tons of work kept me busy for quite long. guess for another fortnight.
however, that didnt prevent me from watching before sunset. an incredible sequel to an incredible movie. before sunrise too grippingly realtime. made-for-romantics movie. contrary to the distinct classes of intellect n romanticism that i've maintained, there seems to be romance which is intellectual and pursuits of intellect which are romantic. of course with the min effort that i put in, i'll keep blabbering with all ambiguity.
veer-zaara is a 3 and a half hour long movie. yash chopra still sells romance in his traditional ways - makes it appear that he holds purer n less-cliched versions of love in his mind that his son - kkkg etc. srk is superb as an old guy and we'll have a bash 20 yrs from now when srk n preity pair up as an (real) old couple. naach is said to be an intense romantic movie. based on ego-clashes and practical-not-admiring-the-idealist the actual screenplay is captivating enuf. but, i really dont see audience getting captivated in rgv's choreogrpahical idealisms. that is, if they get tired of ogling at antara mali. coming to her, she's my fav. and inspite of her real n reel life saintliness, she's easy with exposing. she's the contemporary meena kumari with all her characteristic melancholy which she never seems to have enuf of. suits rgv, i guess. moreover, sometimes her smile even hurts. but then she's a great actress with a lovely voice n delivery. naach cud be made better- sometimes just seems to fall thru. feel bad for wot cud be a smashing intense blockbuster.
waiting for swades n misc to happen. dec shud be awesome movie watching.
stuff keeps happening. life moves on.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Monday, November 08, 2004
abhishek bachchan
fantastic interview:
http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2004/nov/08sld1.htm
note the intermediate (laughs).
http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2004/nov/08sld1.htm
note the intermediate (laughs).
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Sunday, July 25, 2004
syntax vs semantics
an old topic revisited. i've been continuously observing two kinds of learning ppl use. one is syntax-dominated: rote learning of axioms of topic after getting thru the semantics to that axiom point in learning space. the other one is semantics-dominated: treading all possible paths in the concrete behavior space not paying heed to any kind of axioms or symbolic information and obtaining the confidence of having learnt the topic only after analysing all paths and getting the feeling of it.
the astute way to do it wud be defnitely wot i call above syntax oriented. working on the concrete semantic space is much harder than the abstract syntactic one. very similar to the fact that u need symbolic words to express concrete thoughts. u consider a sub-problem, look at the concrete behaviors that lead to its solutions, define all kinds of properties of its solutions n annotate the sub-problem with such property axioms. then, in future only refer back to such axioms, never actually treading the concrete semantics unless deemed inevitable.
the semantic path can be unanimously (i guess) be understood of having more emotional content, hoho, they are the ultimate source of kicks. yet, they involve repeated redundant traversal of concrete paths, making topics appear far more elusive than they actually are.
again, its easier to go off into plain syntax-oriented reasoning without ever goin back to semantics. words say much more than thoughts that created them, axioms only look at parts of the system without having a wholisitic picture.
therefore, here too in the case of application of intellect to learn new concepts, as in most known cases, we need a balance, a trade-off between syntax n semantic based reasoning. i see many smart old ppl not keeping to syntax at all and hence toiling pretty hard, while several young smart individuals do not pay enuf respect to the semantics as they chart out patterns of quick growth.
the astute way to do it wud be defnitely wot i call above syntax oriented. working on the concrete semantic space is much harder than the abstract syntactic one. very similar to the fact that u need symbolic words to express concrete thoughts. u consider a sub-problem, look at the concrete behaviors that lead to its solutions, define all kinds of properties of its solutions n annotate the sub-problem with such property axioms. then, in future only refer back to such axioms, never actually treading the concrete semantics unless deemed inevitable.
the semantic path can be unanimously (i guess) be understood of having more emotional content, hoho, they are the ultimate source of kicks. yet, they involve repeated redundant traversal of concrete paths, making topics appear far more elusive than they actually are.
again, its easier to go off into plain syntax-oriented reasoning without ever goin back to semantics. words say much more than thoughts that created them, axioms only look at parts of the system without having a wholisitic picture.
therefore, here too in the case of application of intellect to learn new concepts, as in most known cases, we need a balance, a trade-off between syntax n semantic based reasoning. i see many smart old ppl not keeping to syntax at all and hence toiling pretty hard, while several young smart individuals do not pay enuf respect to the semantics as they chart out patterns of quick growth.
