Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Mouna Ragam - A study with age

Mouna Ragam (Silent Symphony) - One of my favorite movies of all time.

A beautifully made movie on all counts. Ilayaraja's mesmerizing BGM. You can even see the influence of western music on Ilayaraja, when the character played by Mohan is seen listening to the four seasons - spring vivaldi orchestration in one scene. Funny I remember that music having a good imprint on me when I watched the movie the first time. That was in early 1990's I guess, much before I had access to the Internet and I never bothered to know what that music was, even though it left a lasting impression on me then. Fast forward 15+ years and for some unfathomable reason I decide I have to start learning the violin and my violin teacher (a very good one) gifts me the four seasons CD to listen and appreciate the violin better and behold a eureka moment!

When I was much younger, I admired the character that Karthik played. Extremes of emotions in one persona - anger and violence that makes him beat up someone every 5 minutes on one side and light-hearted frivolity (remember the Mr. chandra-mouli!) on the other. What is there not to like in such a character? The character endears to us almost immediately.

As I have grown older, though I've started to admire the character essayed by Mohan in the movie more.
A calm head to almost every situation. You don't tend to like him much first, he's quite to put it bluntly - dull as compared to Karthik, but then he slowly grows on you and becomes much much larger than the role essayed by Karthik.
That slow growth in me has spanned almost a decade for me.
It's interesting today to me to see how my own perspective has changed with age, revealing the futility of believing in anything as the absolute truth.

Dear Mani Ratnam, please please make more movies of such kind.