Kirukupayyan’s Weblog

Everybody has their days when they are up, hip and happy, and days when theres gloom, doom and fatigue. The reasons are aplenty, some times its is the pressure from work, sometimes family tensions, sometimes personal anguish, sometimes disappointments, sometimes a  hurt, what ever could be the reason, we have all been through it. The good days and bad days are here to stay

How one expresses himself in happiness or copes with the pains every day differs from individual to individual. Some  smoke it out, some drink to one and all, some dance their way. Some go to the extremes, right from smoking weeds to drugs abuse and need help to get back on track. But those who had grown with an ear on music, are drawn to music in happiness or sadness. Only what kind of music one listens to, when the heart is jumping with joy and when its bundled in sheets of trouble varies…

I rely on music too. I’m not from any music background, but have grown up listening to music as part of Tamil film songs. My collection has both the old (not old as in 50s or 60s, roughly 25 years old) and the recent ones, but I’ve found that most of the time, when I’m down and depressed, the oldies are played more often, and most of the time that is only from the collection of my favorite music director: Maestro Illayraja. This is not to say that the newer songs are in anyway bad, but they do lack the magic, if at all rarely some songs have some magic.

Only Maestro can mix melodious music into lyrics like a pudding and feed it to you as if you were a baby. Every bit of music, every instrument, every note, the rhythm, the singers, the pronunciation nothing forms a lump.

May be its because I’ve grown up listening to these, I dont know. But there is a magic in these songs… If you can understand Tamil you will appreciate it even more !

And now, for the first time ever, I’m releasing the list of songs on my personal cds

But rather than put the list in text format, I’ve managed to get hold of some songs on youtube and created a play list. This is not the exhaustive list, only those that are available in youtube. May be we can call it list1. List1 is melodious collection. You will have to wait till I get time to get the other lists!!!

Ok, one warning, dont give importance to the video, am sure picturization of many songs would be xtreme crap

Hope you get a chance to listen and if you do I’m sure you’ll feel the magic. But if you dont know tamil…? You will have to wait till I get time to translate the lyrics out

Here we go…  If you want to play and listen to the list click here, or to just browse click here.  Do leave a comment, if you listen and like it… or if you have your own collection and would like to share… 

For those who in south, watch any of the tamil music channels after 11pm, they mostly play illayaraja hits during that time…  I’m sure you will sleep peacefully and your mind will be relaxed the next day you wake up….

The movie starts with a question, Jamal who works as a tea boy in a call center, has won 10 million in the popular hindi version of “Who wants to be a millionaire”. How did he manage it, was he a cheat? One question away from wining a staggering 20 million rupees, he is arrested by the Cops.

The story unveils in bits and pieces, each part connected to one of the questions that Jamal faced, as he explains his story to the Cops, how he got to know the answers to the questions that were asked.

Born and brought up in the slums of Mumbai, This is the story of Jamal, who went on to become the millionaire overnight, in his search for his love, Lathika.  He doesnt intend to win the show, just wants to appear on it mainly because his lady love is obsessed with that show and is always glued to tube when the show is playing.  But as they say, “everything is written and it just happens.”

The story has been told beautifully, though I felt it was bit slow, I liked the movie. Based on and inspired from the novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup, the movie is just amazing.

The early days of Jamal played by Ayush Khedekar is extremely lively. Innocence emanates from his face and actions.

On the bad side, it portrays pathetic living conditions, complete apathy, and how the kids turn to robbery to make money.  Some holes here and there, mainly because its directed by a foreigner.

The major hole I felt was the language. Being an English movie the characters suddenly start speaking fluent English which is kind of unacceptable or acceptable based on which side of the table you are sitting.  The movie ends with a typical bollywood type song in the railway station, which could have been avoided.

The director puts you in first person, as you listen and watch jamal’s story unfold before your eyes, very nice photography adds to it. Every scene conveys something and requires you attention. Music director A.R. Rehman’s background score is amazing as usual.

The last I heard about this movie, it has grabbed 5 critic’s choice awards, including the best picture. We have to wait and watch to see if it can grab an oscar.