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
boston revisited
i was incredibly captivated by the sheher that is boston the first time i visited it last yr. fascination was exponentially strengthened last week. a zabardast mix of compactness+elegance. cities with crowds have friendlier ppl?
kitne ashk bahaaye dil lagaane ke liye,
motiyon se patthar silwaaye, dil behlaane ke liye.
teri biraadri mein hum sa na mila to,
mehmaan tere ghar bulaaye, dil behlaane ke liye.
parwaane apne na chun paaye to kya,
deewaane kitne banaaye, dil behlaane ke liye.
badhe baag-e-gulistaan mein jo kadam-do-kadam,
yun hi 'shaks' kaante bichaaye, dil behlaane ke liye.
kitne ashk bahaaye dil lagaane ke liye,
motiyon se patthar silwaaye, dil behlaane ke liye.
teri biraadri mein hum sa na mila to,
mehmaan tere ghar bulaaye, dil behlaane ke liye.
parwaane apne na chun paaye to kya,
deewaane kitne banaaye, dil behlaane ke liye.
badhe baag-e-gulistaan mein jo kadam-do-kadam,
yun hi 'shaks' kaante bichaaye, dil behlaane ke liye.
Friday, July 02, 2004
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
the LP dholak
a recent observation that must be jotted down. bollywood music has undergone several institutional changes over the time i've grown up. i (and many fellow men n women) do not remember relishing any of the songs generated in end-80s. some caught on to the anand-milind wagon but mostly the rehab took place with nadeem-shravan. lovely melodies rendered by sanu-paudwal pair (at least they used to sound like). jatin-lalit followed, anu malik made his presence felt once in awhile..and a few others till the ARR big-bang. n of course then SEL, n at least two unsung heroes: shandilya n chowta.
ARR brought in heavy arrangements characterisitic of west, mostly not compromising on melodies (lyrics devta to mazaar mein hi karvate badlenge). and others followed, each in their own ways. still, the discussions on pancham yahoogroups, occasional play of o-sajna (lata) or ye jeevan hai (kk) or well farrukh on radio4 do remind me of wot has been lost, never to return. so how do we decipher properties of music of 60's,70's or b4, which have been lost? where does the contemporary bolly stuff stand in respect to them? imo, contemporary can do little but rediscover the old. only the toolsets vary. one needs to love it hard.
hoho, i digressed. RDB had a flair for arrangements, unique percussional styles, sounds. much like shivmani. so, not going beyond percussions for the above comparison, lets c wot happened. when musicians in 60s 70s went beyond tabla n basic dholak, they mostly stuck to triples n loud snares. iso except RDB nobody seemed to experiment much and i guess his percussional expts made him deserve quite a lot of his accolades. 80's had him already established. (ah.the story of 80's remains to be written). laxmikant-pyarelal overthrew the likes of shankar-jaikishen n captured the bollywood territory right through 70s to 90s till when NS, AM etc came with fresh sounds. imo, this monopoly was cause of much musical downgrade right thru 80s till the final emancipation by arr etc. of course, their genious gave birth to amazing numbers (suno sajna papihe ne..etc) and yet it survived a lot on dholak, the bland foot-tapping mediocre percussion instrument. (alright my hate for LP's mediocrity makes me hate the instrument even more). dholak is deprived of bass of tabla and misc drums while its enthusiasm can run a whole big show on its own. a lot of despicable 80 numbers owed their crudeness to this instrument and LP for some reason overused it. (in fact, the whole aural ambience of ghai movies like ram lakhan reeks of dholak n improvisation around it, compare with yaadein or qsqt or dil hai ke maanta nahin). slowly with NS, and arr n of course misc classical-funk-hariharan,piyaBasanti,arr,remixes( yes i renamed classical-rock genre) contributions, dholak was shelved (or at least demoted) and more versatile instruments/arrangements took over. cello n piano provide superb basses. of course, overdone arrangements are the bane of our existence now.
