Monday, August 26, 2019

Pure magic of Ilayaraja BGMs !!


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.

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