My Two Cents. Review on Iruvattam Manavaatty Songs

This Malayalam film-album is the latest offering from MD Alphons Joseph (AJ) & has lyrics by B.R. Prasad. For me, this was the most awaited album. The one & only reason I was waiting for this album was that it was composed by AJ, who was & (still) is my favorite composer. In spite of my huge expectations, I feel terribly let down by this album. Hence, this review is more about the composer himself, & about some of my in-depth observations about his composing style.

As always, let me try to give you readers my observations on this MD. AJ blasted on to the Malayalam film music industry in director Bhadran’s movie, Vellithira. When the peppy-country-dance song from that movie “Pachamanga” hit Kerala, people wondered who this new MD was. There was a unique vastness, depth & quality in the sound. There was obsessive accuracy in orchestral arrangement, & yet the compositions were contextually (situational) accurate. On further research, I found that AJ was performing with music troupes for several years (as a lead guitarist), & gave up commercial opportunities for devotional singing. After the Vellithira bang, AJ was offered Jalolsavam, another village type story, in a place filled with rice fields, boat races, festivals etc. In an interview, AJ revealed that he went to the village, studied the people, recorded their songs, & tried to tune songs with that flavor. He tuned a song in Saraswati Raag, “Keranirakaaladum”, which got him the Kerala State Film Critics Award (for details please see my review on Jalolsavam). The next venture was Manju Poloru Penkutty. AJ surprised everyone by tuning what is probably the first R & B number in Malayalam, & then a pure English song, complete with smart lyrics & flawless orchestra. In short, dear readers, this is why, I was eagerly waiting for this album.

Now, what makes AJ’s music unique? A lot of things. However, my favorite aspect is its seeming simplicity. If you hear to his songs, (e.g. ithile nee), at the first few hearings, you might falsely think that the song is simple, but as you hear again and again, more orchestral components are audible. AJ does an excellent job mixing each instrument with a precision overtaken by only one another MD in India (you know who that can be, ARR of course!) Second, he is truly an “aural chameleon” (I am using an adjective once used to describe James Newton-Howard, a Hollywood composer). You could hear to “Am I Dreaming” which is a perfect western pop song, & then hear to “Ottuvacha” (a country song sung by drunk people), both are poles apart. It’s hard to imagine that those songs were composed by the same person.

After all the history, & praise I have showered above, I am hearing to the songs from this album. To say the least, I am a bit surprised by the lack of “zing”. I am not sure what happened. I don’t know whether AJ had taken (or was given) enough flexibility or time to compose. That is the only explanation that my mind could come up with. Anyway, let’s examine three songs from this album.

Gaanamaanu Njan

Srinivas, Sujatha

Probably, this song has the only few seconds where AJ’s music sense & orchestral magic is revealed. The song starts with some rapid violin exercises. Flute & Veena have been used well. The pallavi is so melodious that you might be swaying with the rhythm which is slow and steady. Especially, when Srini & Sujatha sings the first line just before the 1st interlude, AJ uses a special percussive pattern, with a “metal” sound at the end. The lines “Thanuvithal Cherum, thennale…” is followed note for note with orchestra making it rich & reminiscent of the Devarajan-Dakshinamoorthy era. However, the song loses its direction, emotion & flow as soon as the first musical interlude starts. Suddenly there is rage, violence & unnecessary loudness in the orchestra. I know that it is easy for some one to sit back in a chair here & criticize, but a slow step by step increase in the pitch & tempo would have been much better than exploding into a violent epic-battle style orchestral grandeur. What that does is bring in confusion in the emotions felt by whoever hears it. Just when we are being swayed by the soft/sweet rendering of the pallavi-anupallavi, it suddenly bursts into a high-voltage environment, quite opposite to what we were just feeling. Just some thoughts from the lay man’s perspective! The charanams don’t have the same “feel” as that of the pallavi & anu-pallavi. I liked the innovative use of veenas with a new percussion pattern in the middle-portion of the first interlude. The second interlude has portions bearing similarity to Ilayaraaja’s percussion & string patterns in “Isayil Thudanguthamma” (Hey Raam).

Ponnum Jamandipoovum

MG. Sreekumar, Chitra

This is a typical fast-peppy number, with lots of folk music in it. To tell you the least, I am little taken aback by this song. Following the same style used in his earlier numbers “Karinkallil”(Vellithira) & “Kulirillam Vazhum” (Jalolsavam), Alphons uses predictable percussion patterns. I am also not sure how hurried a composition this was. In fact I am not even sure whether AJ actually composed this song. It seems so superficial, with some traditional percussion interspersed with some e-drums. The only innovative dimension I found was the peculiar use of chorus sounds.

Vidarum Varnapookkal

A purely situational (revolutionary) song probably used to portray a political procession (as evidenced by the Inqulaab-chants). Again I am shocked to see a piecemeal approach to composition. Coming from any other MD, I would have just said “Hey, there’s another mediocre composition!” But coming from the same genius who produced “Ithile Nee” and “Keranirakal” I just cannot believe that this is happening. Sometimes I feel that the same tune could be modified and used as a youthful dance number. There is the use of some techno music, and some chendamelam, but I could not find anything unique.

That ends my song-by-song discussion. It’s fairly short, and am confused myself! If I were to speak to AJ, as a layman, what would I tell him? I still strongly believe that AJ is THE person to look out for. Several people argued with me regarding this. But then, I felt that many in the malayali audience were not ready for a pure-English song or an R & B/Jazz number. I still feel that AJ’s thinking is somewhat ahead of what the times dictate. However, I am only including Vellithira, Jalolsavam & Manju Poloru in his filmography. From what I know he is capable of, this album is a ghost. A ghost with few seconds of genius, & several minutes of musical and emotional mediocrity. As I have said before, you don’t go into a Roger Federrer-tennis game expecting to see mediocrity or even high amounts of good tennis; you go to see an out-of-the-world performance. So, this is what I would tell AJ:

First, do NOT change your composing style due to pressure from anywhere, including the popular audience. Second, do not deviate from simplicity (which your original music possesses), unless absolutely necessary. The song “Gaanamaanu Njan” could’ve been tuned without a single “heavy” e-beat and could have carried the same emotion as this one. Third, use more traditional instruments, rather than synthesizers. Finally, good music will never go un-appreciated in the long run. The songs AJ created like Keranirakal & Ithile Nee would probably go down as classics, no one knows that right now, but years later they will!

Hence, I wish good luck to AJ!