Review : Morning Raga

Set in the Southern city of Hyderabad, and neighboring villages, this is a tale with musical nuances. The plot although clear and convincing, lascks lustre in execution. Not good enough to be called engrossing, the film does hold your interest.The film starts off with musical Swarnalatha (Azmi) and violin-playing Vaishnavi () and their children boarding a bus to go to the city, where the women are to perfom. The bus however, plunges off a bridge into the river. Vaishnavi, and Swarnalatha’s son are drowned. Swarnalatha in grief now lives in self-imposed exile, believing that it was her ambition that caused the deaths.

Twenty years later, Abhinay (Prakash Rao), Vaishnavi’s son is a music composer, who fed up with composing jingles for ads, quits his job and decides to start-up a music group/band. He meets Pinky/Priyanka (Perizaad) who becomes the group’s singer. As he gathers group members, he also decides to enlist the help of carnatic singer Swarnalatha, his dead mother’s old friend. Can she overcome her fears to help these young musicians define an identity for themselves in the music world ?

The film has two things going for it. Firstly, Ms. Azmi’s great talent, and secondly the story. The story is moving and unfolds interestingly. Shabana Azmi is what she is, a wonderful actress, essaying this role with just as much finesse as she does any other. Perizaad is adequate in her potrayal of Pinky, while Prakash Rao is poor in the depiction of any emotion. I am no fan of Carnatic music, hence the music didn’t leave me wanting me more.

The direction is just about average, and screenplay infirm, causing some scenes to play out like unrealistic rehearsals of the real thing. Dialogues are earthy and banal, no profound sentiments here. The film’s premise offers ample room to explore emotional undercurrents. However the opportunity remains unused, leading to an impression of superficial-ness throughout. Another thing I could have done without are the digs at “modern” women (disguised as comedy ??) as depicted by Pinky’s boutique running mother Mrs. Kapoor (Lillette Dubey).

All that said, this film is still worth watching for the story it tells, without resorting to commercial tricks. So, here’s to an interesting hour and a half.