Morning Raga | |
---|---|
![]() American theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Mahesh Dattani |
Written by | Mahesh Dattani |
Produced by | K. Raghavendra Rao |
Starring | Shabana Azmi Prakash Kovelamudi Perizaad Zorabian Lillete Dubey Nassar |
Cinematography | Rajiv Menon |
Edited by | A. Sreekar Prasad |
Music by | Mani Sharma Amit Heri |
Production companies | RK Teleshow Arka Media Works |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 110 minutes (American release) [1] 90 minutes (Indian release) [2] |
Language | English |
Budget | ₹1.5 crore [2] |
Box office | ₹30.5 lacs [2] |
Morning Raga is a 2004 Indian English-language musical drama film written and directed by Mahesh Dattani, and produced by K. Raghavendra Rao under Arka Media Works. It stars Shabana Azmi, Prakash Kovelamudi, Perizaad Zorabian, Lillete Dubey and Nassar. The film has an extensive use of English dialogue, in addition to the Godavari dialect of Telugu language. [3]
The film focuses on three main characters — all Telugu — whose lives have each been ruined by past tragedies and how they are united by circumstance. These three are all connected by a love of music, and through this, the film explores elements of classical Indian Carnatic music, the raga, and contemporary Indian music. The film was also dubbed into Telugu as Ragam. [4]
![]() | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.(August 2024) |
The film begins with a collage of idealised village life in south India, with a Carnatic classical song in the background, being rendered by Swarnalata (Shabana Azmi), the lady of a prosperous land-owning family. Abhinay (Prakash Kovelamudi) is the youthful son of another affluent landowning family belonging to the same village. His parents are dead, and he is heir to his grandfather (Nasser), who owns extensive farmlands and property. Abhinav is not keen on the life of a landowner. He has grown up in the city and wants to start a music troupe, playing western pop music, which is entirely alien to this society.
It is the death anniversary of Abhinav's parents, and his grandfather performs the usual Hindu ceremonies on the riverbank, like every year. This time, after many years, Abhinav is with him. As they arrive at the riverbank, a lady who has just finished performing the same rituals is leaving. This is Swarnalatha, and when she sees a young boy with Nasser, she looks intensely at the young man. Abhinav is intrigued by her look, and after some hesitation, he leaves his grandfather and follows the lady through the village streets. A car suddenly appears and almost crashes into a distracted and careless Abhinav, but swerves away in the nick of time and hits some bushes. This incident causes great and visible trauma to Swarnalatha, who now runs homeward. Abhinav, who has fallen on his face, is unable to follow her further. He meets the driver of the car, the beautiful and strikingly modern city girl Pinky (Perizaad Zorabian). The car having broken down, Pinky has nowhere to stay in the village; Abhinav takes her home, where his grandfather (Nasser) invites her to stay a few days while her car is repaired.
Swarnalatha is a classically trained Carnatic singer who lost her son and best friend, Vaishnavi (Ranjani Ramakrishnan), in a bus accident. The story reopens after 20 years when Vaishnavi's son plans to leave his business of composing jingles with a desire to start a music troupe to compose everlasting music just like the Charminar, and with these plans, he returns to his home. His plan irks his father Nassar, who wants him to look after the ancestral lands in the village. On the Death Anniversary of Vaishnavi, Abhinay spots Swarnalatha and hears her song "Pibare Ramarasam" in the temple. When Swarnalatha leaves the temple, Abhinay stops her, saying, "You knew my mother," and follows her. The duo reach the bridge when a car comes and hits Abhinay, and the car was being driven by Pinky (Perizaad Zorabian). Swarnalatha screams and reaches her home, with the 20-year-old guilt in her mind that her one step on the bridge caused the accident. Here, the car gets some glitch, and Pinky is compelled to stay for the night in the village. Next morning both Abhinay and Pinky set out for Hyderabad to seek the perfect artists for the proposed troop, and they get a guitarist and a drummer, Balaji Shaleen Sharma. All land up at Pinky's boutique, whose environment irritates Abhinay, but somehow Pinky consoles him and the practices start, with a few opportunities coming their way, but their rock band does not receive the respect as Abhinay had expected. After a few days, Abhinay receives the violin his mother used to play when she was alive. He returns to the village to return the violin to Swarnalatha, saying that both her voice and the sound of the violin are complementary to each other and one cannot exist without one another, and invites her to sing with their troupe, for which she refuses, saying that she won't come to the city, and returns the violin. Swarnalatha's husband asks him to bring his troupe to the house on Ganesh Chaturthi day. The troupe arrives on the said date, and Swarnalatha starts singing "Mahaganapathi Manasa Smarami," but stops in between and sings the sophisticated svaram of the song, for which no compatible music could be played. That evening Abhinay again compels Swarnalatha to sing in the city, but she again refuses, and Abhinay ends the communication with the note that she owes him a lot as he is her best friend's son, after all. Next morning Abhinay's father expresses his dislike in his son's musical career in front of Swarnalatha, and at the same time Swarnalatha agrees to sing for Abhinay in the city. She starts from her house with her husband. On the way, their car breaks down, and they are forced to take the bus, which crosses the bridge. Swarnalatha starts screaming, stops the bus, and starts running and falls ill. Both return home and her husband reports that she cannot come for singing. The next day Swarnalatha personally calls Pinky and asks her to learn Carnatic music. Pinky learns carnatic music from Swarnalatha. After a few days, Abhinay plans a concert, though for Pinky to sing, but always urges Swarnalatha to come for singing, but she continues to express her reluctance because she considers the bridge as a punishment for her ambitions. One day, while driving, Pinky gets irked at the repetitive reluctance of Swarnalatha and speeds up the car and crosses the bridge, and Swarna starts screaming, "Stop the car! We all are going to die." Finally, Pinky stops the car and reveals that her father was drunk and was responsible for the accident. The film ends with the concert in which Swarnalatha appears and sings "Thaaye Yashoda" on repeated urging from Pinky, and the concert becomes a 10-week hit.
