ என்பதை இந்தப் படத்தில் கார்த்திக் முழுமையாக வெளிப்படுத்தியிருப்பார். அதனை என்ஹான்ஸ் செய்ததில் இளையராஜாவின் இசைக்கும், பி.சி.ஸ்ரீராமின் கேமராவுக்கும் நிறைய பங்குண்டு” என்று என் நண்பர் ஒருவர் சொல்கிறார்.

Noticed this post on mouna rAgam today (some excerpts from BR's interview with MR published as a book) :
https://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/mouna-raagam-30-years/

There's some interesting discussion on nAyagan songs by CK & Shankar there in the comments section 

Didn't know that MR told like this about IR - that way, this article has some new thuNukku for me :

http://tamil.eenaduindia.com/Entertainment//2018/07/12152052/Anjali-movie-28-years-anniversary-today.vpf

குழந்தைகள் மையமாக வைத்து இயக்கிய இந்த படத்துக்கு இசை மிகப்பெரிய பலம். ரசிகர்களை தியேட்டரை நோக்கி வரவைத்தற்கு முக்கிய காரணம் இளையராஜா என ஒரு பேட்டியில மணிரத்னம் தெரிவித்திருந்தார்.

அந்த அளவுக்கு துள்ளலான பாடல்களும், அஞ்சலி, அஞ்சலி என்ற மெலோடியும் கொடுத்து ரசிகர்களை கிறங்கடித்திருப்பார் ராஜா.

crimson king wrote:I have never read BR's book on Mani's films and don't know if it discusses his approach to working with Raja in detail.  It would be interesting to know if he really did do something different to coax these scores out of IR or did IR have a soft corner for him for some reason.

There are some videos on youtube in which he does provide some interesting details. Baradwaj Rangan did one interview in 3 parts - they have some nice anecdotes. He talks about Dalapati scoring, the background score, the songs and the process. My favourite is when BR asks "if you get scratch tunes/versions first for shooting and then get final versions later" and MR corrects him with a smile - "you walk into Raaja's studio and you walk out with full songs/versions".

Gautam Menon did one interview too where he talks about Raaja.