SPOILER ALERT : I am going to talk in detail about the movie, so if you haven�t

seen the movie, don�t read this. If you haven�t seen the movie you will anyway not
get what I am saying ??

�Kutrame Thandanai� is the second movie of Manikandan, who made the critically
acclaimed �Kaaka Muttai�. As the title suggests, this movie is about �Crime and
Punishment�. Could have been one of the great movies of Tamil cinema if not for
Manikandan getting confused towards the end.

As you would no doubt realize, my aim is not to critique the movie here. My aim is
to highlight the superb title score that Raja gave and how it fits into the whole
scheme of the movie.

When I firest heard the title score I was stuck by its musical brilliance. My
friend Ravi Natarajan also had similar feelings and wrote about why this is a
superb score from a musical point of view. You can read his views here.

Only after I saw the movie and heard the title score again did I realize how
perfectly Raja has understood the movie and has designed the title score. Let us
look at the movie holistically. The movie is made out of cycles. The same process
repeats again and again with a difference that each cycle leads the protagonist
towards committing a more serious crime. The cycle is one of threat, negotiation,
hope, and despair. In the first cycle, (and we don�t know the final reveal), the
crime is relatively trivial. The protagonist just needs to be silent. No wrong
person will be convicted while no justice will be done either. In the next cycle,
the protagonist has to deliberately lie to in order to save a person while in the
next he has to deliberately lie in order to save a person while sending a wrong
person to the jail.

While the movie does comment on the modern society and police disinterest, its
main concern is the spiraling descent of the protagonist into his own immoral hell.
And it is this spiral that Raja perfectly captures in the title score.

Listen to the title score here: Kutrame Thandanai Title Score

Raja sets forth the theme on the piano. The background music to this theme has a
bit of dread associated with it but it is the foreground piano melody which is
pronounced. Only towards the end of this cycle (around 50 sec mark) does the
feeling of dread get pronounced. The strings pick up the next cycle. They play the
same melody as the piano but the darkness increases. The cellos give it the
gravitas and the accompanying strings provide the required darkness. When this
cycle ends, we get a small piece of music, which is akin to the denouement in the
movie: dreadful with a hint of sadness.

Raja captures the spirit of a one and half hour movie is this 2 min title score. No
wonder Manikandan said that Raja�s involvement right from the music for the title
card was 100%. It once again shows that when Raja scores music it is never for his
personal glory. He is always subservient to the movie�s cause. It also showcases
how well Raja understands cinema, a key consideration for scoring great background
music.

It is not that title scores have not reflected the tone of the movie but Kutrame
Thandanai will stand shoulder to shoulder with the best of them. And not just in
Indian cinema.

Here is a link of Manikandan talking about Raja�s music

I just wrote a post on how well Sivaranjani ragam suits the need of film songs. I
had also mentioned Shankar Jaikishen�s works which were pioneering in nature and
expanded the scope of this raga vis-a-vis the film song. You can read the post
here.

After Shankar Jaikishan it was Raja who took this raga to a different level in film
music. Raja was able to conjure myriad moods using this raga innovatively. He gave
a lot of songs in this raga and I don�t want to list them all here. Instead, I will
focus on a few songs in order to highlight how he brings out various emotions in
these songs.

Sivaranjani has a sadness associated with it and Raja uses this inherent sadness
effectively in some of his compositions. Here is one from the Telugu movie
�Geetanjali�, �o priya priya�. SPB and Chitra to the lyrics of Veturi.

The pathos in this song is more than the earlier one. �kathirundhu kathirundhu�
from �Vaidehi Kahirundhaal�. In the voice of Jeyachandran.

Here is a song wherein there is a certain sadness in the happy situation.

Sivaranjani suits the situation perfectly

Raja gave some lovely duets with a tinge of sadness. He did that with Sivaranjani
in songs like these.

�unnai thane� from �Nallavanukku Nallavan�

�manjal poosum� from �Chakkara Devan�

Who can forget this song of Swarnalatha, �kuyil paatu� from �En Rasavin Manasule�.
Raja turns Sivaranjani into a ragam of joy.

You can hear the same joy in �adi aathadi� from �Kadalora Kavidhaigal�. No one will
believe that Sivaranjani is associated with sadness if they hear this song.

This song rivals �adi athadi� in conveying joy. �valli valli ena vandhan� from the
movie �Deiva Vakku�

It takes a genius like Raja to use Sivaranjani in a high energy song like
�ponnavani padam� from �Rasathantram�

For Raja any raga can express any emotion he wants. So he takes up Sivaranjani for
�matter� songs as well. �abbanee theeyani dhebba� from �Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka
Sundari�. This film had superb songs but this was the biggest hit of them all.

It is well know that Anand Milind copied it to Hindi as �dhak dhak karne laga� and
it was a super hit in Hindi as well.

This song cannot be conceived by anyone other than Raja. Only he has the
imagination to pick up Sivaranjani for such a situation. �ennena paadaa
paduththaraan� from �Aandan Adimai�

A typical midnight masala song superbly tuned in Sivaranjani. �yemma yemma thalli
nillu� from �Thodarum�

Observe how he conjures a Sivaranjani of a totally different color in �pon mane

koba eno� from �Oru Kaidhiyin Dairy�

We will close this post with �vaa vaa anbe anbe� another wonerful Sivaranjani. From
�Agni Natchathiram�

It is clear that no music director has explored this raga the way Raja does. So
many more Raja gems exist in this raga. I am sure more will happen in the future as
well.

