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Browsing All Posts filed under »Music: Indian Cinema«
My interview by Venky Ramachandran – On music
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Interview: Bombay Jayashri
February 2, 2021
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Interview: Suresh Krissna recalls his journey with SPB
September 30, 2020
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Interview: YG Mahendran, Kavithalaya Krishnan, Kalpana remember SPB
September 29, 2020
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#AskBR – Remembering SPB
September 28, 2020
In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one… or talk about actors and directors… or take on a few YouTube comments… For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Remembering SP Balasubrahmanyam through the MSV era, the Ilaiyaraaja era, and beyond
September 25, 2020
A journey through the great singer’s songs in Tamil cinema, by the two great composers who used him the most, and used him the best. How on earth do you write about SPB? How do you contain the vastness of his accomplishments, the vast pleasures he has brought us, in a couple of thousand words? […]
Interview: Govind Vasantha (Masterclass on scoring background music)
August 21, 2020
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#AskBR – AR Rahman
July 31, 2020
In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one… or talk about actors and directors… or take on a few YouTube comments… For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Readers Write In #234: Sushant Singh Rajput and AR Rahman
July 29, 2020
(by Reane Taara) On June 14th, 2020; Sushant Singh Rajput ‘allegedly’ took his own life. This created quite a stir. To the people of the South, he was reel life Dhoni,which meant he was as loved as MSD. The time he visited Chennai with MS is proof that he was accepted by the people here. […]
Happy 90th birthday, Lata Mangeshkar!
September 28, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/happy-90th-birthday-lata-mangeshkar/ The singer’s greatness is taken for granted (and rightly so), but is the “Lata era” still a thing? Or is it just for older listeners and nostalgists? Hema Mangeshkar. After 90 years, the name doesn’t just sound off, it sounds wrong, like calling a rainbow a […]
The contentious nature of the National Awards
April 14, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/the-contentious-nature-of-the-national-awards-baahubali-village-rockstars-sridevi/ Musings on the country’s most prestigious film awards – and this is not about whether X deserved to win over Y. Another year. Another set of arguments over the National Awards. For instance: Did Sridevi deserve Best Actress? Indeed, under normal circumstances, would her performance in […]
A king and his times
May 21, 2016
Looking back at the Ilayaraja era, which began forty years ago, with the release of ‘Annakili’ on 14 May, 1976. So Ilayaraja’s music and I, we’re both in our forties. This doesn’t mean that his is the only music I grew up with. The songs on radio and television came from the 60s, 50s, sometimes […]
Master of Arts
October 17, 2014
Kamal Haasan talks about how music came into his life. And dance. And everything else. Baradwaj Rangan listens. Forget the actor. That was the brief. After fifty years of acting, that’s the only facet of Kamal Haasan people think about. Sometimes, maybe, they think of Kamal Haasan the writer or Kamal Haasan the director. But […]
I candy
September 17, 2014
Thoughts on AR Rahman’s gloriously fun and wholly individual soundtrack for the new Shankar film. You know that familiar Tamil-cinema contrivance where a prisoner in handcuffs is being led away in a police van, and the van stops at a crossing, and the prisoner looks around furtively and sees a chance, and as the cops […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Highway robbery… or happenstance?”
February 28, 2014
A few days after the release of Imtiaz Ali’s wonderful new film, the Internet is abuzz with accusations of plagiarisation. But is that really the case? I liked Imtiaz Ali’s Highway a lot, and when rumours began cropping up on the Internet that the film was a copy of The Chase – a 1994 action-comedy […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Poems, with beats and a great tune…”
January 31, 2014
Vairamuthu’s Padma Bhushan honour is a reminder (if any were needed) that the lyrics written for films are sometimes on par with the best poetry. We all read prose, some of us write prose, but when it comes to poetry, we excuse ourselves from the table, suddenly remembering something more important. I don’t think it’s […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Dancing about architecture”
October 11, 2013
Thoughts on the background score in the movies, and the difficulty in writing about them. One kind of response you get used to as a critic is the but-how-could-you-not-mention… This usually comes from aggrieved fans of an actor who is not mentioned in the review (or mentioned only in passing, in a pair of parentheses […]
The last of a kind
May 27, 2013
A tribute to TM Soundararajan, the voice of a generation. To know why TM Soundararajan, TMS, was the last representative of a certain kind of playback singer, you’ll first have to consider that he rose to fame in an era where not everyone could become a playback singer – not even if you had a […]
‘What else can I do?’
May 2, 2013
AR Rahman isn’t in the mood to talk about his music for ‘Maryan,’ but about everything else he’s happy to hold forth. AR Rahman seems to like having his picture taken. He’s seated at the edge of a couch in one of the many small office rooms at his Kodambakkam studio, and the harsh lights […]
February 24, 2021
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