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Film Songs and sequences that would make good Music Videos

Topic started by Srinath (@ socks14d.raleigh.ibm.com) on Fri Jul 17 16:13:54 EDT 1998.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

I was just wondering about the usefulness of songs in movies and felt that in most cases the picturisation did not complement the songs. However, there appear to be some song sequences which stand apart by their depiction of the song in progress. Most of these would have songs in the background, I guess. But their might also be some where the hero and heroine singing makes sense to the movie and the lyrics. Care to help me build a comprehensive list ?

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Srinath (@ socks6d.raleigh.ibm.com) on: Mon Jul 20 11:46:37 EDT 1998
  
  Chandramouli:
  I don't know how I could have missed "Andhi Mazhai" ! IMHO, it would stand out as one of the best picturized songs. I especially love the part where Kamal is standing next to the 'water-wheel'. First a pencil-sketch of the scene appears and is slowly merged into the real shot ! Incredible stuff !
  Again Pon Maalai Pozhudu would make a lovely video, but I felt the actor's (I don't know his name) expressions appeared a little artificial. But more importantly I felt the music, lyrics and the 'special effects' in the song contributed significantly more than the picturisation itself. It would still qualify as a good Music Video.
  
  Kaadhalin Deepam onru - finally we get to see Rajni without a lot of his 'nakhras' ! The 'asadu vazhunjifying' expressions on his face were uncharacteristic of Rajni but perfectly well suited to the song, situation and lyrics. I didn't know that it was used for a T.V commercial. Care to elaborate ? :-)
  
  Kanchana:
  'Enge Nimmadhi' is another of those instances which attracted me to Sivaji's acting. 'Operatic' would be the ideal description for it ! The sets were incredibly imaginative for that period too :-)
  
  Another imaginative picturisation that comes to mind is that of 'Senorita, I love you' from Johnny.
  
  I try to avoid some songs and sequences, where we find the actors actually singing, in this list because I feel a play-back singer singing for another person does not really make an authentic Music Video (strictly IMO). Otherwise we would end up with a huge list of 'desi' Milli-Vanillis ;-) However, I guess some exceptions can be made !
  
  
• From: Chandramouli (@ alpxy2.att.com) on: Mon Jul 20 11:51:24 EDT 1998
  
  Srinath:
  This song was used to market Crompton Greaves' "Hometech" colour television when there was the big boom for colour TV`s in the years 1985-87. I remember this vivdly cos it was our first colour TV. It was standard ad in those days before the most watched programmes like "Oliyum Oliyum" and the Sunday thamizh movie
  
  
• From: Bharat (@ isdbsd1-inet.ci.mil.wi.us) on: Mon Jul 20 13:57:48 EDT 1998
  
  chinna thAyavaL, from thaLapathi. I'm refering to both versions. The first was in stark black and white, showing credits rolling over images of a train carrying Rajni as a baby. The second, in glorious color, is at the temples when Rajni spies his mother Srividya. The whole song is shot in a kind of fast slow-motion, and gives the impression of actually being in a temple what with so many people milling around. Even a touch as melodramatic as Rajni's picking up a flower his mother has dropped is picturized so innovatively, with a giant close-up of the flower. I thought Santosh Sivan, the cinematographer, did a first-rate job in this film.
  
  kAdhalikkum peNNin kaigaL from kAdhalan. I enjoyed the picturization of this song greatly. It was so refreshingly fast-paced and nutty. Pretty good choreography, and sets (remember the jeans backgrounds?).
  
  BTW, Srinath, what 'special effects' are you talking about in ponmAlaip pozhudhu?
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.29.214) on: Mon Jul 20 14:51:26 EDT 1998
  
  srinath,
  i had posted a few things on july 18 in this thread. i had a few questions and suggestions for u. if u did not see it it is now in old responses section.
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.29.214) on: Mon Jul 20 14:56:10 EDT 1998
  
  also ravi,
  i think it would be a good idea if the no. of postings should be higher before they go to old responses section. atleast the postings of 2 days should be together before they are sent to old responses section.
  
  kanchana,
  thanks for the info on CD-R. i need more info regarding availability in U.S, recording charges, whether recording shops here or in india can record songs in CD's for me.is it a relatively new thing? because i see everyone buying CD's but not recording in them.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: Srinath (@ socks12d.raleigh.ibm.com) on: Mon Jul 20 15:49:57 EDT 1998
  
  Hi Vijay !,
  Sorry, I missed your post earlier ! I started this thread because I was curious as to whether Indian cinema music would go the way of western music videos. But then I thought perhaps we weren't good enough. That set me off - thinking how many songs really would make the mark. But your suggestions carry interesting possibilities. Actually, there was a time when I wanted to compile IR's greatest hits sorted by either time or by topic on audio. Unfortunately, I haven't found any time to spend on it.
  
  I too live in the U.S and suffer from the same lack of resources :-( But as Varghese suggested there are many pre-recorded cassettes available though I am not overly fond of the collections. Smaller Video shops are more than willing to record for you and I don't think they would be too expensive either (considering the Cable T.V boom, I wonder if anybody runs video shops any more in Madras !). But the biggest problem is in getting somebody to do the leg-work. Maybe on my next trip to India, I can plan ahead and get together a good collection and share it among DFers. Now, I can see how useful it would be ! But I would rather sort them by moods/themes rather than by period. What do you think ?
  
  (I'll consolidate this list later today or tomorrow as I am a little busy right now. If somebody else is interested, you can go right ahead and list all songs that have been discussed here so far)
  
  
• From: Srinath (@ socks12d.raleigh.ibm.com) on: Mon Jul 20 15:54:06 EDT 1998
  
  Bharat:
  :-) the bird sounds :-) and bells which portray an early morning freshness. Kadhalikkum Penninkaigal is another very innovatively picturised song ! Muqqala was almost as good.
  