i cud go on about the terrible bad influence of dholak on bollywood music but it can also be observed that it was more of a common man instrument, one with which the ordinary population cud easily identify. and so were the themes of such movies then. sophisticated percussions lend some quantity of grandeur to the theme, making them more posh, urbane or wotever u mite call them. again, perhaps this change has been possible becos of the increasing fascination of bollywood movies with urban culture (n then NRI culture). hoho, and now i guess that all above distaste for dholak mite have grown out of the my urban psyche.
and altho i'm not too much into being a fan of RDB, it appears to me that the contemporary percussions indeed have his musical lineage and if we had him, we cud have really mind-blowing contemporary bollywood music. (well, same cud be said abt KK or lata, but then musical composition abilities dont depreciate as fast as vocal)
ARR brought in heavy arrangements characterisitic of west, mostly not compromising on melodies (lyrics devta to mazaar mein hi karvate badlenge). and others followed, each in their own ways. still, the discussions on pancham yahoogroups, occasional play of o-sajna (lata) or ye jeevan hai (kk) or well farrukh on radio4 do remind me of wot has been lost, never to return. so how do we decipher properties of music of 60's,70's or b4, which have been lost? where does the contemporary bolly stuff stand in respect to them? imo, contemporary can do little but rediscover the old. only the toolsets vary. one needs to love it hard.
hoho, i digressed. RDB had a flair for arrangements, unique percussional styles, sounds. much like shivmani. so, not going beyond percussions for the above comparison, lets c wot happened. when musicians in 60s 70s went beyond tabla n basic dholak, they mostly stuck to triples n loud snares. iso except RDB nobody seemed to experiment much and i guess his percussional expts made him deserve quite a lot of his accolades. 80's had him already established. (ah.the story of 80's remains to be written). laxmikant-pyarelal overthrew the likes of shankar-jaikishen n captured the bollywood territory right through 70s to 90s till when NS, AM etc came with fresh sounds. imo, this monopoly was cause of much musical downgrade right thru 80s till the final emancipation by arr etc. of course, their genious gave birth to amazing numbers (suno sajna papihe ne..etc) and yet it survived a lot on dholak, the bland foot-tapping mediocre percussion instrument. (alright my hate for LP's mediocrity makes me hate the instrument even more). dholak is deprived of bass of tabla and misc drums while its enthusiasm can run a whole big show on its own. a lot of despicable 80 numbers owed their crudeness to this instrument and LP for some reason overused it. (in fact, the whole aural ambience of ghai movies like ram lakhan reeks of dholak n improvisation around it, compare with yaadein or qsqt or dil hai ke maanta nahin). slowly with NS, and arr n of course misc classical-funk-hariharan,piyaBasanti,arr,remixes( yes i renamed classical-rock genre) contributions, dholak was shelved (or at least demoted) and more versatile instruments/arrangements took over. cello n piano provide superb basses. of course, overdone arrangements are the bane of our existence now.
i cud go on about the terrible bad influence of dholak on bollywood music but it can also be observed that it was more of a common man instrument, one with which the ordinary population cud easily identify. and so were the themes of such movies then. sophisticated percussions lend some quantity of grandeur to the theme, making them more posh, urbane or wotever u mite call them. again, perhaps this change has been possible becos of the increasing fascination of bollywood movies with urban culture (n then NRI culture). hoho, and now i guess that all above distaste for dholak mite have grown out of the my urban psyche.
