I am an audiophile. I love listening to songs in the theater. I enjoy listening to songs on TV. And because of that, I absolutely hate it when directors waste really really good compositions by,
1) Not using them fully / cutting them short
2) Fading the song’s audio out / playing dialogues over the song
3) Overwriting the song’s audio with background noises
4) Adding special effect noises over the song
First of all, I blame this on the introduction of DTS sound to Tamil cinema. More speakers meant people wanting to fill each of them with some/any sound.
Second of all, as I could not recollect anyone else before him, I blame Mani Ratnam for starting this mayhem, beginning with his ‘Alaipayuthey’. It all started with ‘Yaro Yarodi’, didn’t it? — with Shalini & Madhavan’s talky portions overwriting parts of the song. Then, a beautiful song like Swarnalatha’s ‘Evano Oruvan’ was spoiled by adding background noises (wind noise, river water noise, et cetera).
Since Alaipayuthey, Mani Ratnam has been effectively spoiling many songs’ audio in almost all of his movies. Consider ‘Usurae Pogudhey’ from ‘Raavanan’, for instance. This gem of a song by A.R.Rahman was totally destroyed by the director. The song was filled with a variety of audio other than the actual song. Viz. — that ‘ulagathula irukra ella ketta varthai’ argument between Aishwarya Rai and Vikram, waterfall noise, gunshot noise, and so on.
In the 90s and 2000s — I used to buy the audio cassettes (and later CDs) of all major movies, which were released a month or 2 before the actual silver screen release of each movie. I had the luxury of owning an amazing “Sony Walkman”, which only made listening to these pre-released songs closer to being in heaven.
Due to the hype created by these pre-released songs, I used enter the auditoriums, expecting to enjoy listening to the songs in the grand DTS speakers of a movie theater. Because, you see, for an audiophile like me, whenever a song is playing in a movie hall, whatever is happening on-screen would only be an added pleasure. The actual pleasure resides in the ‘listening’ part, and sometimes even going to the extent of trying to dissect which sound is coming from which speaker, between which speakers the sound travels to and fro, and so on.
Meaning, knowing well in advance that a movie has amazing songs, and taking that expectation to the theater was a amazing feeling in itself. It was like a sleepless child with a sack full of crackers, anxiously lying in bed before the dawn of the ‘Deepavali’ day. The real ‘event’ began for me only when the songs started playing in the large ass speakers of the theaters.
And then Mani Ratnam willfully started spoiling that experience for people like me. And all his movies having amazing A.R.Rahman songs was only an added cruelty.
But now, this madness has spread to many a director in Tamil Cinema.
Remember how the moron that is today, G.V.Prakash, had composed really good songs for ‘Aadukalam’? Well, Vetri Maaran actively spoiled them with overplayed dialogues, bullet motorcycle noise, et al. Remember the ‘Ayyayo’ song and how S.P.Balasubramaniam’s superb rendition of that song was replaced by mundane dialogues, bike noise and whatnot?
Remember how Jayam Ravi goes ‘vroooom vroooom’ with motorcycle noise while Yuvan’s beautiful ‘Kannan Varum Velai’ is played in ‘Deepavali’?
Yuvan also had is this really good composition with nice lyrics, in the Surya/Asin starrer ‘Vel’ — ‘Ottrai Kannala’. But then, the ‘fast-jump-cut-specialist’ that is director Hari, decided to add special surrounding effect speaker noises (translates to ‘voooosh, voooosh’) whenever the visuals changed to a different shot, throughout that song. I mean, sitting through that song in the theater was a grand torture for me.
Remember ‘Ayyayyo Ananthamae’ from ‘Kumki’? After the first stanza of lyrics, there is this beautiful stretch of music involving percussion instruments. According to me, this is where that song soars really really high. I thought D.Imman had really outdone himself here. Then again, to my dismay, when I watched it in the theater, the “artificial-climax-tragedy-specialist” that is director Prabhu Solomon, had spoiled this exact stretch by overplaying it with elephant noises and/or dialogues. I was like, why? Doooode, why?????
Remember how Meera Jasmine keeps yelling ‘laka laka laka’ and ‘otharavaaaa’ like a mental case, throughout Yuvan’s soothing ‘Dhavani Potta Deepavali’ from ‘Sanda Kozhi 1’?
Ughhhh!!!!
