Abstract

This is an attempt to adapt a blogpost I wrote ten years ago into a video essay, something that could be used as a pedagogical resource to initiate a conversation in the classroom about the role of background music in films, or perhaps specifically in Indian films. It is aimed to make a viewer think about what background score does in a film, where exactly the music begins and why it begins there, where does the music end and why it ends there, the effect of measured stretches of silence in between musical cues, the choice of instruments, use of leitmotifs and their variations, using the melodies of the songs of the films as thematic material, transitions in the scene and transitions in the music, how background music is mixed in Indian films, background music vs. foreground music, etc. This video essay is a comparative study of how three different composers have musically delivered tension, emotion, and drama in three different films made from the same story and screenplay. Aniyathipravu (1997) in Malayalam is the original film; Kaadhalukku Mairyaadhai (1997) in Tamil and Doli Saja Ke Rakhna (1998) in Hindi are the two remakes of the original Malayalam film. In my blog post, I embedded within the written essay multiple videos, each video is a compilation of a specific moment from the three films. At the time, when I was compiling the clips from multiple films on Windows Movie Maker, when I was mixing the score from one film with the visuals of another, I did not know that I was making some sort of a fragmented video essay. I had not even heard of the term video essay. I was appropriating the sources, replacing the score, compiling the manipulated clips into a sort of a simple supercut. I understood more about music in films in the process of making it; when you place a piece of music over the visuals, you place for it to precisely begin at a certain frame, and while doing so you realise how if you placed it a few seconds before or few seconds later, everything that follows fall out of sync and that this lack of synchronicity could be immediately perceived.

References

Full Text

This is an attempt to adapt a blogpost I wrote ten years ago into a video essay, something that could be used as a pedagogical resource to initiate a conversation in the classroom about the role of background music in films, or perhaps specifically in Indian films. It is aimed to make a viewer think about what background score does in a film, where exactly the music begins and why it begins there, where does the music end and why it ends there, the effect of measured stretches of silence in between musical cues, the choice of instruments, use of leitmotifs and their variations, using the melodies of the songs of the films as thematic material, transitions in the scene and transitions in the music, how background music is mixed in Indian films, background music vs. foreground music, etc. This video essay is a comparative study of how three different composers have musically delivered tension, emotion, and drama in three different films made from the same story and screenplay. Aniyathipravu (1997) in Malayalam is the original film; Kaadhalukku Mairyaadhai (1997) in Tamil and Doli Saja Ke Rakhna (1998) in Hindi are the two remakes of the original Malayalam film. In my blog post, I embedded within the written essay multiple videos, each video is a compilation of a specific moment from the three films. At the time, when I was compiling the clips from multiple films on Windows Movie Maker, when I was mixing the score from one film with the visuals of another, I did not know that I was making some sort of a fragmented video essay. I had not even heard of the term video essay. I was appropriating the sources, replacing the score, compiling the manipulated clips into a sort of a simple supercut. I understood more about music in films in the process of making it; when you place a piece of music over the visuals, you place for it to precisely begin at a certain frame, and while doing so you realise how if you placed it a few seconds before or few seconds later, everything that follows fall out of sync and that this lack of synchronicity could be immediately perceived. Together the blogpost and the multiple embedded YouTube videos (not of this video essay) has had over 100000 views and hundreds of comments. Because the blogpost has me explaining using written word the intent of the exercise and my comparative analysis of the scores, the readers/viewers of my blog found it useful and educating. Here are some of the comments from the readers/viewers “great effort. Though you concentrated only on music, with this post you showed ppl like me the value of acting, camera placement, scene transition, background music, and what not. enriching experience to say the least.” “Thanks for the wonderful compilation of all 3 versions and your analysis of it. It is a great study material to analyse how different composers approach a scene.” “More than what the great composers have done in these films, the research and analysis of this guy flatters me. I bow my head to the critical work. Kudos!” On YouTube, the viewers who watched only the comparison video (and may not have read the blog post) explain why they liked the score in one version of the film better than the other. “My take, I liked the version of Ilaiyaraaja sir, the pacing, the suspense, the thrill the emotions are brought neatly in this intense emotional encounter. Putting nice sounding music is different than music which intensifies the scene as intended and conveys what the director wanted the audience to experience.” “I really love the composition of Ousepachan not because of I am a mallu... But its excellently composed and much apt for this scene... second, I enjoyed Ilaiyaraaja sir's...” “I just wonder that no one commented for this extraordinary work done by the compiler. It is proven that Ilaiyaraaja stands tall against tough and challenging situations in cinema. Ilaiyaraaja understands exactly how viewers will be tied to the scenes by the Background score. He is definitely gifted in that way. I don’t want to comment about others. It is understood that all others No match to Ilaiyaraaja.” “I got confused when the Aniyathipravu scene started… I thought the Kadhalukku Mariyadhai scene is being repeated… director Fazil has used a lot of actors from the original…” Through the written-word part of the blogpost I explicitly communicated my analysis. There is no ambiguity about my arguments. Also, most of the readers/viewers were already familiar with the films. If I ever make a voiceover-less video essay for those who are already familiar with these films, the narrative structure of the video essay would be entirely different. This video essay, on the other hand, is an experiment; it is an attempt to see if this voiceover-less audiovisual adaptation of my blogpost is as engaging and educating to a viewer who is not familiar with Indian films, or at least with the films that are the subjects here. I have not provided any context in the video essay. If you are reading this after watching this video essay, here is a simple synopsis: The film(s) is a typical Indian romance drama with a surprise at the end. Boy meets girl; love at first sight; warring families, and they do not approve; the couple elope; then, they decide to part ways because they do not want to hurt their family; immediately after she returns, the girl gets betrothed to another guy chosen by her family; a week before her wedding, the ex-boyfriend and his family get an opportunity to visit the girl’s place; the anger and animosity between the families seem to have simmered down; then, the boy meets the girl again in this moment you see in the video essay, and then finally comes the surprise at the end, which I have not included in the video essay. I always wondered if practitioners of videographic criticism consider their audiences and the audiences’ familiarity or lack thereof with the film or media object they are working with. If they do consider, it would be interesting to understand what aesthetic and narrative choices they make so that their work is intelligible and interesting to those who are totally unfamiliar with the footage they are working with. This is what I struggled with the most when making this video essay. I have made some narrative choices to make it interesting and engaging to those who are unfamiliar with these films or Indian films. I do not know for certain if I have been successful.