Background Score

There is an interesting - but way too short - article [link courtesy Kaps] by Theodore Baskaran in Outlook, on the evolution of Tamil Film Music. It starts off interestingly enough with some facts about how things were at the beginning (interesting comment on how people treated movies like concerts!) But it gets frustratingly brief after that. There is little on MSV and the music of the MGR/Sivaji era.

The article does go on to mention Ilaiyaraja and Rehman, the 2 most influential Tamil cinema music directors in the last 40 years or so (the former a lot more than the latter ofcourse). It describes their contrasting styles rather nicely as it says…

“…Ilayaraja doesn't believe in creating film music as a mere aural experience, isolated from the images. For him, music is integral to the effect of the movie. It has to integrate with the narrative, not intrude upon it. It has to go with the images, has to be part of the viewing experience”

“Rahman's stress has been more on songs than on background score. Unlike Ilayaraja, he accentuates the independent aural character of film songs; they aren't necessarily linked to the onscreen images or the characters singing them.”

While I’ve been listening to Tamil film songs for as long as I remember, I barely took notice of the background score when watching a film. To me, the BGM played little role in a movie. But all that changed with Idhayathai Thirudaathey, the background score for which illustrates what Theodore Baskaran is talking about in the first paragraph above. Idhayathai Thirudaathey still holds the record for the film I’ve watched in the theater the most number of times and Ilaiyaraja’s BGM played as important a part as Girija’s cuteness, Manirathnam’s screenplay and P.C.Sriram’s cinematography, in pulling me back to the theater that many times. That was one movie where I came out of the movie hall humming pieces of the background score rather than the songs. And its one movie I could enjoy even with my eyes closed the entire time!

The magic begins right from the start with the soothing and soulful tune that plays during the titles. Almost every sequence after that has a great background score that fits the mood of the sequence perfectly and elevates it from being merely interesting to truly memorable. There’s the playfully fast music during the scenes where Nagarjun and Girija play tricks on each other. There’s the upbeat, cheerful music in the scene where Nagarjun realizes that life has to be enjoyed however short it may be. There’s the soothing music accompanying the fog seeping into Nagarjun’s house. There’s the thudding, powerful music that drives the climax in the railway station. And ofcourse, there’s the uplifting music as Nagarjun kisses Girija in the end. That last piece of music had the power to make us forget that they were 2 lovers who would die shortly and made us believe that they’d live happily ever after!

Since Idhayathai Thirudaathey, I’ve started noticing the BGM a lot more and have gone back and unearthed gems like Mouna Raagam, Johny, etc. Ilaiyaraja is truly king in this arena. I’m yet to enjoy Rahman’s BGM they way I have enjoyed Ilaiyaraja’s. The one BGM piece I do remember from Rahman’s work so far is the scintillating score that plays when Arvind Swamy douses the fire on the Indian flag in Roja. But technically, that was part of the Thamizhaa Thamizhaa… song and not a stand-alone BGM piece. Yuvan Shankar Raja does seem to have inherited the right BGM genes from his dad. He has made us sit up and take notice of his score in recent movies like Pattiyal and the instrumental pieces like Going Thro Emotions… in Pudhuppettai are phenomenal. But there is a sense of “showiness” in his music that sometimes threatens to override the visuals and so doesn’t allow it to perfectly complement the scenes the way his dad’s music did.