You know what the main downside to these overpowering noises over songs? They are the number 1 bummers, when these songs are repeatedly played on TV music channels. I mean, do we really need to listen to yester year actor Rohini’s voice (she dubbed for Aishwarya Rai), swearing every damn time Raavanan’s ‘Usurey Poguthey’ is played on TV?
Ugh, again!
There is a reason why Americans call all Indian movies as “musicals”. Because they have songs in Hollywood movies, only if it is a musical.
In this aspect though, even though I dislike many aspects of their film making, I like how directors Shankar and Gautam Vasudev Menon make use of their musician’s songs in their movies. The songs are almost always played in its entirety in their movies, with no intervening dialogues or background noises. Great to watch — be it a movie theater, or a TV screen with a music channel on.
Imagine how torturous it would have been, had Gautam Vasudev Menon decided to intersperse all songs in ‘Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya’ with dialogues and background noises?
I know it probably won’t happen, but I so wish that these so called ‘modern’ Tamil movie directors would stop spoiling the songs in their movies. Childish wishful thinking, eh?
Baradwaj Rangan 
Wander like the Wind
October 18, 2018
Imagine how torturous it would have been, had Gautam Vasudev Menon decided to intersperse all songs in ‘Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya’ with dialogues and background noises?//
Hosanna had that ” ennada panre? film scene…” dialogue in between. I don’t recall any other instance, but I am sure GVM has done this more often.
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Madan
October 18, 2018
Nice write up! Can hear the audiophile passion coming through. Yes, listening to the songs in the theater used to be an experience to savour. For reasons going beyond sound effect too. This trend of chopping songs in the actual film goes way back. Mandram Vandha is mercilessly chopped in Mouna Ragam. Directors should have some discretion as to which songs they want to subject to that treatment, if at all. If you do that to an intense, melancholic solo, the momentum is gone. Even KB cut out portions of the interludes of Enna Satham and had dialogue instead. Again the best song of the soundtrack. This is something Hollywood doesn’t do in their musicals, at least not that I am aware of. Once the song starts, you want to remain 100% involved in how it is developing. Chopping it and cutting in with scenes in the middle makes no sense to me.
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Prasad
October 18, 2018
I don’t have any problem with noises or chopping of songs. The moments in the songs are meant to convey something. For me, the song “Evano oruvan” from Alaipayuthey actually worked better with ambient noises. Going to a movie just to listen to the songs is a choice you made. And these directors want to tell a story and using only a part of a song to convey an emotion is fine. Sometimes, having the whole song distracted me from the story and I couldn’t wait for it to over. Only a few times, having the whole song made sense. But the ambient noises always helped the moments in the movie.
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Shravan Chetty
October 18, 2018
Mr. Siva,
Can feel the pain! In ccv, as the tension built up for the sing it really disappointed when it was just ‘dei enga da media patty?’
It also leads to lack of proper visuals, so video songs are ruined. They dont wven try to male a full fledged album video Version!
I mean if it does mean something to the movie, make proper video versions and then cut it on screen…
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Senthil S
October 18, 2018
Idk. Sometimes this can work really well. Nallai Allai in Kaatru Veliyidai was beautifully filmed and flowed with the movie. And it might’ve been better if Gautham Menon had chopped up the songs in VTV, considering how much he screwed up the picturization of the songs, especially Omana Penne.
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sanjeevpriyam
October 18, 2018
Kudos! An observation that I personally had too while watching both CCV & Vada Chennai. Both were brilliant albums that weren’t give their due in the movie.
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therag
October 18, 2018
The problem is just editing. Baby Driver had chopped up songs but you don’t notice because the film is edited in such a way that the rock kick and the in-film background noise are in sync at all times. CCV also did not have much of a problem (I didn’t listen to the songs before so I had nothing to compare to) because the soundtrack was in sync with the film.
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Vidhya M
October 18, 2018
I can relate to this with Kannathil Muthamittal – where Vellai pookal was relegated to the background in the opening sequence. By the time Signore played as a car audio piece, I knew what to expect.
On the other end of the spectrum, the likes of Bharathiraja would have a choreographed shot for each and every beat in the song – clapping hands, swaying flowers, angels, fluttering eyes and what not. This was another way of butchering nice songs (though I have to admit that these songs are quite amusing to watch for their bizarre quotient)
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Shankar
October 18, 2018
I had that feeling watching “Neethane en ponvasantham”…songs were mercilessly chopped! I agree it may have happened sporadically in the past, but is now happening a lot.
