Growing up with Rahman &Ratnam: Why I will always be a fangirl of the magicians of Madras

I still remember that day.  It was the year 1992 and we were travelling to Tirunelveli, our hometown, in a dusty Nellai Express, for the Independence Day holidays. My father opened the day’s newspaper and drew our attention to the poster of Mani Ratnam’s latest movie, Roja. “This film is set in our town,” he announced rather emphatically. His excitement soon dissipated when he saw a new name amidst the credits. The music director of this flick was a newbie called A.R Rahman. Our family was a bunch of cutthroat Ilayaraja fans. We worshiped his music. A little known boy who up until then was scoring jingles for ads was putting an end to the Raja- Ratnam love saga. It smelt like sacrilege. We were fuming and at the same time bewildered. Was he dethroning the king?

It’s been 25 long and glorious years of Rahman in our lives. With the release of Mani Ratnam’s latest venture, Kaatru Veliyidai on April 7^th, Rahman would be coming a full circle, completing silver jubilee in the industry with the man who started it all. The partnership of Rahman and Ratnam is mystical, almost like a Khalil Gibran quote-  a union that draws the best of each other, complementary, while maintaining spaces and individual identity, a match made in heaven, the perfect relationship. Invariably, the best work of Rahman has come under the tutelage of Ratnam, and Ratnam’s box office duds have remained in our collective conscious because though the movie may have failed us, the music didn’t.

As a petulant and impressionable 8 year old, my first love was the chart topper Chinna China Aasai. With each passing day, the Roja album was increasing in popularity and when it was listed among the 10 all-time best soundtracks of the world by TIME magazine, I couldn’t decide if I loved Pudhuvellai Mazhai or Kadhal Rojave more.  Pudhu vellai mazhai is the quintessential romantic song; the glass shattering like opening sequence is in perfect harmony with the visuals of a new bride encountering snow for the first time in her life. “Iru kaigal theendatha penmaiyai un kangal panthadudho”, (The femininity that couldn’t be kindled by hands, ie physically, succumbs to your eyes). How did the trio of Rahman-Ratnam- Vairumuthu, describe a woman’s mind so evocatively?  The falling in love of a married couple, discovering each other while exploring a new territory felt surreal while the love and loneliness was palpable in SPB’s soulful baritone in Kadhal Rojave. But my family was still adamant. Raja’s songs are evergreen; Rahman’s will be short lived like his jingles they said. However, like many others, I was sold!

For the children of the 90’s, summer was all about cousins, mangoes and family vacations to Kodai and Ooty.  Also called the decade of Rahman’s prime, we spent every road trip singing along to the audiotapes of Rahman’s latest. The Bombay tape, for instance, has screeched out of agony. Life hacks then included knowing which song to pause on A side so that it would stop at the song we wanted to listen to on side B.  While Thiruda Thiruda’s Chandralekha made us, the closet opera singers take a shot at screaming into a make-believe mic, the racy Humma Humma (Bombay) was our rite of passage to sexual awakening. (Every South Indian child remembers secretly enjoying the song on big screen while sitting next to an equally enjoying, but squirming parent)

Soon it was hard to keep our Madras Mozart hidden from the prying eyes of Bombay. It was time to share our legend with Bollywood and so we did with a little bit of pride and a lot of misgiving. We were jealous when ‘Dil Se Re’ sounded better in Hindi and the Tamil Chaiya Chaiya lacked the punch that the original had. But we truly believed that he reserved the best music for us, the original connoisseurs.

Trains, rain, mirrors, and flitting eye contact with a cute guy across the wedding hall. To this add a Rahman track. Tadaa!  Magic. There is a no greater testimony to the adage ‘the whole is a sum of its parts’ than Mani Ratnam’s films that are a perfect amalgamation of music, lyrics, and stunning visual aesthetic. Ratnam they say also extracts the best performance from his actors (who would ever believe that Iruvar was Aishwarya Rai Bacchan’s first film?)  I admit that I was a hormonal teenager in the early 2000s when Alaipayuthey released, but there wasn’t a single girl whose heart didn’t skip a beat at the opening shot of Madhavan riding a bike while Endrendrum Punnagai played on. We didn’t lust at Maddy in other movies as much as we did in Ratnam’s.

Over the years I trudged my feet across the line, from being an incurable romantic to the cynic who cannot watch a romantic movie without wanting to sigh every half an hour or hold my head in agony. The irritation simmered to a new high when I watched  ‘OK Kanmani’, the story of a young couple falling in love over a couple of cutesy zingers before tumbling predictably into holy matrimony. A goofy Dulquer managed to thaw me a little. I had almost given up on the film when the mellifluous Ay Sinamika, in the velvety vocals of Karthik appeared. It made me want to fall in love all over again, at least for those five minutes.

