Neethane En Ponvasantham | Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu | Assi Nabbe Poorey Sau

[KV]

padichu vaazhthna ellaarkkum nandri.

Honestly, I kinda like what Selvamani spoke about. At least, it was a relief from the run-of-the-mill "Raaja is great" ubiquitous comments. More importantly though, he touched upon 'clash of creative egos' – might not be the most appropriate topic for the occassion, but it made an interesting subject matter to ponder over. Let's imagine the situation - here's this youngster, fresh out of film school, all geared-up to make it big in the film scene by attempting something (which he feels is) 'different'. He openly (in the presence of Raaja and the producers) comments about making a successful film without help of the (then) biggest ingredient for success, i.e., the man's music. It’s probably the creator’s ego in him that makes him challenge (what he assumes as) the ‘set norms’ in the industry (although, in reality, we know this was just a perception born out of the power and reach of Raaja’s music, versus him deliberately ‘manufacturing’ a ‘dictatorship regime’) and him being a debutant, the naive confidence should be understandable. Now, what interests me here is how Raaja, the legend, the lion-of-the-jungle sorts, reacts to this newbie’s ‘challenge’. It, but naturally, does provoke him (like it would any artist), but he does not walk out of the project or seek ‘vengeance’ by screwing up the film by intentionally underperforming. The artist in him accepts the challenge, which he responds to by creating a quality soundtrack. It’s almost like him saying “look kid, your self-confidence is admirable. Now, let me show you what I can do to your film. I’ll leave it to you to figure out if it has enhanced your creation or diminished it”. It perhaps doesn’t matter to him if newbie filmmakers come to him requesting/pestering for a soundtrack, or, like in this case ‘challenge the need’ of his contribution, he always will respect the creation, deliver his goods and try to do justice to it. There lies the merit of Raaja the artist and monstrous creator.

P.S.: I don’t recall watching this movie and have pretty much no idea about the quality of the film or its soundtrack. I just see this as an example of how Raaja the artist handles certain ‘artistic conflicts’.