Morning Raga

About the film

Morning Raga is a 2004 Indian English-language musical drama film written and directed by Mahesh Dattani and produced by K. Raghavendra Rao under Arka Media Works. It stars Shabana Azmi, Prakash Kovelamudi, Perizaad Zorabian, Lillete Dubey and Nassar. The film has an extensive use of English dialogue, in addition to the Godavari dialect of Telugu language.

The film focuses on three main characters — all Telugu — whose lives have each been ruined by past tragedies and how they are united by circumstance. These three are all connected by a love of music, and through this, the film explores elements of classical Indian Carnatic music, the raga, and contemporary Indian music. The film was also dubbed into Telugu as Ragam.

Plot

The film begins with a collage of idealised village life in south India, with a Carnatic classical song in the background, being rendered by Swarnalata, the lady of a prosperous land-owning family. Abhinay is the youthful son of another affluent landowning family belonging to the same village. His parents are dead, and he is heir to his grandfather, who owns extensive farmlands and property. Abhinay is not keen on the life of a landowner. He has grown up in the city and wants to start a music troupe, playing western pop music, which is entirely alien to this society.

It is the death anniversary of Abhinay's parents, and his grandfather performs the usual Hindu ceremonies on the riverbank every year. This time, after many years, Abhinay is with him. As they arrive at the riverbank, a lady who has just finished performing the same rituals is leaving. She is Swarnalatha, and when she sees a young boy with Nasser, she looks intensely at the young man. Abhinay is intrigued by her look, and after some hesitation, he leaves his grandfather and follows the lady through the village streets. A car suddenly appears and almost crashes into a distracted and careless Abhinay but swerves away in the nick of time and hits some bushes. This incident causes great and visible trauma to Swarnalatha, who now runs homeward. Abhinay, who has fallen on his face, is unable to follow her further. He meets the driver of the car, the beautiful and strikingly modern city girl Pinky. The car having broken down, Pinky has nowhere to stay in the village; Abhinay takes her home, where his grandfather invites her to stay a few days while her car is repaired.

Swarnalatha is a classically trained Carnatic singer who lost her son and best friend, Vaishnavi, in a bus accident. The story reopens after 20 years when Vaishnavi's son plans to leave his business of composing jingles with a desire to start a music troupe to compose everlasting music just like the Charminar, and with these plans, he returns to his home. His plan irks his father, who wants him to look after the ancestral lands in the village. On the death anniversary of Vaishnavi, Abhinay spots Swarnalatha and hears her singing the temple. When Swarnalatha leaves the temple, Abhinay stops her, saying that she knew his mother, and follows her. The duo reaches the bridge when a car comes and hits Abhinay, and the car was being driven by Pinky. Swarnalatha screams and reaches her home, with the 20-year-old guilt in her mind that her one step on the bridge caused the accident. Here, the car gets a glitch, and Pinky is compelled to stay for the night in the village.

Production

Shabana Azmi was trained intensively in Carnatic music by Ranjani Ramakrishnan before she was allowed to sing during the film. The house used for her character's home is a historic zamindar country mansion and estate near the village of Kulla in East Godavari district.

Reception

A critic from The Hindu wrote that "All is well till the characters start talking. That is when "Morning Raga," Mahesh Dattani, falls flat". A critic from Rediff.com wrote that "The film is excessively escapist in terms of human emotion, and relies on everybody eventually liking everybody else in the end, and confessing all. Moments of conflict and inner turmoil in Morning Raga are like item numbers, quick and engaging, but utterly disconnected to the rest of the film".

Key details