GV Prakash - Rahmanesque?

One of my friends did not quite agree with what i said vis-a-vis south indian and Hindi film music in my post on Dasavatharam. Well, here i am back with an instance that explains in part what i said there. GV Prakash, the 21 year old nephew of AR Rahman shows yet again after 'Ullasanga Utsahanga' the path the southern film music (especially Tamil) took after Rahman took over. Just listen to the compositions in 'Kathanayakudu/Kuselan' to see the kind of efforts put to bring in the many layers in vocals and orchestration. Even as he was working with the same traditional instruments, the newness is hard to miss. We got used to this kind of diet since Roja days and that is why i did not quite understand why Aascar Ravichandran had to rope in Himesh Reshammiya, who at best can hum well and rehash some old tunes.

Coming back to 'Kathanayakudu', songs are very good.
Maybe this is the only dubbed film in the last several years where we can actually hear the lyrcis! Well, because we have Veturi writing 2 beautiful melodies while Anantha Sriram handles 2 more. What a relief without the Bhuvanachandras..! Prakash composed in such a way that he let the singers be audible while they sang and then took over the music-mixing in the interlude. Songs are meaningful and AR Rahman's impact is inevitable though. He looks like Rahman's younger days' version. In fact, some bits remind us of what Rahman did in 'Donga Donga' and 'Oke Okkadu'.

Couple of songs are especially for Rajini fans. Both are very well written by Anantha Sriram. Well, we are definitely going to see much more from this guy, who like Prakash is around 20. 'Cinema Cinema' eulogizes cinema and its reigning superstar. Shankar Mahadevan goes to the hilt. This song is a nice example as to how Rajini successfully packages his image and stardom into his movies. In fact this song is a best-fit for Rajini (despite so many stars around in south) as it recalls his fan following in other asian countries. Khailash Kher further raises the tempo for the superstar in 'Ra Ra Ra..'

It would be fun to watch Rajini in his many avatars in these songs.

సంగమం: పూతవేసిన....

Not every day are we swept away with the lyrics in telugu songs in the Puri Jagannath era.
Here i have the best we have had in our recent past. The lyrics in the song పూతవేసిన in forthcoming telugu film సంగమం are mindblowing.

The talented lyricist is Anantha Sriram, who is in his early twenties! And so he brings his adoloscent freshness into this song. Keeravani, the music director grabbed the chance to sing this and i should say he did full justice to it, reminding his class as a singer yet again after जिस्म.

My interest in this album is because of the Rasool-Keeravani combination which earlier gave us the unfogettable melodies in ఒకరికి ఒకరు. However, we have to make do with a couple of songs in this album, the outstanding of which is here for you..Enjoi.


పూతవేసిన లేతమావిని చూసినట్టుంది నువ్వు నవ్వుతూ వుంటే,
పాతపాటలు కోకిలమ్మే పాడినట్టుంది నీ పలుకు వింటుంటే,
మాటలే వరదలై ఉరకలేస్తున్నవి చెంత నువ్వుంటే,
పూతవేసిన లేతమావిని చూసినట్టుంది

మునుపు కలుగని మురిపమేదో ముద్దుగా నా ముందరుంది
అలుపుతెలియని వలపు నాలో హద్దులే చెరిపేయమంది,
లేనిదేది నాకులేదను తలపు ఉండేది,
ఇంతలో నీ పరిచయం ఒక లోటు తెలిపింది,
నువ్వే కావాలని, కలవాలని, కలగాలని,
ప్రియ నా ప్రాణమే మారము చేసింది.

పోతబోసిన పసిడిబోమ్మే కదిలినట్టుంది నువ్వు నడిచి వస్తుంటే,
కొతకోసీన గుండె నాలో మిగిలిఉంటుంది నను విడిచి వెళ్తుంటే,
మాటలే మౌనమెఇ ఉసురు తీస్తున్నవి ఒంటరఎఉంటే


కుదురుదోరకని ఎదురుచూపే కొంటెగా వెంటాడమంది,
నిదురకుదరని కంటిపాపే వెంటనే నినుచూడమంది,
ఏమిటో నా తీరూ నాకే కోత్తగాఉంది,
ప్రేమ ఉసూలు మానలేని మత్తులో ఉంది,
నీరిక్షిణ చాలని, ఇక చాలని, అడగాలని,
చెలి నా ఊపురి నిను చేరూకుంటుంది,


చేతికందని చందమామే అందినట్టుంది నువ్వు తాకుతూ ఉంటే,
చోటు ఇమ్మని చుక్కలేవో అడిగినట్టుంది నన్ను తోడు రమ్మంటే
మాటలే కవితలీ మురిసిపోనన్నవి జంట నువ్వైతేయ్

well, i cant get enough of this right now. Go give this a try.

Dasavatharam: Kamal Konfused!

What explains Kamal's fascination with grotesque masks? It almost looked childish! We will come to this later.

The much-hyped Dasavatharam is a disappointment because the script failed it. Now, i sincerly hope Kamal gives up writing for movies. He is too obsessed with his own characters to script for any theme and the many characters in it. I thought Hey Ram was and Anbe Sivam were written brilliantly but then he also dished out Abhay and Mumbai Express. So, let him loosen himself up and instead look for writers who can provide him what he wants.

Coming back to discussing the movie, the film and its characters lacked direction. Its one long chase where the many Kamals with their masks chase each other and Asin plays the most irritating and irrational character for a main role i have seen in recent times. While my friend - a fanatic who watches the most inconsequential movies without complaint, dozed off, i just wondered whats happening with Kamal, the actor. There is nothing he needs to proove about his acting, so what is this whole thing about masks? None of those characters are so deep to warrant his interest in playing them (unlike in Avvai Shanmugi). Its just that they all sum up to the (im)perfect 10. The Fletcher character he does resembles the one Robert Patrick played in Terminator 2, in body language. Kamal worked very well on the body language, but there was no way it could translate fully to the audience' notice, what with that deterring mask on his face all the time. The Vaishnavaite role was impressive because of its context, but even that role has little relevance to the film in the end. Saddeningly, the main protoganist too which Kamal plays without any make-up dosent make us feel anything. What a pity.

Being a big-budget flick (supposedly costing 80 odd crores), the CGI is the best we have seen till-date in indian flicks. Thats the only saving grace combined with the cinematography. The music, coming from Himesh Reshammiya, is forggetable. The producers seem to have forgotten the southern factor. AR Rahman and others like Harris Jeyraj, Devisri, G. V. Prakash Kumar took the music here several notches higher. No nasal crooning here!

With its unrelenting chase sequences and the intermittent nonsense talk (which seems to be mistaken as some sort of comedy of errors), this film, to me, bought back memories of that dud Mumbai Express. I sincerly hope Kamal dishes us better fare next time. Else, it would be difficult for us to digest seeing one more god fall.