Maestro's Twinkle Twinkle Little Star(TTLS)

[popeye11]

Maestros TTLS is released. The songs have turned out very well. Just gives me a grandeour feeling/memories of Anjali Days!
This will prove to be a treat for the Kids!

Thudikutu reminds of ' Asaiya Kaathula' song from Johnny but sounds fresh!
Hey you! sounds different from typical maestro song
Engengo Poginra good one from maestro!

What'd ya'll think

[interz]

another master piece from ilayaraja, simply great songs, especially "engengo pokindrai" its worth heargin again again and again...and again.

[rpattabi]

When I was about to think, that after the quality stuff like 'Thiruvasagam', 'Virumaandi', 'MumbaiXpress',etc. Ilaiyaraaja is a changed man now, and we are to be treated with similar or better quality stuff from him, to my complete dismay he gives average stuff like 'Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy', 'Twinkle..', and 'Kasturiman'.

He is the man who elevated the quality levels of film music like no other. And unfortunately he thinks of film music as only a commercial medium. This reflect in his recent interviews too. he said "I can compose for the full film in a matter of hours". Statements like this surely shows that he is a very confident and competent man when it comes to music. But it has this underlying opinion that "film music is just a scumbag".

i think he started believing this opinion only in early 90's and I am sure this had impact in the music he churned out. Most of them were stereotypes, with no much 'stuff' for his longtime fans. That is when AR Rahman came to power. 'Everysong' showed great dedication and effort. He gave something new everytime for his fans. [though i personally believe that not as much virtuasity as Raaja, thats topic for another discussion, please don't start it here, I am fan of both]

But in the present situation I thought the trend is reversed when Ilaiyaraja started giving 'Thiruvasagam', 'Virumaandi', 'MumbaiXpress',etc and Rahman with half baked average stuff like 'Ah Aah', 'Mangal Pande', etc.

But only to my dismay ilayaraja followed them with the stereotype average stuff like 'Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy', 'Twinkle..', and 'Kasturiman'. :(

Still I have great hope for Raaja with "Twinkle.." Background score. I hope the news I saw are not just marketing gimmicks.

I am sure if Raaja gets rid of his underestimated opinion towards film music, he will start giving the good stuff for us. OR if he really think film music is not worth this, he should giveup film music. Instead he should better spend time for serious works e.g. 'Thiruvasagam', 'Nothing but wind', 'How to name it'. i am so sad that there are only too few to name. And raaja is already 60+

Anbudan,
Ragu

[njv]

When I was about to think, that after the quality stuff like 'Thiruvasagam', 'Virumaandi', 'MumbaiXpress',etc. Ilaiyaraaja is a changed man now, and we are to be treated with similar or better quality stuff from him, to my complete dismay he gives average stuff like 'Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy', 'Twinkle..', and 'Kasturiman'.


You can call COA definitely average or even below average songs, but Twinkle Twinkle is very good and so does kasturiman. They both resembles previous IR songs, but TTLS has stunning instrumental usage (hear it in CD you will know).

I was watching Diwali songs in SunTV and among the garbage AOKK and Kasturimaan stood like savers of TFM.

Like you said, IR has to do less, and ARR has to do more in TFM so that we can continue to hear good music. Otherwise, you will end up hearing only "ungamma ungamma namma sethuveppaala" and the likes.

[rpattabi]

I didn't find anything new/special in TTLS or Kasturimaan on first hearing. May be I shall give another hearing without prejudice. I will do that.

:) "ungamma ungamma namma sethuveppaala" stuff are not so much these days I guess. But the present problem is duppaguthus ['appidi podu' was super hit it seems!! :(] and monotonous western attempts. [harrisJ for e.g.]

---
Thinking about why we have problems in getting good music, I think there are mainly the following problems which deceive us of good music:

1. Since action and masala films are coming more than the quality films. Even the decent music dir like Vidhayasagar end up giving lot of Masala. we can't help it here I guess. The producers still trust masala than quiet quality movies inspite of the success of Azhagi, Autograph, etc.

