Home   Forum   Wiki   Notes   Register   FAQ   Sitemap   About Us   Contact Us  

ARR's interview in Kumudham 18/11/99

Topic started by Kamesh (@ pm-102-199.tm.net.my) on Mon Nov 15 01:42:27 EST 1999.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Read below.

---

Responses:

• From: Kamesh (@ pm-102-199.tm.net.my) on: Mon Nov 15 01:43:05 EST 1999
  
  ARR's interview in Kumudham dated 18/11/99
  
  People in the Film industry say you work all night and sleep inly by noon. Since when have you become a night bird?
  
  (Laughs) 15 years back when I satrted to work I used to work between 9am and 9 pm. After that I used to do my personal works like commercials and my own compositions. That was between 10pm and 5 am. I used to sleep between 6am and 9 am. This has sort of set in. It is peaceful in the night. And that helps me. Some days I start composing from morning and go on even after midnight. I sometimes cant even keep track of the time.
  
  Doesn't this lack of system affect your health or your personal life?
  
  Even if you are exteremely careful you can have problems. You have to let life live its own course. Moreover, is there any time for creativity? You get an idea. After it is 9pm you cant continue the next morning. When the flow comes you have to let it take its course. If you stop in between the idea will slip out of your hands. You wont get the satisfaction if you sleep off. Also, when you are doing something new, you should apply your mind to it. The importance is to give good music. Not get a good sleep.
  
  Some movies like Sangamam, ESK etc failed at the box office. What is your feelings on this?
  
  I feel sorry when it fails. What to do? You cant expect all movies to become super hits, to be dubbed in 3 languages and to make a lot of money. You cant expect everybody to be professionals. People tell me Sangamam and ESK songs are good. That is enough for me. Sometimes in the middle of a movie, you can feel that this movie is not going to come out well. In spite of this you have to give your best. The people expect somethings from us. You cant disappoint them. Yu should not accept a job which you cant deliver. That is my policy.
  
  A good tune you composed may not be liked by your director. Will you feel irritated? (verutthu povirgala?)
  
  If a director has his reasons I will leave it at that. An artistic product can never go waste. It may be suitable for another situation, may be in some other movie. If we compel them to accept the tunes and the movie fails that would be worser. They would say that I didnt listen.
  
  I seems as though you show special interest in movies from people like Shankar.
  
  It is not like that. I work the same for all. Shankar, MR etc encourage us and bring out the best. I cant make songs like Margali thingal allavaa, Oru murai killi paarthen in thier movies. Their should be pace in the songs made for them. All songs in Shankars movies should be like a small story. He can say a story in his songs. People like him slog, spend 1,1 1/2 crores for a song. I cant give an average product for them. I have to make a osng which is challenging. Just because its a budget movie I dont work less. Every song of mine is like my child. If it is buetiful it brings pride in me. Isnt it?
  
  You give more importance to rhythem than melody. Am I right?
  
  Will continue .........
  
  
• From: Kamesh (@ pm-102-199.tm.net.my) on: Mon Nov 15 01:43:56 EST 1999
  
  Sorry for all the typos. More to come. I mean the typos.
  
  
• From: sk (@ boo.ucar.edu) on: Mon Nov 15 04:26:15 EST 1999
  
  Kamesh:
  
  You are doing a good job of translating that interview.
  Worthwhile.. especially because Kumudham is not on the
  net nowadays.
  
  
• From: bb (@ franck.crhc.uiuc.edu) on: Mon Nov 15 10:38:01 EST 1999
  
  kamesh, thanks for the interview.. pl.continue.
  
  
• From: thathuvavaathi (@ 207.18.199.140) on: Mon Nov 15 11:31:43 EST 1999
  
  Thanks for the interview kamesh. can't wait to see the rest...
  
  
• From: Kamesh (@ hlr-42-194.tm.net.my) on: Mon Nov 15 19:41:46 EST 1999
  
  You give importance to rhythm than melody. Am I right?
  
