Sunday, October 18, 2020
"Life of Ram" : The song/video/lyrics is an artistic tour-de-force
I have sporadic barters with Bluestag (aka Rahul Reddy) on the subject of South Indian songs , the best takeaway of which was Kangal Irandaal till 1 year ago. 1 year ago, he suggested to me the Tamil song “Life of Ram” (here it is link) which I heard and enjoyed then, and have been giving it the odd listen on and off. Now RR knows nil Tamil while I know broken, so your ignorance of the language need not be reason to pause here.
Today, I went deep into the said song on Youtube. And came out astounded! It’s an artistic tour-de-force (called TDF hereon), I feel. There are 5 amazing aspects of this artistic TDF:
1) The music2) The lyrics3) The video4) The interplay between the music and the video5) The interplay between the lyrics and video
Let’s dive in.
The music? Thought it was lovely. Vocals are fabulous. The gentle guitar strumming at the start is pleasing. And the way the song seamlessly traverses the high and low pitches, and the rapid and slow speeds, is remarkable. In your first journey through the TDF, I suggest just focus on the music.
As for the lyrics, the youtube video itself displays the lyrics as captions surprisingly accurately, but I suggest don’t focus on the lyrics on the first run. After the first listen, go through the lyrics here: <link> . And that will help you truly soak in the lyrics independent of the song. My Tamil vocabulary is quite limited, so I don’t think knowledge Tamil is required to appreciate. I enjoyed the part about how one likes the sea after reaching the shore, and that today’s experiences will make sense tomorrow. The sentences below are really poetic in their alliteration, and rhyme, and I am guessing took some dexterity in Tamil vocabulary to compose:
Vagai Vagai Vazhgiren, Pagai Paagai Aagiren
Coming to the video, it’s a beautiful endorsement for India’s varying colors, sights and sounds, ranging from forests, seas, country side roads, wildlife, deserts, mountains, city scapes, etc. The video jumps from the contrasts of solitude in the jungle or desert, to the milling crowds of Kolkata. My least favorite part is the romanticization of pigeons because I believe pigeons are noisy pests. The product placement of Renault Duster is not annoying. Also, another hat tip to Reddy here, who himself owned a Duster (Terrano, which is just the same) long ago.
The song and video are interwoven beautifully. Some mesmerizing sequences:
1) Smooth flows: At 20:10, the song is slow and thoughtful and so is the man. At 2:13, the vocals pick up vigour and pace, and simultaneously the man plants his umbrella and purposefully strides out to the waters. at 2:20, when the song goes into “Ad a daaaaa”, the wave is shown flowing smoothly from top view and in a smooth gesture, the man scoops up some water. Fabulous.2) Emergence: At 3:25, the song is mellow. While the song hits a mini crescendo at 3:32, the man emerges from behind a dune, perched atop a camel. On the same theme, a little ahead, the vocals enter an ecstatic sequence, and we suddenly cut to a scene of the man soaking in a waterfall.3) Calmness: At 3:54, when the vocals become calm, the video zooms out, and the waterfall which displayed seconds earlier a frantic energy , is now seen to be calmly and slowly falling to the rocks in wave upon gentle wave.
The interplay between video and lyrics is the final element of the TDF. Some remarkable instances:
1) 2:16 – “The joy of a kitten’s caress”: the wave from the sea caresses the foot of the man.2) 2:19 – “I want to stroke everything I come across, beautifully”: the man bends down and caresses the wave.3) 3:11 – “With the wind flies the hawk”: The wind buffets the lonesome tent in which the man peeps out of4) 3:21 – “Like the rock that goes to the depths of the water” – we see the man falling fast through the dune.5) 3:27 – “Renouncing of sound”- the sound of the chaotic descent of the man through sand disappears as he surveys the surroundings.6) 3:34 – “Like the bird that rides on the bulls hump I will live on the earth”- the man is perched atop a camel and then quickly gets on the ground.7) 3:49 – “This moment envelops like a mother”: the waterfall gushes down and envelops a rock.
Urge you to go through the TDF in the same order as listed above, one by one. Would require 5 journeys through the TDF, which would be a half hour “immersing into the depths”, as the song itself urges.
On a side note, the above exposition on this song puts into practice some of the observational skills I’ve
learnt in the Creativity in Arts and Science course during MBA.
@RahulReddy: Am sure that if this song came out during undergrad, it would have got as many repeat plays on loud volume on your Altec Lansing, as Engel and In the End. Also, the man in the video does resemble you to some extent.
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Consider Phlebas from the Culture Series: A cultured Sci fi space opera read
Just finished the second Sci fi read of the year, and a very different experience from the first.
- While the first read, Infinite Detail, was here and now, extending the present tech and circumstances 20 years out, the other, Consider Phlebas, is what’s called a ‘space opera’ sci fi which is altogether different. Space operas are vast in scale crossing multiple galaxies, make big leaps in available science. For example, Consider Phlebas has hyperspace (faster than light speed travel) and laser blasters. Infinite Details is set very much on earth, and the tech is VR goggles and such.
- Infinite detail belongs to the dystopia genre sci fi, and while in Consider Phlebas, one of the main civilizations, ‘the Culture’, is in a state of AI supported utopia.
- Infinite detail is as recent as 2019, while Consider Phlebas is 1989 vintage. In fact, Phlebas has some Communist overhang in the lexicon, albeit not in the premise.
Consider Phlebas is a good read- racy plot, interesting
characters, just the right amount of science, good writing, and some gentle
humour interspersed. Think I’m going to venture forth further into the Culture
series.
How did I get to Consider Phlebas? The ‘Culture Series’, of
which Consider Phlebas is a book in , is a fav of Mr Musk and Mr Bezos. Not
much love is lost between them in their recent twitter wars, but this is one
thing they could agree on- their love for this series.
Also, hat doff to Mr Musk for interspersing so deep cultural
references in his company. Sea based landing ports for Space X’s rockets have
the quirky names ‘Of Course I Still Love you’ and ‘Just read the instructions’,
which are actually the names of giant spaceships in one of the books of the Culture
Series. Space X created a milestone in being the first company to recover
rocket first stages, by landing them on these sea based rocket landing passed.
End Credits: Thanks S for urging me to record immediate thoughts.
Labels: Books
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