Thursday, November 27, 2008

Horror!

It was gripping to see pictures of hotels, streets, railway stations in a state of mayhem. Terrorists have intruded very comfortably these days. It's clear. Anyone of us is a potential terror target in our country these days. It stuns me when I think about the mind setup of the terrorists who decide to bomb people whom they don't even know and who are not even remotely related to the supposed cause they are fighting for. What do they really want? Nobody can tell. But they, for sure are creating big inroads in the society.

Entering railway stations armed with Ak-47 and shooting people as they like is a very sorry state of affairs in the country. Innocent people, people who had no idea what would befall upon them the next minute are getting horrendously inflicted with pain and death.

I am speechless literally. This year has been on top of the disaster chart in terms of terror attacks and all big talk from the government after each and every attack is highly unconvincing. It's is not possible to exterminate terror attacks at all places. But some action from the government is necessary.

In the end, all the lost lives hurt.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

A thousand elephants and not a thousand colors

Voila!
Just in my previous post, I had mentioned that Harris needs to come out of the Karaharapriya, Natabhairavi closet. And I see traces of Charukeshi in the charanam of "Ava Enna..." (Vaaranam AAyiram), Karthik in the vocals. Nice to hear him sing a beautiful song after a pretty decent gap in tamil. The song is kind of a sequel to Minnale's "Venmathiye...", the feel being the same. The interesting thing about the song is that, it is expected to be set for the dappankuthu genre when it opens. But Harris rarely gives you an outright dappankuthu. There is always a feel of a class in his songs, purely because of his chord exploits.

Since the Minnale and Majnu days, Harris has proved to be an outright melodist. At present, I think he is the king of melodies in tamil movies. Even otherwise, Harris doesnt experiment much with the range of his songs. The experimentation that he does is primarily on ways to innovate his own numbers!

As expected, all songs are good in VA. My favorites are Ava enna, Anal Mele, Adiye Kolluthey. The rest remind you of a Oru Maalai, Mudhal naal Indru- his earlier hit compositions. Anal Mele is no different from Munbe Va, Vassegara or Enadhuyire. It's Natabhairavi alright! But I primarily like the song since I happened to hear and see it the first time while watching the movie. You can call this song as one of the most fitting and relevant numbers to the feel of the movie. So even though the tune is a rehash, Sudha along with the picturisation of the song have had a good influence on me. A kind of song that you would want to listen to reclining on a cushion sofa with your headphones on a late night sojourn.

And on a subject totally unrelated, I coined this saying today morning - felt good about it.

"For today's middle class, luxury is a mundane affair and the ordinary is an elusive retreat"

Monday, November 3, 2008

Harris! Please leave Karaharapriya alone

Mr. Harris Jayaraj! This is a sincere request from me to leave Karaharapriya and her cousin Natabhairavi alone for sometime. You have other zillions of swaram combinations to explore. Agreed that you have given us wonderful melodies using these 2 ragams. But it's time to move on sir. Its been too much of late. And you are trying to make the same note sound different each time using different rhythm patterns and some interesting interludes. But, yeah, after a point, it has become so repetitive that I might lose interest. You are capable of giving us great songs. So, next time let us not hear the same set of swarams set to different beats. My petition is that since you are the sole melody king in the tamil film world now, please provide some quality music to live up to your name.

Some suggestions:
- The Bombay Jayashree-adi thondai-natabhairavi genre could be put to rest for sometime
- Explore swara patterns other than SR2PM1R2S, R2PM1G2R2S, M1PN2PM1R2S (surfeited karaharapriya and janyas)
- Try something in a Prathi Madhyama ragam. I think, the only prathi madhyamam that I have heard is your "Mudhar Kanave", that too only as a baashanga in Natabhairavi, your favorite.
- Retain the melodious interludes but again, in different ragams.
- Compose something in Sindhu Bhairavi, Mayamalavagowla, keeravaani, charukeshi. Expand your repertoire.
- How come you have not composed anything in Hindolam, Mohanam or a Kalyani(atleast to my recollection). These are music director's all time favorites. I want to hear your techno blend with ragams like these.

Sincerely
Manojh