"Are you from this century ??" was the look Danger and Kulasegar gave me. Yes, I usually get asked that question every time I ask people "How does this new T-shirt look on me". But this time it was entirely different, I had merely exhibited my expertise on TFM (Tamil Film Music) by mentioning one of my latest favorite songs. But in Kulasegar's defense, it was natural. My latest song had to be carbon dated to find it's age while Kulasegar was looking like the Whole Foods of TFM. For the next few hours, we listened to CD after CD of the latest (latest as in in 2008 latest) songs and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised.
Top Ten Takes On TFM
1. The music "sounds" so good, but does it sound good?? Of course, it has always sounded good, but this time, it "sounds" good too. Is a master's degree in sound engineering mandatory to become a music director these days ?? There were no rough edges that I could find, but yes, sometimes, the songs get eerily smooth. Live instruments are becoming absent a rate higher than Sachin Tendular's strike rate. This can't be a good thing. No more "raakamma kaiya thattu" ?? No more "andhi mazhai??". No more "en iniya pon nilave" ?? No more "iLaya nila" ?? Please don't do this guys.
2. The bane of Udito-Narayanoisis still exists. Unfortunately. When he came in with "kadhalikkum peNNin", we all liked it. Even with "sonia, sonia", it was acceptable since that song needed an anti-unnikrishnan. But then, when you give him a song like "sahana" when there is hariharan just around the corner singing "poombaavaai", you are pushing the envelope too far. Would "engeyo partha mayakkam" from "yaaradi nee mohini" sound better with another singer ?? I would like to hear though.
3. The lyrics are clean. Wow. Is this the same industry that gave such timeless family classics like "ei kutti munnale" and other language-intensive songs like "metro channel munna paaru" ?? Bheema's "mudhal mazhai", Vaazhthukkal's "kannil vandadhum", the title song from "unnale unnale" - all of them and more have lyrics in thamizh and only thamizh and nothing but thamizh. So who are these people who do such a big injustice to the thamizh language by writing lyrics in thamizh ?? Pa. Vijay ?? Na. Muthukumar ??
4. Don't push your luck with the video always. Please. Take my word and just listen to them on your player. If you really insist, then try this. Listen to "tajmahal oviya kadhal" from "kaLvanin kaadhali". You find it good? Nice. Now watch the video with SJ Soorya. Or listen to "unakuLL naane urugum iravil" from "pachaikiLi muthucharam". Then, watch the video where a senior looking sarathkumar walks up and down while a dozen ringwraiths dance around him with flames.
5. Experimenting with voices has always been something that impressed me with TFM. There sure was a time when it was all SPB and Malaysia Vasudevan. Even then, you had a Mano and an SN Surendhar and a Jeyachandran in the mix. Now, just about every song sounds different and there is a tonne of talent at the background singing department. Tipu, Karthik, Devan, Unnikrishnan, Bombay Jeyashree, Nithyashree, Anuradha Shriram, Sadhana Sargam, Manicka Vinayagam, Harish Raghavendra - the list goes on. A few Karnatic Music types are going to frown on me, but considering my knowledge in Karnatic Music, i don't even deserve to be frowned at. So, relax.
6. Upstart Music Directors is something new though. Until ARR in 1990, raise your hands if you remember Chandrabose who was Ilayaraja's contemporary in a strictly temporal sense ?? I tried real hard, but couldn't even remember anyone else from that period. SPB scored music when he was bored, you have an Adithyan sighting once in a while, Maragadhamani makes a cameo, Manoj-Gyan score every other aabavaNaN film - but it was well and truly the Ilayaraja show with the rest just making up the numbers. But now, I do believe there is a healthy competition between a dozen of them. Harris Jeyaraj is the poor man's ARR, Bharadwaj and Vidhyasagar make some amazing music when paired up with the right director, YSR becomes the surprise successor to IR and you also have Joshua Shridhar, GV Prakash Kumar, Vijay Anthony and the likes.
7. Where is the punch? Few paragraphs above we did the usual chest-beating with quality of music and lyrics and singers etc. Its time now to yield to the "Dark Side". Where O Where are the kuthu songs? "yamma yamma" from "vallavan" is an instant classic, "saroja saman nikkalo" from "chennai-28" makes you get out of the seat - but is there any other true contender who can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with yesteryear hits like "aalthotta boopadhi" and "gemini gemini". Mind you, I am not even going into older hits like "vethala potta shokkula" from amaran or "anna nagaru aandaaLu" from "kalamellam kaadhal vaazhga". We consciously do not want to be a music industry filled only with songs for "Guy who split from girl friend due to misuderstanding", "Girl fascinating about future husband", "Son waiting to go to college and experience the world" etc. We do have drunk parties where we need to take our shirts off you see.
8. Lifesavers. They truly are. In the 80s and 90s, movies used to open up - and even run successfully - just because they had Ilayaraja. Ask ex-MP Ramarajan (if you, the reader, are from Tiruchendur, you owe us all an explanation. Yes, from Madurai we voted Subramaniya Swamy once. But thats a different story) and he would swear by it. Ramarajan movie plots are highly interchangeable with some combination of his mother, koundamani, senthil as his friends, a villain who owns a mill/farm and his daughter who is highly educated, but falls in love with RR after initial outburts over useless matters (punctured cycle, broken car pane etc). The greatest difference would be that in some movies the villain is RR's uncle while in others he is not. But the songs really kept going and Ramarajan broke box office records until even the songs became interchangeable. Similarly, these days, there are movies that are remembered/watched/discussed just because of they have good songs but are lousy otherwise.
9. No Reshammaiyahs/Talat Azizs. If you can't consider this a privilege, I don't know what else to say. Reshammaiyah and Aziz used to make me drop the remote and cower into a corner every time I run into them while channel surfing. Touchwood, TFM hasn't created any thing in that segment at this level.
10. TFM Rocks because it's TFM. Today, anyone who is a fan of TFM just visits an online mp3 site and downloads the songs. Peace. But in the 1980s me and our bretheren used to run from store to store to buy audio tapes, and sometimes spend an extra 5 bucks on "CD Recording" just to hear the masters at their work. All you lucky, computer-savvy, Y-Gens - enjoy your luck :-).
Read on ... (at your own peril, obviously) ...