and altho i'm not too much into being a fan of RDB, it appears to me that the contemporary percussions indeed have his musical lineage and if we had him, we cud have really mind-blowing contemporary bollywood music. (well, same cud be said abt KK or lata, but then musical composition abilities dont depreciate as fast as vocal)
Saturday, June 26, 2004
aao naa..
this blog appears to be completely abandoned after its relatively recent resurrection at blogspot. shayad work, shayad movies, shayad dono, hoho.
i've exhausted the bollywood export list - finished dev yest nite. quite appealing if u disregard the occasional mumble of fardeen khan. of course the best item is the vaartalaap between ab n omPuri..amazingly slick even tho the scenes are rite out of stage. omPuri's standpoint appears neglected after a while n maybe nihalini doesnt put in that much effort to bring out his shades with the surprise death at the end. of course, characters can be understood in rivetting discussions on the porch outside the theatre but its the director's job to prevent us from doing so. kareena has the same yuva-no-makeup-kindof look. even tho she continues to look worse, seems she has quite mastered her getting-into-the-character abilities since she tried portraying a whore in chameli.
kyun ho gaya na audio is out, so is dhaani. i hope ripped mp3s of dhaani wud be soon available. hoho. KHGN boasts of this melodious aao na (yo sandhna sargam, nobody can sing soft romantic nos like her) among usual hi-pitch jing bang of SEL. pyaar mein sau uljhanen has the ballad-jinglish feeling to it (MIO calls it alfresco ambience of marching beats, i agree that there is little of self-congratulatory flourish which perhaps makes me like them). not so surprisingly SEL's music (when it is not so deep in melody, notably DCH n armaan in recent times) borders on either shankarM's hi-pitch duniya-ko-bataaaaanaaaa-haiiiiiiiiiii or strongly conversational jingles. cf. also kuch na kaho. KHNK was an external influence undoubtedly: heavy arrangements with a techno-touch. these days SEL trio appears to be overworked beyond their creative potential.
aah n hyd blues 2 is also in the making. audio is a mishmash charac of nagesh kukunoor, however 2 classical-rock(hoho) pieces by fuzon stand out: both mora saiyaan mose bole na n tere bina are semi-classical pieces with backing percussions. ghatam again shows up in mora saiyaan, wonder if they've been always using it or it is me. hazaron khwahishen aisi too delved into semi-classical genre altho i think svanand kirkire is strictly more trained than fuzon or strings. order(less semi-classical): svanand -> fuzon -> strings. (i'm conveniently forgetting kailash kher n misc others) interesting to observe that the pakistani bands are the ones who are indeed bringing out the full-blown classical rock genre. compare with silk route or lucky ali, who sound more western. hariharan's attempts in colonial cousins were among those who founded this genre. he didnt follow much upon that except the one-n-only kaash which came around the same period. misc other ppl that i can name off-hand: sandeep chowta- mitti, sandesh shandilya (hmm now u know!). and again, inspite of their classical base both strings n fuzon are high on melodious content too.
n finally, an interesting article on comingOfAge of sex in indian movies. the themes have got an extremely mature treatment at hands of competent directors. article misses the fire n some others. movies like boom n gf are crassy commercialisation of the concept appealing to both base-senses of the audience, sex n masala. s'one needs to render a more mature take or perhaps pull off a remake of some of those earlier-ahead-of-times movies in event of greater liberalisation of minds of desi population n censor board.
ah..there is so much to write when i come down to it. several new remixes have come up on the scene. contrary to usual public opinion, i strongly support this medium (here i wrote abt it long back) of throwing light back on longLostForgotten songs, provided you do it well, in style n with full elegance. (too many constraints i guess, hoho). few notable ones:
bombay vikings: chor do aanchal album.