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Anil Kumar
October 18, 2018
Siva, Nice Write up discussing ‘Pure Song-space’ in the film. I agree with you partially on the part that songs being mutilated, chopped up bits & pieces in the narrative. BUT SONGS & THEMES BLENDED & ENTWINED WITH NARRATIVE IS ALSO AWESOME. I do like when songs blend in with the narrative. I differ with you on Alaipayuthey. Karthik watching Sakthi in the Local train as they cross is beautifully romanticized with ‘Yaro Yarodi’. The Pachainirame theme keeps coming earlier when he is chasing her makes it awesome. These scenes as narrative, doused in those song themes made them more relishing even now. In Bombay the music bit when Shila Bhanu comes to Sekhar’s house. I do like a 5 minute songs like Chayya Chayya & Mukkabula to happen with it’s own uninterrupted space and I also love Poongaatrile blended with narrative. I also love when VC converses with Leela in Tango song or Karthik & Sakthi conversation in Yarodi song. I feel the narrative is owning the moments when the conversations blend in. In Pudhupettai when Kumar finds the baby boy alive in the morning comes ‘Meduva Inge Vazhkai puriyum. Such soulful spaces & haunting songs make the scenes eternal. Selva Raghavan’s use of Songs in 7G. Imtiaz Ali’s use in Rockstar (OK! you might call it Musical, but then he got Highway where haunting symbiosis happens with both narrative & Music complementing each other.) We love Montage songs, where days, weeks & months of narrative sails smoothly & soulfully in 5 minutes. All I wish is Music to render the soul of narrative. Years later I might forget the dialogue, situation, actor but my feelings instantly blossom when they are tagged to a tune/song bit. Yes Directors at times have lost the magic touch these days because the writing as a narrative itself is flawed giving no space for the songs/themes to blend in.
Hoping 5 minute songs with wholesome uninterrupted feel will come back soon. Shankar is a master where he aspires each song as a mission in itself. Mani Ratnam also did that in past. Hoping more Kadhalan, Jeans & Dil se’s will happen to relish our song diet.
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Cholan Raje
October 18, 2018
Siva, you’ve read my mind.
You don’t star-stun your audience with songs like Mazhai Kuruvi and Kaarkuzhal Kadavaiye and demean them to background scores. For one, it’s fucking annoying.
For another, it makes the film itself look bad. A film has it’s voice throughout the action scenes, dialogues and climactic points, but a SONG is when the music director takes the spotlight. “Mental Manadhil” is not Mani Ratnam’s show in OKK. Those 3 minutes are ARR perceiving the situation the way HE does. We stumble through countless Ratnam dialogues, waddling around in the dark of our subconsciousness for an emotion to feel, but ARR is what shows us the light; Aadhi’s youth is on full display. Tara’s screaming like she wants this moment to last forever, she wants to stay on that bike and never look back. “Manamanamana Mental Manadhil” is ARR’s way of taking us along for that ride. It is Mani Ratnam taking a step back for HIM to be the artist of that scene.
A music director+ movie director combo is a collaboration between two artists, not one artist forcing the other to hide at the back of the stage and simply dance to his tunes. “Modern” directors have failed to realize this. No, I don’t wanna see my favorite stars dance on mountains anymore. Yes, having a song that flows with the story is nice. BUT YOU MUST STILL SHOW RESPECT FOR THE SONG, or at least one or two songs of the album by allowing them to play in their near-entirety. These idiots fail to realize that songs are what bring people to their films in the first place, and they completely forget to respect what that music has done for that film.
But what goes around comes around, because they pay for that disrespect. When you try to make BGM out of songs, they stick out like a sore thumb. It’s an awkward, cringeworthy battle between some random portion of the music and a visual that struggles to exceed it in volume. Not only does it piss off audiophiles everywhere, but it makes the film look like complete ass. One would be happier if they just didn’t use any of the songs at all. CCV speaks for that. Playing Mazhai Kuruvi after killing off Prakash Raj will be a facepalm in Mani Ratnam’s career for years to come.
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meera
October 19, 2018
Am perfectly fine with songs being chopped off… but loved the nicknames you had for the directors especially Hari…
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Ravi K
October 19, 2018
“You know what the main downside to these overpowering noises over songs? They are the number 1 bummers, when these songs are repeatedly played on TV music channels. I mean, do we really need to listen to yester year actor Rohini’s voice (she dubbed for Aishwarya Rai), swearing every damn time Raavanan’s ‘Usurey Poguthey’ is played on TV?”
