Music, Mozart and a Great Movie

I love music in general and stand in awe of musicians - especially the composers. They are way too above me, for me to envy their talent. All I can do is salute their genius and creativity and wish I have the talent to atleast appreciate their art.
I have heard of Mozart, not heard a lot of his music though. I do not understand Western Classical Music and find it difficult to follow the intricacies of the music. So it was with some skepticism that I sat down to watch the 1984 classic - ‘Amadeus’, which is based on a play that is in turn loosely based on the real life rivalry between Mozart and his contemporary composer - Antonio Salieri, who, turns out to be his nemesis. To sum up my reaction to the whole movie - ‘Mind Blowing’.
The whole story is from Salieri’s point of view. The movie begins with a now old Salieri attempting suicide since he believes he murdered Mozart. He is saved and is put in an asylum, where a priest meets with him and suggests that he should confess his sins. Salieri, is initially uninterested, but a remark from the priest gets him started.
Salieri grows up watching Mozart, a gifted composer, who started composing music at the age of five, with envy. Thanks to a ‘miracle’ - Salieri’s father who was opposed to him taking up music as a profession, dies on the dinner table- Salieri enters the world of music and eventually becomes the court composer at the emperor’s court. He hears a lot about Mozart and is waiting to meet with him. He gets deeply disappointed when he watches Mozart fooling around with a girl (who later becomes his wife) at a gathering where some of his pieces will be played. Mozart comes across as a childish and playful prankster, quite in contrast with the brilliance of his compositions. However, his music still amazes Salieri and he is one of the first few to spot the genius that is Mozart.
Salieri gets enraged with God for bestowing such a talent on someone as undeserving as Mozart, where as he himself is just a mediocre composer. He decides to renounce God and tells himself that he will destroy Mozart. From then on, the movie is about Salieri’s plot to kill Mozart and the gradual deterioration of Mozart.
The film is about 160 minutes long and it is surprising how fast those 160 minutes seem to go. Visually, the movie is stunning. And since it is a movie about musicians, there is no wonder that the movie has a great sound track. Most of the tracks are original compositions by Mozart.
Coming to performances, F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart are equally wonderful. While watching the movie, although you understand that Salieri is wrong, you cant help feeling sorry for him. Your heart goes out to Mozart for his child-like innocence and complete lack of regard for authority. He is coolly confident to the point of arrogance ! But then, why shouldn’t he be? After all, he is the best !
The movie is full of brilliant sequences and it is difficult to single one out. However, I loved the initial sequence involving Salieri and the priest. Salieri tells the priest that he is a very popular composer and the priest is unable to recollect any of the pieces that Salieri plays. Salieri tries 2-3 pieces that he composed and which received a grand ovation, when they were played originally and the priest simply doesnt remember hearing even one. Then Salieri plays another piece and the priest’s face lights up in recognition. ‘I know that one ! I did not know you were the composer of this piece’. Salieri’s face falls and he grudgingly tells the priest, that it was a piece composed by Mozart. A simple scene that says a lot about the music of these two - Mozart’s stood the test of time and Salieri’s did not !!
Another brilliant piece comes near the end of the movie, where a very ill Mozart dictates and Salieri transcribes the music for ‘Requiem mass’. Mozart goes on dictating and Salieri asks him to slow down, as he is going very fast. Mozart can apparently hear the music that he is dictating, while he is dictating, but Salieri finds it difficult to follow him. When Mozart pauses to let Salieri catch up, Salieri reads the notes again, this time slowly and his face lights up when he realizes how beautiful it is. What kind of a genius does it take to imagine music in the form of notes and to dictate it like you were dictating notes for an essay !!
There was a lot of debate on the accuracy of the events depicted in the play and the movie. Even if the historic details are not accurate, Amadeus is pure cinematic magic, all by itself. It is one movie that made me choke with emotion at a couple of places and some of the sequences gave me goose bumps !
The movie supposedly won 40 Awards world-over including 8 Oscar awards (all well-deserved, I should say !). A must-watch for music-lovers and movie-lovers!!