The Magic Flute - A.R.Rahman Quiz Answers

I posted a The Magic Flute - A.R.Rahman Quiz a week ago.

The 18 haunting flute pieces heard in The Magic Flute - A.R.Rahman are from

1. 00.00 - 00.16 - Warriors of Heaven and Earth - Escape
2. 00.17 - 00.42 - Lord of The Rings Musical - Song of Hope
3. 00.43 - 00.58 - Doli Saja Ke Rakhna
4. 00.59 - 1.10 - Rang De Basanti - Lukka Chuppi
5. 1.11 - 1.29 - Kannathil Muthamittal - Refugees Theme
6. 1.30 - 1.59 - Mangal Pandey - Jwala Theme
7. 2.00 - 2.15 - Couples Retreat - Meeting Marcel
8. 2.16 - 2.58 - Elizabeth: The Golden Age - Divinity Theme
9. 2.59 - 3.37 - Endhiran (Robot) - Emotions in a Machine
10. 3.38 - 4.00 - Minsara Kanavu - Thomas Hesitates to speak to Priya
11. 4.01 - 4.52 - Swades - Main Theme
12. 4.52 - 5.36 - Dil Se - Love Theme
13. 5.36 - 5.53 - Lagaan - Music from Opening Credits (Also used for Elizabeth's Introduction scene in the film)
14. 5.53 - 6.25 - Fire - Love Theme
15. 6.25 - 6.37 - Kaadhal Virus - Love Theme
16. 6.37 - 7.11 - Meenaxi - Music from Opening Credits
17. 7.11 - 7.20 - Roja - Alone theme
18. 7.20 - 8.11 - Warriors of Heaven and Earth - The Monk and the Miracle

Scores

Krishna - 10
Sam Joshua - 2
@_curses - 8
திருவாருரிலிருந்து சுதர்சன் - 3
Ajay Baskar - 6
Sripathy Ramesh - 8
@musicallyAVI - 13
Sunil Malhotra - 8
thedrunkenmonk - 2
Siddarth - 7

Raaja Veenai Answers

I posted a Raaja Veenai Quiz a week ago.

The 17 Veena pieces heard in Raaja Veenai clip are from

1.Sindhu Bhairavi
2.Agni Nakshatram
3.Mahanadhi
4.Sethu
5.Mouna Raagam
6.Sindhu Bhairavi
7.Jappanil Kalyaana Raaman
8.Raaja Paarvai
9.Unnaal Mudiyum Thambi
10.Vishwa Thulasi
11.Chinna Kounder
12.Sri Rama Rajyam
13.Thalapathi
14.Singara Velan
15.Vishwa Thulasi
16.Mouna Raagam
17.Aan Paavam

Scores

drunkenmonk - 4
RK - 3
Sripathy ramesh - 7
@tekvijay - 8
Krishna - 5
Kaarthik - 9
Venkatesh CR - 13
Sankari - 4

Well done everyone!

Maanagara Kaaval

Background Score - 76 is from Maanagara Kaaval. Composer - Chandrabose.

Inaintha Kaigal

This heroic fanfare (Background Score – 75) is from Inaintha Kaigal. Composer – Gyan Varma. Associate Composer – Aabaavaanan. It is heard for the first time in one of the most crucial moment of the film, just before the interval, when Arun Pandian saves Ramki out of a fatal accident. And as the title of the film implies, two heroes join hands. You better watch the video. Words cannot express the awesomeness of that moment.

The Theme of Lust

The Theme of Lust (Background score – 74) is from Raavanan / Raavan. Composer – A.R.Rahman.

The theme is first introduced, when abducted Ragini is shown to be terrified of witnessing Veera’s brother handing over a gun to Veera to kill Ragini. It could also be simply Ragini’s Theme.

However, the theme plays in its entirety with prominence when Veera tries to give a justification to his brother, for not killing Ragini. He elaborates on an intellectual theory about his inability to kill someone who is fearless. We already know he has already fallen in love with her. In the theme, a Kora plays a repetitive phrase of melody and kindles a subtle, sweet storm in the soul and a deep contemplation out of bewilderment in the mind, and all of these and much more happens in Veera’s when he falls for Ragini’s beauty.

Rahman could have introduced this theme at the moment, when Veera sees Ragini, who just fell fearlessly from atop of a waterfall, lying on a branch of a tree. Even the tree could not bear the weight of Ragini’s beauty. The branch breaks along with Veera’s conviction and Ragini falls into the water in a slow-motion shot. The theme would have worked brilliantly for this moment, and they could have started the “Behne De/Usure Pogudhey” song a few seconds later.

