Toot-ette's Syndrome

I am convinced some vehicles suffer from Tourette's Syndrome. What else explains the tendency of some automobiles to keep honking from behind?

Earlier today, I was cycling along with friends down an empty road when an auto started to talk dirty from behind. Moving from our left lane to the non-existent ultra-Maoist lane off the road, the auto went past. With a honk. What's more, it travelled down the road intermittently spewing *b(l)eeps* at no one in particular. What else than Tourette's?

This impression is further increased by the fact that drivers of these renegade motors give you a hapless look - the "how could I be so rude as to honk at you unnecessarily?" version. Their vehicles must be taking them for a ride.

Blog publishing frequently

Blog publishing frequently

This blog migrated to the newer version of Blogger, and as Aditya predicted, I'm all gaga over the possibilities of using labels. I'd like to label each and every post of mine, however trivial, and so site feeds for this blog will show up with the promise of new posts in their UIs, but will only be old posts garnished with a label. Please do not blame your aggregator.

kaikuu?

A selection of haikus:

Disemvowelment,
the heart of SMS-talk,
rips English's guts out

Autumn is a race,
man seeks the comfort of fire,
sunlight comes second

Lying on my back.
A cloud flits by in the sky.
Hey, it made a face!

To the passing ant,
I am God. It is afraid.
But today, I'm kind.

Is this a haiku?
Only if I can squeeze in
enough syllables.

All you need is Spam

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam.
There's nothing you can sell that can't be sold.
Nothing you can write that can't be e-mailed.
Nothing you need to post but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy.
There's nothing you can make that can't be aired.
No one you can meet that can't be reached.
Nothing you need script but you can learn how to be in the box
It's easy.
All you need is Spam, all you need is Spam,
All you need is Spam, Spam, Spam is all you need.
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam.
All you need is Spam, all you need is Spam,
All you need is Spam, Spam, Spam is all you need.
There's nothing you can promise that isn't big.
Nothing a Bayesian can filter that isn't text.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're not meant to be.
It's easy.
All you need is Spam, all you need is Spam,
All you need is Spam, Spam, Spam is all you need.
All you need is Spam (all together now)
All you need is Spam (everybody)
All you need is Spam, Spam, Spam is all you need.
(background: She Spams me, yeah, yeah, yeah...)

(With apologies to The Beatles)

The job is 1/3rd done

Well done, the Indian cricket team. But the modern team that now clearly knows how to win away from home (and has to sometimes remind itself of how to do win at home :-)) needs to learn to avoid a historic trend. Indian teams have paradoxically been at their most vulnerable immediately after winning Tests abroad, given what has happened before in Australia (2003), Pakistan (2004), and West Indies (2002).

But what happened today was fun. There were a few parallels between the Australian and Indian wins today, with Flintoff and Pollock leading a late and doomed revival at the end, and veteran leggies Warne and Kumble seeing their teams through. The celebrations were similarly insane. Test cricket's better days.

Chatrii aur Khatrii

Looking forward to Vishal Bhardwaj's The Blue Umbrella, based on Ruskin Bond's short story of the same name, releasing on the 5th of January. Trailers are out and the Umbrella is looking magical. As is Pankaj Kapur's performance, even in the couple of minutes we see him in the teaser.

And: Rediff feature on the film, Raja Sen raving about the film.

Five reasons to watch Test cricket

1. No. 10 pair Monty Panesar and Steve Harmison peppering the boundary with some carefully chosen shots much to the annoyance of the Aussie bowlers
2. Gorgeous Test match batting by Sachin Tendulkar in the first innings at the Wanderers. An effort that was 90% perfect, with some assured leaves and masterly drives. It was not quite a masterclass, but a great tutorial. But only 90%, because 9% docked for getting out to a good but not unplayable (from my seat) Kallis delivery, and 1% for a Nel ball that got him into an awkward spot.
3. Adam Gilchrist striking the ball with such élan to bring up the 2nd fastest ton in Test history. If Umpires Dar and Koertzen had "wided" a couple of ungettable balls, then he'd even have gone past Sir Viv. The hygiene of his hitting would have made mothers all around the world proud. If I am not mistaken, he now has the 2nd fastest hundred and double hundreds in the profession.
4. An Indian pace attack skittling out a Test side in 25 odd overs for under a 100. Away.
5. The Channel Nine coverage: the "3-tracker", the "hot-spot", the "ultra slow motion" make viewing a pleasure. They also introduced the simple but novel idea of three commentators at the same time (which Star Sports have picked up too). As long as one of them is not Tony Greig, it's a great place to watch cricket.

Playing away from the body for the last time

One of my most favourite contemporary batsmen, one who rescued the adjective "elegant" from being reduced to a overused platitude, calls it a day. A recurring pattern of Damien Martyn's career has been the repeated questioning of his place in the mega-talented Aussie team probably because he seems so un-Australian, in his subdued exploration of his extravagant talent (think VVS in India).

The cliché goes that one must retire when people ask why. I'm inclined to ask why of the man of whom I thought 'If life was the Australian cricket team, I'd be Damien Martyn'. Farewell Marto.

Are you jiivit?

George provides a comprehensive summary re: the current state of affairs of the spaghetti bowl that is Ram Gopal Varma ka Sholay. Given that the cast seems to have turned into a local railway platform what with the comings and goings, it's sheer ego-power that seems to drive Ram Gopal Varma ahead with the project.

Even if he makes a great tribute (he didn't quite manage it in Sarkar) to the by now only parody-fodder classic, what's the point? The tendency of many of the current breed of Indian newbie directors to fulfill childhood fantasies is becoming fairly painful. Perhaps a much better idea could have been to make a Gabbar-prequel, a la Anakin Skywalker to D.V. story. RGV could have then indulged, and with justification, in drooling over say, Abhishek as Gabbar and Amitabh as (the legendary) Hari Singh. It's a backstory waiting to be told. Lal-ettan could still have played the Thakur.

The problem with RGV films of late (and make no mistake about the fact that we still adore what the man did, but now that Vishal B and Anurag K sparkle brightly on the horizon, RGV is no longer the only pole of hope) is that he collaborates with far too few of the "good" folks. Anurag Kashyap reckons RGV still has it. A certain Sourav Chandidas Ganguly showed today that he still has the power to surprise. We're waiting for the similarly temperamental Ram Gopal Varma to resume business.

"Eleanor Rigby" by Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland is probably best known for coining the period-defining moniker "Generation X". It was merely on that basis that I reached out and picked up his 2004 book "Eleanor Rigby" off the library shelf.

"Eleanor Rigby" is narrated by Liz Dunn, someone whose life measures upto the song. Through Liz, the novel provides some of the best insights into the curious mental state that is loneliness, threading through the immense anonymity and sameness that life can cloak itself with. Now, society as a whole thrives on dispelling physical loneliness - dwellings overrun into each other, marriages mean you are a unit of at least two, and technology makes a mockery of Euclidean spaces. But to the loner (who could be that by choice or otherwise), it only provides more evidence of how isolated she is.

But even the loneliest of lives have their share of excitement. Liz Dunn's life is invaded by the Hale-Bopp comet, a long-lost son, an even more lost past, and even a meteorite. This may seem terribly exciting to happen to one person, but unlike other novels where the novelty of the situation forms the raison d'etre of the book, here these events are mulled over and eventually decay to dullness. Liz is comfortable with her loneliness, which doesn't necessary stop her from thinking about it. But some changes are irreversible, and maybe, there's a little companionship in the horizon? Hard to tell.

Now, I'm not saying this is a great novel - far from it. It's a very easy read though. Liz is no fool - she may live outside the orbit of society, but there isn't much she can do about it. This enables her to make some objectively sardonic commentary about the others. The ending, indeed the entire progression may seem flawed and unable to go anywhere. But I didn't mind it not going anywhere. I was just surprised to see someone capture the idea of loneliness so well. Do exciting people lead exciting lives because exciting things happen to them, or because they make things exciting? People in novels are almost always exciting or are having exciting things happen to them (like the kids in Enid Blyton novels). It was a nice change to have Liz Dunn speak about a uni-life.

Elsewhere, a bunch of reviews on the book
And mirrored on the lit blog

biis Over baad

India play their first ever Twenty20 International cricket match today. In their history, India have never ever won the first matches they played in the two previous forms of international cricket.

India lost their first Test match versus England in 1932 by 158 runs. Their first one day international ended in the same result, losing again to England, but this time by 4 wickets.

Incidentally, India will become the last Test playing nation to go "Twenty20" - a mixture of apathy and snootiness has played its part in not being up wth the times. So given all this history and the current state of affairs and South Africa's 100% record in this tiniest of forms, it'll be a surprise if India beat form and fortune.

(update: which they did.)

Next BC Open quiz

All details here.

Reach for the migraine pills

* Himesh Reshammiya's movie is officially billed "Aap ka surroor - The Moviee". No doubt that the guy who named "I Proud to be an Indian" was involved in the naming. (Have you read the Himesh blog?)

* Rediff has now started calling them Abhiwariya. Sigh. Thankfully we missed Salwariya or Viveriya. Hopefully, Nana Patekar was not involved in these naming decisions.

