A journey with Ilayaraja

Did the heading give you a feeling of déjà vu?! That is because you must have seen this line in Nandalala’s (also spelt as Nandhalala) promos in today’s newspapers. That is how Mysskin prefers to call his film!

“Nandalala is a very beautiful tale of two unlikely friends, a 30-year-old demented man and an 8-year-old boy, who go searching for their respective mothers. Their experiences form the crux of the tale. The film is quite emotional and will tug at the heartstrings of a viewer and its effect will linger in him or her for long,” says Mysskin. “For a film like this, I cannot rely only on acting. It has to be complemented by perfect background music. Realizing this, Ilayaraja has given a beautiful musical composition which has increased the film’s appeal multifold. Take away Ilayaraja’s music and Nandalala will lose its appeal and half its emotions will evaporate. I cannot even think about Nandalala without Ilayaraja’s music. Ilayaraja plays an important role in this tale about the journey of two unlikely friends.”

Nandalala has three songs, one sung by the maestro himself and a 40-minute climax sans any dialogues, entirely depending on the actors’ reactions and Ilayaraja’s background score and re-recording! As�director Mysskin’s insisted, Ilayaraja has scored a symphony for the film’s background score employing several symphony specialists flown in from Hungary.

Mysskin is absolutely correct when he says Ilayaraja’s music is the heart of Nandalala. But one can only say the director is humbly downplaying his own role in the film. As Ilayaraja puts it, the story of the film, something never heard of before, inspired an equally stupendous musical composition from him.

Through the viewpoint of a demented man and a child, certainly the director will bring out the ironies of life. This never-done-before experiment will definitely make everyone introspective. Nandalala will give one an altered state of mind.

PS: Though the film will feature only three songs, the music album will have five songs.