In (Premature) Defense of 2.0 & Every New Movie Ever Going to be Made

It is my humble opinion that great movies serve one purpose - they make it a memorable experience for viewers. And they make it memorable by wowing audiences visually, cognitively or emotionally or a combination thereof. Few movies transcend all three experiences in the exact right proportion. Movies that fall do this are defined as Awesome Movies.

As an example, Enthiran, released in 2010, was an awesome movie.It had a humanoid robot (cognitively appealing), built from scratch with sheet metal and PCBs (more cognitively appealing),with Aishwarya Rai (visually appealing), a robot that falls in love with her (emotionally appealing), and tons of Rajinikanth (cognitive, visual and emotional phenom).

But alas, there is such a thing as "too much" of any one of these experiences.If there is too much visual action, or emotional drama or cognitive masala, the Awesome movie fizzles out. And that has been known to happen before as well. A lot.

In the coming days, 2.0 hits the screens. There will be moments before, during, and after the movie, where you will question everything you know about your appreciation of a fine cinematic experience, and start to believe that the movie is bad.

You will hate Akshay Kumar as the Bird in the sky, and every time you look at his face you will be reminded of the insane amount of CGI and Artificiality and Non Realistic Fantasy the director has put in the movie.

If you are a Rajini fan, you will think the movie didn't have enough Rajini in it. It will descend into a debate about whether or not Rajini should enter politics.

If you are a Shankar fan, you will think the movie was too much about Rajini. It will descend into a debate about whether or not Rajini should enter politics.

If you are a Rahman fan, you will question if his days of good music are gone forever and if you should officially start a Santhosh Narayanan Thalaivaaaaaa (with 4 extra a's) Page on Facebook.

If you are an Amy Jackson fan..... well, dont bother, you are not real. Wake up. (Incidentally she's not real in the movie either, playing a role written specifically for her - a robot!)

You may be a progressive thinking liberal, and you will want to burn the theater down for a couple of the bad jokes Shankar tried to insert to please front benchers. It will descend into a debate about India's culture and Sabarimala.

You may be financially conscious and the vulgar $450 Cr number will boggle your mind into saying crazy stuff like "So much Poverty we could've removed if we spent money on buying clothes for poor". It will descend into a fight about whether BJP should be building statues.

There are possibly thousand different reasons you have been waiting for this movie to come out. And  as soon as the initial rush of being in the theater, watching this movie leaves you, you will find that the movie doesn't live up to the extraordinary expectations you had for it, because one aspect of the movie ruined it for you.

In the midst of all this, you will read a 100 reviews trashing the movie, 500 status updates and check-in's with movie ticket pictures, Youtube videos with poor imitations of the Superstar, a few crazy clips of the people involved in the movie getting angry, and at least 5 High Court cases for banning the movie for either "hurting sentiments" or "copyright infringement".

And all this will spoil the movie for you, and you will start to question "everything you know about your appreciation of a fine cinematic experience, and start to believe that the movie is bad."

It is important you resist that feeling.

You see, regardless of how good a movie 2.0 actually is, this is an extremely important movie for audiences in India to watch. Because this movie in some ways, will decide what movies we will watch for the next 10 years.

Few film-makers break out of the safety net (and only they can afford to) make movies that expand the boundaries of the cinemas we watch. And these pioneering filmmakers giving new technologies, new styles and new techniques a platform in their movies is what makes the Indian film industry gain new capabilities to tell new and bigger stories.

When Shankar used 65 cameras in one action scene in Anniyan, it was unheard of. Today it is common place enough that simple duet songs use it.

When Rajamouli made Magadheera, he really built the tools to be able to make Baahubali in the years down the road.

When Bollywood made 10 different boxing movies, it was slowly building the fanbase and interest, and the template to succeed at making one Dangal.

In an absolute disappointment of a movie called Kochadaiiyan, an established sequence of operations was established to produce a motion capture movie in India, and that's what is making 2.0 possible.

Bad Ambitious Movies always beget Great Ambitious Movies!!

The possibility that making 2.0 today may make an Amar Chitra Katha Superhero Movie possible, or a Mars mission movie a la Tik Tik or Martian possible.