Speaking Indian

Greg Chappell reacts to comments by MPs (who made them in Parliament, no less): "MPs are paid to raise such questions". Predictably, a storm has arisen. Though completely comprehensible and easy to chart, this is unbelievable in its ridiculousness.

What's wrong in what he said? If you go by the idiom of "being paid", it means in the sense of "drawing a salary". And we do know our MPs are paid to raise questions about the state of affairs (that they choose to talk about cricket in a Parliament where each minute is worth thousands of rupees and is easily a waste of time is another matter). However, if you believe that he was literally accusing them of "being paid money" to discredit the team, then well, first I'm sure you are wrong, and second, our Hon. MPs probably have only themselves to blame - a guilty conscience emanating out of the cash-for-questions scandals is perhaps at the root of it all.

What you could also clearly see is another example of how the now "globalised" Indian media works. Ask a question, draw a response, use it to remove the pin and lob the grenade into an open field by "flashing" the news (this on a night when media channels were wetting themselves over seeing Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan in the same room - leave them alone!) all over.

In the midst of this, it was a little comforting to see some of the BCCI top brass take a sobering view, but for how long will that remain? You have nutters like Gurudas Dasgupta accusing Chappell of not understanding the "democratic culture" of the country. What in 'eck's name is he talking about?

The mainstream news media in this country stinks. The Slimes of India now has made its last page into a sports-version of the Mid-Day Mate by printing photos of the Ashley Cole's first cousin's third daughter in a two-piece (I have more respect for tabloids like Mid-Day and the Sun - at least they don't pretend to be "respectful"), thus making the traditional turn-to-last-page-first no longer possible.

An Aussie boor allegedly told Monty Panesar to speak Indian a week ago. Perhaps Greg Chappell needs to learn to speak Indian - part of which is to keep your mouth shut, or to treat a bunch of old fuddy-duddies with mock respect just because they're a bunch of people who like to be in control, don't like to be challenged by outsiders, and like a fuss. And yes, that's what we've always suspected they've been paid for.

(and to those non-MPs amongst us who like to quabble about Indian cricketers and their hefty packages, I have this for you to read. Oh yeah, I would like Rahul Dravid to say for once that "the players played crap cricket", but looks like that will only get him defenestrated by an panchayati board president or something)

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Faux News - 10

Faux News bulletin

(You know it's time if it's faux pas nine!)

China bans Hu jokes; Indian sub-editors under house arrest
By our Sino-sure correspondent

In a major development, the People's Republic of China has banned all jokes and puns involving the name of Chinese President Hu Jintao, especially in newspaper headlines. In a period where several Chinese, especially citizens of Beijing, have been learning English to prepare for the 2008 Olympics, this move is seen as protecting Hu and other high-ranking officials of the Communist Party of China from being seen as objects of scorn.

An official spokesman said: "It is very unfortunate that some anti-national forces in this country and outside are misusing the noble name of President Hu Jintao, especially its unfortunate resemblance to certain words of the English language, to produce perverse persiflage. The Chinese Government condemns such efforts to degrade the elders of the country and will not tolerate such insults to its leaders.". It has been learnt that notices have been sent to various English language media offices to refrain from printing the word "Hu" in any pun-like situations.

Sources indicate that this drastic step was taken after reports of a fresh outbreak of email forwards featuring an old joke involving President Bush, President Hu and then Secretary Rice that has been doing the rounds again. The difference is that newly English-equipped Chinese have now been able to relish such humour. When asked to comment, the US State Department brushed it off as an internal development of a sovereign state. However, it is learnt that President Bush called President Hu to discuss the late-night comic situation in the United States.

This prohibition has had ripples in India where President Hu is currently on a visit. On the request of the visiting Chinese, the Indian government has rounded up some of the most irreverent sub-editors in the capital and placed them under safe custody. A spokesman dismissed accusations of suppressing free speech terming this is as "a routine security measure". However, this website spoke to one sub-editor over a smuggled phone and learnt that the sub-editors were planning a protest march with banners such as "Hu's Headline Is It Anyway?". They are now registering their protest by playing "Who Let the Dogs Out?" at the loudest possible volume.

Our Washington Correspondent adds: Chinese lobbyists at Capitol Hill have now unveiled their new slogan for the season: "It's not about human rights; it's just that the Hu-Man's right"

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Click here for a free look at the earlier editions.

AapaN yaannaa paahilat kaa?

A huge favourite of the Doordarshan generation, the serial Fauji is back on air, this time on Sahara One. Apparently, they air each evening, but they also play all the week's episodes on Sunday afternoon (which is what I chanced upon by accident). You will be happy to hear that the series hasn't been affected too much by time - the basic production values don't hamper your enjoyment of proceedings, while the story still has some interest on the repeat viewing. The dialogues are a little stilted for sure, but as a nostalgia trip, it still stands up.

SRK only appears third on the credits in this Colonel Kapoor helmed ode to the armed forces (detailing a commando training course), fittingly behind "elder brother Vikram Rai" (played by Rakesh Sharma) and the brother's lady-love (Amina Kapoor). There are some familiar faces and names, and much of it comes flooding back. We learnt the word "buddy", thought a lot of the catchphrase "I say chaps" and were chuffed at the veiled Pakistani references. Loy Mendonsa wrote a basic but memorable "CASIO" theme tune. So if you want to rewind memories of Lt. Abhimanyu Rai and mates, tune into Sahara when you can.

(tip-off by Sameer DS)

*** Watching Harsha & co. talk about cricket was like finding your favourite chair empty and easing into it after a long while. The collective brain-surgery by Mandira, Charu, Chika and co. has left me with many a migraine. Here it was back to the harmless antics of Gautam Bhimani and the sometimes soporific but usually reassuring accent of Alan Wilkins. Even though play was washed out, you could leave the discussion on and potter about. What a relief. *** News channels carried a few stories on Nov. 19th on the occasion of the first anniversary of Manjunath Shanmugham, the slain IOC employee, reporting progress on the story and covering some new initiatives by the Trust established in his name.

On CNN-IBN, Bhupendra Chaubey interviewed Anjali Mullatti, one of the trustees, and proceeded to ask a fairly annoying question on whether IIM grads only highlight this issue once a year. Now, I haven't been following the activities of the Trust and am as neutral an observer as possible. Even I have read (on blogs) and heard about some of the activities around the year, first in raising money for the case and then for other initiatives. To question this commitment was patently unfair to these people, however large or small their numbers be, and the very fact that new initiatives like the RTI helpline have been implemented speak of much activity behind the scenes. To her great credit, Ms. Mullatti replied that it was just the media that focussed on the story once in a year and that a lot of work was happening.

I think we need to be careful in our cynicism and criticism. It would help more if news channels did not make a spectacle of the grieving family, like one story which ended its piece-to-camera by getting the parents to pose awkwardly with photos of their grieving son in the background.
(Read Gaurav's post on the anniv.)

The music of Guru

Guru: a film by Mani Ratnam, lyrics by Gulzar, music by A.R.Rahman
(biggish post - apologies for the OD)

So the latest collaboration between the big names is out. An opinion:

Barso Re: Shreya Ghosal kicks off proceedings in this typical Mani Ratnam heroine introduction song (usually accompanied by water). Pleasant progression of the melody with a lot of humming (quite a feature of the album). The flat percussive slaps in the beginning were a little annoying, but this is a good and uncomplicated song without being too spectacular. I was a little disappointed at not hearing more of Uday Mazumdar and the Gujarati flavour - he is limited to a few fragments.

Tere Bina: This on the other hand is one of those songs that grabs you by the collar and borrows your breath as it advances - and you don't mind. A.R.Rahman picks up the mike for this one (giving himself another great song to croon!), is into his now traditional alaaps early. The use of the lyrics of the mukhaDaa again later in the song was really unexpected and nicely done. Chinmayi is mindblowingly good - even though she only joins in late. It's hard to recognise her voice off the bat. She provides an interesting counterpoint to Rahman's voice, which is naturally higher on the register. In contrast, Chinmayi adopts a gravity and Hindustani classical lilt (she talks on her blog about her classical and ghazal lessons, so they're paying off!), moving into alto and then back into full voice. This should earn her a lot of notice outside tamil film music, and very deservedly. Be prepared for a full-blown Mani Ratnam choreographic experience on this one to match the richness of the orchestration.

Ek Lo Ek Muft: When I first heard this, it brought a smile to my face - first, I wasn't quite expecting the Bappi song to turn out this way, and secondly, that Rahman finally did a song like this in Hindi. It's quite daft and demented, Bappida has been made to sing all over the place - but I'm willing to accept it as a bhang-babble song. The Gujarati section is very well used here, and it was fun getting a friend to translate them for me ("Joye" means "chaahiye" and the rest of the lyrics are about needing two grooms for the two twin daughters - the situation of the song). Chitra is again a surprise, in terms of how her voice has been modulated. The song could, however, do with a little more zing. I suggest not over-hearing this song (it doesn't offer that much outside the context), but come back to it once in a while and one should be satisfactorily amused. The opening is all ga.njiiraa and sounds almost Bangla-baul like, and then goes all the way east. Bappida's "slurring" is actually quite charming, quite like the man.