Kutrame Dhandanai BGM and the critics

Posted on October 12, 2016 by raaga_suresh

kt

There have been a lot of opinions about Kutrame Dhandanai BGM score from various
people ranging all the way from �This is a worst score�, �Very overpowering� all
the way to �Too romantic�, �Spoils a great thriller�. (Of course, there are people
who liked the score as well.) Manikandan�s �Kutrame Thandanai� is a very well made
movie which unfortunately is a bit confused in terms of the genre. This had led
people to come to different conclusion about the music score. While I can
understand that, I am more concerned about what some of the film critics say about
the score. This is because established critics can sway the opinion of viewers. So
we will try and see if what they say is indeed correct.

Baradwaj Rangan in his review of the movie, while praising the melodic portions of
the score, went on to say that Raja was trying to squeeze out a thriller with his
score. Aditya Srikrishna, who writes for Indian Express, went on to say that Raja�s
score was �manipulative�. Another critic who goes by the twitter handle
@HatefulJosh wrote that the film, which could have been an excellent thriller, was
spoilt by the romantic score of Raja. (There are others like Haricharan who have
template �everything was good in the movie except Raja�s BGM�. We can safely ignore
such people�s views. They are not worth fighting with.)

So we have a situation here where one critic feels Raja was scoring for a thriller,
another feels he was too romantic and one more feels he was manipulative. In short,
critics themselves seemed to be confused.

Let�s take the thriller aspect which Baradwaj Rangan spoke first. Where does the
thriller music happen? Is it inappropriate? I saw the movie twice and I noted that
the �thriller� kind of BGM happens only in those scenes which Manikandan sets up as
a �thriller� scene. There is a scene wherein Vidharth is in the car of Rahman.
Rahman stops the car in an isolated place. Vidarth is scared if Rahman will assault
him. He has his hand on the door handle so that he can open it immediately.
Manikandan wants us to feel the anxiety of Vidharth. Raja�s music aids that. Same
way when the policeman comes visiting Vidharth and sees the concentric circles on
the wall, Vidharth�s anxiety and fear are high. Raja just accentuates the feeling
with his music. Same is the case when the police are interrogating Rahman in his
office and Vidarth is in the next room. The slow panning of the camera, the tension
on Rahman�s face, everything is setup for �thriller� kind of music. Similarly, such
music happens when Vidarth sees the dead body along with Rahman. Overall such music
happens at the appropriate time.

It is not just the appropriateness of the music but the duration which is
important. The whole of �thriller� kind of BGM happens to be around 5 mins or less
in a movie which is 1hr 30min long. Whereas the rest of the BGM revolves around
love theme. So why did Baradwaj Rangan make such a big deal about this music? My
feeling is that he probably went to the theater convinced that Raja cannot score
appropriately for a movie by Manikandan. And he heard whatever he wanted to hear. I
can�t think of any other reason why he spoke more about music which occurred for a
short time at appropriate places.

I feel @HatefulJosh probably understood the BGM better but he wanted the movie to
be a thriller. There is truth in what @HatefulJosh says about the score being
romantic since the duration of the romantic score is definitely more in the movie.
This has also been the criticism of few more folks who claim that Raja spoilt a
thriller. The truth is that Manikandan was not making a thriller. He probably
wanted to make a movie about crime and how it affects a person�s conscience.
Unfortunately, that did not come out clearly. What came out was a romantic movie in
the end. Check out the ending. While Manikandan does have Nasser�s voiceover as
sort of conscience and Vidarth�s crying, the final scenes betray what Manikandan
feels about the protagonist. He is now a happily settled person, he has married the
girl who has lost the job because of him, she is pregnant, she in love with him and
she takes care of him. There is peace all around. Manikandan is telling us that for
the crime he committed, the loss of sight is the punishment. Once the punishment is
meted out, the protagonist is at peace with himself. That is what I claim that the
end is a very romantic one. Raja scores exactly for this ending. For this is the
vision of Manikandan. Raja just helps him realize that vision. We can argue if that
should have been the ending but that is what it is. Raja uses the love theme at
many places, initially when Vidarth is helping others and finally when tables are
turned and he needs others help. I can understand that if people thought this was a
thriller they could be upset with Raja�s score. This is not a thriller. It could
have gone the thriller way, it could have gone the crime and redemption way but
Manikandan chose the romantic way out. He wanted you to come out of the theater
with a happy feeling and Raja supported him in his endeavor as a music director
should.

(Another common complaint is that the sound was overpowering. From what I know the
music director is not involved in the final sound mix. I think the director and
sound engineer decide the sound volume. So if you felt the volume level of BGM was
high, then we may have to ask the director or sound engineer why it was high. Not
the music director.)

Regarding Aditya Srikrishna�s criticism that Raja�s music was manipulative, I

honestly don�t understand how it was manipulative. So I cannot say anything about
it.

What I have noticed is that many a critic thinks that Raja cannot score for modern
directors and doesn�t understand their sensibilities. Manikandan says that after
Raja saw the movie, he told Manikandan, �You have made a film which is abstract.
Which is not in the regular path. Do you want me to score abstract music or you
want the regular music�. If you hear the score, you will see that Raja has not
taken the regular path. Most of the score is guitar and piano based. There are some
lovely flute pieces towards the end. Raja uses brass superbly at the scenes where
the police discover the dead body. He uses the strings only when required,
especially to play the variations on a theme. The music is outstandingly original
and very modern. Yet, critics keep saying Raja doesn�t understand the new
sensibilities. This has a lot to do with the prejudice and short-sightedness of
critics than of Raja�s music. They have consigned Raja to the past and can still
not believe that this man from �Pannaipuram� is capable of understanding modern
cinema. Raja does understand all forms of cinema and he understands the director�s
vision far better than the critics. That is the reason why directors with vision
like Bala, Myskin and Manikandan keep coming to him.

If you are just interested in music, here is the complete score of �Kutrame
Dhandanai�. It has some superb passages in it.