 

Chart toppers aside, the underrated Easter eggs of Rahman’s have always been my personal favourites- the achingly beautiful Poongatrile (Uyire), the flirty Nenjam Ellam (Ayutha Ezhuthu) or the classic Ay Hairathe (Guru). Every time I listened to the brilliantly orchestrated ‘Thee Thee’,(Thiruda Thiruda), my  brain would choreograph the perfect dance moves, but alas they would sadly translate into a jumble of flaying legs and arms in reality. Perhaps that’s the genius of Ratnam, the ability to execute the images in his mind’s eye into eye-catching visuals like the haunting Naan Varuven from Raavanan set to the arresting visuals of Vikram plunging to death or the slow- motion sequences of Kadhal Sadugu, sung as a mischievous ode by SPB Charan. Though Rahman is part of several other successful collaborations; with directors Shankar, Gautham Menon and Imitiaz Ali, the Rahman-Ratnam duo have the old familiarity, like the nostalgia and comfort of coming home. They made us long for people we’ve never met. They were balm for the soul.

The release of Kaatru Veliyidai reminds me of a simple joy of life; of buying an audiotape, knowing that the album will be terrific. Rolling on the bed and listening to a track on loop, while the mind happily wanders away.  But things have changed now. I have downloaded the soundtrack, but I also have a toddler who thinks my lying on the bed is an invitation to bounce on my tummy or bangs on the bathroom door incessantly, noticing that I have smuggled the portable speaker in.

The night falls. The husband and baby are safely tucked into bed. I open iTunes, fish out my noise cancellation headphones and press play. “ Vaan varuvan.. varuvaan..”  I am in a trance.

Vaan varuvan? Yes Rahman is back.  And life is good.

-Originally Published in TheNewsMinute.com on March 25th 2017

In the male bastion of films, the seven big battles women have to face

“City of Stars…Are you shining just for me…” croons Ryan Gosling. It’s a sultry afternoon in Chennai and Aruna Rakhee is watching ‘La La land’ for the second time with her friends Jayashree and Pavithra. She dips into a tub of popcorn, her first meal of the day, when her phone buzzes. It’s a call from Mumbai. She rushes out of the theatre, nodding her head and trembling with excitement.  An associate director, with more than ten years experience in the industry, Aruna has been asked to fly out the next day, to assist an acclaimed Director.  She barely has a few hours to pack her bags and apologise to her father that she won’t be joining his 70^th birthday celebrations.

Soon, Pavithra and Jayashree join her outside. Twenty seven year old Pavithra Kumar is the Executive Producer of Rajnikanth’s Enthiran-2.0.After a gruelling night shooting schedule she is exhausted and decides to go home and crash.  Jayashree Lakshmi Narayanan, Kerala State Award winner, Production Designer and creator of the arty room of Dulquer Salman in the Malayalam super hit ‘Charlie’, offers to drive them back. While she drives, she uses the time to do one more phone interview. Three empty seats and a tub of popcorn wait. La La Land plays on.

Pavithra-Jayashree-Aruna

Thanks to the recent spurt in media and communication courses across the country, many young women, in the 20’s are opting to chase their passion for cinema, starting out assistants to leading directors, cinematographers and the like before carving a niche for themselves. The Indian Film Industry, a traditional male bastion is an extremely stressful place of work, with several careers and hoards of money at stake and eggshells of egos to tread around. Most film projects have rigorous shooting schedules that may run for sixteen hours a day, spanning across several months, and sometimes in unsuitable conditions.  Also, an average film crew has a staggering gender disparity. 400 men – 3 women, including the lead actress.

In the backdrop of the recent abduction and alleged rape of an actor in Kochi, how conducive is the wok environment of these young girls?

Safety concerns

In all the years that I have worked here, I have never had any issues

with safety,” quips Aruna. “ I think it’s a matter of which team you choose to work with. While some make sure the female workers are dropped after a night shoot and provide decent accommodation, some tend to overlook since they’ve never worked with women.” Since shooting spots are abuzz with people, the girls do not feel insecure or threatened.  Jayashree, who has worked in Bollywood prior to her stardom in southern cinema, believes that Bombay is a much safer place for women to work in. Statistics show that Bollywood has a greater ratio of women working on the sets, and are provided with all the facilities that they require. Mumbai’s active nightlife and efficient public transport is a plus too.