Mayya Mayya: This is a good song to recall the past. It invokes a situation quite like "naan sirithaal diipawaaLi" from Nayakan, a risqué "item" song (Mallika Sherawat will shakety-shake here, of course), the usual double-barrelled Rahman lyric, and finally the Arabic flavour. Maryem Tollar, Keerthi and Chinmayi combine for this one. While it never quite hits any great heights, it's a fairly decent song. (I'm sure one'll see the word "experimental" tagged to this song, but that's usually a fan-euphemism for "I don't want to say I didn't like it" ;-).) The Middle-East arrangements are interesting to hear as is the Gujarati mix towards the end.

Aye hairath-e-aashiqui: My personal favourite of the album, and that's because the seemingly conventional nature of the song, not despite it. Hariharan and Alka Yagnik are in a ghazal-like duet which includes a romantic tease and the gearing up for love after marriage (the accompanying images indicate a wedding in the air). And again, whenever Rahman has used the harmonium, the output has been charming - this is no exception. It's gratifying to know that there is a lot of sweetness left even in these conventional structures even though we demand novelty all the time. Mixing in the "dham-dhara-dham" aural backbone works well with the song as do the interludes.

Baazi Lagaa: The frightening non-Rahmanesque-ness of this song can possibly be explained by describing the song as being very, very functional in the context of the film. The arrangements seem to echo a 80s film music feel with the violins and accordions, the chorus and general hullabaloo, but I can only imagine an accompanying montage detailing Guru's money-mindedness, which surely must be pre-80s? Still, the visuals will reveal all. Udit Narayan, Madhushree and others sing this slightly cynical look at the allure of money, and it ain't all that bad as it may seem on repeated hearings - the feet begin to tap a little. If it turns out to be a "dol"-like montage from "Yuva", I'd be looking forward.

Jaage Hain: A magnificent flourish to end the album, this orchestral and highly instrumental piece probably illustrates the bent of the film. Chitra and Rahman progress in differing ways - the first time you listen to this, surprises are guaranteed. The 1:30 minute long string section takes you up the inspiration scales ending with the Madras Chorale Group. Incidentally, the song bears an uncanny resemblance to "Lag Jaa Gale" from Woh Kaun Thi.

Now to the old maestro himself. Every Gulzar album is also a little language lesson, and this one taught me "besuaadii" and "chasm-e-nam". Incidentally, this album is exceedingly onomatopoeic in nature, so we see a lot of humming and yodelling. The music and phonemes do go hand-in-hand. A brief review of the album, lyric-wise:

Gulzar pulls out the same "kosaa-bosaa" rhyme we also saw with "Jag Jaa" (Omkaara) for "Barso Re", and there is some very pleasing rural imagery woven in. The romanticism of "Tere Bina" is quite old-fashioned and engaging. "Besuaadii" is the word of the album, by miles! "Ek Lo" shows why Gulzar is right in considering himself to be the best nonsense lyric writer around (consider the musings on double offers and even the appearance of "loadshedding"). "Mayya Mayya" in its "propositioning" lyrics is actually quite skillfully done without any over hint of lewdness (quite like "biiDii" from Omkara). "Ay hairath-e-aashiqui" is downright wonderful. The female section's tease "kyo.n urduu-faarsii bolate ho" brought forth a chuckle, for that sounds like a self-deprecatory joke, while the next line "das kehate ho do tolate ho" is a gentle dig at the protagonist's far-from-scrupulous ways. The song's last major lyric section is a sublime summary of the arranged match, and worth a recount:

do chaar mahiin se lamho me.n
umro.n ke hisaab bhi hote hai.n
jinhe.n dekhaa nahi.n kal tak kahii.n bhii
ab kok me.n woh chahare bote hai.n

Jaage Hai.n is a nice poem and typical of the Gulzar repertoire: let me sleep for a while, they sing, let me finish my half-dreams first, and then I can wake up and try and fulfill them. The quiet defiance and resolve is well underscored by the choral track.

Guru plays a lot of singers against type. Chinmayee and Chitra sound a lot more robust than we are accustomed to, and pull it off. Rahman takes on an even bigger singing role than before, and does a decent job musically. Bappi Lahiri has been used very differently, and it's only with Shreya Ghosal, Hariharan and Alka Yagnik that we come to some semblance of normality. However, a major complaint must be made of the diction. It's very nice to note that dialect coaches were used (and credited!), but in many of the songs, it was quite hard to pick up the pronounciation. I know Rahman has usually opted for musicality and "cuteness" over diction in the past, but it's a little tiring to have to figure out what they're trying to say. The affliction even hits the like of Hariharan, with only the ladies getting it mostly right. It also masks the impact of the lyrics.

And while on the subject of cribs, the CD is priced at a hefty 160/-. I know this is a premium combination with quite a track-record, but even then, 160/- is pricey (in fact, it's the most expensive CD I've bought). The CD comes with a lyrics booklet which has been well-designed visually, but the actual transliteration of lyrics is nothing short of shocking. The lyrics (written in English) have several inconsistencies in spelling, have omissions of words ("baazi lagaa" has the word "arabo.n" missing), includes lines that seem to be nowhere in the Bappi song - all in all, not what I want to get in a product for which I pay premium prices.

Another crib is about the distribution: why do releases happen overseas first and then in India? (The music went out on Thursday in the US, while being available on Friday late evening or Saturday. Omkara had the same problem.) Surely, it ought to be simultaneous or at least start here first? It caused me to fidget all morning with all the reactions pouring in, and I ended up searching high and low (successfully) for rips on the web. It is a much awaited album and I'm sure there was a major hit in productivity among a section of people last Friday :-). Also, it drives people to seek mp3s even if they don't really mean to.

All in all, a very satisfying album for the fan, but there are enough elements to hook the average disinterested listener. Multiple-listenings advised, but as much for the functional songs. If the usual Mani Ratnam choreography standards for such kind of films will materialise, then we could be in for a treat.

And finally, I wonder what happened to the cool rock and roll theme we heard on the website?

P.S.: great gesture by ARR to dedicate Tere Bina to the memory of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. It's fitting because ARR considers him to be one of his gurus, and after all, they were the Gurus of Peace.

Exploring the music of Iruvar :: 'Poo KoDiyin Punnagai'

song: poo koDiyin punnagai
singer: Sandhya

film context
Poo KoDiyin Punnagai is chronologically the third song in Iruvar (we'll look at the second later). Just like Narumugaiye, it's a song for a film-within-the-film, featuring Anandan and Ramani (Gautami) as his heroine. They've starred in an earlier hit (Anandan's first success as a hero) and the song mirrors their growing relationship in real life. (Anandan's wife Pushpa has earlier died during childbirth.) Incidentally, "Ramani" is the role in the movie that corresponds to V.N.Janaki in real-life, the actress who marries "Anandan"/MGR.

The song is immaculately featured as a set of classic set-pieces of the 60s, usually with a (fake) garden backdrop at night (painted moon glittering in the yonder pond). The heroine has bashful dance-steps around the hero, who in contrast, stands confident and solid, dressed in his suit (yes, then a lot of Tamil film heroes wore suits and ties in films in everday life!) and doesn't have to do much of the dancing. Or set in a huge palatial house with stairwells. Puff blouses and flowers later, you get the picture.

the music, the playback
You could be mistaken for thinking this was a lost Viswanathan-Ramamurthy song. The song captures the essence of their "light" film music - simple orchestrations for the love songs, very dulcet and soothing amidst a light rhythm beat (Rahman uses a tablaa).

V-R songs were quite melody oriented and marked a shift from the previous styles involving heavy classical influences, which can be clearly contrasted by comparing Narumugaiye and this song. They also used instruments which were not common in TFM or Carnatic classical, such as more North Indian or Western instruments. Rahman achieves the effects by similar means. The instruments I thought I could recognise were the accordion, flute, tablaa, santoor, violins and other strings, shehnaai, triangles and reso-reso, sarangii, which may sound like a lot, but gave the music a texture that perfectly recalled the past. In the end, it came down to the melody which was just wonderfully spot on.

Rahman has a talent for picking out the patterns that identify a genre or an era and using that effectively. This was on show in this film and particularly this song.

the playback
Again, like the first song, the choice of the playback singer gave the song a big lift. Sandhya sings this song in a voice that is P. Susheela's. Not a voice that is borrowed or mimicked, but the same. (I've read Sandhya is P.Susheela's niece and daughter-in-law.) Their voices are so similar that for several days I thought they had actually roped in P. Susheela to sing this song (incidentally, this album did not make use of anyone actually associated directly with that era, which makes this effort even more commendable).

