UlagaNayagan KAMALHAASAN in ||"UthamaVillan"|| Directed by Ramesh Aravind

[radiochandra1977]

Ayya .... konjam phone panni sollen enakku. Number irukka ?

[mappi]

single kisske loveaa!

High quality without watermark

[radiochandra1977]

Venous engorgement matter

[radiochandra1977]

2nd interlude of song .... when beat changes .... thalaivar does break dance solo and then pelvic thrusts dance ..... auditorium danaal aayidichu

[avavh3]

ahaa

[kumarsr]

I think the 8th century portion is entirely a musical

Indian films are mostly loud and over the top

Sound designer Kunal Rajan on mixing Kamal Haasan's Uttama Villain in association with Oscar-winning Craig Mann and the cultural differences between Hollywood and Kollywood

When Canadian sound mixer Craig Mann pocketed an Oscar for his work in Whiplash recently, its limelight fell on Kamal Haasan-starrer Tamil film Uttama Villain (UV).
For the uninitiated, Mann has also been associated with the film directed by Ramesh Aravind. Sound designer Kunal Rajan, who had previously worked on Vishwaroopam with Kamal Haasan, introduced Craig to Kamal. "Craig and I have worked together on a few Hollywood films. When I was starting UV, I asked him if he would be interested to mix an Indian film. He was so excited. He was telling me how he had just done a musical recently titled Whiplash, and was very excited to do another musical," Kunal told Mirror and added, "We had such a blast mixing the film. When the content is so good, it makes our experience even more enjoyable. He was extremely collaborative and gave it his very best to make the movie sound the way it does".
Talking more about the sound mix in UV, Kunal said it would play a silent role in driving the story forward. "Sound is going to be much more realistic than larger-than-life which was employed in Vishwaroopam. In UV, everything that's shown on screen has to convey emotions. It's a film with strong emotional content," he said.

'VISHWAROOPAM WAS FUN'
He admits that even though they had cool ideas to play with sound in the film, they couldn't because they felt it may overshadow the emotions or the performance of the actors which will take the audience out of the story. "In Vishwaroopam, we had the leeway to do crazy stuff and we did and it worked," he added. Kunal feels that composing sound for a drama is as challenging as working on an action flick.
Elaborating with an example, he said: "In Vishwaroopam, we had some complex action sequences. For instance, the huge war sequence in Afghanistan had different types of helicopters - from Cobra, Chinook to Black Hawk to a variety of explosions. We had to be very careful with the sound because we didn't want everything to sound similar. If we use the same sound effects for all the helicopters, it'd sound the same and boring. Composing sound for action films is definitely not easy and the same applies to an emotional film as well. I think it's important how to use sound in different places to enhance the story and that makes a lot of difference".
Vishwaroopam was an action spy-thriller set in present day, while portions of UV takes audiences back to the 8th century. Kunal said it was challenging to reproduce the right sounds of a bygone era. "In UV, there are a lot of period instruments such as swords and trumpets. It was challenging to capture these sounds. But thanks to a very good foley team that has worked on some big Hollywood projects, we pulled it off. We used lot of different props to recreate the sound of several period instruments from the 8th century," he said. And working with a foreign crew on an Indian film also led to minor cultural differences that Kunal had to look into. "For instance, in India when you go to somebody's house, you usually leave your footwear outside. Here, people don't do that. When we were recording, small things such as this were to be taken care of because sometimes you don't see the actor's feet in a scene but you can still hear the sound. Since I'm an Indian, I know these things make a lot of difference".
Like most sound engineers, Kunal too started working on Uttama Villain after the film was completely shot. While he agrees it's a good practice to have a sound designer on location and get him involved from the pre-production phase, it's an exception on Kamal's film. "I'm involved in the discussion right from the scripting stage. I remember Kamal was discussing Uttama Villain when we were mixing Vishwaroopam. We discussed about the nature of the film and what all we could do from the perspective of sound. We've already started discussing the sound for his next film. I know the script, scenes and we've already started discussing what difference we can bring to the project, like certain things he could do on sets while shooting that will help me while mixing during post-production. With Kamal, it's a lot easier because he's so experienced and knowledgeable. He visualizes the whole film in his head with sound, and therefore, it isn't a problem while working on his films," Kunal said.