Veera and his gang are stealing the arms and creating havoc in SP’s camp. Veera enters SP’s tent and finds Ragini’s torn dress hanging like an antique piece. Veera walks closer to the hanging dress. Rahman begins to play the other Kora theme with the African voice, but shifts to the theme of lust precisely when Veera moves his hands closer to dress and contemplates a touch. It is in here, the main emotion of the theme, becomes evident. Maybe the intention was to have just a character leitmotif for Ragini, but this is how I felt and understood this piece of music, while watching the film for the first time.

Nothing But Wind

Nothing But Wind is a compilation of background score cues from following films

Nothing But Wind


1. Paadum Paravaigal - 00:00 - 00:37
2. Idhayaththai Thirudathey - 00:38 - 01:02
3. Pithamagan - 01:03 - 01:48
4. Thalabadhi - 01:49 - 01:54
5. Idhayam - 01:55 - 02:20
6. Agni Nakshatram - 02:21 - 02:48
7. Aan Paavam - 02:49 - 03:31
8. Gopura Vaasalilae - 03:32 - 04:25
9. Guna - 04:26 - 04:42
10. Ninaivellam Nithya - 04:43 - 05:27
11. Vanna Vanna Pookal - 05:26 - 06:01
12. Vetri Vizha - 06:02 - 07:04
13. Ullaasa Paravaigal - 07:05 - 07:31
14. Naadodi Thendral - 07:32 - 08:32
15. Singaara Velan - 08:33 - 09:17
16. Kaadhalukku Mariyaadhai - 09:18 - 09:49
17. Visha Thulasi - 09:50 - 10:45

Background Score - 71 is

This piece is from Chinna Veedu. Composer – Ilaiyaraaja. The immense sympathy that Kalpana’s character in the film gained might partly be because of Bhaghyaraj’s screenplay, dialogues and performances. However, the emotional impact or rather the weep-quotient of the scenes couldn’t have been so much without Ilaiyaraaja’s theme that tickles the tear buds at right spots throughout the film.

Score of Three Cities

Background Score – 70 is from Meenaxi – A Tale of 3 Cities. Composer – A.R.Rahman. Though I attempted many times to watch this film, I couldn’t move past the utter boredom that the 15 minutes of the film is. When I came to know that A.R.Rahman performed a Suite from the background score of Meenaxi in his recent concert with London Philharmonic Orchestra, I got interested to check out the orchestral stuff he has done for this film. I dug the VCD and watched the film, just for the background score. The film turned out to be quite interesting.

A.R.Rahman’s background score plays a very vital role in bringing a lot of coherence, drama, momentum and emotional heft in a dull, fickle and meandering narrative of the film. Rahman has set three distinct music themes that are characteristic of the 3 different cities the narrative travels to. Hyderabad gets a catchy qawwali bit as its signature tune, which also is the theme for the writer (When the writer comes to Prague to meet his fictional character - Maria, the same theme reprises). Jaisalmer theme is a folksy melody sung by an earthy piped instrument and all of music cues for Prague episode are grand western orchestral pieces.

Though the narrative demands scoring in sync with the sound of the soil of the different cities, Rahman connects both Jaisalmer and Prague episode - Meenaxi – Kameshwar and Maria – Kameshwar love story with a common musical theme, which is the gorgeous Oboe theme that is introduced upfront in the opening credits of the film.

Vikraman - S.A.Rajkumar

The pieces in Background Score – 69 are from Vikraman films - Poovae Unakkaga (1), Suryva Vamsam (2 & 3), and they are Composed by S.A.Rajkumar. When I saw these films as a kid, I had no idea about background scores but I have wept and laughed in the scenes with these very background score pieces. The background music really played a very vital role in inducing an emotional audience response to the drama in the visuals of Vikraman films.

But after a point when I became aware of the background scores, I began to realize, how overtly manipulative, sentimental and repetitive S.A.Rajkumar’s background score for Vikraman’s films are. While, I have got no complaints about the melody (I love the flute piece that plays when Nambiar and Vijayakumari sneaks out of their house to have a glimpse of their Grandson), it is the mundane repetition, with the composer never ever trying to tweak the melody differently in different situations in the film, except for increasing or reducing the tempo of the piece, that puts me off. For how a melody – a motif, can be orchestrated in various forms to fit in various situations in the film and yet not sound monotonous, listen Mohan theme from Mouna Raagam.