P. Susheela was one of the finest voices on the TFM soundscapes and along with the likes of S.Janaki, defined the female crooning voice of Tamil silver screens for much of the 60s, 70s and 80s (she also sang a song for Rahman in the film Puthiya Mugam). Since I haven't heard any songs of Sandhya outside this, I don't know if she's changed her voice to sound like her aunt for this song, but the resemblance is incredibly uncanny.

the lyrics
Vairamuthu opts for a much more comprehensible set of lines that appropriately aren't too aggressive, but are poetic and metaphorical as was usually the case with those times. A soft expression of love from the feminine point of view has been well penned. I don't quite know if it references any of the songs by the likes of Kannadasan, the leading lyricist of his and those times, but the manner is the same. The progression of the lyrics also reflect Ramani's actual emotions for Anandan and her increasing need to escape her current circumstances.

the picturisation
The picturisation and choreography were very fascinating in this song. As mentioned before, the set-pieces were mounted very well. The song opens with sepia-tinted lighting at night, with trees and a pond and the reflected moon. As the song plays, we also see off-camera moments that indicate how both Anandan and Ramani continue to fall for each other, as also the growing frustrations of Ramani's uncle ('Nizhalgal' Ravi) on seeing their mutual fondness.

Gautami does a Saroja Devi - of this there is little doubt. She has on the famous ribbons and double-tails, with first the paavaDai-daavaNi and later the puffy blouses. The coquettish dance movements (Raghuram also appears in the song as the dance choreographer) are patently like Saroja Devi (Saroja Devi was one of the leading stars of her age - not one of my favourites, for she had a very screechy voice and ultra-melodramatic style, which was probably not her fault!. She also shared great on-screen chemistry with the likes of MGR and Gemini Ganesan.) Gautami does an excellent job, not only as the dainty danseuse, but as the increasingly abused girl who still has to go out there and give a cinematic shot of a love-struck star. (A memorable moment is when she's quickly practicing her steps after make-up and turns towards her uncle in perfect step to the rhythm.)

Mohanlal, for his part, shows the transformation that Anandan is going through - he is now increasingly self-assured in his body language (being a star and having been introduced to the value of mass adulation by Tamilchelvan feeds into this characterisation of Anandan). When the song moves outdoors, Anandan is doing the famous swagger-walk twirling his coat in a manner that clearly references some of the cult MGR mannerisms. It is quite amusing to see these songs these days, when the hero just stood there gazing at the heroine prancing about doing semi-classical steps infused with a new cinematic idiom (it would take the days of Rajesh Khanna and others to finally burst the macho imagery and indulge in some flippant dance moves with their leading ladies!).

Useful web references
1. Lyrics with serviceable English translation
2. Another lyrics page
3. TFM forum pages mentioning the relationship between Sandhya and P. Susheela: 1, 2
4. A P. Susheela website
5. Kannadasan bio
6. Saroja Devi bio
7. Janaki Ramachandran

Next post: uDal maNNukku
Previous post: 'Narumugaiye'

Monty Singh Pun-saare?

One game later, the a.ngrezi mu.nDaa Monty Singh Panesar has already been (disgracefully) abused by sections of the Sydney crowd.

Reportedly he was asked if things should be "said in Indian". It's not known whether Monty (pumped by the visits to the psychologist) turned around and said: "If you can, for I don't understand Aussie".

The Philosopher's Stoned

For the last couple of days, I was engaged in a death struggle with an implementation of the computer science scenario known The Drinking Philosophers problem in a new language, but alas, was doomed due to lack of time and enthusiasm. (Instead I had to settle for its more famous but lesser cousin, The Dining Philosophers problem.)

If you have wrestled with anything that involves concurrency, then you'll know that reconstructing the histories of parallel processes based on their trail is a little like trying to understand a Tarantino or Christopher Nolan screenplay in its non-linearity. At worse, you're saddled with a Lynch film - every which way you look at it makes sense but you will always be wrong in your conclusions.

Coming back to our quaint bunch of theosophers, I chucked my worries by looking at the brilliant Monty Python implementation of the problem. Here it goes:

The Drinking Philosophers Song

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boosey beggar who could think you under the table.
David Hume could out-consume Shoppenhauer and Hegel,
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine who was just as schloshed as Schloegel.
There's nothin' Neitzche couldn't teach ya 'bout the raisin' of the wrist;
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed!

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will, after half a pint of shard was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away, half a crate of whiskey every day.
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle, Hobbes was fond of his dram.
And René Déscartes was a drunken fart, "I drink therefore I am."
Yes Socrates, himself, is particularly missed: A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed!

(lyrics, link to page with the audio)

Gazzag

Scarcely have I made my peace with Orkut (the site, not the man of course - /even I/ am not that well-connected) - the reason being I love the "delete all scraps" option (hee hee) - that it seems everyone is moving to yet another social networking site called "Gazzag.com". I get an "invite" almost everyday, but I continue to play the snob and not go near it.

So if kind souls can enlighten:

* What's so special about gazzag.com?
* Is it promoted by Paul Gascoigne and gang?
* Have the Brazilians won this round as well?

Muito obrigado.

The world's first competent programmer

(From the pen of the great Edsger Dijsktra a.k.a EWD).

Although at the time that this story took place, mankind was not blessed yet with automatic computers, our anonymous man who found this solution deserves to be called the world's first competent programmer.

To know why, you've got to read the parable.

Station Aaargh

Half of Lara Durden were seen boarding a Mumbai local today. It was the "rickshaw ride on Pune roads" weeks ago (which means they're all still here. Damn!).

Now all Bratt-Angolie have to do is to watch KANK. That will complete their commando training quota of "three scary experiences" in India. (Cut to The Scream.)

Party's over

If a useful fallout of l'affaire Australia and the Pawar-play is to push for more elegant and quick post-match presentation ceremonies in the subcontinent, then I'd actually credit Martyn and Ponting with having served the game well. "Presentation parties" in the post-match hungamas here usually involve everyone who qualifies as an IP, if not as a VIP. So, you see every ward councillor and his third understudy craning to get their faces in the millions of photo frames (I used to think people like Rajeev Shukla made a living out of appearing on the "dais", such was their ubiquitous presence).

As a consequence. ceremonies went on for ever to the accompaniment of recalcitrant sound equipment (not that cricketers say anything apart from "I got good support from the other end" to commentators with a three-point agenda), and putting on a crude display which in contrast even Joginder movies could boast of better production values. Consider the chaotic 1996 World Cup ceremony in Lahore (an appropriate closing paranthesis to the famous laser-show opening fiasco in Calcutta) - hardly memorable from an aesthetic point of view. In sharp contrast, look at the tidy Wimbledon prize ceremonies or the European Champions Trophy presentations.

It's a whine to say this again, but the Aussies have this one usually right. Post-match ops just feature a representative of the sponsors, the local cricket big-wigs and the players to be felicitated. Here the politician is also the cricket big-wig, and usually has an accompanying votebank to boot, which must be appeased. The result is a greasy and claustrophobic experience.

"Connubiality" - A "retrospection" by Subhash K. Jha

The old-world charm of a yarn that weaves in and out of amorous arrangements within an arranged marriage, is tremendously aggrandized by the lead pair who go through the mellow motions of falling in love, in a spirit of artless adventure in an unexplored journey.

Wow. What a paragraph from Mr. Jha's Vivaah review. A paragraph whose polysyllabic count is so high that it reeks of a Shift-F7 hack job (Hit Shift-F7 in MS Word to find what it does).

So if one reverse-engineers the above statement, it probably started life as something like:

The old-world charm of a /story/ that weaves in and out of /loving/ arrangements within an arranged marriage, is tremendously /increased/ by the lead pair who go through the /sweet/ motions of falling in love, in a spirit of /sincere/ adventure in an unexplored journey.

(I don't know quite what to make of amorous and aggrandized!) Now, I may be doing Mr. Jha a disservice, but "aggrandize" and "artless" and "amorous" within range of each other? C'mon. Even GRE takers don't write like that.

And as a bonus for reading this post, let me quote the ending of the review:

Vivah predictably concludes with the couple's wedding and suhaag raat where the bridegroom tells his burnt wife, "Come let me do your dressing."

Undressing is not what this film is about. Not even on the suhaag raat.

Dayaa max!

Mrs. Nimbalkar...

... had nothing to do with it, despite what many growing-up quizzes have fondly asked and we fondly lapped up in the pre-Web days (how blissfully innocent things were!). The other story (perhaps not as romantic, but quite as interesting) about the abortive world record attempt at Pune was right.

Apna Sapna Many Many

I (and I have found fellow sufferers like me) cannot tell apart the likes of Celina Jaitley and Koena Mitra (not that I want to, but this is out of an academic interest in keeping in top condition the ability to discriminate faces and avoid them). So if we went to see a movie like their latest, we may be excused from believing it was a double or even a triple role.

hrefs

* When Harish's dad saw a case for Anne French
* Interesting post by Kartik Krishnan on how Maqbool and Omkara are versions of each other

Faux News bulletin

(You know it's time if it's faux pas nine!)

A.K.Hangal quits "Ram Gopal Varma ke Sholay"
By our Media correspondent

In yet another blow to Ram Gopal Varma and his attempts to remake the classic "Sholay", A.K.Hangal today announced he was leaving the project. When contacted by this website, he said "there were artistic differences with the creative team". However, sources close to the veteran actor said that Hangal-saab was keen on playing the role of "Ramlal" (played in the original by Satyen Kappu) and was promised it. However, now the role has been offered to Ramu regular Antara Mali because Hangal was not willing to speak any foul words on screen.