  Directors like rhythm. I know for sure that if I make songs like Thendralae Thendralae they will cut it off the movie. Only songs with lesser melody have been hits. For Uppu karuvaadu in Mudhalvan we had tuned a melody and everybody liked it. But we had to change it because it could have changed the tempo of the movie. Shankar asked for a more viruviruppaana song. (So it was changed) Moreover, I like rhythm, At the same time, I see to it that it does not become noisy. I try to make a marriage between Rhythm and melody.
  
  (Laughs)
  
  When listening to your songs one feels your strong point is Hindustani than Carnatic..
  
  It is true. I grew with a carnatic background. I learnt carnatic music first. Later I started developing interest in hindustani. I started liking gazals, qawali, thumri etc. I learnt hindustani from one Mr. Krishna kant. Nasreth fateh ali khan taught me a few qawalis. i developed an interest in gazals hearing hariharns songs. These three people pulled me towards hindustani. Moreover there was not much hindustani in tamil music. I used rags like Desh and Darbari in Roja.
  
  There are 72 melakartha ragas and janyas. but still you use kaanada, anandha bairavi, hindolam, kedaram, madyamavati etc. Why do you repeat?
  
  It is true. I have used rare raagas in Kandukonden kandukonden. I use rare raagas for BGMs. I get to use a lot of raagas in movies like Sanagamam. I wont say that only some tunes will become hits. Its so even in Hindi. Tune alone is not enough for a song to be a hit. The hero, heroene, director, the scene are also important. We made Misaara Kanna in vasantha. At one point of time i felt that it was not working out and wanted to change the raaga. The mirudhanga vidhwan started playing saying SABAASH. We became excited and decided Vasaantha was the right choice.
  
  Do you decide on the raaga first, or is it an accident that it falls under some raaga?
  
  We decide the raaga for some songs. Ex. Azagaana Raatchasiyae was planned in Reethi Gowlai. The difficulty is we have to be careful in not sounding like songs like Chinna Kannan Azaikiran. I made a song like Thillan for Thakshak in the rag Megh in the style of Madyamavathi. When doing folk songs you can plan the raaga.
  
  Doesnt commercial monotony bind you? Are you not interested in taing your music in the lines of Shakthi group internationally.
  
  I make albums like Vande Maataram to break this monotony. Also, it is wrong to say that you have done enough here and you have to go international from now on. THE TAMIL SOIL HAS GIVEN ME EVERYTHING I HAVE. WHY SHOULDNT I TAKE TAMIL SONGS AND MOVIES TO INTERNATIONAL LEVEL? That is what I wanted to do from the begenning. DTS, DOLBY has all arrived here. All these are changes in time. If we keep moving in this direction , instead of we going to them, THEY WILL COME TO US.
  
  ......NEXT WEEK
  
  
  
• From: Kamesh (@ hlr-42-194.tm.net.my) on: Mon Nov 15 19:46:25 EST 1999
  
  Sk, Thaths and bb
  
  Thanks for your encouragement. It is really lucky because only this week I got my copy of Kumudham real fast. The interview was very nice and I was moved especially towards the end. Looks like some pro in music did the interview. Thats why I posted it. (bb, I was hoping that you would ask me to go to xxxx thread:-))
  
  Again sorry for the typo's. No time to check for mistakes.
  
  
• From: sk (@ boo.ucar.edu) on: Mon Nov 15 20:31:05 EST 1999
  
  Kamesh:
  
  Good work.
  
  The difficulty is we have to be careful in not sounding like songs like Chinna Kannan Azaikiran.
  
  ARR said.. the difficulty is we cannot avoid the
  sounding like chinna kaNNan at some places.
  
  
• From: Kamesh (@ pm-82-6.tm.net.my) on: Mon Nov 15 21:47:01 EST 1999
  
  sk
  
  Originalai kaila vechikkittu idhai padikiringala?
  Appa idhu ungalukku illai. (Just kidding:-))
  
  Anyway, i have tried my best, may be there were some errors, and I hope this is the only one. As I said earlier, I had very less time.Otherwise html ellam use panni kalakki irupen.
  