Battling stereotypes

In the south, a woman is generally perceived as a ‘burden’, a responsibility and an added cost to production house. (Having to provide a separate hotel room/toilets for instance). Women are viewed as the ‘weaker sex’ who will ‘”cry on sets” or “demand to go home early” and cannot deal with the both physical and mental stress that filmmaking demands. “We receive a lot of flak, that we women will anyway drop out, get married and have kids” chimes in Ranjani Naresh, former assistant to cinematographer PC Sreeram. Women are also not associated with technical competence. “ Though I was trained in the field, on my first day, light annas asked me if knew how the lights worked”. Ranjani’s colleagues were shocked that she was not from art/costumes, departments labelled as a woman’s forte. In a land that produces around 1600 films annually, there are only a handful of independent women cinematographers. Juhi Sharma, Documentary and Ad filmmaker attributes this to the view that cinematography is a physically intensive profession.“One of the worst situations was when a leading cinematographer from the industry was looking for a 'female assistant'. When I enquired as to how the assistant's gender mattered, I was told that my main job would have to be to tell the heroines to adjust their clothes and open a few buttons. I felt disgusted.”

Women in demand

Interestingly, women Assistant Directors and Executive Producers are a sought after breed. Directors like Mani Ratnam, Gautham Vasudev Menon, and A.L Vijay are known to request for female ADs for their work ethic and to add a fresh perspective to the film making process. Moreover actresses prefer having a female AD to interact with and coach them with dialogues.

Pavithra has a lot on her plate. Enthiran 2.0, with a budget of $4Billion is touted to be the most expensive film ever in India. As the Executive Producer of film she is part of the daily shooting process and keeps a tab on the budget, ensuring the smooth flow of money.  “I was working with Ad film maker Manav Menon for a while. He noticed that I had the flair for coordinating and managing both money and people. He suggested this job to me.”

Siddhi Pujara, another Executive Producer, works for Eros Cinemas in Chennai; having previously worked with the Shahrukh Khan owed Red Chillies Pvt Ltd in Mumbai.

Money Matters

The industry is an uphill climb for anyone and money is initially hard to come by. Though many of them admit that the pay may not match the creative ability, gender discrimination in payments hardly occurs.

Man or woman, the person who knows how to market himself better or negotiate lands the better deal. Siddhi adds that woman should never “feel shy to demand the money they deserve.” Siddhi and Jayashree who have worked in several Hindi films, reckon that Bollywood ensures equality, that production Houses like Red Chillies, Excel Entertainment and Dharma Productions are equal opportunity givers

One of the biggest inspirations for these young women is the make-up artist Banu Bashyam better known as the magician who radically transformed an aging Rajinikanth into a youthful looking superstar in ‘Shivaji the Boss’. The ‘Indian Make- up Artists and Hair stylists Union’ comprised of 800 men make-up artists and only 3 women. Women only became hairdressers. Banu fought a long and hard battle in the Supreme Court to get her union card, despite working in the industry for more than a decade.

The big break

In a scene From ‘Dear Zindagi’, a cinematographer Alia Bhatt is seen ecstatic after bagging the spot in a big project. However, she is soon plagued by doubts, if the opportunity came by for her talent or her supposed physical attractiveness. The greatest challenge for a woman and the loudest complaint is they are seldom taken seriously. “I have to work 10 times harder than an average guy to get the same opportunity, to say that I have the talent and that I am here to stay”, opines Aruna. The initial opportunity- the years of being an assistant- and the big break, getting a mentor who hones their talent and helming a project independently is a long and arduous journey.

The tough get going

Obstacles may be many, but there is nothing that cannot be surmounted by a headstrong nature. Once an opportunity comes knocking these women stress on the need to be assertive and give the vibe that they can’t be messed with. “Men in the industry often tend to take advantage of women who are docile so it is imperative that a woman learns to take charge and stands for herself. This also helps in bringing out the best work from fellow co-workers and getting the work done in a disciplined manner”, advises Siddhi.

Work-life balance

Social life is almost nil. Friends are often from the same industry . And marriages are delayed. When they do get married, most girls choose a partner from the same industry, primarily because the odds of meeting someone are higher and also since the person can relate to their profession. All of them agree, that only someone who understands how hectic and unpredictable a project can be can make the relationship work. Although most families initially oppose their daughters’ career move, most reconcile over time. Having a supportive family is the key to their successs. “When you already face so much of stress in the shooting spot, you don’t want to come back home and be stressed again” concludes Jayashree.