2. Output of composer is greatly dependent on the director's taste. Mani-ARR, Mani-Raaja combinations' music are evergreen classics not just because Raaja and ARR are talented, but also Mani's good sense of music. [god bless him]

We have only few dir intends to do quality movies. Even in them, dir like Cheran does not have preference to good music e.g. in 'autograph'. I liked Bhardhwaj's background score, but most songs we killing the soul of the movie IMHO. I am not sure why he never even considers Raaja. He always goes to likes of deva, sabesh-murali, bharadhwaj, etc. :(

Bala is one dir i have lot of hope, he gives preference to raaja. He understands what Raaja means to movie. [Thanks to guru Balumahendra.] He got fantastic stuff even from Yuvan (Nandha).

Bit disappointed with Thankar's COA music. But Raaja gave some good pieces here and there, not enough though.

---

Consdering these, we were VERY lucky that Raaja is from 80s. The talented dirs like Mani, Bharathiraja, Balumahendra were needed to bring the best of the best raaja. [Whenever I see Bharathiraja in TV i whole heartedly thank him for 'Nizhalgal'.]

Otherwise also Raaja could have given us good music, but not those great ones. This is exactly why I believe we end up getting average stuff even from Raaja. Dirs like Mani deserted him. :( [In a way it's good as we never got to hear ARR otherwise! ] Thats the main issue now. If raaja continues to score for mediocre movies and dirs we can not expect all-good music from him. :(

---

Wish we have more quality movies and quality directors with good sense of music to enrich TFM.

Anbudan,
Ragu

[rajdes]

rpattabi, good spot on Cheran. Autograph, despite the striking mediocrity of its music, has a (thoroughly undeserved) great reputation in this forum and outside as a face-saving album for TFM in recent times - why? it didnt have a kuthu song, it had some so-called melody numbers. I think it is like "dumb down the audience taste with kuthu songs so much so that even a semi-decent effort like autograph is hailed as a great work". The success of autograph as a musical album (including a Natl award for Chitra - though she has sung well, it is a joke) , IMO, is a clearer indication of the decline of TFM.
I would rahter prefer an intelligently packed kuthu song to autograph.

Cheran, btw, used IR for Desiya Geetham and it was a colossal flop - though "Vakkapattu poga pora ooru" remains an outstanding effort of IR during the 90's. Probably, that biased Cheran against having good music for his movies :-)

[rpattabi]

I think it is like "dumb down the audience taste with kuthu songs so much so that even a semi-decent effort like autograph is hailed as a great work". The success of autograph as a musical album (including a Natl award for Chitra - though she has sung well, it is a joke) , IMO, is a clearer indication of the decline of TFM.
I would rahter prefer an intelligently packed kuthu song to autograph.

Indeed it is the situation of majority of bad taste. It is the media which decides the opinion of the majority. It's sad if we realise that music exposure to not so musically inclined pubic is mainly and in many cases ONLY is TV. And the obvious side effect is this situation of average works getting rewarded as great.

But I strongly believe, in TFM whenever such situation occurs, EVERYTIME a music genius was born. Want examples? Raaja, of course, and even when he became monotonous, Rahman stormed in. But IMO he too is monotonous now. And not that I lost hope on Raaja, though he sometimes makes me think that i was expecting too much when I hear some of his recent ones like COA.

Now the situation warrants a new wave, a breath of freshness who could elevate the quality of tfm yet again. We are still waiting.

Anbudan,
Ragu

ps: I shall check out desiya geetham music. Never even heard of that movie, though it was by Raaja!

[MumbaiRamki]

Ragu ,
Is it the same raghu who tried his acting skills ?
I think raaja's music lacks that energy that was in 80s ..it ha sthe purity but not the energy that used to flow ...

Also our taste has definetely changed ..When we listened to a song in 2K our expectation is definetely different from how it was 80s!!

[vijayr]

Rajdes, I am not sure Autograph the album has been rated that high here in this forum. I have been one of its harshest critics right from day 1 and I guess discerining listeners here have been able to spot out its medicority. Autograph the movie may have been rated better , which brings to me the next point - movie's success these days seem to spurn the success of the albums too and if the films run well the songs are played repeatedly ad nauseum on TV imparting the audience with an acquired taste. Ghajini is a recent example. Just above average songs-but the picturization is slick and the movie is a hit and a portion of the audience start to think they are great songs.
Without the benefit of these sat TV channels songs used to mostly stand on their own merit those days.