For songs like these they should do a special edit without the dialogue/SFX, for the music shows.
My problem with the way our films typically use non-background songs is that they’re not really part of the narrative. They’re essentially music video speedbreakers. They’re not an extension of the dialogue. Maybe at one point it was a novelty to cut from the reality of the film to some other location to convey romance or just for no real reason, but that became a formula. It’s as if the filmmakers are sealing off the songs from the reality of the film, which is not nearly as fun or interesting as having characters burst into song where they are.
And the montage/background song has become kind of formulaic and cliche itself. We don’t always need a song to feed us emotions.
“Jagga Jaasoos” used songs splendidly. I wish more Indian filmmakers incorporated songs into their films as imaginatively. “Pariyerum Perumal” also used songs well. Loved the way “Naan Yaar” deposited us into the headspace of the titular character at a crucial moment.
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Enigma
October 19, 2018
I wish Indian filmmakers, especially the Tamil ones, grow up and eliminate the ridiculous song and dance routines completely from the non-musicals.
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Srinivas R
October 19, 2018
Siva, Iam actually from the other end of the spectrum, where the songs serving the movie is more important than being a musical experience. So I don’t mind songs being split up are used along with dialogue. In YA, unakenna venum sollu song has a dialogue of aduthadhu enga porom Sathya, also in KK, ennai konjam maatri song, there is a conversation when she talks about her family home. All that adds to the overall experience. As with song only picturisations, things can go wrong when songs blend into scenes, but I prefer this approach.
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brangan
October 19, 2018
I don’t mind songs being broken up in films, provided that even in this broken-up avatar, they do what a song is supposed to do. Which is to evoke a mood, sustain it for a while. And for this to happen, you typically need to go as far as at least the first stanza.
What happens in Vada Chennai — and why I complained — is that just the opening lines of the songs were used sometimes (eg Goindhammavaala), and if there’s no time for more, then even these opening lines should not be there.
Because a song is a stylistic device that yanks you out of a “real” moment and takes you to a hyper-real plane. And with just two lines, this “yanking” is so sudden, it gives you whiplash.
As for CCV, I wrote about this in my review. I feel songs cannot replace score. A score done to mimic a song is fine — say, you use various instrumental versions of Bhoomi Bhoomi. But when the actual sung version comes up over and over, it’s terribly distracting — and tonally alienating when the song and the scene exist on different planes.
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Siva
October 19, 2018
BR: Thank you for publishing the rant 🙂
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Siva
October 19, 2018
Madan, sanjeevpriyam, Anil Kumar & meera: Thank you for your appreciation, guys! 🙂
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Siva
October 19, 2018
Wander like the Wind: True that ‘Hosanna’ stops in the middle for a quick dialogue or two. I am fine when that happens occasionally and if it does not spoil the general ‘mood’ of the song. But if I am recollecting correctly, ‘Hosanna’ was literally ‘paused’ for the dialogue space. And then the song continued from where it left off and ended without any more stoppage. I would have been fine even if there were one more ‘pause’ in that song, if it meant that the end result moved the story along.
What bothers me is when a song is played in the background (not ‘paused’ altogether), while the dialogue and/or other noises badly overwrite the song’s audio.
Meaning, the song would still be playing, but you cannot really make out anything out of that because what you can hear is 10% song and 90% dialogue/noise.
If the film maker feels the need/compulsion to tell a story amid a song, I am fine as long as they stop the song for dialogue and then continue later. Just not when they play noise/dialogue over a song.
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Siva
October 19, 2018
Shravan Chetty & Cholan Raje: I feel you 100%
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Siva
October 19, 2018
Shravan Chetty: ” I mean if it does mean something to the movie, make proper video versions and then cut it on screen… ”
Ravi K: ” For songs like these they should do a special edit without the dialogue/SFX, for the music shows. ”
I agree with your views. I have thought of this many times too. I wonder why they don’t do that for all chopped up and/or noise/dialogue damaged songs. It would only increase a newly released movie’s mileage — if an uninterrupted version of a good song is repeatedly played on TV. I guess the makers are missing a trick here!