The recent abduction and alleged rape of a popular actress has shocked the Industry,  but the girls opine that it is definitely much safer for women who work behind the scenes  than the heroines,though they may have access to a private vanity van and better security arrangements. The patriarchal industry continues to judge heroines as ‘easy’ and ‘available’.

Yesteryear Tamil/Telugu superstar Bhanumathi Ramakrishna was a multi-lingual actress/director/music director/producer/singer and song writer. Known for her courage and forthrightness, she was also the only female studio owner in the country. Bhanumathi was revered by all her co-stars including the iconic M.G.Ramachandran, with whom she starred in more than fourteen films. In one of her interviews she mentions how the heroes were scared to hold her hand. “Talent scares people.”

The path maybe rocky and the future hazy, but these young women are ready to storm through, aided by their passion and tons of talent.  No adversity or gender construct is bigger than what is dearest to them;their art.

Here’s to the ones who dream, foolish as they may seem.

-Originally published on March 6th 2017 in thenewsminute.com

Prince Charming,dwarves and dragons;have our fairytales become passe ?

A lady once approached Albert Einstein seeking advice. Inspired by his work and in a bid to nudge her little son into the same field, she wanted to know the kind of reading her son must do to be adequately prepared. “Read Fairy tales, he quipped. When the mother protested for a more serious answer Einstein said a tad loudly, “read more fairy tales!” Einstein believed that creative imagination was the essential element for scientists and fairy tales provided the much-needed stimulus at childhood.

Have our traditional fairy tales become passé?  Can today’s 5-year-olds relate to kings, queens and the pricking of spindles? Along with their dinner are we feeding our little girls clichés of princesses who yearn to be rescued and need a Prince Charming to gallop into their ‘happily ever after’? Growing media research and semiotic studies have exposed and debated the political correctness of these bedtime rituals. Fairy tales began as oral tradition until the Brothers Grimm and the French author Charles Perrault curated and re-wrote the stories, as we know them today. Most of the stories were watered down historical events that could not be openly spoken about or were social mores masquerading as tales. Simple on the surface and filled with one dimensional imagery and characters that are either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ these stories contained simple messages of love, sacrifice and safety but also undercurrent themes such as ‘rape’, ‘incest’, ‘torture’, that one feels uncomfortable talking about.

The Little Red Riding Hood is a story about a little girl in a red cape who is accosted en route to her grandmother’s house by a wolf. The wolf reaches the house before she does, gobbles up the grandma and lures Little Riding Hood into his trap, until a passing woodcutter saves her. Sanitised versions have the grandmother locked up in the closet.  Either ways the tale served as a warning, admonishing young, naive girls from straying from the ‘safe world of the village’ into the ‘dangers of the forests’. Big bad wolves are lurking everywhere they seemed to say. If independence is what you crave, only a burly Samaritan can save you.  Professor Arthur Asa Burger, in his book ‘Media Analysis Techniques’ offers different interpretations of the same story, including a Marxist reading. In 17^th century France, red was the colour associated with prostitutes; ‘fertile’ women who strayed and thus doomed to this fate. Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud found fairy tales replete with sexual symbols that resonated with the human mind because of their archetypes.

Five-year-old Zoya struts around the house with a blue duppata for a cape, announcing that she is queen Elsa. The stupendous box office success of Disney’s ‘Frozen’ and ‘Maleficent’ magnify the undying appeal of fairy tales. “But I find it hard to narrate these stories to Zoya or answer her subsequent questions” says Lakshmi a new grandparent. “ Hansel and Gretel for instance is so violent, with the children pushing the cannibalistic witch into a hot oven.” Today’s kids are extremely curious and are not shy to question logic. Zoya wants to know why a man has two wives and already thinks that fair is beautiful.

Research indicates that Cinderella was a fair complexioned Greek woman called Rhdopsis who was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt. Snow white was Margarete von Waldek a 16-century Bavarian noblewoman whose brother made children work in his copper mine, causing severe deformities and hence known as dwarfs. Celebrated modern-day fairy-tale writer Neil Gaiman, who tweaks fairy tales to give them a feminist spin, thinks otherwise. His latest work, ‘The Sleeper and the Spindle‘ is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. “Snow-white tells you that even when those who love you put you in an intolerant situation you can make friends and cope with life.”

Neil Gaiman

Some young and new mothers like Shruti Mathew are not convinced.  An avid bookworm herself, Shruti has been collecting books for her baby Isha from the day she was born, mostly award-winners based on Amazon’s top 100 books for children. Her recent picks were ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon and Miss Rumphius. “These books boost creativity and make children care for issues that they can relate to, like the environment than hunters and witches.” Shruti concludes.

