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| WHATZ
IN A BGM? |
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| By
Behindwoods Visitor Vijay
Ilavarasan |
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| The
views expressed in this column are that of the visitor.
Behindwoods.com doesn't hold responsible for its content. |
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| After
quite a while, it was wonderful to get
drenched in the BGM of a movie. In VTV,
the KFC BMG and title BGM which comes
in the central park scene … just
can’t get them out of my head and
it keeps drawing me back to the theatre...
the KFC BGM in particular, used very effectively
in the trailer (the trailer I enjoyed
the most since Sivaji), has that amazing
keyboard/piano piece that carries you
away (vinnaithaandi sendrenae)! I wanted
to download that as a ring tone and when
I googled VTV BGM, I was pleasantly surprised
at how many people have already downloaded
it. It got me thinking quite a bit actually
…
To confirm my thoughts, I asked an American
colleague, a reasonable Hollywood buff,
to tell me some movies/scenes where he
thought the BGM was phenomenal. After
thinking hard he came up with examples
like Bond music, Mission Impossible BGM
and possibly Titanic … and the list
pretty much ended there (don’t think
too hard… it’s not worth it).
The reality is Hollywood movies in general
don’t have BGMs worth remembering
after coming out of the theater and the
average Hollywood fan doesn’t really
care much about it. They admire good sound
effects, particularly in action sequences,
but that is different from good background
music, where, when you think of the scene
the music also runs in your head and you
can almost think of all the scenes where
that BGM comes.
Now if you ask a reasonable Tamil movie
fan to
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tell some movies/scenes with good BGMs you will be
hit back with scene after scene and BGM after BGM
until you say stop, stop, and stop. It wouldn’t
be a surprise if someone blurted out a few from just
from Agni Nakshathiram (1988) itself … like
the Disco Shanti BGM, the Nirosha I Love You BGM,
the Prabhu-Karthik confrontation BGM…
So the average Tamil movie fan (who enjoys Hollywood
movies too) pays more attention to technical aspects
in Tamil movies and enjoys various details that go
into a scene –the photography, the artwork,
the BGM…. Which is also why we can tell names
of several top technicians in Tamil, but don’t
know anything beyond director names in Hollywood.
How may can even name a couple of Hollywood music
directors, leave alone editors or cameramen?
There is something special about BGMs in Tamil movies,
especially over the last 25-30 years.
When you have two of the greatest musicians ever,
it is kind of expected. But the director also plays
a huge role in it – which is why we remember
BGMs in movies from certain directors more vividly
(weird that I use vivid for sound, but like I said,
you can’t separate the scene’s visual
and sound in these cases… so it is ok to use
vividly I guess) Mani Ratnam (at least to me) deserves
a lot of the credit for making the average fan take
notice of technical aspects and bringing BGM to the
forefront.
With no music knowledge whatsoever, but from sheer
observation in movies… I think there are two
distinct types of BGMs.
One is the song based BGM which is commonly used as
it has instant recall value from the broader audience
who are already familiar with the song. Some good
examples are the Thenpandi BGM in Nayagan, Athiradi
BGM in Sivaji, Vetri kodi BGM in Padayappa, various
flavors of the Hosana BGM VTV…
The second is the non-song based BGM. Examples are
earlier mentioned Disco Shanti BGM in Agni, the KFC
BGM in VTV, the elevator-golusu BGM in Kaakha Kaakha,
the dance practice BGM in Kadhalan, Indian title BGM
… These have to be extremely good to register
in the mind of the viewer in little time. It also
depends a lot on the scene it is positioned in and
repetition at the appropriate times. My guess is it
primarily takes the musician, director and editor
to make the BGM magical and memorable. (Probably Gautham
can explain it in the Directors Cut DVD of VTV) It
is usually this kind of BGM that grows on you each
time you see the movie and keeps drawing you back.
There is a third kind which is a bit rare. It is usually
a blend of songs and its own rhythm. For example,
in Indian, when Manisha is introduced, the BGM has
a mix of Maya and Telephone songs and also its own
rhythm used very effectively.
Thanks to the magicians and wizards of Tamil cinema
for haunting us even after we leave the theatres.
The Tamil fans appreciate your efforts – a whole
lot more than any Hollywood fan!
Vijay Ilavarasan
vijay.ilavarasan@gmail.com
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| Tags :
Ilayaraja,
AR
Rahman, Mani
Ratnam, Shankar,
Gautham
Menon |
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