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Keeravani get best MD award (National) for Annamayya. Why not "Guru"

Topic started by S.Suresh (@ dwarpal.wipsys.soft.net) on Mon May 11 01:27:46 EDT 1998.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Hi,

I was surprised to find that Keeravani has been awarded the best MD (National Awards). I was thinking all along that the best music to come out in 1997 was "Guru". Not b'cause I like IR but the music is very involved. Lot of effort has gone into it. I have heard the music of Annamayya and it is OK at best. Maybe the committe decided to give the award to some movie which has a classical base. BTW, Guru was also not given the best MD even when Kerala State announce the awards. Guru got some other awards in Kerala but not music. Any reactions.

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: N.C.Ramakrishna (@ hil-c45-014-vty116.as.wcom.net) on: Mon Dec 7 23:11:28 EST 1998
  
  Guys from this thread has gone around the world except for Keeravani's Annamayya and IR's GURU.
  
  But guys we should not forget the work Keeravani has done in Annamayya.Lot of people have worked on Annamayya's work who is famous in AP. TTD in Tirumala has undertaken lot of projects on developing as well as making his works popular. MM Keeravani has done an excellent job which is more or less equivalent to GURU. There cant be two winners at a time. Though many of them are existing ones, Keeravani presented them very well. He preserved the great works of Annamayya without tampering the original works much with great instrumentation.
  
  Though this movie was directed by most commercial director KR, this got accolades from all over. Nobody ever made an attempt to make a movie on this saint in this pop culture. May be thats why Govt decided to appreciate this attempt which made to preserve the works and make Annamayya's work popular. I dont think it is insulting IR by not giving award to him. IR is above these awards.
  
  I also agree with guys who tell if in this world, JEANS can be nominated for Academy awards, there is no wonder these miracles happening. I also dont see except Amritraj the reason for this nomination.
  
  
• From: N.C.Ramakrishna (@ hil-c45-014-vty116.as.wcom.net) on: Tue Dec 8 00:04:07 EST 1998
  
  One more to add on this. Hope this would not be degression or one dragging into controversy ....
  
  When daily sung in schools the Vandemataram has to be revived and reminded to younger generation through Pop style,( by many guys, which was also many TFM DF'er's opinion)gets much appreciation, Keeravani without much changes revived and reminded greatness of Annamayya (his music,his devotion, his beauty in using simple words) without marketing strategies like used to popularise VM,IMO Keeravani definitely deserves the award.
  
  One who has been thru works of Annamayya, will definetely appreciate this award for Keeravani.If have have to feel these songs, you have to feel Annamayya.
  
  
• From: arun (@ 139.94.162.37) on: Tue Dec 8 00:21:01 EST 1998
  
  arr and mani are the greatest fake gods i know in the tamil film industry. both are like recycle bins go there you will find them rehashing the old garbage. they just compliment each other.
  tahnks,
  arun
  
  
• From: Shankar (@ webgate0.mot.com) on: Tue Dec 8 03:17:25 EST 1998
  
  NCR,
  All I wanted to say is that GURU is much more richer musically than Annamayya.
  mind U, i'm not berating those wonderful work of annamAcharya which were given un-tampered by MMK.
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.28.61) on: Tue Dec 8 03:18:05 EST 1998
  
  as a sidenote i would like to mention an article in rediff about mani rathnam where shobha warrier has torn him apart. pl. visit http://www.rediff.com/entertai/1998/dec/07malaya.htm
  sorry for the digression.
  
  
• From: in_defense (@ bluebird.qut.edu.au) on: Tue Dec 8 07:05:03 EST 1998
  
  let me join in this sidetracking:
  
  i read shoba warrier's article as well as several other recent critiques of maniratnam's uyire. Most of them almost gleefully pounced on its debacle to trash his every past movie. IMO, it's another of a series of flawed, superficial analyses. what eludes my understanding is - are these criticisms grounded in context? it's easy for anybody to come up and trash the so-called "populist commercial" cinema, but what about the market? are we looking at films as fundamentally a pure art form, or as an industry? it's so very easy to eulogise adoor or mani kaul, but beyond the confines of the cinema literati, what is the masses perception of their movies? Maniratnam is essentially a businessman, he never pretends to be otherwise. As a filmmaker vested with enormous responsibility, riding on multi-million budgets and the inputs of hundreds of crew that make the film, it's in his logic to see that the movie is treated in a way that reaches the lowest common denominator (in his view). That could be his perspective much the same way a P.Vasu or KS Ravikumar approach it, but with diff. aesthetic insights.
  
