As part of a Presentation Workshop in my place of work, I had a chance to present on a topic of my choice. I gave a small extempore talk on ‘Film Background Scores’. To my surprise, no one had any clue whatsoever about film background scores. Most of them didn’t know that A.R.Rahman won an Oscar for background score. I asked, “What instantly comes to your mind when I say background score?” and I got two replies – ‘James Bond’ and ‘Sarkar’.
Two weeks ago, I was watching ‘Kaadhalukku Mariyaadhai’ in KTV. A friend of mine came to my room and sat with me to watch the film. The film was about to end. My friend joined when Jeeva’s (Vijay) family comes to Mini’s (Shalini) house to give Mini’s chain back. In this scene, when Mini comes running out of the kitchen, Ilaiyaraaja plays a joyous Piano piece. It is in here, my friend sitting next to me, remarked ‘Paathae illai, Thalai, yennama music pottirukkaru’ (can be roughly translated as “See, how well the master has put music”) and he continued to hum the background music all along and couldn’t stop praising Ilaiyaraaja’s background score till the end of the film.
I have never seen him speak about music or film background score before. He is someone, in whose Laptop, you will find music playlists named as ‘Ajith Hits’, ‘Vijay Hits’, ‘Danush Hits’ and not A.R.Rahman Hits or Ilaiyaraaja hits. And he doesn’t know that I blog about background scores. Then I asked him about how he was able to hum the background music of the film. He said that he watched ‘Kaadhalukku Mairyaadhai’ 13 times when it got released.
Listening to Kaadhalukku Mariyaadhai
The quest for Film of Background Score - 70 is still ON
3 comments:
Must commend Ramgopal Varma for 1 thing.Good or bad,he ensured that people noticed background score (by literally forcing it into the scenes & our brains). Otherwise, how can one explain that people thought of Sarkar when they hear the phrase Background Score.
A good post on KM BGMs by the way. Still listening to them and enjoying!
Aakarsh - Yes. RGV created an awareness. But now that people are aware, he must know where to stop. Did you see the trailer of 'Raktha Charithra'? Sarkar-eshque chants and chorus. I hope he uses them economically in the film.
Interesting that James Bond was their first response. The Hollywood score most popular with the people I've met out here seems to be Titanic (they can instantly recognise the synth choir theme when it's played), followed by Star Wars and modern scores by Hans Zimmer and the RC team (Gladiator, Crimson Tide, The Rock, Transformers etc.)
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