Coming to the background score for comedy scenes, it really is annoying to listen to sound tones employed to tickle the funny bones for every single line uttered by a comedian or every single reaction shot of his face, in a comic scene. The theme itself is quite good though.

Any theme from any of the Vikraman films can be used without changing a note or even tempo in any of his other films; the themes, emotions, scenes and character are similar to that extent in all of his films. So, a composer cannot be blamed much for this. Probably, if Ilaiyaraaja had scored atleast one film of Vikraman’s, then we would have known what S.A.Rajkumar, Sirpi and others failed to do.

Background Score - 68 is from

This music piece is from Wake up Sid. Composer – Amit Trivedi. It is the Sid and Aisha theme. Sid and Aisha go for a walk around Mumbai in the night, with pleasant strains of Guitar accompanying them throughout their conversation and at the end of the conversation Aisha says that Siddarth is her first friend in Mumbai and Siddarth tells Aisha to call him as Sid and there begins their friendship and the main “Sid and Aisha” theme on Piano. It then recurs to sweeten all those fluffy and sometimes hefty everyday moments and conversations between Sid and Aisha. The piece I chose is from the scene in which Aisha scolds Sid for making her house untidy. Sid begins to clean the room. Even the damn-with-subtlety ‘Wake Up’ chants when Sid cleans the room, works nicely.

Wake up Sid clearly wins my award for the best background score in a Hindi film released in 2009. Amit Trivedi almost sidelined the original song composers of the film – Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy by his pleasing background score, which includes 5 beautiful songs additionally added in the film. Wake up Sid's background score also seems to be the most popular one in 2009, which is evident, from the number of sites that show up when we do a Google search on ‘Wake up Sid background score’, all providing the High quality voiceless background score of the film for download.

Here is the full version of the theme from the scene. (I had edited the Wake up chants to not to give away the film)

Score Quest Fest Answers

Score Quest Fest

Track 9 is from Punnagai Mannan. Composer – Ilaiyaraaja. I like to call this piece the prelude to the popular love theme. It appears when Kamal is deeply disturbed by the hallucination of him dancing with Revathi and angrily hits the Piano. It is a short piece with a beautiful melody and counter melodies.

Track 10 is from Raam. Composer – Yuvan Shankar Raja. It is the title score of the movie in which the scene takes us through every little detail of the place of crime. Yuvan uses a background score cue from the 7G, Rainbow colony and shifts to a new theme as the visuals shifts to the crime scene. I don’t remember where else the theme is used in the film as I didn’t like the film.

Score Quest Fest Answers

Score Quest Fest

Track 7 is from Parthiban Kanavu. Composer – Vidhyasagar. This simple sweet melody is the main love theme of the movie. It appears first when Srikanth sees Sneha and falls in love with her instantly. It continues to play in all the scenes where Srikanth chases her to find her place and identity.

Track 8 is from Porkaalam. Composer – Deva. This haunting melody is Meena’s theme in the movie. Right from the beginning, ever silent Meena expresses her love for Murali through this melody. Once everything collapses and Murali decides to marry a disabled girl, the shattered world of Meena is heard through the orchestral version of the same theme in the climax. The impact of the orchestral version is higher as we audience don’t know what is going to happen and we get shocked to see Meena walking with the disabled girl, whom Murali is getting married to.

Score Quest Fest Answers

Score Quest Fest

Track 5 is from Nattamai. Composer – Sirpi. This is the theme for the chief of the Nattamai family. Though overused throughout the film, the theme aptly adds to the honesty and regal of the head family of the village.

Track 6 is from Kushi. Composer – Deva. This is the omnipresent main love theme of the film that appears every time Siva and Jennifer meet. It sounds best in the scene where Siva and Jennifer both run to save the dying flame of a lamp in the temple. In this scene, music perfectly complemented every single shot. It seems as if the shots were composed and carefully edited keeping music in mind.

Score Quest Fest - Answers

Score Quest Fest

Track 3 is from Dasavatharam. Composer - Devi Sri Prasad. This is the title score. Though I am not sure how genuine this composition is, when played in the title credits, it gave a majestic entry to the much hyped film.

Track 4 is from Ivan. Composer - Ilaiyaraaja or Karthik Raja. I am not sure who the composer is as the piece has unmistakable Karthik Raja touch. It is Deetchanya's theme. It plays in the scene where Deetchanya dreams in which she asks Parthiban to write a poem. It is a scintillating orchestral piece for a very poetic scene. The shift to a melody on bells when she says 'Kavithai' and the following strings piece to imply the ecstasy of Deetchanya is simply hair-rising stuff.

