The Rape Of Genres

The purists slammed Aandavar and Sagara Sangamam because, in their view, they had committed sacrilege by "diluting" the art form of classical Indian dance. Ilaiyaraaja and Das annan faced the same music for Sindhu Bhairavi. Aandavar and Ilaiyaraaja were unapolegetic, rightly in my view, saying that they are not obliged to pay obeisance to the purists or operate within the confines of strict rules. Cinema, as an art form is big enough to encompass dance, music and other art forms as long as the inherent qualities are not lost or spoilt.

Cut to the scene in the late 90s. Ilaiyaraaja and A.R Rahman had created waves in blending different musical forms, without compromising on the essence of each form (f)used. If Ilaiyaan gave us the brilliant "Ninnukkori Varnam", "Kaadhal Kasakkudhayya", "Roja poo adivandhadhe" , "Ilamai Idho Idho" and "Rambambam Aarambam", ARR gave us "Kannalane", "Kannum Kannum Kollai Adithaal" and "Petta Rap" [to this day, being one of the "proper" Indian rap songs]. If ARR was ahead of his [peer's and audience's] time, Ilaiyaan was beyond time. We also had Tier-2 MDs like Vidhyasagar give numbers like "Malare Mounama" from time to time and Deva pioneering the concept of "Gaana paattu", in between his fulltime hobby of copy-pasting music. Sometime during that period the trend was to belt out "western" pop numbers [when MTV entered Indian Telivision]. Ace of Base, Dr.Alban, Apache Indian et all. This was followed by a period of degradation when lesser mortals like Deva, Sirpi etc tried their hand at doing an ARR and failed miserably. In fact, Deva then became a victim of his own obsession with gaana and sound-alikes fell by the wayside like nobody's business, dragging down TFM along with them. The less said about S.A Rajkumar, the better. I once spotted him in the Adithya Hotel bar with a Johny Walker bottle clutched under his arm pit and staggering across the room, a pitiful but immensely entertaining sight :) His music is NOT entertainment.

In the recent past, a self-stoking vicious cycle of musical rape was set in motion when a kuthu paattu became a hit. Who the composer was, what song it was and how good it was - all these are besides the point. What matters is that it set a trend which is as monotonous as the ticking of a clock and as musically enriching as the drone of a driller. The only upside to this was an enormous increase in the sales of Anacin and Avomin. In fact, i used to carry a paper bag used in Airplanes as puke-containers to the movies. Everytime a kuthu paatu came, which was mandatory in every film [well, almost] i had the choice of going out for a dum, or in theatres where smoking was banned, i put the paper bag to good effect. Thamizh folk music has a great tradition and it was part of the lifestyle in rural TN. Even if the year is 2003, the period of synthesizers, you can get unadulterated pure folk - Virumaandi was testimony to that. The confidence, conviction and the security the film-maker and the MD had was amazing.
My TV remote is now not functioning due to the number of times it has been thrown in exasperation after seeing yet another HOUSEWIFE request "Kumbida pona deivam" from Thirupachi in Sun Meesic.

I met an old friend of my old grandfather recently. He plays carnatic music on his keyboard. He proudly made us listen to one of his compositions - Vathapi on his Roland, with beats [totally off-synch with the song] set on "demo". This exactly is what is happening in M.Kumaran, Karka Kasadara and the likes.

Ilaiyaan, ARR TFM needs you! And you Tier-2 MDs, please keep off from regurgitated puke music. Never mind the trash mongering MDs.