Mani Matters

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Did you watch the programme ‘Mani Matters’ on CNN-IBN this weekend? Watching not just what was a quick recap of almost all the movies of Mani Ratnam till date, with the actors and other crew members talking about their experience of working with Mani Ratnam, but hearing the man himself speak about most of his movies has only doubled up my excitement and made the wait for the release of Raavan seem even longer! The show itself was a very good one, besides it isn’t often that you get to watch Mani Ratnam speak about his movies. Seeing clippings from so many movies of his at a stretch made me wish I could watch it all once again. In case you haven’t watched the show yet, do watch it here. Also, do check out another very good interview with Mani Ratnam here.

Hi!

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I never thought that my blog will ever reach the state in which it is now. Somehow, for the last several weeks, I have been caught up in a pretty hectic routine in which my blog doesn’t figure at all! Thought I will at least say a quick Hi to you all even though I don’t feel like writing anything. Neither the songs of Raavan nor a few other songs to which I am addicted big time nor the architectural beauty of the temples at Thirumalai Vaiyyavur, Siruvapuri and Pancheshti which I recently visited, seem to give me the much needed motivation to write something here.

P.S.: Call it showing off or sharing my happiness with you or whatever you want to, did you see that T.M.Krishna has linked my post in his website? 🙂 I am so happy!

Music Matters

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Music Matters – That was the name given to the chat between Nirmala Lakshman, joint editor of ‘The Hindu’ & T.M.Krishna was held on April 29th at Full Circle, Chamiers. This was organized by ‘The Hindu’. Here are some of the topics that were covered in the programme.
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The note on the website

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Now when everybody is talking about the director’s note on the website of Raavan, let’s revisit the note that was there on the website of Alaipayuthey. Check it out here in the archived website of Alaipayuthey. Follow the links below to read the notes on Karthik’s and Sakthi’s worlds too.

P.S.: To all those who got bored of this mini-series on Alaipayuthey, I’ll try to come up with posts on other topics soon!

MSG on Nada Neerajanam

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On 20th April live telecast on TTD’s TV channel (SVBC)

M.S.Gopalakrishnan, Dr. Narmadha & Suresh – Violin
B.Ganapathyraman – Mridangam

Concert Duration: 1.5 hrs

1. Maha Ganapatim – Nattai – Swarams at Maha Ganapatim
2. Terateeyagara ra – Gowlipantu
3. Sakalagraha – Atana – Alapana by Narmadha
4. Sitamma – Vasanta – Alapana by Suresh
5. Venkatashaila – Hamir Kalyani – Alapana by MSG – tani Avartanam
6. Sriman Narayana – Bowli
7. Yare rangana – Hindolam – Alapana by Narmadha

Finally there is a TV channel which shows a Carnatic music concert everyday. 🙂 And that too live concerts.

It has been quite a long time since I went to MSG’s concerts and I was happy to see this concert being telecast. Though just for 1.5 hrs, this concert was an absolutely satisfying one! I liked the selection of ragas. The short Atana alapana that Narmadha played was one of the loveliest Atanas I have ever listened to! That and the Hamir Kalyani alapana by MSG, though only for a few minutes, were the best parts of the concert to me.

It’s raining!

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My sister and I are video chatting now, excitedly discussing about Mani Ratnam’s movies, when she tells me that somebody’s status message says ‘It’s raining in Chennai’. I was so engrossed in talking about Mani’s movies that I didn’t even know that it’s raining here! Stepping out of the room, the maNN vaasanai greeted me. How blissful rains in the midst of scorching summer is!

Raavan Theatrical Trailer

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Isn’t this newly released trailer intriguing? Don’t the sun rays filtered through the trees in the shot where Abhishek & Aishwarya are going on a boat look surreal? The music at 0:24 in this trailer reminds me of the BGM in Roja for the scenes featuring the terrorists. As I read the line ‘The bond between the hunter and the hunted – between the captor and the captive’ in the ‘Director’s note’ in the website of Raavan, I immediately started thinking about how Mani Ratnam has already shown a bond between the captor and the captive in Roja too. Anyway, the trailers are making the wait for the movie release seem longer by the day!

Kadhal Sadugudu & Alaipayuthey

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With this song, Mani Ratnam shows he needs neither exotic locales having nature’s beauty in abundance (Pacchai Nirame) nor a fort (Snehidhane) nor a festive atmosphere (Yaaro Yaarodi) and with just brick and cement (and not to forget those yellow and white bed spreads) as a backdrop, he can create stunning visuals too.
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The name, the font

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The name itself is one among the numerous things about Alaipayuthey that instantly fascinated me. I really wish I could know what made Mani Ratnam give it a title like this and if he had any other names in his mind.

There was this programme telecast on Sun TV on the 14th of April, 2000 in which Madhavan, Shalini & Swarnamalya spoke about the movie. I remember Swarnamalya saying how much she liked the name of the movie. Seems she came to know the name only after hearing the story.

alaipayuthey-title.JPG

It wasn’t just the name alone. I liked the font in which it was written too. As the first few minutes of the movie alternates between Madhavan on a bike and the titles of the movie, the titles in that nice font in white colour on a black background looks good too. Even though I later saw quite a few movies using this font, I’ll always associate this font only with Alaipayuthey.

It’s end of April already!

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Blame it on the lack of time or the fact that the ability to satisfactorily translate thoughts into words seems to be often eluding me nowadays or sheer laziness, I am now looking at the number of posts that I have written to celebrate 10 years of Alaipayuthey and cursing myself. I now feel like somebody who has a 3-hour exam to finish in just half an hour. 😉

Thinking about exams, I remember the first time I heard a group of people raving non-stop about Alaipayuthey. It was the day of my class 10 English board exam. Having completed the exam well ahead of time, all of us were happily standing outside the school and chatting. And that was when a group of my class mates started talking excitedly about the trailer of the next Mani Ratnam’s movie which was being telecast on the TV channels. They were talking about Madhavan, (at that time, who wouldn’t have done that? 😉 ) the music, etc. But I had not watched the trailer yet, since we still didn’t have cable connection at home! Being a mute participant to the conversation, little did I know back then that a couple of months down the line, I would become totally crazy about the movie and the craze would still be on an ever-increasing mode ten years down the line too! And that movie would be the one thing about which it’s difficult to get me to stop talking about. 🙂 I am in a nostalgic mood now!