Score Quest Fest - Answers

Score Quest Fest

Track 1 is the main theme of 13B (Yaavarum Nalam), Composed by Tubby and Parik. The theme is omnipresent in the film. This is the version that appears in the Titles (one of the most sensibly done titles in a while) which elaborately hints at the concept and secret on which the whole film is based. Some guessed it as ‘Eeram’ which is good as this piece would have easily fitted in ‘Eeram’ also.

Track 2 is from Autograph composed by Sabesh - Murali. It is played when Senthil first meets Lathika in Kerala. The serene ambience of the backwaters of Kerala, beauty of Lathika (in the eyes of Senthil), the tempo with which boat moved all are beautifully captured in this piece.

Background Score - 67 is from

This piece is from Dum Dum Dum. Composer – Karthik Raaja. We already discussed the main Love theme of movie. Now we move on to the theme for other genre to which the movie ‘Dum Dum Dum’ belongs to – Comedy (not a laugh-out-loud comedy though). Aadhi (Madhavan) and Ganga (Jyothika), with mutual consent make plans to stop their marriage. The first half of the movie is about how every single plan of theirs fails. It is a common practice in Hollywood to use staccatos and pizzicatos for comic situations but it is not used so much in Indian films.

When I first saw the movie, the background score and especially this piece sounded totally out of place. It sounded odd for a movie that it is set in a village though this isn’t as village as that of in a Bharathiraaja movie. But on multiple viewings, I realized how big a risk Karthik Raaja is taking by trying what not many have tried before in comedy movies. Now I love this piece and also the way it has been used in the movie. The theme is introduced right up in the opening credits of the movie, and next used in a scene where Aadhi begins to execute his first marriage-breaking plan by asking his going-to-be father-in-law Murali not to give any money as dowry, when Aadhi’s kith and kin come asking for it.

The second part of the BGM that I posted appears when the dowry plan actually fails, where unexpectedly Aadhi’s father is impressed by Murali who was stubborn in not giving dowry. In a way this grand orchestral piece is a prelude to the brilliant ‘Desingu Raaja’ song which carries this grandeur further in its interludes.

Background Score - 66 is from

This piece is from Adhu Oru Kanaa Kaalam. Composer – Illayaraja. It is a compilation of cues from two most exhilarating moments from the movie. The symphony of strings, keyboards, flutes all running across each other playing a stirring melody (in the both the situations for Seenu running towards Thulasi) converges to a flute solo playing the haunting love theme (for coming together of Seenu and Thulasi). See and Listen to experience the exhilaration

Background Score - 65 is from

This piece is from Achamundu Achamundu. Composer - Karthik Raja. This is the theme instrumental piece as in the OST CD of the movie. I actually thought of watching the movie before putting this post and give my opinion on the background score of the movie, but I couldn't, I am yet to watch the movie. Anyways after Illayaraja, Karthik Raja is the only one who can write such orchestral pieces in Tamil Films.

Background Score - 64 is From

This piece is a compilation of some of the Orffian chants and choirs of A.R.Rahman. The pieces are from Ayutha Ezhuthu (Yuva), Sivaji and Mangal Pandey in that order. The ‘Yuva’ piece appears first in the opening credits of the movie and comes back only after the three parallel narratives merge and move into full-blown action. Sivaji’s piece is fitting for the grand opening credits of the most awaited movie of the year 2007. The theme piece of Mangal Pandey is again a bombastic material to add to the scorching screen presence of Aamir Khan as Mangal Pandey when he first appears in the movie.

Mangal Pandey



Yuva



Sivaji

Background Score - 63 is From

This piece is from Geetanjali (Idhayathai Thirdathey in Tamil). Composer – Illayaraja. Prakash (Nagarjuna) who is going to die soon because of some incurable disease is dejected in life and mourns his own fate. On the other side Geetanjali (Girija), who also suffers from the same disease leads a happy life without worrying about what happens tomorrow. When the two meet, the attitude of Geetanjali amazes Prakash. After some serious contemplation, Prakash too decides to stop worrying and changes his own perspective towards life. Illayaraja’s lively riff of strings from ‘I Love you Mozart’ perfectly reflects the new rhythm to which Prakash's heart beat dances to as he embraces a fresh attitude towards life.