It gives me great pleasure to write yet another blog on
Ilayaraja sir – this time my focus is going to be on BGM. I was blessed to have
witnessed my fourth Live in concert of Ilayaraja sir and this time it happened
on my home turf. Trichy witnessed rainfall yesterday, side screens did not work
due to technical glitch, audio output was not proper due to rain but still as a
fan we know nothing can dampen the spirit of a Raja fan. At times people even
had to use umbrella and we as Raja sir fans truly witnessed “Isai Mazhai”.
There are quite a lot of blogs on Raja sir and I just wanted to take handful of
his BGMs and want to go over the tune in context to the movie.
Now for anyone in the
music industry knows that there is always ego between music and lyrics of a song,
Music will try to dominate the lyrics and vice versa. But when both music and
lyrics complement each other that is where we get to see a chartbuster. This
happens with Raja sir songs where both music and lyrics go hand in hand. Now modern-day
music composers visit Theatres on release day and they make a note on Fan boy
moments of Mass heroes and they make sure music is loud in the name of BGM since
they know fans will erupt in joy for a particular scene; I love mass masala
movies too and definitely enjoy large than life scenes from mass heroes but I somehow
feel music should complement the overall proceedings of the movie and not just
please the gallery. Raja sir is just the opposite as he uses “Silence” in so
much of his BGM and still bring out the best scores.
Now from what I heard
from Director Balki this is how Raja sir works out his BGM scores – each movie
is roughly 7 reels with each reel running for approximately 22 minutes. Raja
sir watches one reel at 7 am and then asks folks to come back again at 3pm;
Meanwhile between 7am and 3pm he works on the BGM score for those 22 minutes.
This is what is called as “Music direction” since 22 minutes would have so many
emotions and somehow music should make sense and do justice to what Director
had envisioned. That being said I will go on with some of the best BGM scores of
Raja sir.
Number 1: Thalapathy [Rajini & Mamooty meeting the
Collector]
Context: Thalapathy as we all know is loosely based
on Mahabarata; Mamooty and Rajini rule the town with their sense of justice but
they are considered antisocial elements in the eyes of the government. Both of
them meet the collector and conversation goes ….One room with most of the folks
in the scene in white color dress with black as the background. Santhosh Sivan
moves the camera in circular motion and notice there is no music in the
background at all to start with…slowly exchange of words gets intensified …a
tiny bell is what we hear to start with …When Arvind swamy voice gets firm and
Mamooty got the final answer, Raja sir uses Saxophone and pitch goes higher and
higher and music has the final say.
Number 2: Mouvna Raagam [Karthik being chased by
Police when he is all set to marry Revathy]
Context: Life is so cruel because it doesn’t punish
us when we do wrong things but instead when we realize our mistakes and start
going on right path karma hits us. This is exactly the case for Actor Karthik
in Mouvna Raagam and when he wants to marry Revathy he is caught by Police.
Suddenly he spots a chance to escape and jumps out of the jeep and runs …Raja sir
uses Violin extensively with beats at regular intervals ….This continues and violin
is intensified as Karthik gets closer to Revathy. Once Karthik spots Revathy
music is mellowed down, once police shots down Karthik the same tune is dragged.
Once Revathy realizes Karthik may be dead music conveys the meaning by the
wonderful orchestration
Scene 3: Devar Magan [Panchayat scene]
Context: Revathy’s dad is pissed off that groom who
was supposed to marry her daughter runs away from village. Raja sir music
conveys the agony of the bride’s dad through his music. Silence is used
appropriately too …Bride’s pain, Kamal’s guilt and father’s anger everything is
conveyed through music. When Kamal finally asks the question “Will you marry
me?” …Raja sir brings the true emotional connect of the scene and elevates the
scene to a different level.
Scene 4: Punnagai Mannan Theme
Context: Kamal dances to Revathy ….It starts with
Percussions and then moves onto Flute and finally Violin kicks in ..Kamal keeps
dancing solo until Violin and second part he dances along with Revathy.
Scene 5: Anjali Climax
Context: Mani Ratnam is just a genius ..just when
siblings, mom, dad everyone gets to adapt with special child there comes the trauma
..Baby Anjali is dead ….Raja sir music sets in slowly ..it is dominated by
Silence for most part and then I believe chorus is used ..Flute is so
beautifully used and may even bring tears.
All Fazil movies are so emotionally driven and Raja sir BGM
had a big influence to convey the mood of the scene especially in movies like Poovae
Puchudava, En Bommu kutty ammavuku, Varusham 16, Arangetra velai etc., just
that I could not find a short clip in Youtube.
Raja sir studies the scene and understands mood of the movie
and then with his expertise in Music picks up Raaga, writes notes and picks
what instruments must be used. He also uses Chorus quite a bit if that is going
to add value to the overall flow of the scene. If you take out Raja sir music
many of the scenes would fall flat …Raja sir is a genius ..I have paid my
tributes through yet another Blog on his music.
