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Entertainment
Charm of the musical
WE LIKE to think of our movies as musicals. But they aren't really, are they? Just six song and dance numbers arbitrarily strung together. The real musical - the Hollywood musical - is a movie narrated through dialogue and song. The lyrics advance the story, reveal character and set the mood.
The songs are integral to the film. Our movies shoot the songs even before the movie is made. Eye-candy location and a hit tune. And (Kamal Hassan excepted) songs that aren't even sung by the actors.
Essential to the musical is that the actors sing in their own voice; lending their voices to the characters. (Even as close as the Philippines — where the song and dance also flourishes — playback singing is unacceptable. Their actors and actresses do all the songs themselves or not at all). Don't get me wrong even for a minute: I'm addicted to song sequences. Often they are the only nice things about our movies. But if they could only be one with the spectacle and melodrama, instead of being loosely thrown together. (Among the Indian films which got the musical right are, "Mughal-e- Azam", Guru Dutt's films, "Sankarabharanam" and Satyajit Ray's delightful, witty, poetic and tuneful "Goopy Gyne, Baghe Byne")
When are we going to make a genuine musical here? I'm willing to forget that bit about actors doing their own songs but what about telling a story, an Indian story, through song and dance? We've been doing the song and dance routine for so many years and with so many variations that we should now be overqualified to make one. It feels like our movies are rehearsals for a musical.
If only Shekar Kapur had made "Tara Rum Pum Pum", it might have been the real thing. Because that was his plan: to finally make a real musical with a tailor-made Rahman score. Rajeev Menon came close in "Minsara Kanavu". Mani Ratnam in "Iruvar" and Mansoor Khan in "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander" and the underrated "Josh."
There's something irresistible about musicals. Even a really bad one can cheer you up. And there seems to be more than just one kind of musical. When I last counted there were five. The first is the classic - "My Fair Lady", "Singing in the Rain", "Meet Me In St. Louis" and "West Side Story" — which tells its story through song, dance and dialogue. "Pennies from Heaven," "Yentl," "The Little Shop of Horrors," "Cabaret," "All That Jazz," "A Chorus Line" and "Absolute Beginners" are contemporary versions of the same thing.
The second kind is the rock opera - "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Hair" and "Rent" which uses song alone to tell the story. The third is bio-pics of singers and musicians - "Bird", "The Buddy Holly Story", "What's Love Got To Do With It", "La Bamba" and "Selena". The fourth is the concert movie or the Rocumentary - "Don't Look Back," "Woodstock," "The Last Waltz" and "Stop Making Sense". And the fifth, while strictly not a musical, deals with fictionalised stories about singers, bands, and the music industry - "A Hard Day's Night," "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," "Fame," "The Commitments," "Georgia," "Grace of My Heart," "That Thing You Do" and "Centerstage."
The old musicals are the only good musicals. False. Contemporary musicals, often underrated, have their own charm. Though it is true that in Hollywood, the musical, like the western, is dying. Startling, when you realise that these two genres, along with the gangster movie, were original Hollywood inventions; quintessentially American in character. (They know when to give up a good thing — we don't. We borrowed the musical from them in the early years but never outgrew it).
"Evita" was to change things — bring the musical back. But it didn't happen. And just when we thought the musical was truly finished, Woody Allen came along with "Everyone Says I Love You". Sadly underrated and overlooked, this was his nostalgic tribute and farewell to the American musical — his most beloved form.
It wobbled at the box office but never mind. It is a joy. Sweet, inconsequential and so thoroughly feel-good that there isn't one single nasty character. Even the bad guy, Tim Roth, sings a tender love song. Allen picked actors who weren't really singers. They sang awkwardly and sweetly and it made the whole thing realistic and very loveable. Instead of writing new material, he rearranged his favourite numbers, choreographing them against a contemporary New York backdrop.
It opens with Edward Norton and Drew Barrymore shyly singing "Just You, Just Me". The story is about the foibles of a large, wealthy, eccentric American family in Manhattan, modelled no doubt after Salinger's Glass family. (One of the characters is even called Holden).Even Allen sings — so softly and reluctantly that you barely hear him. Julia Roberts sings — but hesitantly and demurely.
Neither of them has great singing voices but the important thing is that you recognise it as Woody's and Julia's voice. When will we hear what our actors and actresses sound like?
PRADEEP SEBASTIAN
(pradeepsebastian@hotmail.com)
Visuals by Netra Shyam
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