Dance of Tribute (Sunday People)

Published in the New Sunday Times
7 September 2008


Madangopal Narayanan as Rama

Dance of tribute

By Max Koh


IN the rite of passage for a bharathanatyam dancer, there comes the time for the arangetram, the graduation performance that signifies his or her readiness to perform to the public.

The disciple is ready, the guru pronounces.

For 13 years, Madangopal Narayanan trained under many gurus in order to reach this stage.

The blood, sweat and tears are well worth the diorama that he is about to offer tonight at the Panggung Eksperimen Aswara.

This is his arangetram, his offering to the world as a dancer coming of age.

The arangetram is no easy feat. The duration of an arangetram is about two hours and he needs to have the stamina, concentration and determination that only come with hours or practice.

Madangopal will be performing seven pieces tonight, some of them choreographed by TFA’s head of bharathanatyam Shankar Kandasamy.

For this event, Madangopal trained even harder for close to two months. “In order to perform that long, you have to train your body and mind in order to get used to it,” said the 19-year-old who trains about five to six hours daily at the Temple of Fine Arts (TFA) in Brickfields.

He recently completed his A-Levels at Methodist College and hopes to study medicine. “Only in the final two weeks was I able to settle down and find myself in that state of readiness. In dancing, the mind and body is the hardest to discipline.

“It may be initially taxing, but when you find it — you can truly immerse yourself in the joy of dancing,” said Madangopal who is under the tutelage of Vasuki Sivanesan.

While Madangopal is excited about his first solo full-repertoire performance, he could not have done it without the important people in his life — his parents and gurus.

“My mother is a dance teacher (Shyamala Narayanan) while my father works at the TFA. So naturally, as a kid I was forced to learn to dance. I didn’t like it at first but then one day it hit me,” recalls Madangopal. “In Hinduism, the word guru entails a lot of love and dedication.

“In the beginning, I used to hate dancing because it was so difficult. But when I realised the love and dedication that my gurus has laboured for me, I made it an effort to improve myself.

“Eventually, I found the joy of dancing.” Narayanan dedicates his performance to all his gurus including Geetha Shankaran Lam and Shankar.

“They are some of the most important people in my life. I realised how privileged I am to have these gurus to guide me,” said Narayanan. “I wouldn’t be here without them.”


Catch Madangopal Narayanan’s arangethram at 7.30pm today at Panggung Eksperimen Aswara, Kuala Lumpur. Free admission.

Viva La Vida album review (Sunday People)

Published in Sunday People, NSUNT
31 August 2008




Coldplay: Viva La Vida (Universal Music)

QUALMS about Coldplay’s newest album straying too far into the experimental zone can be quashed as the band retains much of its distinct style heard in the previous albums.

The band has opted for a more atmospheric album in Viva La Vida with layers of sonic texture. Unlike X&Y which was a bit too polished, this album is a delectable treat to the ears.

Thanks goes to producer Brian Eno who helped Coldplay engineer their new sound. Eno is responsible for projecting U2 to superstardom with its album Joshua Tree 20 years ago. He’s done it again for Coldplay.

The title track opens with a strings section and a marching beat which reveals a new side of the band.

Lead single Violet Hill, currently on air, hints at venturing into a more spacious sonic landscape but holds on to that melody hook that fans love.

Cemeteries of London, a song that is as bleak as its subject, is a modern lamentation of gloom and spiritual lapse in the city. Fans will hear Coldplay’s familiar shimmering guitar works here.

Lost! might catch listeners by surprise with its organ pipes but as lead vocalist Chris Martin begins to sing, one can’t help but be mesmerised.

Highlights on the album include Strawberry Swing with its sunny disposition and Yes with a Middle Eastern-flavoured strings section.

In the age of Itunes and Mp3s, Coldplay teaches us again the joy of listening to an album from start to finish. All 10 songs on this album is a gem. Viva La Vida! — By MAX KOH

Mirrors (Review)

by Max Koh


18 August 2008

Title:
Mirrors

Cast:
Kiefer Sutherland, Paula Patton, Cameron Boyce, Erica Gluck, Amy Smart and Mary Beth Peil

Genre:
Horror, Thriller

Review:
Mirrors have long been a common fixation in horror movies. Therefore, it only makes sense that Hollywood produces an entire film about these objects of vanity. I mean, the scares always work. How many times have we scared ourselves silly at images in mirrors?

Kiefer Sutherland gets plenty of that in this film. However, the images in the mirrors turn out to be a real entity that threatens the safety and sanity of his family.

Sutherland plays an ex-cop who works as a night security guard in a department store ravaged by fire. One day, things start to go bump in the night and soon, he realises that something sinister is going on in the mirrors. Instead of quitting his job, he decides to play detective and find out the reasons behind the apparitions besides battling a few demons of his own ... largely connected with his alcoholism.


Sutherland basically reprises his role of Jack Bauer from the ‘24’ TV show and carries the character with much aplomb here. It was interesting to see how a tough cookie like Jack Bauer would react to terrorists of the supernatural kind.



The supporting cast in the form of Amy Smart as the sister and Paula Patton as the wife are strong although one feels the characters could be fleshed out a bit more.