Mr. Hangal refused to confirm this, though he did accept that back in 1974 while making the original, when Ramesh Sippy first narrated the script to him, he was blown away by the role of Ramlal and had wanted to play it. However Sippy convinced him to take on the role of Imaam Saheb instead as Ramlal needed a person who was, as he politely put it, "not hirsutely challenged". The source said: if Amitabh can play his dream role, then Hangal-saab, being an industry veteran, could surely do the same, and should have been accomodated.

The mounting controversy does not seem to have affected the maverick director. Ramu has roped in Antara Mali to play the Thakur's manservant. "Actors come and go, but it's a hairy role", he quipped. Already, it is rumoured that the role has been re-written as a young all-dancing bodyguard. Mali will be taking special lessons on polishing studs of sports-shoes to act as deadly weapons, and she will play the valet with a curious arpeggio laugh.

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Click here for a free look at the earlier editions.

TIME "60 Years of Asian Heroes"

The theme of the latest issue of TIME (link to the leading article) makes for interesting reading.

To their discredit

CNN-IBN had a story about credit card fraud which affected Supratik Chakraborty, a Professor in the CSE department here.

Curiously, the story is headlined "Paying by plastic not safe anymore". I wonder when it was (completely) safe in the first place.

Bringing home the blog-truths

What does Tim Berners-Lee do if he thinks he's being misquoted and misunderstood? He blogs about it, of course.

An article had earlier appeared in The Guardian featuring a provocative headline Blogging one of biggest perils ostensibly based on a comment by the inventor of the WWW ((link to the article) - Berners-Lee didn't link to it :-)). Berners-Lee refuted it a couple of days later in his latest post, ending with "And, fortunately, we have blogs. We can publish what we actually think, even when misreported". Bully for him.

It is quite well-known that I am no Tim Berners-Lee (!), but /even I/ have had problems with the press. During my 7 3/4 minutes to glory in January 2003 (when it was revealed to general horror and squalid amusement that I had won Mastermind India), I was interviewed by a lady of the local version of a national rag. Probably because she couldn't unlock the keys to the skeletons of the closet, questions soon became speculative. "What next? Will you take part in any international quizzes?", asked she. "There aren't really any international quizzes that I know of", said I. "But if there were, would you?", shot back she. "Well, hmm, perhaps, who knows?", said I.

The next day, I was quoted in the papers as saying (paraphrased) "My next ambition is to go for international quizzes". Thank you very much, Mr. Cocky Quizzer. That one day, I knew what Salman Khan was going through.

More seriously, yes, there is a lot of nonsense "out there". But there is also a good chance someone will spot the nonsense and alert sane minds, if not be able to correct all of it. Everyone new to the web and email goes through a phase of forwarding fake chain threads and believing urban legends, but soon they get pointed to an alternative site refuting it, and hence instilling some much needed scepticism. However, with the newspapers, if you get misquoted, it reaches a lot more people without you getting a chance to completely refute the erroneous impressions (perhaps they'll print a little Letter to the Editor that falls of the page when you lift up the newspaper). One should be equally suspicious about print, irrespective of the nature of the paper it's printed on.

At least, thanks fundamentally to Tim Berners-Lee, you can blog about it.

Exploring the music of Iruvar :: 'Narumugaiye'

song: narumugaiye
singers: Unnikrishnan, Bombay Jayashri

film context
This is the first song of the film. It is a period of great happiness for Anandan (Mohanlal), for he seems to have finally landed his big break, working as a 'hero' for the first time and he has also just married Pushpa (Aishwarya Rai, version 1). The song is principally structured as a duet for that film-within-film featuring the leads (Madhubala in a guest appearance) while masterfully cutting back to real-life to the locally honeymooning (!) couple, with Anandan showing off some his histrionics to his new wife.

The setting seems to be from the story of Shakuntala, with Dushyanta riding into the ashram to encounter the dazzling damsel (the famous Raja Ravi Varma pose is elegantly referenced in one of the dance poses).

the music, the playback
A.R.Rahman tuned an exquisite Carnatic classical based song for 'Narumugaiye' using the traditional mridangam, ghaTam, violins and veeNai (if I recognise it correctly). (It would surprise some who saw him merely as a pop musician.) The song blends in wonderfully with the visuals and the lyrics, and is one of the great melodies of the Rahman catalogue.

the playback
The choice of the playback singers was particularly of interest. Unnikrishnan and Bombay Jayashri, both classical singers of some repute, gave their voices to this song. Unnikrishnan had already made a stunning debut (for Rahman), winning a National Award for "ennavaLe" (Kadhalan) and "uyirum niiye" (Pavithra) a couple of years ago. Bombay Jayashri was the bigger surprise packet - she was well-known in the Carnatic music circuit for a while for being one of the best singers from the younger generation, and this was a big step in terms of more commercial fame (of course, she became much more famous for 'Vaseegara' (Minnale)).

In the early days of TFM, the participation of classical singers in playback was a fairly common occurrence, for after all, they were the experts. The likes of M.S.Subbulakshmi (famously, an actress too) and M.L.Vasanthakumari (whose daughter Srividya would later join films) were associated with several big numbers. The parting of ways and the snobbery associated against film music would happen later given the nature of the productions (though in recent times, we have seen more practising Carnatic singers take to the mike for non-classical times in a long time - of course, K.J.Yesudas was a different phenomenon). The songs of that point were heavily influenced by the classical tradition, which is why the choice of the playback singers for this song was so relevant.

the lyrics
Vairamuthu's lyrics invoked the now highly abstruse classical (Sangam) Tamil, in which much of the great classics of Tamil literature were written. It's far removed from the common forms of Tamil these days, which makes it hard for people like me with no formal schooling in Tamil to follow. Vairamuthu made some direct references to some of the great works, using phrases from them and thus evoking the classic age. The result was a very fine marriage between words, visuals and music.

the picturisation
Madhubala showing off her bharatanatyam skills as the fragile Shakuntala watched by the warrior Dushyanta, surrounded by deer, waterfalls and such mytho-historical knick-knacks forms the "movie" side of the song. This is shot in Black and White with the old-fashioned stylistic dissolves and spiral wipes that establish the "period" of the visuals very well. The real-life romance is in colour, in much more plebian surroundings with the smitten Anandan illustrating to his bride some of the movie action - a contrast that is great to watch and is excellent for character development. Santosh Sivan's camera begins to have a dynamism of its own in these songs.

Useful web references
1. A post on Naadodi that gives some literary context to the lines "aTTrrai thi.ngaL avveNNilavil"
2. A typically passionate TFM forum discussion on bringing literature to the common man via film songs
3. Another TFM forum thread about the merits of Vairamuthu's references
4. Lyrics of the song (in Tamil only, untranslated)
5. Lyrics with English translation
6. Bombay Jayashri's website
7. Unnikrishnan bio

Previous post: Introduction -II
Next post: 'Poo KoDiyin Punnagai'

Dearly "Departed"

This one made me smile:

And, like Cindy Crawford's face, it's all about the mole.

(from Raja Sen's Rediff review of "The Departed")

I know just enough about the film to get the joke, but since I'm planning to watch the movie (just one show in some multiplexes - shocking!), I didn't read the rest of the review. That's for immediately after.

Chal meri lunar module

Many years ago, a friend told me a fairly cheesy joke (so bad that we giggled like some of our female classmates). It went (with due apologies to "Pakeezah"):

Starry-eyed Lady: "Chalo dildaar chalo, chaan.d ke paar chalo"
Unimpressed Gent: "Rocket teraa baap laayegaa?"

But thanks to ISRO, it should soon be possible. And if you don't like the word "gaganaut" ('gaga' and 'nut' in the same word makes me queasy), let them know. Perhaps, like VJTI and BMC, you shouldn't fiddle around too much with the source. Simply call it "astra-naut". All of us who were raised on "air-raising" Ramanand-Sagar special effects for weaponry will agree.

Exploring the music of Iruvar :: Introduction - II

Tamil cinema music

In the early days of the talkies, Tamil films were similar to their Northern counterparts. Cinema plots revolved around mythologicals, devotionals and social dramas, and actors had to be competent singers as playback was as yet unemployed. As a result, leading actors like M.K.Thyagaraja Bagavathar (K.L.Saigal is probably the best Hindi equivalent) sang their classical and semi-classical songs under the baton of composers like Papanasam Sivan and G.Ramanathan. Later, the classical streak would continue with legends like K.V.Mahadevan (who had a long and successful career, and was incidentally (the first recipient of the National Award for Best Music Direction). (Tamil movies also had a surfeit of action movies, usually historicals, where swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks-types would wield swords and shields in often well-choreographed sequences. MGR was one of the leading performers of this genre) However, it was the emergence of the duo of M.S.Viswanathan and T.K.Ramamurthy that caused a paradigm shift in TFM. (So much so that TFM is often broadly divided into three parts, one for each era of Viswananathan-Ramamurthy (V-R), Ilaiyaraja and A.R.Rahman. Naturally, this is unfair on several other gifted music composers through the years, but these phases capture succintly the prevailing mood over time as their impact has been tremendous).

