Movie Review: Raavan: Great treatment, fractured story

Raavan has some of the best opening minutes you will ever watch on a cinema screen. Much of its power lies in the visuals,courtesy the cinematographers Santosh Sivan and Manikandan. Its glitches are mainly the story and the lack of ample background to the characters.

The stunning locations form an apt background to the three main characters Beera - the wanted goon, Dev - the Policeman determined to catch him and Ragini - Dev's wife who is kidnapped by Beera. Then there is the Mani Ratnam touch that powers every scene, the actions and literature of each character, inspired as they are from the epic Ramayan, and yet they couldn't be more different...

The lead performances are a letdown though - Abhishek is shaky in the crazed act, Aishwarya looks jaded.  Vikram is effective in his Hindi film debut, Govinda so charming as the guide.Raavan is worth watching for the untraveled road it ventures to in story telling. If only the story was as resolute and rich.

Brilliant...
A R Rahman's soundtrack that includes Beera and Behene De, the latter imbibing the visuals so uncannily. Rahman's experimentalist background music is effective too.

spotlight on Slumdog Millionaire

The most awaited movie of the year, yet to be released in India - Slumdog Millionaire has already won a lot of awards. Most significantly, AR Rahman won the Golden Globe for best score. Here is the link to the official website.
http://www.foxsearchlight.com/slumdogmillionaire/

Hindi film music: Yuvvraaj: Rahman returns

Anil Kapoor and Salman Khan in a pre-release still from the film

Yuvvraaj
Music by A.R. Rahman
Lyrics by Gulzar

Flashback blah blah blah
Director Subhash Ghai has always had the knack to obtaining exceptional music for his movies. For almost two decades, he worked wonders with Laxmikant-Pyarelal, notably Karz (1980) and Ram Lakhan (1989). In 1997, Nadeem-Shravan deviated from their usual style to create some unique music for Pardes. It was in 1999 that Ghai got AR Rahman to work on a rocking score for Taal.
Rahman then worked with Ghai on Kisna (2005), he couldn’t work on the entire album due to other commitments so Ismail Darbar (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas) composed the other songs of the album.
As the trailers reveal, Yuvvraaj has a Taal-like feel in its visuals, but the music is a clever contrast to Taal's music.


A.R.Rahman


Gulzar

The album
Main hoon yuvvraaj is a dialogue-piece by Salman Khan mixed with Beethoven’s fifth, a prelude to Tu meri dost hain, a melodious song by Benny Dayal, Shreya Ghoshal and AR Rahman. Shano may take time getting used to; its languid pace is something different from other party-based songs. Tu muskura has a soothing calm in its flow, while Mastam mastam expresses a joyous celebration, one of the creative peaks of the album, Sonu Nigam is at his best here.
Zindagi by Srinivas has a ruminating tone to it. Dil Ka Rishta is a brother-bonding kind of song, with innovatively used English lyrics. Manmohini morey is strictly classical song, the one song in the album that may take some patience to listen to.
The Shano remix is a tolerable listen, under three minutes, it is over before you know it, a Rahman album doesn’t require a remix, unless AR himself does the honours. Overall, the album makes for a very satisfying listen.

For an attentive listening experience, shut yourself in a dark room with the music system, close your eyes and press the play button. It works every time.
In the process you identify what you like and don't like listening to, and why...