[rajdes]

vijayr, ofcourse I know that you panned autograph at every available opportunity here :-).
But, unfortunately, it is like, you have been panning almost every other album(justifiably in most cases) in TFM for the past 2 years that it is no longer an event that counts to me as a opinion of the majority in this forum ;-)
No offense to you - not that themajority in this forum or in TN or in the planet should/could/would influence my opinions - it is just that one feels sad that mediocrity is gaining currency day-by-day in our lives.
Why else would we not hear of Ramesh Vinayagam after a promising debut while a Srikanth Deva would have the temerity to sit in front of piano and give interviews as if he was beethoven-incarnate on prime time television. Interesting that the guy not even once showed any intentions of playing a few notes even on Television - even for effect :-)

This was the reason behind my speculation in some other thread that TFM is a dying patient.It is not that talent is not there. Simply, talent is being sidelined while mediocrity is being celebrated.

(Agree on Ghajni too. Even I kind of got used to Oru Maalai to the extent of thinking like "hey thats not bad" though first hearing a few weeks back had left no impression on me. See the effect of Television and repeated airings?)

[thumburu]

The 'catwalk' song "suttum vizhi chudare" is there everywhere where as the best song of recent times "kaatril varum geethame" is nowhere. I seriously wonder how many of those who don't use internet music sites , don't buy cassettes or CDs would have heard such a gem of a song.Another good song "Enakku piditha paadal" from JulieGanapathi also met the same fate while the mediocre, raunchy song "thanni konjam" got a fairshare of TV time.
BTW, the interlude in "suttum vizhi chudare" seem to be rehashed from "ennamo pidichirukku" song from the movie Saamy.

[vijayr]

dig:
"Why else would we not hear of Ramesh Vinayagam "

Rajdes, SL(hope you remember him from the past TF days) told me that Ramesh Vinayagam, before he could bag an opportunity was assistant to SA Rajkumar. How about that? Shankar SA Chandrasekhar kitta assistanta irundhadhu kooda parava illa :-)
----------------
kaatril varum geethame got decent air time atleast on SUN TV, the picturization of most songs in that album left a lot to be desired. Khajuraho was pathetic. I thought enakku pidiththa paadal wasnt even picturized, it comes in the background when Jayaram listens to it in his car I think. Cant blame SUNTV for that, BM has to take the blame.

(If you keep humming yeh azhagiya theeye from Minnale long enough you will end up with the oru maalai song from Ghajini. HJ's songs are just extensions of his earlier ones)

[rajdes]

yeah, I remember Sriram Laxman. Pity - we miss such members here. But I suppose even if he had been there, aadikku oru dharam amavasaikku oru dharam post pannuvar avaru.
Ramesh V - thalai ezhuthu super-aa irukku avarukku :-( Atleast in Shankar's case, atleast I feel he has learnt the vigilant theme from SAC - personally atleast I feel shankar's movies are well-dressed up versions of SAC movies :-). I wonder what RV learnt from SAR - notice the initials coincidence - maybe, how not to compose music? :-)

[rpattabi]

Also our taste has definetely changed ..When we listened to a song in 2K our expectation is definetely different from how it was 80s!!

In my opinion, actually we don't have expectations, if we think about it a little bit. We always welcomed good stuff. Do u believe that we would ignore "Ilaya nila pozhigirathu" if it were composed by raaja on 2005? I guess not.

Why to take fictitious examples, take raaja's recent "Ilangathu veesudhey". It sure is not in present trend. But I became very very happy that raaja came up with something truly beautiful, just like the 80s.

So it doesn't matter when the good stuff arrives, it will surely click among people, as all our 'expectations' as we say are always just expectation for 'beautiful work' no matter where the stuff belongs80s or 90s.

Anbudan,
Ragu

[Sanjeevi]

ya ragu,

I think Raja has changed himself. Always he is experimenting with new matters. That is the real different.

[sureshmehcnit]

Here is my little rant on "Making of Thiruvasakam" VCD that i got along with TTLS audio CD pack.

http://ursmusically.blogspot.com/2005/11/making-of-thiruvasakam.html

[crvenky]

Suresh,

Apdiye TTLSku oru review-um ezhudhidunga :-)