  Vijay:
  To use a CD-R you ned to buy a CD-Writer drive which costs anywhere between $250-$400. But unless you are recording from another CD, I don't see what difference it would make, unless you want to bring songs from various CDs into one.
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.27.248) on: Mon Jul 20 17:46:46 EDT 1998
  
  srinath,
  thanks. i just wanted to know whether shops here
  can record assorted songs on a CD like we do on a audio cassette.also whether the recording charges are affordable. because i do not prefer pre-recorded CD's. the CD title would say
  'greatest hits of IR' etc. but half the songs would be unknown.
  others,
  sorry for the digression.
  srinath,
  as u said u can classify songs by mood also,which is good.but classifying songs by mood pertaining to a reasonable time period say,1978-1985 would be even better.iam sure we can find a lot of songs pertaining to different moods in this period alone. this was the time when IR boom was there.
  
  for example,'vaigaikarai kaatre nillu' by KJy is a soga song as well as 'paadi parantha kili' by SPB.
  but i would not want these songs coming next to each other in a music video, as that would look a bit discontinuous and odd, IMO.
  
  
• From: Srinath (@ socks12d.raleigh.ibm.com) on: Mon Jul 20 18:43:54 EDT 1998
  
  Vijay:
  You are right. Arranging them by mood would also make it a little monotonous (and in some cases depressing :-)). I guess it is pretty difficult to come up with a line-up that would satisfy all tastes. The closest I can think of is sorting by movie, in which case we might as well buy the cassette off the shelf :-) Maybe we could arrange them by kind - for example songs with heavy instrumentation could go together, those with minimal instruments could be bunched together, those with fast, pacy beats in one cluster and others could probably be arranged as duets, solos, lyrical etc. But like you say, there has to be some sort of bunching otherwise it might become jarring. And since we are talking about music videos, 'period' would in fact make a big impact because of the pace at which cinematography improved over the years. Once the list saturates we might have a good idea of recording the songs in order. Does anybody know if DVDs can be recorded like CD-Rs ?
  
  Meanwhile, another addition -
  
  Thendral Vandu Theendum - Avathamram.
  
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.29.214) on: Mon Jul 20 19:19:03 EDT 1998
  
  srinath,
  one category of songs that would definitely click if arranged by mood is dance.it would be fun to have all dance based songs in one video cassette.
  i do not think time period is a great factor. even if it is a factor we can record the first ten songs or so which appeared before 1986 together and the next 10 songs or so after 1986 following that , in one single cassette.this would be great as we can see how dance in tamil fims evolved with time. iam not actually considering B&W films here.
  some more songs for a dance video:
  
  1.raaja raajadhi-agni natchathiram
  
  2. rambambum- MMKR
  
  3. rojapoo adi vandhadhu-agni natchathiram
  
  4. iravu nilavu ulagai - anjali
  
  5. usilampatti - gentleman
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: Thomas (@ wcc73017.oz.psu.edu) on: Tue Jul 21 12:14:38 EDT 1998
  
  I think all of the songs from "Thiruda Thiruda" are worthy of mention.
  
  
• From: Sudhir (@ 204.31.99.102) on: Tue Jul 21 20:45:46 EDT 1998
  
  If no one stops me i'll just go on and on on with Maniratnam's best picturizations
  1. Poomalaiye thozh seravaa- Pagal Nilavu
  2. Vaanuyarntha solaiyile - Idhaya Koil
  3. Chinna chinna vannakuyil - Mouna ragam
  4. Thoongatha vizhigal - Agni Natchatram
  5. Naan sirithaal - Nayagan
  6. Aathadi ammadi - Idhayathai Thirudathe
  7. Ammamma pillaikani - Anjali
  8. Sundari kannaal oru - Thalapathy
  9. Puthu vellai mazhai - Roja
  10.Thee thee - Thiruda Thiruda
  11. Kuchi kuchi raakamma - Bombay
  12. Pulveli - Aasai*
  13. Maalaiyil yaaro manadhodu - Kshatriyan*
  
  what needs to be noted in all these songs are that they all have set off a trend in their own right. Immediately following these movies we had shankar,priyadarshan, vasanth,kathir and manivannan, pc sriram all coming in photocopies of the same.
  
  To pick the best from this etc would be
  1. Oru kaadhal devathai-Idhayathamarai
  2. Nivedha - nee paadhi naan paadhi
  3. Kannaale kaadhal kavidhai - Atma
  4. Poongatru un persolla - Vetri vizha
  5. Thaalatum poongatru - Gopura Vasalile
  6. Killadhe killadhe - Gentleman
  
  Going by actors, only Kamal seems to have a good record in terms of song sequences. It started showing iself up after Vikram's kanne kattikavaa. Rajni's songs never had that kind of story telling feeling.
  Prabhu deva however is wow. Doesnt hog the attention on screen but lets the song be a visual hit in its own right.
  
  A general trend in the south i've seen is that a fresh heroine gets a good song for an introduction. Probably looking back in that direction we can find out some gems.
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217) on: Tue Jul 21 21:09:41 EDT 1998
  
  Director Mahendhran was a master at visualizing song sequences; he had a poet's eye. His specialty was in infusing a certain mood and emotion to the song by choosing the appropriate light, colors, and camera angles. And most of the time Mahendhran lets the song play in the background. All the background songs ("asariri" in Thamizh) from: Metti, Nandu, Nenjathai Killathae, Uthirippookkal, Azhagiya Kannae, Johnny,etc. were great in that respect.
  
  

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