  Though it's a fashion to say that a good movie is a good movie, irrespective of whether it's commercial or not, I think it would be fair to rate movies in the commercial domain based on their particular genre. Trying to compare a Shankar with Kurosawa or Kubrick is sheer nonsense, IMHO. I think Shoba Warrier has much in the same way of several other arm-chair critics taken the easy way of trashing all of Maniratnam's past work capitalising on the abject defeat of Uyire at the boxoffice.
  
  Let me also agree that a box-office hit is not a yardstick for quality, but who determines quality? is it us or the person who pays 200Rs. to get a ticket for a Rajini movie? I believe that when something's in the public domain, it's upto the market to determine its intrinsic worth. Uyire flopped b'cos the market determined it, much the same way it made a success of Bombay or Jeans. It's very well for us to debate the quality of the product, but trying to wish away a person's achievement just b'cos it doesn't fit the way we perceive that it should be, speaks of extreme narrow-mindedness.
  
  All views IMHO only :-)
  
  
• From: Srinivas (@ pup36.stanford.edu) on: Tue Dec 8 13:54:52 EST 1998
  
  NCR : I totally agree with you on your feelings about Annamayya. I am sure that it is a great effort on Keeravani's part to *present* Annamacharya's great keerthanas. IMHO, he is deserving of the award. Music like this is certainly welcome in this age of superficial tastes and POP music. What I was more concerned about was the conferral of the award to out and out commercial albums like Minsara Kanavu etc which neither showed our culture nor were rich in musical content. So also, Jeans getting a nomination is equally appalling.
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.28.73) on: Tue Dec 8 18:29:57 EST 1998
  
  let me conclude the sidetracking.
  mr. bluebird-in-defense,
  whether u like it or not, it is a fact that
  mani's recent films have lacked depth, a good screenplay, and have looked like documentaries interspersed with music videos. shobha is perfectly correct in saying that mani is fradulent. by trying to cater to a national market
  he has degraded thoroughly. uyire is crap by any standards.
  his films have not reached even the highest common denominator. who said bombay was a hit?
  it might have run well in a few A centres.that's it.
  and he has called roja,bombay and uyire as his 'epic trilogy'?!! what does he think of himself, satyajit ray or kurosawa?
  its an epic disaster.
  
  
• From: raja (@ spider-wb061.proxy.aol.com) on: Tue Dec 8 18:53:53 EST 1998
  
  You cannot discount Roja and Bombay; they were movies which impacted the indian film scene and were far ahead than many of the films released during that time. I havent seen Uyire so cannot comment. Whether they were commercially hits is another issue altogether.
  
  Maniratnam is a director who is far ahead in his craft than most of the commercial film directors.
  
  
  
  
• From: N.C.Ramakrishna (@ hil-c45-034-vty151.as.wcom.net) on: Tue Dec 8 19:17:43 EST 1998
  
  Shankar
  
  As I told in my previous posting that there cant be two winners at a time. This award has been given for cause ( to keep Annamayya's work a live ).Along with richness in tradtional music.It is good that
  
  I understand your feelings. I too feel IR's work is definitely great in GURU and deserved more than what he got. ( Of course he got nothing )
  