Writer-director Alexandre Aja of ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ and ‘P2’ seems to know how to orchestrate the scares in this movie so that you jump when he wants you to. It's not really anything new but ‘Mirrors’ does the job. There are some genuinely scary moments however nothing that will make you want to stay away from mirrors for good.

If you are of a queasy disposition, you know very well to stay away from this and go watch ‘Wall-E’ instead. If you are hankering for some horror fix, ‘Mirrors’ should keep you happy for awhile.

Songs Built on Tragedies (The Script)

First published in New Sunday Times
17 August 2008

Songs built on tragedies

Not besieged by the death of loved ones, The Script continues to write songs honestly from the heart. MAX KOH talks to the upcoming Irish band about the stories behind the songs

THE Script is Ireland latest music export after U2, The Corrs, Van Morrison, Sinead O Connor and The Cranberries. Mixing soul, pop, hip-hop and anthemic rock dynamics, the band seems to be poised for success with its lead single, We Cry, which is now on the airwaves around the world. At first glance, the trio — Danny O’Donaghue (lead singer, keyboards), Mark Sheenan (guitarist), Glen Power (drummer) — looks just like any other aspiring garage rock band. But a listen to We Cry will reveal a side to Irish music that one has not heard before.

O’Donaghue’s voice is soulful (not unlike neo-white soul boys James Morrison and Jamie Scott) when set against Sheenan’s smooth guitar chops and Power’s controlled funky beats. The song recalls the best of soul music rather than the usual generic rock served by the band’s Irish counterparts. At an interview in Genting Highland recently, O’Donaghue says: “Irish people have soul. It comes from generations of pain, and generations of understanding emotion to be able to physically get that in a solid sound.” We Cry is a special, soulful anthem depicting the every day struggles faced by everybody. It is bleak and assuring at the same time. “Life is not a bed of roses. We all have our own problems and the light at the end of the tunnel may very well be a train. However, we’ll be okay as long as we have each other and together we cry…” explains O’Donague. Its second single, The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, again showcases O’Donague’s soulful vocal inflections and an equally bleak subject. The song, which the band performed at the recent MTV Music Awards on the hill, is about a man who waits desperately for his lover. Despite the bleak nature of their songs, the band members are friendly and chatty. O’Donague was all smiles and very obliging during the photography session. “Did you get a good shot? Do you want to take another one,” he asks before posing again.

Both O’Donague and Power (Sheenan was not present) often peppered their answers with jokes. It felt like an informal chat with some Irish lads in a Dublin pub. They even offered me a sip of coffee. “Have some. It’s definitely one of the best coffees I’ve had,” Power says. “Don’t worry. We did not do anything to the drink.” O’Donague first met Sheenan in their early teens in Dublin. They shared their love for music and often wrote songs together. “I bought a music software called Cubase from Mark (Sheenan) when we struck up a friendship over that. We often wrote music together and thought of ourselves as producers until we realised that Ireland was a little too small for us. We felt we could not progress without moving out of the country,” says O’Donague who, by then, was making demos for other artistes, with Sheenan as a backroom team.

“So we moved to the US where we spent a little time in Orlando before setting up a small studio in Los Angeles near the beach. Sheenan knew Glen (Power) from back in Dublin and he told me that he was a talented musician,” says O’Donague. “So we got him to fly in from Dublin and we sort of jammed out together in the small studio. The first song we played was actually The End Where I Begin and it was then that we realised that we had something really special here.” Power was a prodigy of sorts on the Dublin scene, having played from the age of 15. He even built a home studio. But things changed when he met the guys. “It was like I found my home at last.” That was 2005. With all the pieces in the right places, they spent a couple of months searching for the right sound for the band. However, tragedies began to besiege the band. Sheenan’s mum became terminally ill and the band returned to Dublin so that he could spend time with her. Ten months later, she died. Not too long after that, O’Donague’s father died unexpectedly of a heart attack. “We came home so that Mark could spend some time with his mother. Little was I to know that I would spend quality time with my dad as well,” O’Donague recalls.

However, out of the tragedies, songs emerged. “Each song is like a self-contained story. The music is like the soundtrack to the words and a song is a like a mini film. That’s how the name of the band came about.” Power adds: “In Ireland, people commonly say ‘what’s the script today?’, you know, like ‘what’s going on today?’.” The band is inspired by things they see or do every day. “It may come from a line from a book or even in the middle of a fight with your girlfriend or something. “Imagine the girlfriend screaming ‘are you writing a song or something?’ in the middle of a fight and I’d say ‘no, I’m just writing a list of presents I’m going to get you’,” says Power.

Jokes aside, the band wants to write songs as honestly as possible. O’Donague says one of the most poignant songs on the album is The End Where I Begin, a direct result of all that’s going on in their lives. “Sheenan wrote that song out of a direct reflection of what he was going through with his mother. It was important for him to get it into the music. The deaths and all things that happened actually cut down all the fake things in your life and help you to see things as they are,” says O’Donague.

“The meaning behind that song is that you can see death as an end but it can also be a form of rebirth. And as we sing those words every day, we believe that this is what our parents wanted for us — a rebirth — the end where I begin.” The Script’s two singles, The Man Who Can’t Be Moved and We Cry — are receiving extensive airplay on the radio. The band’s self-titled debut album is in the stores.