After seeing the 5 katalaigal that Rajni has issued for his fans, any keen observer can see the pattern to his behavior of surrendering to whoever is in a power position. One of the 5 request to his fans was 'Do not include any political statements in your posters or banners'. To put all this into perspective, we need to rewind back to the last elections in 2 parts -
Parliament Elections -This is what Rajni declared - "BJP is all set to sweep the elections based on my visits to the North Indian states. I don't know about the situation in Tamil Nadu. I shall vote for BJP and I leave it to my fans to vote for which ever party that they like. They know whom they shouldn't vote for (this was a missive against PMK)". We all know the result of that election, BJP lost power in an ignominious way while in alliance with AIADMK they lost all 40 seats in TN. Thanks to Rajni and his offer of support!
Assembly elections - His fans under the command of Rajni worked against PMK candidates but to no avail. PMK won more than a fair number of seats that they had contested.
Present Day Situation - Given his past relationship with PMK, Rajni is a worried man as PMK men are biding their time to exact revenge. This could be a deja vu of what happened with Baba in Panruti when the PMK men ran away with the film roll. We all saw the reaction from the 'brave paper tiger' fans of Rajni for that incident - They were not sighted for few months after that incident as they all went into hiding. In order not to have a repeat of that incident during the release of his new movie, Rajni comes out with a request to his fans that they do not include any political statements in their posters or banners and not even indulge in any celebrations at the releasing theatres.
After all the years of basking in the glory of the 'paper proclamations' from his 'paper tiger fans', why is Rajni suddenly asking them to refrain from including political statements. This just goes to show that Rajni has no principles only vested interests. When he is not doing any movie, he emboldens his fans to work for and against (he cannot make up his mind) political parties. But if it could affect his movie, then he gets them to wave the white flag. His next step would be to go to Kalaignar to wish him on his birthday and try to get some salugaigal. Then probably a statement appeasing Ramadoss and Thirumavalavan. I am certain we will see more acts of surrender in the coming days and weeks from Rajni to various political parties and entities. What a MAN or should we just call him 'Super POTTAI'?
- Percussion disappoints BIG TIME (as has been the case of late). What a welcome change MX was! Where's that percussion Raaja? - Synth sound-a vida maattengararu Raaja. Rears its ugly head often in the album.
However, (it gets only better from here) on repeated hearings:
Baatein Hawa - What an enchanting reworking of the original. The greatness is in the way the original tune sits perfectly in a very different situation. The second interlude even has a fast-paced electric guitar cameo followed by a very short jazz piece. Listening to this song while traveling will be one hell of a trip.
Jane Do Naa - What a tune! Shreya Ghoshal's voice intoxicates. Look out for the guitar punches that goes with the rhythm. Brilliant piano prelude and first interlude. These are the 'surprises' and 'moments' one expects from a Raaja song.
Cheeni Kum - Shreya and the superb interludes save the song from the dreadful 'beats'. This is more pronounced in the sad version 'Sooni Sooni' - thagara dabba la thatra madhiri oru sound. Reminiscent of the beats in "Ennai thaalaatta varuvaalo". How i missed the acoustic drums of the original "Mandram Vandha"!! Infact, pudhu music system vaangina first test panna ideal song-a irundhudhu adhu.
Theme Music - Beautiful and uplifting. Wow Superb transitions
Melody Sax - Experimental Raaja is back with all that jazz. Thou art the master. Tempo changes, mood transitions. Good stuff.
The album does get better on a few more listenings. mAyakkaNNAdi is history, people.
Cheeni Kum - Mandram Vandha (Mouna Ragam) Jaane Do Naa - Vizhiyile (Nooraavadhu Naal) Baatein Hawa - Kuzhaloodhum Kannanukku ( Slowly Opened The Door)
P.S: This film is directed by adman Balki (big Raaja fan) and stars Tabu and an ad actor who acts in ball point pen commercials. Its going to be premiered at Cannes
This conversation took place at my workplace between a Manager (Malaysian origin) and his team member (Gujarati)
Malay: "I read in the papers today that some Tamils in Singapore are expressing their resentment at the 'Hindi domination' in Singapore. They feel there are a lot of Hindi speaking people coming in, there are signboards in Hindi etc...."
Gujarati TM: "Not even 1% of the population speak Tamil in India. Hence, they have no valid reason or grounds to talk"
Kids who flunked your kindergarten exams - please listen to "vAnam kIzhE" (Thoongadhe Thambi Thoongadhe) before fishing for ARR praising links or Time magazine links. There's more to music than all these toilet paper lists
AC Milan 3 - Manchester United 0 (5-3 on aggregate)
What a power-packed performance! They completely outdid Man U in the first half, and typified the Italian trait of holding on to their lead and soaking up the pressure in the second. I wanted them to be a little more attacking in the second (sitting back backfired in the first leg) but it turned out to be OK. Pirlo had a bad day, Seedorf was superb for the most part but gave away a few balls too. Gattuso was undoubtedly the man of the match and he almost exploded in the last few minutes and luckily, Ancelotti pulled him out :)
I watched a program recently in one of the local channels here called "The Spirit Of Mozart". It was a concert by various artists (rock, jazz, WCM) paying tribute to the Mozart and the spirit his music represented. I managed to catch only the last part of the show when Jethro Tull was featured. Ian Anderson, the Tull front man played "Bouree" accompanied by the orchestra from Vienna. Did it ring a bell or what???? No wonder i had posted sometime back about the song and its similarity to Ilaiyaan's music, especially the bass lines. The reason - same source, J.S Bach. Two brilliant adaptations of the master's composition
Here is another orchestral version by Jethro Tull - Couldn't find the version i watched on TV.
Listen to "I Met Bach In My House" from How To Name It [The tempo is different but the bass lines bear the signature] http://as01.coolgoose.com/music/song.php?id=91002 - The title is wrongly given as "Don't Compare"
P.S: Here's a write up on the song (and the album) by C.S Ramasami
This is a composition of Bach – “Bourre in E-minor”, a short piece of dance form in two parts. . This famous piece is set in Minor scale and modulate to Major and back to Minor etc. The two parts of Bach’s composition is played by a synthesizer sound and a bass guitar. Ilaiyaraaja has added the 3rd part of the harmony in Carnatic way (coming in the violin). Ilaiyaraaja might have started this as an experiment with small piece in the beginning to illustrate the hidden raagams inside the Bach’s composition 300 years before, and prove the point that various raagams are available in WCM also, even though they might not have named it!
