Contemporary Tamil Film Mu'sick'

Contemporary Tamil Film Mu‘sick’

It takes me 40 to 45 minutes everyday to drive to work, and like to use up the time by listening to some music. I don’t have CD player in the care, so I usually listen to FM radio. Its then that I started to realize cacophonous the film music has become.  I think the decadence of Music (needless to say – dance) started getting polluted with the entry of people like “A. R. Rahman”, “Devil Deva”, “Ilayaraja’s offsprings” ….” Well the list is growing as more and more “creative people” who mix up west and the east and give you “musick”.

Let me try and analyze the elements of a Tamil hit song:
+ A fast paced obnoxiously loud beat interspersed with a rapper’s grunts. IF it were a “kuttu” song, then loud “Molam” with loud voice with louder chorus
+ The theme of the song based on some classical raga
+ A good looking hero, a barely covered heroine and band of dancers

What … the lyrics, naah, that doesn’t matter – all that matters is that it needs to be rhythmic and rhyming. Who cares about what it means. Gone are the days where the lyrics were poetic and beautiful which reflects the emotions of a song / situation dotted with beautiful similes. I almost threw up when I listened to “Poi solla poren” from “Thiruttu payale”. How could someone sane listen to something obnoxious or the case of a song called “sarkarai nilave” beats anyone trying to find anything poetic / beautiful in the lyrics. “Vaal meenukkum vilangu meenukkum” song is unspeakable. Its plain crap.  

Film song lyrics nowadays remind me of the dialogue sequence between “Dharumi” and “Lord Siva”. Nagesh while describing about his abilities would say “ .. yaedho ezhuthuven … Konjam vasana nadai’ya irukkum”. That’s what the celebrated poets of today excel in.

Recently I read an article in “The Hindu” titled “A crisis of culture” by “T. M. Krishna” raises a few interesting questions. During the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games 2006, there was a showcase of “Indian art / music” which was all filmy – leaving a foreigner believe that essence of India art is something like K3G song sequence.

I often wonder whether something is wrong with world or whether the problem is with me. Whatever it may be – I pray to God to save me from the world and save the world from people like myself.

B Ram