Kamal-Ilayaraaja-Singeetham Rao-MUMBAI EXPRESS

Hi folks,
After all these days of hype,
CM has been getting mixed reviews, the reviews have not been flattering.
idlebrain.com 2.75.5
telugucinema.com thumbs down
sify.com - watchable
rediff - hit (but more like jothika's film than rajini)

All of these sites mention about the fact that screenplay and narration is haphazard. It is the climax which has a suspense element, in fact rediff said jothika outperfomed rajini. i was not flattered by rediff review, it just seem to skim the surface. sify.com mentioned about rajini not lighting up the screen like before and also looking aged in some scenes.

Kamal's interview in video here
http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/t...ents/7320.html

He mentions that he was insulted by the offer given by audio companies(in clip 2) and decided to launch his own audio company and made six times as much money

Forgot to mention, the interview seems interesting and different, not the usual stuff.Also,the entire interview is in "peter" :-)

I would advise everyone not to seriously buy into rediff's reviews. I read their pathetic reviews for Swades. They are tuned to appreciate all those HAJJKs and HAJJKLs kinda movies with 20 songs, 2 wedding sequences and loads of sentiment.

Check this news.....

Source: Sify

http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=13717922

First day, first show!

By Moviebuzz
Thursday, 14 April , 2005, 18:55

Fans of superstars are having a Tamil New Year feast in theatres across Tamilnadu. The shows started in the wee hours of the day and all the three biggies Chandramukhi, Mumbai Xpress and Sachin have taken a 100 to 120 percent opening!
In Chennai suburbs, ticket rates across the counter were Rs 100 and most of the theatres have overflowing audience sitting on the aisle or standing. The fans just wanted a good time and above all to see the film first day first show. The theatre management made a killing as the halls were overflowing beyond capacity.

All the releases carry average reports, nothing extraordinary. By Tuesday morning a clear picture will emerge. Meanwhile Vijay fans were disappointed that the Vijay-Bipasha sizzler song is missing as it was deleted after Madras High Court put a ban on the song.

Vijay told Sify.com: “Please inform my fans that by Monday we will try to work out something as we will try to put back the sexy number with a new tune and background score. I am happy by the way the film has shaped out”.

Watched MX FDFS at SSR Pankajam and matinee show at Kasi.
It's not a roller-coaster ride like MMKR but the comedy is classy nevertheless. Go without expectations and you won't be disappointed. Not Kamal's best but not bad either.
Ilayaraaja's RR is superb, especially the scene where Kamal walks on the crane. Wonder why they made such a fuss about the Vandematarm song - (definitely wouldn't have been offensive, given the context)
Poo poothathu has been butchered and as we all know, my favorite "Yelae nee.." has been consored.
Runnin outa time now.... Go watch it...
P.S: The crowd reaction was mixed, IMO

alwarpet_andavan

Watched MX FDFS at SSR Pankajam and matinee show at Kasi.
It's not a roller-coaster ride like MMKR but the comedy is classy nevertheless. Go without expectations and you won't be disappointed. Not Kamal's best but not bad either.
Ilayaraaja's RR is superb, especially the scene where Kamal walks on the crane. Wonder why they made such a fuss about the Vandematarm song - (definitely wouldn't have been offensive, given the context)
Poo poothathu has been butchered and as we all know, my favorite "Yelae nee.." has been consored.
Runnin outa time now.... Go watch it...
P.S: The crowd reaction was mixed, IMO

alwarpet_andavan

Rajasaranam and guys

I asked about ME at Guitar Prasannas website about the style of music in ME here is his reply to my question

read on

Quote
"
Dear UV,

I did listen to some of the songs from ME and was pleasantly surprised to hear my electric guitar on the theme song. I recorded that a few years back when it was an untitled instrumental work of Illayaraja and I see its been used as theme for this film.

The 'Theme music' after the strings intro has undercurrents of 'ragtime' and reminds me a bit of Scott Joplin and Claude Bolin but its finally Illayaraja and that's what makes it all unique.

Raja's music in this film is harmonically very advanced, unlike stuff we normally hear in Indian popular music and definitely has complex and Jazzy harmony all over it, it would be interesting to point out here that the essence of 'Jazz' lies in the language of improvisation.

Until one gets a live band to 'interpret' composed material in an improvised and interactive manner, it will not have the spirit of Jazz. Since that doesn't happen here, I would just call this as great music from a master composer, instead of attaching any style like Jazz to it.

On the song 'Poo Poothathu', the drum groove is wonderful. From listening in Real Audio, I can't make out if parts of it are played live or is fully programmed, but the snare drum is always played just a little behind the beat and gives it a relaxed groove. That's what is called 'backbeat' or 'playing in the pocket'.

Except for Jazz, R&B, good solid Funk and some Rock like Led Zeppelin, most times, the snare drum is on 'top of the beat' and I personally don't dig that 'top of the beat' much. So, Purushotham or whoever played/programmed that has done a great job.

Also, the piano parts (again its probably synth and not acoustic piano) are really nice and have very nice phrasing, I suspect its played by Viji Manuel and he's done a great job. "

End Quote

Thanks to Prasanna for taking his valuable time and answering my question

Another MX (Telugu version) review
http://www.fullhyderabad.com/scripts...Xpress&ID=2825

Quote:

---

Watch out for the Vande Mataram song which the children sing while Kamal dangles holding on for dear life. Adding effect into that one is the superb composition by Illayaraja.

The songs are completely in the zone with the present generation. They also had Jazz influence that grows on us, but audiences expecting the Illayaraja of yore will miss him. The background music is classic Illayaraja and a definite hit even outside the movie.

---

From Guitar Prasanna's reply:
"Raja's music in this film is harmonically very advanced, unlike stuff we normally hear in Indian popular music and definitely has complex and Jazzy harmony all over it, it would be interesting to point out here that the essence of 'Jazz' lies in the language of improvisation.

Until one gets a live band to 'interpret' composed material in an improvised and interactive manner, it will not have the spirit of Jazz. Since that doesn't happen here, I would just call this as great music from a master composer, instead of attaching any style like Jazz to it."

This is my feeling too. Just because a song uses jazz instruments, it does not become jazz music. I have posted similar thoughts earlier in some other thread about Jazz in TFM.

Again, we really dont know whether the musicians just played IR's notes or they did try and improvise while playing. But going by IR's reputation, most likely he wrote the music and the musicians just played it. But, there is no denying that it sounds really good, especially the drumming.

Having said that, I really dont think true Jazz can be created for tamil films, or for any film music for that matter. There is too much restriction on musicians imposed by the composers in film music composing...

Thanks to UV for posting Guitar Prasanna's thoughts here...