  
• From: Raj (@ hydrec2.hyd.deshaw.com) on: Thu Dec 10 13:16:07 EST 1998
  
  NCR,
  Dont you think that the Natl. award for MUSIC is given for excellence in music... not for championing any cause? That way, any T , D and H ( BTW, D above is not meant to refer to Deva:)) might score for a movie with such "Championing" motives and walk away with the award. IMHO, GURU is a rare album in the Indian Scene...and its intrinisic musical merit ,IMO , outweighs all the sociological success Annamayya might have had in popularising Annamacharya..personally, I dont observe any such phenomeneon..I am in Hyderabad...and the disco-happy, feet-tapping crowd still crowds daler mehndi's show...the tea shops still blare "Baavagaru Bagunnara" and "Choodalani undhi",latest hits of chiranjeevi at full sound..Annamayya still is appreciated only by THOSE WHO ALREADY ARE FAMILIAR WITH CLASSICAL MUSIC, who ,in any case don't need MMK to familarise them with Annamayya.So, I must question the veracity of your claim that the sociological impact of Annamayya in popularising annamacharya makes it worthy of an award over GURU, which, as experts here like srinath can explain better, is a rare celebration of WCM in a Indian movie. That an
  Indian from a non-descript village in remote tamilnadu produced such inspired stuff in WCM. Doesnt such a genius deserve better recognition
  than has been accorded to him till now?
  Annamayya was GOOD, let me agree. But did it possess MERIT for the natl. award on pure musical terms. Maybe, if we compare with Jeans and Raja Hindustani, yes. But, IMO, It doesnt stand in comparison with Guru. All this is frustrating to watch ...Aroona kirana has been discussed in detail elsewhere...the way it expresses the joy of new-found sense of sight to the hitherto blind ..I dont think I have to elaborate on it any further. The music simply speaks, sir. It tells the whole story..it expresses each and every emotion the movie seeks to express. And it is of such high quality. What else should a MD create to deserve an award?
  Take Mogamul vs Minsara Kanavu. Whereas "sollayo vai thiranthu" makes you feel the yearning this young singer for yamuna so graphically, does Vennilave express to full satisfaction the turmoil of prabhu deva in accepting/suppressing his feelings for kajol?IMO,no.It is a decently good song, standalone.But does it speak the character's mind?No,again,IMO.
  Yet, it was minsara kanavu which got the award. What can I say? That man,mottai, is not going to bother..he is going to come out with another stupendous score,cooly,wheteher these award committees appreciate him or not. It is fans like us, who watch with helplessness, as lesser people walk with acccolades.
  Sorry for the long posting. I couldnt help asking the question why should FACTORS other than INTRINISIC MUSICAL WORTH ,like sociological impact,decide awards? The discussion on MK and Mogamul was a digression caused by a heartburn over the award to MK..Reading this thread revived that "burnt smell" of lobbied awards. And, another digression, Annamayya is the same movie in which Nagarjuna,as annamaayya, starts off dishum-dishuming with thugs and goes on to sing a couple of duets with RamyaKrishna and Kasturi..I am sorry, i cant accept that this movie spread the fame of annamayya.
  
  
  
• From: Srinivas (@ pup36.stanford.edu) on: Fri Dec 11 15:13:20 EST 1998
  
  I think there are several questions here.
  1. Whether "sociological impact" can be used as a criterion for awards.
  2. whether Annamayya had the desired / targetted impact.
  3. whether the compositions in Annamayya have any musical merit-
  My answer to the first question is Yes. For one thing, "intrinsic musical worth" is a hard, if not intangible quality. I agree that an album such as GURU is of the highest musical quality. But, it should not come as any surprise if critics were divided about the relative quality between two albums.
  Whether Annamayya achieved the desired impact is also a hard question. It cannot be measured by a superficial look at what songs are being blared on loud speakers. I personally was never interested in Carnatic/ Hindustani forms of music. It was only after listening to the songs of Annacharya did I start to appreciate the beauty and nuances in PURE indian music. I think the venture deserves some credit for atleast trying to bring AWARENESS.
  I agree with NCR that when people are immersed in a culture of Pop music/ disco, pure classical albums need to be appreciated for the *intent*.
  If popularity charts are to be used as a measure of impact, then Annayya definitely had *impact* because, it was in the top of the countdown, at the time it was released.
  I don't need to answer the third question. If one doubts the musical merit of this album, then one is casting a doubt on Saint Annamacharya's songs themselves.
  IMO MMK did a splendid job of using traditional instruments, and highlighting nuances , strictly adhering to the Classical format. I think, the effort deserves appreciation.
  As for the quality of the film, knowing the reputation of KR, I would not be surprised if he *did* use crass commercial gimmicks. But then, the music was kept free from any gimmicks.
  
  

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