Shabana Azmi was trained intensively in Carnatic music by Ranjani Ramakrishnan before she was allowed to sing during the film. The house used for her character's home is a historic zamindar country mansion and estate near the West Godavari village of Kulla.
Tr. # | Track name | Artist(s) |
---|---|---|
1 | "Mahaganapatim" | Bombay Jayashree |
2 | "Thaye Yashoda" | Sudha Ragunathan Ranjani Ramakrishnan |
3 | "Mathey" | Sudha Raghunathan Kalyani Menon |
4 | "Pibare Ramarasam" | Kalyani Menon |
5 | "Samaja Varagamana" | Gayathri |
6 | "Todi Alaap" | Kalyani Menon |
7 | "Remembering His Violin" | Gayathri |
8 | "City Interlude" | Instrumental |
9 | "Alaap Jam" | Nandini Srikar |
10 | "Coffee Shop Montage" | Sunitha Sarathy |
11 | "Charminar" | Veena Rajesh Vaidya |
12 | "The Chase" | Gayathri |
13 | "Jagado Dharana" | Bombay Jayashree Nandini Srikar |
14 | "Mahaganapatim Jam" | Bombay Jayashree |
A critic from The Hindu wrote that "All is well till the characters start talking. That is when "Morning Raga," Mahesh Dattani, falls flat". [5] A critic from Rediff.com wrote that "The film is excessively escapist in terms of human emotion, and relies on everybody eventually liking everybody else in the end, and confessing all. Moments of conflict and inner turmoil in Morning Raga are like item numbers, quick and engaging, but utterly disconnected to the rest of the film". [6]
Shabana Azmi is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. Her career in the Hindi film industry has spanned over 160 films, mostly within independent and neorealist parallel cinema, though her work extended to mainstream films as well as a number of international projects. One of India's most acclaimed actresses, Azmi is known for her portrayals of distinctive, often unconventional female characters across several genres. She has won a record of five National Film Awards for Best Actress, in addition to six Filmfare Awards and several international accolades. The Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri in 1998 and the Padma Bhushan in 2012.
Damal Krishnaswamy Pattammal, popularly known as D. K. Pattammal or DKP, was an Indian Carnatic musician and a playback singer for film songs in Tamil. Pattammal, along with her contemporaries M. S. Subbulakshmi and M. L. Vasanthakumari, are popularly referred to as the female trinity of Carnatic Music. This trio initiated the entry of women into mainstream Carnatic Music. She has been appreciated all over the world by Carnatic music lovers.
Apoorva Raagangal is a 1975 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by K. Balachander. It stars Kamal Haasan, Sundarrajan, Srividya and Jayasudha, while Nagesh and Rajinikanth, in his feature film debut, play supporting roles. The film revolves around Prasanna (Haasan) who falls in love with the much older Bhairavi (Srividya) while Bhairavi's daughter Ranjani (Jayasudha) is drawn to Prasanna's father Mahendran (Sundarrajan).
Swarnalatha was an Indian playback singer. In a career spanning almost 22 years, she recorded over 10,000 songs in many Indian languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Oriya, Punjabi, and Badaga. Her beautiful voice is the reason behind her title “Queen of Tones In India”.
Masoom is a 1983 Indian Hindi-language drama film, the directorial debut of Shekhar Kapur. It is an adaptation of the 1980 Erich Segal novel Man, Woman and Child, which was also adapted into a Malayalam movie Olangal and an American movie Man, Woman and Child. The film stars Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi in lead roles along with Tanuja, Supriya Pathak and Saeed Jaffrey. It features Jugal Hansraj, Aradhana and Urmila Matondkar as child actors. The screenplay, dialogues and lyrics are by Gulzar with music by R.D. Burman. The film has been remade into a Telugu movie named Illalu Priyuralu and in Turkish as Bir Akşam Üstü.
Madras Lalithangi Vasanthakumari was a Carnatic musician [1 and playback singer for film songs in many Indian languages. MLV and her contemporaries, D. K. Pattammal and M. S. Subbulakshmi, are popularly referred to as the female trinity of Carnatic music. A prime disciple of G. N. Balasubramaniam, she was the youngest among the established musicians of that era and was the youngest female to receive the Sangita Kalanidhi award. In 1967, she was honored with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, by the government of India. Her daughter, the late K. Srividya, was an actress in Tamil and Malayalam.