But what about being objective, and critiquing the nuances of filmmaking as an appreciation of art and a reflection of our society and popular culture? I say - Valid point! But hear me out.... Now, I know very little about how the Universe operates, and my worldview is restricted to my Facebook and Twitter feed. But if the reviewers on my feed are anything to go by, nuance and subtle references are severely underrepresented features of their assessment of movies, and in all fairness, the First Law of Social Media Engagement states that the more nuanced view someone takes, the lesser likes/retweets/engagement it gets - which defeats the whole purpose of posting opinions onto social media in the first place. So reviewers, by natural laws of Social Media Survival of the Fittest gravitate towards populist 1-liners which reduces movies to caricatures of themselves. 

So regardless of why you hated 2.0 or any other movie that will be released in future, please remember to thank the people who stared at the task, knew and understood how impossible it was to make the movie they wanted, and went ahead did it anyway, because at the end of the day, this movie is not about this one movie alone, it is about the kind of movies we will see in decades to come in Indian Cinema!

Update: I watched 2.0 in Rochester Hills, MI (on the day of release, there were at least 20 shows in Tamil, in addition to about 10 more shows in Hindi/Telugu in the Detroit area - in total Maayajaal style - unheard of for an Indian movie, even Baahubali), and absolutely loved the movie! It was everything I hoped for, and more. 2.0 the Rajini character in the second half of the movie is Black Sheep Chitti on steroids, and I absolutely loved it! And what a great job tying everything back to the environment and how we are destroying it with cell phone towers - I get it, it was a little preachy, and felt like a kid's movie at times, but the lighthearted nature of the movie was a big part in why it was enjoyable! And as predicted, social media is full of disappointed moviegoers - there's just no pleasing some people I tell you.

An Ode to Divine Love.

Kaansen Khronicles #4: Revisiting songs from years past, that have been lost in the chaos of the social media-era content explosion! 

Every Rahman album has a hidden gem - a song that never gets its due when the album first comes out, lost in the glory of other more populist, more instant hits, but one that stands the test of time, shining years, sometimes decades after it comes out, long after the hype around the chartbusters dies down. No song captures this phenomenon better than Ay Hairathe from the 2007 Mani Ratnam classic, Guru. 

One cannot solely blame the listener for not catching on to this song soon enough. Three songs deservedly received the headlines coverage when the soundtrack of Guru was launched. A-side opened with Shreya Ghoshal breaking out of her melody-queen mold, to sing a fast paced village belle rain dance sequence in Barso Re, and Rahman himself took all the attention in a couple songs he sang - Tere Bina, with Chinmayee, and Jaage Hain, a slow, but lifting anthem with characteristic high tones that have become signature of his singing style in more recent times. Mani Ratnam played a role too - Ay Hairathe was hardly in the film (I believe it played in pieces in the background for less than 2 minutes), even as the abhorrent Ek Lo Ek Muft was featured in a full five-minute segment. Even Mayya Mayya, with its Hamma Hamma vibes garnered more attention. And yet, the song from this album that will ultimately make it to the ARR Hall of Fame has to be Ay Hairathe, for several reasons.

First, for years, Rahman had built his reputation around bringing a diverse assortment of music from cultures around the World together, and making them fit beautifully - with each other, and with the surrounding context of the movie. In this game of intricately assembling music with as many foreign elements as possible and yet not feeling out of place, there has been no better exhibit than Ay Hairathe. 

Take a second to think about it: the song starts off with a slow rhythm on the accordion, quickly complemented by the Tabla, and Rahman's sufi-esque crooning, before it breaks into a melodious Ghazal by Hariharan that would do the Ustads of yesteryears proud. The shocking part is all of this happens in the first minute of the song!! It doesn't end there. The ghazal soon gives way to a very different scene - an interlude that sounds like a 19th Century Scottish Wedding, then tied back to the Ghazal in impeccable fashion, before developing into a quintessential Hindi movie duet, with Alka Yagnik's perfection, and finally settling into its groove at cruising altitude. 

Second, this song marks what I can perceive as the start of a long-lasting partnership that defined Rahman's music for years to come - his discovery of the accordion. 

Rahman's albums typically have a signature tune, and traditionally, this tune had been reserved for the flute (think Pachai Nirame from Alaipaayuthey, or Ishq Bina from Taal), and occasionally other instruments (think Mouth Organ - Padayappa, Shehnai - Swades). The accordion made its journey to the top in this song, and stayed there playing a key role in future Rahman songs (what better example than Nenjukule, a decade after Guru!).  