V-R's immense success was because they ushered in an era of "light music" that was a lot more accessible to listeners than the more ponderous classical influence that was in vogue. They used "western" instruments such as the piano and drums, created simple, hummable and dulcet melodies, and contributed greatly to the success of films that starred all the major actors and actresses of that period. (Ilaiyaraja would do something similar with traditional folk influences and then programming, while Rahman's eclectic inspirations and sound engineering would revolutionise the state of film music in their times.) The impression that V-R wielded cannot be underestimated - film and light music had become genuine branches of music that could be critiqued differently. Singers like P.B.Srinivas, A.M.Raja and wife Jikki, T.M.Soundarrajan, P.Susheela, S.Janaki, and others would become household names with their distinctive voices.

It was also at this time that political thought began to be woven into film stories, dialogues and lyrics. Annadurai and Karunanidhi had been doing so with their plays (a rich theatrical tradition usually formed the background of many who were now working in films - actors, singers, lyrics, musicians, writers usually had a significant body of experience before moving to this more glittering medium) and were now starting to do the same with their silver screen outputs. The DMK had the fortune of being the party that many of the film stalwarts gravitated to. They, and not the party in power i.e. the Congress, were making things happen in the state (the Congress had become identified with Brahminical status quo-ists) and a new change was in the air. Lyricists like Kannadasan and Vaali had political views of their own. Since almost everyone involved had a political affiliation and as in most cases, these were of the same orientation, the political content of their collaborations became very significant. This is not to say that all movies were politically flavoured. They still made movies with fantasies, social melodramas, comedies etc., but the political agendas were not too far away. (Contrast this with the Hindi film industry, which in those days did have lyricists like Kaifi Azmi and Sahir who were politically active, but this never quite spilled over to the mainstream like in Tamil Nadu.)

In later years, after splits and machinations, things would come to such a pass that it was common for people to join or leave cast and crew after falling in or out with the likes of MGR and Karunanidhi.

Useful web references:
1. A very informative thread about MGR songs, the people involved, and their political content: 1, 2
2. A TFM forum thread on M.S.Viswanathan songs
3. Notes on K.V.Mahadevan: 1, 2
4. An Outlook article on Tamil film music (link via Sambhar Mafia)
(unfortunately, on the Web, there seems to be a lack of credible and summarised information on the history and influences of TFM, especially on specific individuals)

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Iruvar's cast and technicians

Several members of the cast and crew of Iruvar put in performances of a lifetime. The film was a commercial disappointment, but many of those involved came out with their reputations enhanced.

Mani Ratnam: Iruvar, is IMHO, his best work till date. It had everything you associate (and enjoy) with a Mani Ratnam film. Flaws apart, it showed why in several departments and in sheer conceptualisation, he is head-and-shoulders above many of his contemporaries. He also showed a keen sense of history, both cinematic and political, and just for being a documenter of tribute, he needs to be commended. The failure must have hurt (Dil Se(1998) would follow soon), and he went back to his other speciality of the small, intimate middle-class genre with "Alai Payuthey" for some much needed success.
Incidentally, wife Suhasini wrote the dialogues for Iruvar.

A.R.Rahman: By then, Rahman was the biggest composer not just at home with commercial hits for Rajnikanth (Muthu (1995)) and Prabhu Deva (Love Birds (1996) and Mr. Romeo (1996)), but also in the country after the success of Rangeela (1994-95), Indian/Hindustani (1996-97) and Minsaara Kanavu/Sapnay (1996-97) (for which he won the National Award for the second time). But this was perhaps his first serious "period" score and showed that he could produce the requisite (and exquisite) diversity for a complex script of this nature.

Vairamuthu: Vairamuthu is in the Karunanidhi mould in that he writes poetry outside of films, writes extensively for films, and is politically inclined. In this film, he also had to provide pieces of poetry and blank verse for the Karunanidhi character. It was an admirable piece of work from the lyricist as we shall see in later posts.

Prakash Raj: Prakash Raj is not a native Tamil speaker (IIRC, he is Kannadiga), so it must have been daunting to play the Karunanidhi role as he did. He turned in a stupendous performance, all fire and brimstone, won himself a National Award for Best Supporting Actor and announced himself on the cinema stage. It would fuel his rise as a much vaunted "intense" actor.

Aishwarya Rai: This was her first film, a couple of years after the whole beauty pageant jamboree, and it created a buzz. Rai actually acts fairly well in the movie, first as the demure and shy housewife and then as the outgoing girl-actress. The movie showcased her dancing abilities as well and well, it didn't at all foretell the downward spiral of her histrionic evolution. Mani Ratnam has often surprised all with his ability to elicit quality performances from his actors, and Rai would be hoping a return to the stable with Guru will provide a glimpse of the promise of Iruvar.

Santosh Sivan: India's best cinematographer (who also made his pathbreaking "Terrorist" that year) teamed up with Mani Ratnam again to create an work of pure genius. The tracking, the Steadicam, the crane shots in this film are mindblowing. His contribution was felt even in the songs, and would win him a National Award for his efforts.

Sameer Chanda: Mani Ratnam has always worked with great art directors and Sameer Chanda did not disappoint. The sets and the props were meticulous, especially if you realise they had to create sets for sets of older films.

The cameos: We had Revathy and Tabu as the Tamizhchelvan wives, Gauthami in the Janaki slot, Nasser with his distinctive dubbing as Annadurai and many more stalwarts in small roles (even had Kalpana Iyer as Anandan's mother!). (The characters of the wives were never quite fully developed - one of the flaws)

Mohanlal: And finally for Mohanlal. Iruvar would never have been what it is without this brilliant actor. I have seen many of his acting gems, which is why it is with great care I say that this was easily his best performance ever. That he did not win any major awards for that performance is no reflection on it (ironically, the National Award that year went to two of his fellow Malayali actors). As the young actor trying hard to impress with his histrionics and sword-play, in his moments of despair, as the reticent entrant to politics who realises his star-power, as the aging and now wily politician, and finally as the man playing MGR, you will not see a more first-rate show in a movie.

Useful web references:
1. The Wikipedia page on Iruvar
2. (update) Baradwaj Rangan's succint summary of the influences of the film (which covers many of the points I noticed and plan to write about) (link via S. Karthik)

Previous Post: Part I of the Introduction
Next Post: "Narumugaiye"

The new "Prepone"

Kindly revert back to me
If the above statement didn't cause some angry neurons to pop, then you need to read this post. For the abuse (even if unintentional) of the word "revert" to mean "reply" is becoming endemic.

"Revert", as any self-respecting dictionary will tell you (or try a bouquet of dictionaries), primarily means "to return to a former habit, practice, belief, condition etc.". No secondary or tertiary meaning indicates its use as "reply". So when you ask me to revert back to you, then me being (a) the escaped soul from your body, or (b) your Siamese twin whose snipped the connections or, (c) your slave-purchased-for-four-annas will make more sense than me writing you that response. You might as well use words like "rebound" or "retribute" instead.

The fact that this meme seems to possess a toxic potency only indicates that we often learn heavily from each other - we pick up words, gestures and ideas all the while. But many a time, we never question these acquisitions. Sometimes it's better to revert to an ignorant past. It can be argued that "prepone" filled a gap that presented itself, but do you think "revert" is a saviour of any sort? Kindly revert to me as soon as you can.

(And if you think this is merely an Indian phenomenon, then you would be mistaken. Look for a comment by "Neil" on this page.)

Exploring the music of Iruvar :: Introduction - I

MGR, Karunanidhi, the plot

There are many Tamil film viewers who consider Iruvar to be among the best films they've ever seen. I'm one of those. Now, the film is far from being perfect, but as flawed efforts go, this one is a gem of the highest order. Film criticism has it that a good film has its whole greater than its parts, but Iruvar had several brilliant (and I use the adjective carefully) parts without being completely satisfactory. Clearly, the film was based on real people and events, and the very nature of that depiction was going to be highly controversial, mainly due to the levels of almost fanatical devotion these people have generated. To my mind, that seems to have affected the overall cohesion of the film.

Iruvar begins with a statement saying "this is not a true story" - a statement which is correct only in the extremely technical sense. For about 80% of the film is based on true people and events to such an extent that it serves as an almost accurate biographical account of the major milestones in the lives of Marathur Gopalamenon Ramachandran and Muthuvel Karunanidhi. In several films, Mani Ratnam has made coy references to real people and incidents, but never more overtly as in this film, which is why the opening disclaimer is either a case of chickening-out or a concession to those who'd have bones to pick. Unfortunately, I could not follow the local press in 1997 and since it was just before the WWW era where every aspect could be recorded in intense detail on a webpage, I couldn't find any notings on the controversies that dogged the film. That political opinions were raised I do remember, but not much else. I have often wondered whether the voice of the film was muzzled at points - there are some scenes where the dialogue is masked by background music, and the denouements of the Jayalalitha analogue and the ending as a whole seemed rushed and unsatisfying. Hence, my opinion of the film as being flawed.

Now, this film is unlikely to have the same kind of impact for those who do not know much about Tamil filmdom and the history of the politics in the state. They will miss the nuances, the multiple visual and audio references, the characters in the sidelights - a great pity for it is such a wonderful film. Hence I thought I'd make a quick gist of the context of the film without which any discussion of the music will be difficult.