Joggers' Park is a 2003 Indian drama film made in English and Hindi. It is directed by Anant Balani and written by Subhash Ghai. It stars Bengali actor Victor Bannerjee, Perizaad Zorabian and Divya Dutta. It was filmed on location in Mumbai's Jogger's Park.
Pavithra is a 1994 Indian Tamil-language drama film written, produced and directed by K. Subash under his home banner, Dhanooja Films. The film stars Radhika, Nassar, Ajith Kumar and Keerthana. It was released on 2 November 1994, Diwali day, and won two National Film Awards: Best Male Playback Singer and Best Lyrics (Vairamuthu).
Ragam Tanam Pallavi (RTP) is a form of singing in Carnatic music which allows the musicians to improvise to a great extent. It is one of the most complete aspects of Indian classical music, demonstrating the entire gamut of talents and the depth of knowledge of the musician. It incorporates raga alapana, tanam, niraval, and kalpanaswara. In more elaborate ragam tanam pallavis, a tani avartanam may follow.
Sparsh (transl. Touch) is a 1980 Indian Hindi feature film directed by Sai Paranjpye. It stars Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi playing the characters of a visually impaired principal and a sighted teacher in a school for the blind, where they fall in love though soon their complexes tag along and they struggle to get past them to reconnect with the "touch" of love. The film remains most memorable for the subtle acting of its leads, plus the handling of the issue of relationships with the visually disabled, revealing the emotional and perception divide between the worlds of the "blind" and the "sighted", epitomized by the characters. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. However, the film's release was delayed by almost 4 years.
Unnal Mudiyum Thambi is a 1988 Indian Tamil-language musical drama film written and directed by K. Balachander. Produced by Kavithalayaa Productions, the film stars Kamal Haasan, Seetha and Gemini Ganesan. Manorama, Janagaraj, Prasad Babu, Nassar, and Delhi Ganesh play supporting roles. The film was a remake of Balachander's own Telugu film Rudraveena (1988).
Feroz Abbas Khan is an Indian theatre and film director, playwright and screenwriter, who is most known for directing plays like Mughal-e-Azam, Saalgirah, Tumhari Amrita (1992), Salesman Ramlal and Gandhi Viruddh Gandhi.
Chinna Thambi is a 1991 Indian Tamil-language romantic musical drama film written and directed by P. Vasu. The film stars Prabhu as the titular character, an uneducated village simpleton and Khushbu as Nandini, a homeschooled wealthy girl. Manorama, Radha Ravi, Uday Prakash, Rajeshkumar, and Goundamani play supporting roles. The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, and the film released on 12 April 1991.
Chembaruthi (transl. Hibiscus) is a 1992 Indian Tamil-language teen romantic drama film written and directed by R. K. Selvamani and produced by Kovaithambi. The film stars Prashanth and Roja, while Mansoor Ali Khan, Nassar, Radha Ravi, and Bhanumathi play supporting roles. It was partially re-shot in Telugu as Chamanti with Satyanarayana replacing M. N. Nambiar. The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, while editing was done by V. Udhayashankar and cinematography by Ravi Yadav. The film released on 17 April 1992 and was a major box office success. It was remade in Hindi as Aao Pyaar Karen (1994).
Gopura Vasalile is a 1991 Indian Tamil-language romantic black comedy film directed by Priyadarshan, starring Karthik and Bhanupriya. It relies on various subplots from the Malayalam film Pavam Pavam Rajakumaran (1990) and the Hindi film Chashme Buddoor (1981). The film was released on 22 March 1991.
Meera is a 1992 Indian Tamil-language film directed by P. C. Sreeram in his directorial debut and written by M. R. Bharathi. The film stars Aishwarya in the titlular character along Vikram, while Tarun, Poornam Viswanathan, Gandhimathi, Janagaraj, and Chinni Jayanth play supporting roles. Nassar and Sarathkumar make friendly appearances, and the latter has a cameo appearance. The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja with cinematography by P. C. Sreeram and editing by B. Lenin and V. T. Vijayan. The film released on 18 December 1992.
Raja Kaiya Vacha is a 1990 Indian Tamil-language comedy film, directed by Suresh Krissna. The film stars Prabhu, Gautami and Revathi with Nassar, Sarathkumar, Nagesh, Janagaraj, Anandaraj, and Poornam Viswanathan in supporting roles. It was released on 7 December 1990. The film's title is derived from a song from Apoorva Sagodharargal (1989).
Avatharam (transl. Avatar) is a 1995 Indian Tamil-language film written and directed by Nassar, making his directorial debut. The film stars him and Revathi. It was released on 9 June 1995 and failed at the box office, but won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Third Best Film.
Kilipecchu Ketkava is a 1993 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film, directed by Fazil, starring Mammootty and Kanaka. It was released on 13 November 1993.
Jyotsna Srikanth is an Indian-British violinist and composer, performing Carnatic music and Western classical music.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)