Ultimately, with the benefit of hindsight, we know this song is extraordinary, for the reasons stated above, but more importantly, because this is one unique sounding song - the style or the feel has not been replicated in another song in the 14 years since this album first came out. Listening to it today, it still feels fresh - if it had only been produced last week, it would still be every bit as alien, unheard of and yet, perfectly fit in our lives, the same way it did 14 years ago. 

The words from Gulzar, Hairat-e-Aashiqui speak of love so pure, it transcends all reality. This song then, fittingly, is an otherwordly song celebrating the spirit of Gulzar's poem - a Hairat-e-Song, if you will! And chances are it will remain, every bit as Hairat in the library of Bollywood music for many many years to come.  

Soaring Through the Sky

Kaansen Khronicles #3: Revisiting songs from years past, that have been lost in the chaos of the social media-era content explosion! 

Composing music for a Rajini movie is a double edged sword - on the one hand, the songs are guaranteed unconditional love and a far reach, but equally the tight constraints of a commercial formula really narrow the room for experimentation.

For several decades, Rajini movies have had a predictable construct for songs - an opening SPB song praising the Super Star, a dance-around-the-trees duet, and a rise again from the ashes inspirational song. A.R.Rahman is the master of this formula as he demonstrated first with in the mid 1990's with Muthu, Padayappa, and much later in the late 2000's, with Sivaji, Enthiran. Nestled in between these two eras, his one attempt at experimentation, Baba, was panned by an irate fanbase because it deviated from the formula.

Needless to say, the tight window on composing music for a Rajini movie is a sufficiently difficult assignment in itself. When the goal is to experiment, though past history suggests it is a bad idea, it takes the challenge up a notch. But if above and beyond the usual drama, this is Rajini's long awaited come back movie after a significant health scare, the pressure is unbelievable.

Kochadaiyaan is not one of the Superstar's most memorable movies. Ambitious in its attempt to roll out half-baked motion capture technology to Indian cinema audiences, the movie was very quickly forgotten and is rarely shown on TV or talked about. But it did have Super Star flashing his sword (albeit only in animations), and his usual repertoire of songs, with some delightful music composed by A.R.Rahman. And the stand-out piece from the album - an entry song for Rajini called Engae Pogudho Vaanam.

The song begins with a long and elaborate prelude from a philharmonic orchestra producing remarkable dramatization for a War Hero leading the army back home after Victory - unstoppable and wanting to soar through the sky and conquer the universe. The dramatic prelude leads into powerful vocals from SPB and an energetic chorus. Who would've thought trumpets and a brass ensemble would fit with mythological Indian kings. And if that association intrigues you, there is more to look for in the song.

About halfway into the song, after the anu-pallavi, the song transcends to a whole different level when it marches into the interlude, with the unmistakably sounds like bagpipes!! While it is not outside the realm of possibilities that Rahman hired a skirl of bagpipers to record the song, it is far more likely  that a synthesizer was used to produce the sound of a bagpipe - still a sound not often heard in Indian movie songs. And as your brain comes to accept the bagpipe as a classical instrument celebrating a mythological Hindu Warrior, and seamlessly enters "I'm-loving-this" mode, another element is introduced to further blow your mind away. In a flash of creative genius, the bagpipe is accompanied by a rather mismatched choice of percussion - a mridangam!! Who else but Rahman would marry the Mridangam to a Bagpipe in an Indian mythological setting, while ensuring neither of these elements feels out of place!!

The peak of the song undoubtedly comes when Rajini thanks his fans for their prayers in bringing him back to life. The line, "Ungalil Vaazthugalal Uyir Kondu Ezhundhu Vitaen, Vazhthiya Manangalukku, En Vazhkayai Vazhangi Viten", appropriately features the highest notes of the song with the violins literally rising to the occasion.

Kochadaiyaan is one of A.R.Rahman's least celebrated albums. This album, and more specifically, this song deserves to be remembered as a specimen that represents the best of his musical abilities delivered tactly within the boundaries of the commercial cinema in India -  as an artful song packaged beautifully into a masala setting, and as a World Song with exotic instruments presented ingeniously in a mythological context. 