Politics and films have been bed-fellows in many parts of India, but no coupling has been more passionate, potent, tempestuous or animated as in the case of Tamil Nadu. The almost seamless union between the two domains reached its apogee during the 40-odd years of the two men who ended up as the poles of their respective parties. "Parties" not "Movements", for the axioms of the *DMKs were fundamentally the same - the parties became (and still remain) personality-driven, which is perhaps due to the memes of filmstar egos. The Iruvar (or "The Duo") were MGR and Karunanidhi.

Now, most today remember MGR as the emblematic CM of Tamil Nadu who started life as an actor, became a superstar, and provoked a rash of inexplicable suicides during the most critical phase of his illness and after his death. So it's interesting to know that MGR was an outsider to Tamil Nadu, with his Malayali origins (note the "Menon" in his name) and his Lankan Tamil geographical roots (he was born in Kandy). Compelled to join a theatre company due to poverty, it wasn't until his early thirties and many setbacks later that he became a successful actor. The film that made his name was Rajakumari which was penned by a vigorous young script-writer and political activist named M. Karunanidhi.

M. Karunanidhi followed his mentor and leader C.N.Annadurai's model of brilliantly fusing political ideology in his plays, essays and later films. It was a natural progression for these litterateurs who realised the potency of such an amalgamation. Movies like 'Sivaji' Ganesan's acting debut "Parasakthi" fuelled the DMK's rationalistic, anti-Brahminism, lower caste empowerment movements. Karunanidhi would also cause a national flutter by leading the protests against imposition of Hindi in the state. Soon, he was the number two of the party after 'Arignar' Anna (who became the state's first non-Congress Chief Minister) and succeeded him after his death. MGR was pulled into the party, who benefited from the immense popularity of this actor, while MGR in turn also gained further stardom as the movies that these combinations provided were huge hits. MGR also acted in several of the non-political commercial romantic and fantasy hits and though his main rival was 'Sivaji' Ganesan, they would make the separation between the 'actor-star' and the 'star-actor' a paradigm that Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth would later pick up the mantles for.

Soon enough, the personalities and egos would lead to a parting of the two swords from the same scabbard, resulting in the formation of the AIADMK and sowing the seeds for a bitter political rivalry that only seems to worsen every five years. The women in the lives of these men also played a major role - Karunanidhi's two living wives, MGR's marriage (in all, he'd had three marriages - the first two died of natural causes at a young age) to a not-so successful actress and later CM, Janaki, and the much more public companionship of Jayalalitha Jayaram.

There were several more nuances to this relationship and even the cameo players such as various mothers, sidekicks, enmities and political strategies would make their story a very compelling one. One can see why a filmmaker like Mani Ratnam would be so seduced by the plot. That he made a superb film out of it is partly to do with the source material, and the perceived blemishes are probably due to the complexities of the times.

Iruvar was initially titled Anandam in reference to the MGR analogue played by Mohanlal. This would also have been an apt title, as the film's story splits roughly 70:30 in favour of 'Anandam' rather than 'Tamizhchelvan' (played by Prakash Raj). The sympathies are arranged in favour of Anandam as a result, and it is through him that we progress in the film. The film spans from Anandam as the struggling actor through his dizzying ascent to stardom, first box-office wise and later political, and upto his death. The intersecting story of Tamizhchelvan as the firebrand poet, writer and politician who befriends Anandam, ascends to the highest chair in the land and has to suffer defeat at the hands of the same person he considered his political protégé forms the remainder of the double-helix of the story.

(Now that Iruvar isn't a true story is a laughable claim because of the exceedingly careful detailing in many of the performances, setpieces, references to names, body language and events. We shall discover many of these looking at just the songs which as I said were a wonderful dedication to an entire generation of Tamil film music.)

Useful web references:
1.M.G.Ramachandran - a summarised bio
2.M. Karunanidhi - a bio
3.MGR - a bio
(note that the two above links are laudatory in essence, so don't expect too much objectivity)

Previous Post: Prologue
Next post: Introduction to the music scenario of those times and the people behind "Iruvar"

Champions at the Trophy

* This is actually turning out to be a fairly interesting tournament - the first time in a long, long while for a multi-nation tournament. With two of the last three matches being knockout, it is winding up nicely. Also, there have been no gazillion run-jamborees, some old-fashioned keep-wickets-in-hand, bowler-friendly surfaces, hat-tricks, upsets - we've had them all. Fascinating to watch.

* I've just seen Mark Boucher pick up probably the best catch by a wicket-keeper off a pacer that I've ever seen. And Pakistan being crumpled at Mohali. If the Indians are watching, they'll be terrified - the Aussies on a lively pitch await.

* We're in danger of having no subcontinental teams in the finals. But the teams that have made it have been the best so far at bowling and at scrapping their way through tough situations.

* Ian Chappell just made an excellent point - he says a large part of the current generation of world batsmen have got so used to expecting flat tracks that they have never learnt how to battle tough pitches.

* And finally, are the new Pepsi "ooh aah India" ads surrogate ads for Iodex? Nothing else explains the inanity of the jingle (if you can call it that)

Exploring the music of Iruvar :: Prologue

Period music, 'Iruvar' by Mani Ratnam and A.R.Rahman

The term "period music" is a fairly misused term in Indian film music. Now, I strongly believe that we don't quite give our film music a lot of the credit it deserves. Hardly elsewhere would you see such demands made of music composers and song-writers to come up with songs that have to fit such a diversity of contexts, orchestrations and purposes. Many of the best world musicians specialise in their own genres and get better as time goes by, while some of our best film musicians have grappled with and overcome the challenges of geographical and historical variety that film makers have thrown at them. Many of these challenges have involved creating a score for stories that are set in particular points of time and hence do not allow the film composer a free rein of the usual "two love songs, one sad tearjerker, one lullaby, one reunification melody" formula.

Now, what "authentic period music" really is depends on what the listener thinks the music of that period was. In many cases, it is merely the avoidance of certain kinds of instruments (no electric guitars or drums for songs of the past!) or presence of certain genres (classical or jazz is often used to convey a period mood). The bottomline being: anything but that which is contemporary. Retro has been used to pay tribute or to parody ("woh laDaki hai kahaa.n" - Dil Chahta Hai), "jhankaar!" - Jhankaar Beats, "kyu.n aage piiche" - Golmaal-Fun Unlimited), but here we shall focus on the more serious (at least in intention!) of the efforts. Anu Malik's Asoka was much pilloried for not quite being out of a Mauryan soundscape, but who really knows how they serenaded each other then? In contrast, Naushad's Mughal-é-Azam and Khayyam's Umrao Jaan received both critical and commercial acclaim for their songs. Each had managed to satisfy both the psychological needs of their listeners (classical, court, devotional songs in the opulent Mughal-era film in the former; aristocratic mujras flavoured with the essence of the Lakhnawi tradition in the latter) as well as provide a great film experience, being accompanied by lyrics and performances that enhanced the music. No wonder they remain ageless classics. Hollywood films make a lot of movies set in particular time-periods, but since they usually don't make the same kinds of demands, they typically solve the problem by using a lot of diegetic music (The Shawshank Redemption) or soundtracks that use real scores of that era (Almost Famous is a wonderful example). Of course, this is a bit of a generalisation (see Chicago as an example to the contrary), but to my mind, it's not the same as in Indian films. (For a great example of diegetic music in Hindi films, see Hazaaron Khwahishen Aisi (2005).)

(Given that anything "period" calls for careful detailing of the mise-en-scene and the music emanating from the frame, and given mainstream cinema's usually lackadaisical approach to movie-making in general, you can often spot a lot of incongruous howlers where a flashback to a previous janam or to execrable college-lives is often accompanied by music and choreography so post-post-modern that it borders on prescient science fiction.)

Coming to the main purpose of this post, Mani Ratnam's Iruvar (1997) was quite different than many "period" movies. Not because it was based on several true incidents and more importantly, on some very specific people who had a great deal to do with both the Tamil film industry and Tamil politics in a very specific time frame, but because it had to completely reference actual film song styles. The setting wasn't temporally too far away unlike the Mughals or 19th century Lucknow and also had a great deal to do with music. The men behind the music for this film consciously chose to stay within the constraints of the context and in doing so, IMO, produced one of the best film albums ever heard. The score pays rich tribute to the Tamil film music of that period, captures the essence of the musical yield of those times without ever parodying it and provides a wonderful gist to those of us who haven't heard too much of the early masters. In following posts, I explore this album in order to understand the musical influences and references. I am not capable of a technical analysis of the songs, but have used this as a great opportunity to learn a bit about music from an era gone by. The team of Mani Ratnam, A.R.Rahman, Vairamuthu, Santosh Sivan, the choreographers, and the actors collaborated magnificently to produce an album and film of great significance, as we shall see in successive posts on this topic, and I found it a very fascinating experience. Incidentally, Mani Ratnam's next film Guru seems to spread across a large span of time like some of his fictional bio-pics (Nayakan, Iruvar) which may suggest a soundtrack that reflects the music of the related chronology. (The piece of music on the official website has a very promising rock-and-roll theme.) The music is due to be out in a month's time, so this is a good time to look at this team's harvest in the past.

