March 30, 2010
 

Mouna Ragam and metamorphosis

"K TV" telecast 'Mouna Ragam' last week. I love watching it every time it shows up on TV, but unlike some of my other favourites, I don't actually watch it to discover something new all the time. I always do that with say 'Michael Madana Kama Rajan' because I'm absolutely sure that despite having watched it more than 50 times, I will still find something new to laugh about.

I watch 'Mouna Ragam' because I can track a sort of metamorphosis in me.

I may have first seen it when I was 11 or 12 years old, around 6-8 months after it was released in 1986. Despite liking movies, our parents weren't the sort of people who would make it a point to catch all the new movies that showed up in the theatres.

So it is quite possible that we saw it on video tape or when Doordarshan showed it on TV around a year later. Contrast this to today's TV channels that scream out "திரைக்கு வந்து சில மாதங்களே ஆன புத்தம் புதிய திரை படம்" warning viewers that they would be telecasting a movie that 100% of the Tamil movie watching public was blissfully unaware of.

As far as I can remember, the first aspects of 'Mouna Ragam' that blew me away were the frivolous and fun-filled nature of the Karthik-Revathi romance scenes. For evidence, see these clips.

Over the next few years, whenever I saw the movie, I went 'wow!' at Karthik's wooing style and Revathi's cuteness. "If ever there was a way to fall in love and express it, this was it."

I suspect a lot of the [then] young boys and girls who saw it also felt the same way.

Sooner rather than later, the focus gradually shifted from 'falling in love' to the music.

'Mandram vandha thendralukku' and 'Pani vizhum iravu' blew me away, especially the usage of the violin, guitar, flute, trumpet & drums in 'Mandram vandha' and 'Pani vizhum iravu'.

Finally, I settled on the background score, and am tempted to call it the most awesome one ever.

Labels: film music, ilayaraja, mani ratnam, metamorphosis, mouna ragam, movies, tamil