  
  
  
• From: sk (@ harvest.ucar.edu) on: Mon Nov 15 22:10:06 EST 1999
  
  Kamesh:
  
  You did a great job of translation. I just pointed
  out that sentence since the point he conveyed
  was slightly different. Otherwise the rest was
  fine.
  
  
• From: thathuvavaathi (@ 1cust69.tnt4.hou3.da.uu.net) on: Tue Nov 16 03:01:31 EST 1999
  
  thanks kamesh for the interview...
  please do post the next week interview too when you get it... :-)
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.22.139) on: Tue Nov 16 20:58:27 EST 1999
  
  Kamesh,
  Thanx for the post. Iam frankly surprised by the technical aspects of the interview. Iam sad that no one has attempted such an interview with IR. All they ask is usual run-off-the-mill questions like 'when did u decide to compose music', 'what is your favourite song' etc. This guy has asked some intersting questions about raagas etc. Hope this would be a trend-setter and more interviews like this would come up.
  
  Also Iam surprised that the interviewer did not mention Kaapi, Maand which have been repeatedly used by ARR.
  
  How many songs has ARR scored in Kaanada and Kedaaram? Has ARR repeatedly used these raagas?
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.22.139) on: Tue Nov 16 21:00:21 EST 1999
  
  And also ARR had thought about "chinna kannan azhaikiran" when he composed azhagaana ratchasiye;)) That is interesting.
  
  
• From: Kamesh (@ hlr-81-80.tm.net.my) on: Tue Nov 16 21:21:39 EST 1999
  
  Vijay
  
  With Shankar and ARR I am not surprised that they forsaw the clash with chinna kannan.
  
  You are right about the interviewer. Seems to be a guy who had done his home work. As fas as raagas are concerned (IMHO) ARR has used Kedaram only for Ennavalae (Kaadalan). I dont think the interviewer was a person with knowledge in classical(based on THAT statement) but sure he has done his homework.
  
  
  
• From: Rex (@ host-216-78-35-12.ath.bellsouth.net) on: Tue Nov 16 23:02:29 EST 1999
  
  I could not stop laughing when I saw ARR mentioning, "I use rare ragas for BGMs". There cannot be a greater hype than this one! Well, I am just wondering to recollect at least one or two movies of ARR where his BGMs speaks for his prowess!!
  
  
• From: Rex (@ host-216-78-35-12.ath.bellsouth.net) on: Tue Nov 16 23:06:25 EST 1999
  
  Kamesh:
  
  A very good job, that you have done regarding the translation of ARR's interview. Thanks a lot man!!
  
  
• From: Athinarayanan (@ 22.chicago-28-29rs.il.dial-access.att.net) on: Tue Nov 16 23:58:35 EST 1999
  
  Rex,
  
  I think ARR probably refers to the scream that you can constantly hear in his BGM.May be that scream is in rare raaga(s).I have heard that scream in many movies like Roja,Indian where the scenes would have looked better without that sound.Or probably Sabesh Murali did use rare raagas while composing BGM for Padayappa.
  
  Probably he has to see some IR movies to learn about composing BGM before giving such replies to questions on BGM.
  
  I remember Kumudham had a similar interview with ARR in Jan 96 and one of the questions in that interview was what he feels about IR and he was very diplomatic in his reply saying that whatever I talk about him will not be taken in the right sense.I don't know what he meant by that.I don't know whether Kumudham will ask a similar question this time.
  
  Athi
  
  
  
  
• From: sujitha (@ as22-s15-141-187.cwci.net) on: Wed Nov 17 04:09:35 EST 1999
  
  Hey guys, what about the subtle lifting of Vaanatthin meedhu mayil aada kanden in Sowkiyamma?He has truly lifted the same score and and passing it off as his own!!!In thakshak, he has lifted a small part from a Sai bhajan called Raadhe Govinda used in Rang de!!!But i must say at least his lifting is done smartly and not whole pieces are used without any variation from the original!(Like sona sona in Vaali, by Deva which has used the theme to Love story!)
  If anyone wants to discuss music with me, feel free to mail me.Carnatic or film!
  
  Sujitha
  
  

---

List all pages of this thread

Post comments