THE PATSY Music Score Review
Mark Northam
Film Music Magzazine, June 2004
Vivek Maddala's intricately quirky, light-hearted score for The Patsy brings a pleasure to this film that it richly deserves. His use of constantly contrasting musical styles and instruments provides the viewer with a wonderful dramatic musical partner to the picture, sometimes playing along with the picture, other times teasing the viewer with what might be to come, and at other times playing almost opposite the picture. While Maddala often plays the drama of the picture, it's never too heavy and many times brings a lighter feeling to the scenes, which plays perfectly into the comedic line of the film. And just when you think things might be getting really dramatic, along comes the southern harmonica to put a smile on your face as the father of the family in the film does his best country-speak while married to his stuffy wife and bearing up in a 3-piece suit for most of the film.
On a musical level, the score harmonically and melodically is a deep, passionate work that always manages to avoid being dark, and exudes a playful, fun feeling without using any of the many musical or instrumental clichˇs that seem to dominate comedic film scoring. Maddala's deft and frequent use of twentieth century harmonic techniques is cleverly surrounded with playful, fun motifs that almost poke fun at the film, and indirectly the viewer, but not quite. The result is a wonderfully rich, entertaining, enjoyable score that adds an entirely new dramatic narrative element to the film and enhances it in a musical and dramatic way that viewers and fans of film scores will surely enjoy.