'LUCKY TO WORK WITH GHIBRAN'
For great sound, Kunal feels the relationship between a sound designer and a film's music composer should be strong. "I've been extremely lucky enough to have Ghibran in UV. Ghibran and I started talking about UV even before we even started working on it. When we knew we were going to work together, we started discussing about minute details. For instance, there's a scene where Kamal waves to thousands of people in a mall. With so many people screaming, a scene like this also requires music and it has to go in tandem with the screaming. Both should be equally loud but shouldn't overlap with each other. It's very important to have these kinds of discussions with the music director because if he doesn't know what I'm doing in sound, he'll do his own things in music. Finally, when they're put together, they clash," he said.
Kunal's knowledge of sound in Indian films and American style of sound mixing got him an opportunity to work with Kamal. "Even though I know how Indian films sound, my knowledge comes from an American style of sound mixing. Indian films are usually loud and over-the-top. When I do an Indian film, I can't mix it like I mix an American film and at the same time I can't mix it like I mix an Indian film either. What I try to bring to the table is a little bit of both American and Indian style of sound in mixing. If you go very subtle like American, it doesn't work in India because sound quality in most Indian theatres is not that great. When you marry some aesthetics of the West with Indian aesthetics, I think it sounds beautiful because there are some things that are good in American way of mixing and some things that are good in Indian way," said Kunal.

[kumarsr]

KH definitely needs to clear this doubt on "ghost direction"..for me 10A is directed by KSR and not ghost directed..if KH directed that movie there wont be "ulaganayaganae song" and it wont be commercial & BB as well..For me its his screenplay that is so detailed makes us feel he has directed the movie..

No need to get caught up in this at all. The issue is very simple. It starts with the story. Once KH develops the story he starts to own it and his influence can be seen everywhere. His passion and involvement is what pulls him to write lyrics, collaborate on the musical with Gibran etc. Only people looking at it from outside are riled up about this. Not KSR. Not Ramesh. Not Gibran.Not Singetham.

With direction, it is extremely difficult to be a lead actor and a director taking care of many production issues as well. So another person is needed as a director. That does not make the director a "benami". There is also no reason for KH to go that route if another person is not needed to direct. He can direct it himself and claim that also (and he is not a shy person in this aspect).

To direct his story which he has visualized over several months, he needs someone who is on the wavelength as KH and is a friend and can collaborate well (bring out what KH has in his mind). Hence people like Ramesh. If the story is not his like VV or Papanasam, he can dial back.

[irir123]

Difficult to put exact percentage. But my assessment would be KH 85 percent .... RA 15 percent. Would be safe to call it ghost direction. And about Jaalra ...... HE IS hard core kamal jaalra. Period. I saw him in Alwarpet office waiting outside KH office room like a gardener.

ungalukkum thottakkaarangalukkum edho oru connection? you mentioned it twice in your postings so far! oru kothhanaar, oru karigaai illa maliga saamaan kadaikaarar nu sollirukkalaamey? adhu enna gardener twice?

[radiochandra1977]

Maliga kada kaarar naa Lingusami kochupparu.

[kumarsr]

after VR's release debacles, KH's choice of Ghibran is most likely for obvious reasons - very PC - plus as a newcomer, he wouldnt have charged much - so budget wise smart move - konjam talent irundhaaley podhhum Kamal can extract the max - he could do that with Deva, so Ghibran is obviously more talented so talent plus economically thrifty decision.

Am yet to listen to the album - but its unfair to expect an IR class from a newcomer - 'karutmathhoor' and rest of Virumandi are stratospheric level class - no comparison

Talent, yes. But not sure if budget for a composer plays a major consideration for selection.