On the flip side, it is happening in a roundabout way these days. Tamil TV channels have started airing the “Lyric Videos” that are pre-released on YouTube. Even though these versions do not have a proper visual, at least we are able to listen to them on TV without any breaks/noises. I am glad at the least we are getting these now! 🙂
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Ravi K
October 19, 2018
There’s still some actual or perceived value in a film having songs associated with it for marketing purposes. So filmmakers who may not really even want to use the songs use small bits of the songs in the background to be able to say that they’ve technically used the songs. I would be fine if they released an album of songs associated with or inspired by the film, to be used in trailers and commercials, that weren’t actually in the film, so they didn’t feel obligated to use any or all of them in this piecemeal fashion.
Using bits of pieces of songs is satisfying for nobody. They don’t work as background score, for the reasons BR outlined, they don’t satisfy our itch to hear a song once it’s started. And I can’t imagine that the directors like using songs this way, since this kind of use doesn’t serve the films.
Siva wrote:
“What bothers me is when a song is played in the background (not ‘paused’ altogether), while the dialogue and/or other noises badly overwrite the song’s audio.
Meaning, the song would still be playing, but you cannot really make out anything out of that because what you can hear is 10% song and 90% dialogue/noise.
If the film maker feels the need/compulsion to tell a story amid a song, I am fine as long as they stop the song for dialogue and then continue later. Just not when they play noise/dialogue over a song.”
In cases such as this, they could re-edit the song so that there is an instrumental interlude where the dialogue/SFX are, so they aren’t competing with lyrics, if stopping the song completely ends up being awkward.
And if they must stop the song completely, they should re-record or re-edit it so that the ending bit trails off naturally, and doesn’t feel like they just put a full stop in the middle of a song.
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e221
October 19, 2018
I have a mixed feeling on this. In #CCV, “Bhoomi Bhoomi” was so riveting that it was in repeat mode after I watched the movie. The point is, along with the climax visuals, that song made a different impact and completely different experience where I was able to enjoy it more after the movie although I never heard if fully in the movie.
But in Kadal, “Neinjukule…”, I heard the song like n number of times and was eagerly waiting for the visuals from Mani Sir. And Mani Sir completely killed the song in the movie by interpreting it with a lot of dialogues where I really got irritated.
One can make a movie without songs. But then we would never get an Ilayaraja or A R rehman again. If we restrict songs only to musicals, then just imagine what a loss it would be for us. Imagine the number of songs we had so far for each situation, themes, characters, and emotions…
So I would say IMO, let directors “kabaligaram” a song as long as they show interest for creating songs for the movie. In that way, although it spoils the song or even the movie watching experience, we have the album that we can savor for years after even if the movie was long gone.
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Madan
October 19, 2018
“One can make a movie without songs. But then we would never get an Ilayaraja or A R rehman again.” – That is anyway not going to happen because our movies have changed so much. That is, there is NO need for a Raja or Rahman anymore. So what are Raja/Rahman doing still composing for films? Just adding gravy to a sumptuous feast. Raja is already doing predominantly BGM only projects; sign of the times. The films of the 80s and 90s (ARR’s most productive phase) still followed the traditional narrative structure of Indian cinema which emphasised drama over detail and created spaces for songs as a complement to the story. In bad films, they were just a desirable distraction, but that’s different.
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Ravi K
October 20, 2018
e221 wrote: “One can make a movie without songs. But then we would never get an Ilayaraja or A R rehman again. If we restrict songs only to musicals, then just imagine what a loss it would be for us. Imagine the number of songs we had so far for each situation, themes, characters, and emotions…
So I would say IMO, let directors “kabaligaram” a song as long as they show interest for creating songs for the movie. In that way, although it spoils the song or even the movie watching experience, we have the album that we can savor for years after even if the movie was long gone.”
I totally understand your first point, since I enjoy plenty of songs from films that I either didn’t like or didn’t see. And the songs do live on more than the films themselves.
But this comes down to a fundamental philosophy of the use of music in movies. Are movies the core product that music has to serve, or are movies just music delivery mechanisms? I believe the movie should be the priority, and shouldn’t be compromised just to include songs.
Even in some of the masala films that still have songs, they don’t seem to be that important to the audience. Do people really remember the songs in Ajith/Vijay films, even though their films are box office hits?
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Sam
October 20, 2018
Just discussing about this exactly after watching vada chennai with my mate. I was good to hear the song ennadi mayavi nee in the dolby atmos, and when the song was flowing and ugh the song got suddenly cut and the movie got back to its story where it left.
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therag
October 20, 2018
Well ARR is producing his own films(which are obviously music heavy) and I heard good things about Harmony, the mini series. He is obviously not banking on film and doesn’t have to.
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