Classical favourites

It all started with “aahista aahista” song from Swades which I was playing as a lullaby for the child. She liked it so much that I went about finding other songs of the same raga, Charukesi. My mind was then immersed with this raga which I’ve been humming for quite a while now.Turns out that it seems to be the favourite raga of A R Rahman. And also Raveendran, the music director in Malayalam. Also I did note that there aren’t much classical musical films like Sargam in Mollywood anymore, which has “Krishna kripasagaram” song in the same raga. Another two of my favourites are “Hey Krishna” and “Geyam harinamadheyam”. The raga seems to evoke shantham, shokam and meditative rasa(emotions). 

The search for other classical film songs reminded me of “Kudumbasametham” and “Sopanam”. The songs in those films were like puzzles for any Carnatic music student. They had the apt amount of easy and complicated sargams. There were movies called Shankarabharanam in old days. When did we stop making such “boring”(as per gen z) films and shifted to violent thrillers? The slice of life films preaching about values and principles would indeed be too much for this generation but snippets of life filled with love and humanity is missing from the cinema. 

I may not be alone yearning for such “art films”. Where do they find their entertainment then? Are you one among them, who dislike violent and gore films and prefer music and life based films? Maybe on YouTube, or OTT? Have you too noticed that they are not advertised much? 

The search is still on.