Sangamam

Plot

This film depicts the disputes between two forms of the dance styles and music, Classical Indian (in particular Carnatic music and Bharathanatyam danceform) against rural Tamil folk music and dance. The film depicts the misunderstanding and mutual ignorance of the two factions. The parallel plot in the movie is of the children and intended successors of the respective dance doyens falling in love with each other. The climax ends with a consensus of both the music genres as well as the young couple, hence the name Sangamam.

Cast

Production

V. Natarajan launched a film to be directed by Suresh Krishna and A. R. Rahman was signed on to compose the music for the film in early 1998, while he was also working with the producer Natarajan in Rhythm and Udhaya. In an interview in August 1998, A. R. Rahman revealed that he was working on " a very small budget movie called Sangamam which is based on classical and folk dance". The film would feature his namesake and co-brother, Malayalam actor Rahman in the lead role with newcomer Vindhya roped in to play the lead female role.

During production it was reported that the film would be a remake of the 1968 film Thillaanaa Mohanambal which starred Sivaji Ganesan and Padmini, but this was subsequently found to be untrue. The film was briefly delayed in 1999 as A. R. Rahman was too busy to complete the background score for the film, with producer V. Natarajan initially refusing to pay him, causing further delays for the producer's next venture, Rhythm.

Release

The film opened to mixed reviews with a critic writing that "Sangamam is a credible movie with good music by A. R. Rahman and superlative performance by Manivannan". The critic added that "Rahman does justice to his role and has brought a certain dignity and understatement to his character" but that "Vindhya, the heroine is the only weak link". Sandya of Indolink.com mentioned to "see it for the songs, like it for the songs, forget the movie", labelling that Vindhya "couldn't act for nuts". The film was also set to be dubbed and released in Telugu under the same name, but the financial losses suffered had deterred the version.

Due to commercial failure, Sun TV, who bought the satellite rights of the film, premiered within one month after its release that too it was running in few theaters. Few of the Tamil movies like Mugam (Nasser Roja combo), Kadhal FM have been telecast in sun tv, while it was running in theaters itself.

The music of the film was critically acclaimed and won several awards in 2000. Vairamuthu won the National Film Award for Best Lyrics for his lyrics in the song "Mudhal Murai Killipparthaein...", securing his fourth such award. The film won four Tamil Nadu State Film Awards with Rahman picking up Best Music Director, Vairamuthu for Best Lyrics and S. Janaki won the Best Female Playback singer award for the song "Margaazhi". Krishnamurthy won the Best Art Director reward for his work in the film.

Soundtrack

The film's music was composed by A. R. Rahman. The music album of this also made news for the first time rapport of the veteran musician M. S. Viswanathan pairing up with A. R. Rahman. The soundtracks also boasts of prominent singers like S. Janaki, Hariharan, Unni Krishnan, Nithyasree Mahadevan, Sujatha and Shankar Mahadevan. The soundtrack features 6 songs composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Vairamuthu. The soundtrack received critical acclaim and Rahman won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Music Director for the soundtrack he composed.

All lyrics written by Vairamuthu; all music composed by A. R. Rahman.