Maestro Blaster

Sethu is in love with Abhitha. Abhitha is a soft spoken, innocent girl from an orthodox, middle class Brahmin family. Sethu is rough outside and he remains so even in his ways to woo her. To impress Abhitha, Sethu’s friend advices him to be softer and not to get involved in any fights and clashes. Unfortunately, Sethu has to beat a baddie who beat his friend and when he is totally in action, Abhitha crosses the corridor in which he is busy chasing and beating the guy. Sethu, immediately after Abhitha enters the scene, stops beating, though a volcano of anger is still erupting in his face. Vikram’s performance in this scene shook me when I first saw the movie.

But as always, it is our Maestro Ilaiyaraaja who enhances the impact created by Vikram’s nuanced performance. Raaja plays a pedestrian action cue for the fight sequence. He then suddenly stops and brings in a cascade of strings that builds up to imply peaking intensity of Sethu’s anger and within a flip of a second the piece liberates into an exquisitely romantic soft piano melody that aptly captures the way Sethu’s intense anger takes a sudden relief at the sight of Abhitha. The highlight is the way Raaja achieves the impact with his acute transition in music. I am not sure I have articulated the beauty of the scene and the score well enough. No amount of articulation can explain the magic of Raaja’s music in this scene. So, watch it and feel it for yourself