(The usual disclaimer of not claiming complete authority over the subject applies. Factual errors are very likely because I'm going to rely on childhood memories for a lot of details about some of the film songs - in fact, I'd be very glad to find errors being pointed out and further information on any of the aspects. Whatever minimal research I did showed a lack of resources on the Web - especially in comparison with Hindi film songs - with many of the song forums predictably degenerating into name-calling and turf-wars :-))

Next post: Introduction to the real-life protagonists

Simply awesome

Hirak runs the Chicago Marathon. Stand up and take a bow!
(on second thoughts, don't bother standing up :-))

Don - the review¹

Came back to Pune this morning and went straight into a showing of "Don" ² (I love watching movies in the morning, even if I end up doing so alone). It was really a "cool" movie and highly recommended if you haven't seen it. A few words on the movie for everyone's benefit.

Now, of course, the story isn't quite new and we've seen the similar theme before³. But there are variations and twists in the tale that are worth your attention. It's a fairly tight suspense drama, but with the usual Bollywood garnishing of song and dance. But unlike the insipid film fare, the songs are nicely placed and provide just the right kind of relief. Some of the songs, such as "Mai.n huu.n ##Don##" are even integral parts of the storyline.

The action was a bit of a let-down - it gets a little silly towards the end. But perhaps that is in keeping with the original Don getting the more meaner fights than his replacement in the later half of the movie. The story and dialogue, however, are really good. You will spot many of the stock filmi scenes and developments, but on a few occasions, they were not quite so predictable. The bumping-off of Don early is a surprise if you don't know anything of the film. Also notice small touches such as when Shakaal admits to Vardhaan to having spilled some of the beans fearing for his life. In other films, there would have been a price to pay for the erring sidekick, but the fake Malik takes it in his stride. Also, the suspense is unbroken till fairly late (an achievement) because of him allowing Vijay to try and prove his innocence. And dialogues like "mai.n tumhaara dus minute chaahataa huu.n. paa.nch minute tumhaari piTaai karuu.ngaa aur baaki paa.nch minute tumse sawaal karuu.ngaa" are vintage Salim-Javed. The villainous bunch were not really setpieces (except for Anita) - Narang, Mac played it very believably. Also, the idea of a suave yet notorious Don was quite pathbreaking, IMO.

The acting is really good, with the characters of Don/Vijay, Roma, Vardhaan and DCP De Silva not wasting their time in getting down to business. Jasjit is definitely parody-material, what with the flared shirts and men-in-tights look! Still, the scenes where Vijay and JJ criss-cross each other without realising the connections that bind them were well conceived and executed. A few cribs of course: whatever happens to the real Malik after his brief struggle :-), the back projection in the corny rope-trick-escape, and what's with the all-purpose "Police Station, Bombay" board at the end?

Still, a great entertainer that doesn't overload you with its suspense and neither does it sag. Neither do the "all the hero needs to do when encircled by baddies is to leap backwards into the air" conventions annoy. A rare feat for a director with not much experience. A must-watch on the all-time list.

Update: am in the unhappy position of explaining my jokes (again!). I haven't seen the new Don - this is merely a cheeky review of the old one as I saw it the same day. I did say SET-Max channel below!

footnotes
1: should probably be "anti-review"?
2: it was telecast on the SET-Max channel at 9 am today
3: the doppelganger-infiltrator theme has been explored, though in an even more sophisticated fashion, in "Jewel Thief"

Puur joke alert

What your slightly bilingual Tamil dentist is singing as he looms above you with the numbing-injection:

pal pal pal pal har pal har pal
kaise cut-egaa pal har pal har pal

(note: I have had about 8 milk-teeth extracted as a child so your threats don't worry me)

Khaana Khaz... *choke*

Some day, we're going to see Sanjeev Kapoor and Karen Anand take part in a reality dance competition dancing to this:

Song Title: ##You are my Chicken Fry##
Movie Name: Rock Dancer
Actor(s)/Actress(es):
Singer(s): Bappi Lahiri, Sweta Shetty
Music Director(s): Bappi Lahiri
%
% Contributor: Rohan Chandran (rohan@Xenon.Stanford.EDU)
% Transliterator: Ravi Kant Rai (rrai@plains.nodak.edu)
% Editor: Anurag Shankar (anurag@astro.indiana.edu)
%
%
b: (## You are my chicken fry
 You are my fish fry##) - 2
 (kabhii naa kahanaa ku.Diye ##bye bye bye##) -2

s: (## You are my samosa
 You are my masala dosa##) - 2
 (mai.n naa kahuu.ngii mu.nDiyaa ##bye bye bye## ) - 2

b: haa ... haa ... haa ... haa ...
           
(s: saraso.n kaa tU saag hai  
 mai.n makke kii roTii 
b: jo bhii tujhako dekhe  
 ho jaaye ?? goTii  ) - 2
           
s: (##  You are my chocolate
 You are my cutlet [cut-uh-let]##) - 2
 (mai.n naa kahuu.ngii mu.nDiyaa ##bye bye bye##)

b: (##  You are my chicken fry
 You are my fish fry##) - 2
 (kabhii naa kehenaa ku.Diye ##bye bye bye## ) -2

b: haa ... haa ... haa ... haa ...
     
(b:  garamaa garam tanduurii tU hai 
 mai.n to aa.Nkhe.n sekuu.n
s: mu.nh me.n paanii aajaataa hai 
 jab mai.n tujhako dekhU.N ) - 2
     
b: (## You are my rossogolla
 You are my rasmalai##) - 2
 kabhii naa kahanaa ku.Diye ##bye bye bye##

s: (## You are my samosa
 You are my masala dosa##) - 2
 (mai.n naa kahuu.ngii mu.nDiyaa ##bye bye bye## ) - 2

b: (##  You are my chicken fry
 You are my fish fry##) - 2
 (kabhii naa kahanaa ku.Diye ##bye bye bye##) -2
%

lyrics: thanks to Navin Kabra and his friends

Rahman and Om Shanti Om

In an interesting development, A.R.Rahman is reportedly no longer composing music for "Om Shanti Om", Farah Khan's reincarnation flick. The coming together of Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Rahman would have been quite fascinating to see given the penchant of the first two towards the "mass-ala film" and that many have missed a A.R.Rahman score for an unabashed entertainer for a while.

Now, the circumstances of this parting of ways are not clear, with the usual plague of "sources" muddling rivers, but one aspect (if not the only reason) seems to be Rahman's demand for publishing rights of the music to be shared between the producers (the Khans), the music director, and the lyricist (Gulzar). Now, in the world of mainstreams Indian films, this seems to be a fairly revolutionary request. When remakes or reusing of songs in India have been reported (as in a recent case with reusing "Khaike Paan" from "Don"), lyricists and sometimes music directors have known to complain about they having no say in the matters, essentially because in India, the film soundtrack belongs to the producers of the film. From my little informed opinion, a soundtrack in other places also belongs to the music composers, and so, what Rahman is asking for is quite fair. This kind of rights-sharing need has been whispered about because some of the creative backroomers such as writers of stories and screenplays, lyricists, playback singers have been historically given a raw deal in terms of credit and pay.

If memory serves me right, the likes of Salim-Javed used their clout to demand more fair credit for screenwriters. Rahman, who it can be recalled has seen a bit of life as the son of a struggling musician and spent years growing up among professional instrumentalists, has the clout right now to make this kind of demand. What "publishing rights" exactly entails is not clear to me, but there must be significant financial implications such as sharing royalties on use, playing, reuse etc. For instance, when the "Bombay theme" or "Chaiyya Chaiyya" are reused in ads or in "Inside Man" respectively, does Rahman get a share or do the original film producers get the sole benefit? With their music now transcending just the original film score (on many Tamil media outlets and even channels like Channel V, you can hear snatches of music from Rahman film songs), I think it's only fair the music director also gets compensated. Especially if he talks about sharing it fairly with the many instrumentalists and vocalists in his team (the average Rahman soundtrack will have a comprehensive listing of credits for all musicians on that album, which has helped raise the profile of many a talented musician). Rahman is, by all accounts, clearly India's highest-paid music composer and doesn't really need to make that extra buck. But the goal seems to be larger.

That said, I hope he has worked out a set of criteria as to this attempt to tilt at the windmills of the staus quo. Will he make this demand in each of his forthcoming albums? Will it be restricted to certain kinds of big banner productions? What will happen if on the next Mani Ratnam movie, the producer declines to share these rights? People are going to demand consistency and watch these actions like a hawk. However, the experiences of greats such as R.D.Burman make it imperative for some form of creative and financial protection to be extended to people who follow in their footsteps.

Update
* A clarifying note via a Subhash K. Jha article which confirms the issue, but absolves the producers - it's the music company (T-Series) that proved obdurate
* A post by Aravind with some info on where the law stands vs the ground reality

Pit meets Pitt

The front page news salivation today is that Angerad took a ride in an auto on the roads of Pune. That's bad news for Messrs Kalmadi and Kareer, for now there are two more people complaining about the roads.