Neha Bhalla is a busy mother and a busier teacher. With a decade of experience in special education, Neha often weaves fairy tales into her curriculum, as she believes that they enter the subconscious of the child and become a base for studying history in the higher grades.  “I feel they still have magic’’ she says. “As for the violence in a tale, when they are taught by a teacher and not watched on TV, children handle it better and it gives them a good understanding of good and bad.” Dr Sandhya Rajasekhar, Head of the dept. of Journalism, MOP Vaishnav College for Women, with years of experience in decoding media texts agrees. “Fairy tales pass on simple messages, are optimistic and end on a positive note, which is important. I guess they hoped these messages would hold good in different contexts and circumstances. This is what Perrault himself says in his prologue to Sleeping Beauty.”

Every child’s first library comprises of these western classics, but Indian epics as retold by grandparents or read in Amar Chithrakathas are not any short of stereotypes. It is easy to dismiss the Mahabharata as adventures of gallant men, who subjugate women and go on an indiscriminate killing spree but it also contains little nuggets of wisdom about friendship, honour and moral dilemma. Samhita Arni’s  ‘The Mahabharat’ is a retelling that lays out these fables in a simple form without sounding preachy. Zoya has just started reading mythological stories and is brimming with questions. “ Doesn’t Krishna cheat in the Mahabharata? If he cheats how is he god? How can you kill your own cousins? What are they doing to Draupadi?” she batters her grandmother.  Lakshmi felt helpless, unable to satiate her granddaughter’s curiosity until she chanced upon Devdutt Pattnaik’s books. Dedutt Pattnaik is India’s latest storyteller with a twist. Taking the familiar canvas of mythology, Devdutt paints fables that kids can relate to without losing the moral or the essence. In his ‘Fun in Devlok’ series Krishna dons a teenage avatar and is about to embark on a flight journey when he is stopped and asked to produce his ID card. The story goes on to explain why all gods carry a flag with a designated signage. These new versions have made epics relevant for the changing times.

The Indian publishing industry is flourishing now and books by contemporary Indian authors are slowly creeping into the bedtimes of children.  Sandhya Rao is one of India’s leading children books writers. Closely associated with Tulika Books, her book ‘My Mother’s Sari’ among others has won international accolades. When quizzed about fairy tales, she reckons that its good sign that people have intellectual problems with them, the stereotyping of the stepmother or stepsisters in Cinderella for instance. “I feel it's a good thing that of late we have become more alert to the question of stereotyping, gender bias, cruelty to children, horror, and so on. Fairytales, like our folktales, were not really intended for children, they were for adults. These days we are very careful about exposing small children to sadness. My personal take on this is that if such stories are told well/shared sensitively, then it's okay. That's the key,”

Nestled into the nooks of one of Bangalore’s busiest hubs is ‘Lightroom’ a quaint bookstore filled with light, space, and tons of books, the essentials of a happy childhood. Lightroom houses an eclectic collection of books for children handpicked and recommended by its owner, Aashti Mudnani. “I personally avoid housing Disney stories, and would pick the little Red Hen vs. Sleeping beauty”, Aashti says. Lightroom has almost the entire Duckbill, Pratham, Tara and Tulika titles, all Indian publishers. ‘The alternative.in’ recently published an exhaustive list of best Indian fiction for children which contained titles such as the humorous ‘The Moustache Man’ and ‘Why are you afraid to hold my hand?’ a story that articulates the concept of normalcy and the differently abled. “Mayil will be not be quiet’,also among the list, by Niveditha Subramanian and Sowmya Rajendran went on to win the Bal Sahitya Puraksar award for 2015 and is recommended by the CBSE.  Written in the form of diary jottings of 8 year old Mayil, it deals with questions of gender. Niveditha also edited  “Girls to the rescue’ a retelling of fairytales by Sowmya.  “The question of  fairytales being relevant now soley rests in the hands of the writer and the illustrator,” Niveditha opines. And perhaps parents too who choose what their kids read.

“Fairy tales are more than true not because they tell that dragons exist but because they tell that dragons can be beaten,” A Neil Gaiman quote welcomes Shruti as she scours through Amazon. “Isha doesn’t need fairy tales for that, she will read Harry potter” she smiles. But it may not be long before Isha stands in front the mirror blue duppata around and croons, “Let it go”!

Originally published on March 5th 2017 in thenewsminute.com