The Born Again Moment.

Kaansen Khronicles #2: Revisiting songs from years past, that have been lost in the chaos of the social media-era content explosion! 

"There are two big moments in every human's life - the first when he is born, and the second when he finds out why he was born", said A.R.Rahman talking about the meaning of Naan Yen Piranthen, a gem from his 2013 appearance on Coke Studio. A deeply poetic song celebrating the beauty of God's creation and the purposeful place of every soul and being in the cosmos, the lyrics, the mood it sets and the elements of Sufi existentialism are right up Rahman's alley of melodious solos, a la Vellai Pookal and the Gurus of Peace.

Starting with a rustic piece by Rayhanah, the song, its lyrics and the gentle strings by Keba all paint the calming imagery of a fishing hamlet during the rainy season, with a philosopher sitting under a tree expouding his discovery of the purpose of life as a second birth. The dramatization of this rebirth moment comes in the form of Prasanna's Electric Guitar that stays under the radar until the last charnam of the song, and the chorus plays the role of the surrounding society. The song has the makings of a great folk piece, complemented with the contemporary elements of Mohini Dey on the bass, and a string quartet. It is fair to say that the song shares a lot of its DNA with the music of Kadal, the Mani Ratnam movie that released the same year with some memorable pieces of music like Nenjukulle, and Elay Keechan (subjects of other posts in this collection).

As for the philosopher personified in the song, the lyricist Vaali would be a great fit. Having written thousands of songs over five decades, this celebration of  spiritual awakening was ironically, one of his last poems. Vaali passed in July 2013, a few weeks before the song premiered on Coke Studio.

The song serves as a great tribute to his legendary songwriting. It also serves as a great tribute to the work A.R.Rahman does in bringing the people of the World together.

A quick review of the comments on social media about this song reveals several stories of people loving the music and sensing the deep essence of the song - though they do not understand a single word of Tamil. It is one thing for people to understand the lyrics of a song and connect with it. It is a whole different experience for people to feel the emotions of a song, and then line it up with what it literally means. And transcending that boundary where you feel the emotions of words through his music, not knowing what the words mean, is what makes A.R.Rahman special.

The One Where Heer is Very Sad.

Kaansen Khronicles #1: Revisiting Songs from years past, that have been lost in the chaos of Social Media-era content explosion! 

Picture this. A girl returns from a bizarre trip to Corsica, where she meets a stranger, and she falls in love with him. She doesn't know his name, or anything about where he comes from or what he does. Anguished at her foolishness for letting her soul mate leave without the classic Bollywood "Kya Yahi Pyaar Hai" song in the Alps, she does her best to get on with life, getting big promotions at work and all, but barely hiding the fact that she is borderline clinically depressed, and desperately needs to find herself the love of her life. Picture all this, and then insert a quirky 4 man Bhangra Band that likes to punctuate every sentence they sing with a stereotypical "Haye Hoye". Misfit ? Nope. Just A.R.Rahman doing his genius thing.

Coming at a time where his obsession with the Punjabi/Bhangra genre was at its peak following Katiya Karoon and Patakha Gudhi in the years prior to Tamasha, Heer Toh Badi Sad Hai, is a classic Rahman number with symphonical layers woven together underneath the leading instrument - a Tumbi and the Sarangi in this instance - and crisp vocals from Mika Singh. The song generally has a peppy outlook, and the Bhangra Boys singing it on the screen dont look too upset while they're singing in celebration either - especially the older gentleman with his toothless grin.

The song itself beautifully captures the effects of Depression - a superficially content and satisfying life, but the deep issues beneath the surface waiting to drag a person down. Irshad Kamil's lyrics add another layer of simple language loaded with cliched analogies that help the listener connect with Tara.

Indian Film songs do not live in isolation - they are often pieces of a bigger puzzle - the story the director is trying to tell. This song is yet another showpiece of the crucial mental connection Rahman seems to make with some of his repeated collaborators like Imtiaz Ali that helps him set the mood with a song in the context of the larger story surrounding it.

Some day, I hope to read a story about how Imtiaz Ali and A.R.Rahman envisioned using this theme to highlight Heer, or Tara's despair, but in the meantime, this song needs to be celebrated as one of Rahman's best offerings in the past decade in Hindi cinema.