?: saiyaan dil mein aana
?: kabhi aar kabhi paar (a mega-surprise item. wonder how cud sb's creative instincts recognise the foot-tapping potential of this old nasal suraiya number hoho)
mahalaxmi iyer: bhor bhaye panghat pe (from satyamShivamSundaram, preservations attempts for lata's voice are notable)
i've exhausted the bollywood export list - finished dev yest nite. quite appealing if u disregard the occasional mumble of fardeen khan. of course the best item is the vaartalaap between ab n omPuri..amazingly slick even tho the scenes are rite out of stage. omPuri's standpoint appears neglected after a while n maybe nihalini doesnt put in that much effort to bring out his shades with the surprise death at the end. of course, characters can be understood in rivetting discussions on the porch outside the theatre but its the director's job to prevent us from doing so. kareena has the same yuva-no-makeup-kindof look. even tho she continues to look worse, seems she has quite mastered her getting-into-the-character abilities since she tried portraying a whore in chameli.
kyun ho gaya na audio is out, so is dhaani. i hope ripped mp3s of dhaani wud be soon available. hoho. KHGN boasts of this melodious aao na (yo sandhna sargam, nobody can sing soft romantic nos like her) among usual hi-pitch jing bang of SEL. pyaar mein sau uljhanen has the ballad-jinglish feeling to it (MIO calls it alfresco ambience of marching beats, i agree that there is little of self-congratulatory flourish which perhaps makes me like them). not so surprisingly SEL's music (when it is not so deep in melody, notably DCH n armaan in recent times) borders on either shankarM's hi-pitch duniya-ko-bataaaaanaaaa-haiiiiiiiiiii or strongly conversational jingles. cf. also kuch na kaho. KHNK was an external influence undoubtedly: heavy arrangements with a techno-touch. these days SEL trio appears to be overworked beyond their creative potential.
aah n hyd blues 2 is also in the making. audio is a mishmash charac of nagesh kukunoor, however 2 classical-rock(hoho) pieces by fuzon stand out: both mora saiyaan mose bole na n tere bina are semi-classical pieces with backing percussions. ghatam again shows up in mora saiyaan, wonder if they've been always using it or it is me. hazaron khwahishen aisi too delved into semi-classical genre altho i think svanand kirkire is strictly more trained than fuzon or strings. order(less semi-classical): svanand -> fuzon -> strings. (i'm conveniently forgetting kailash kher n misc others) interesting to observe that the pakistani bands are the ones who are indeed bringing out the full-blown classical rock genre. compare with silk route or lucky ali, who sound more western. hariharan's attempts in colonial cousins were among those who founded this genre. he didnt follow much upon that except the one-n-only kaash which came around the same period. misc other ppl that i can name off-hand: sandeep chowta- mitti, sandesh shandilya (hmm now u know!). and again, inspite of their classical base both strings n fuzon are high on melodious content too.
n finally, an interesting article on comingOfAge of sex in indian movies. the themes have got an extremely mature treatment at hands of competent directors. article misses the fire n some others. movies like boom n gf are crassy commercialisation of the concept appealing to both base-senses of the audience, sex n masala. s'one needs to render a more mature take or perhaps pull off a remake of some of those earlier-ahead-of-times movies in event of greater liberalisation of minds of desi population n censor board.
ah..there is so much to write when i come down to it. several new remixes have come up on the scene. contrary to usual public opinion, i strongly support this medium (here i wrote abt it long back) of throwing light back on longLostForgotten songs, provided you do it well, in style n with full elegance. (too many constraints i guess, hoho). few notable ones:
bombay vikings: chor do aanchal album.
?: saiyaan dil mein aana
?: kabhi aar kabhi paar (a mega-surprise item. wonder how cud sb's creative instincts recognise the foot-tapping potential of this old nasal suraiya number hoho)
mahalaxmi iyer: bhor bhaye panghat pe (from satyamShivamSundaram, preservations attempts for lata's voice are notable)
Monday, June 07, 2004
Kahaani poori filmi hai
vyaktigat vikaas, ya punarjanam ka aabhaas,
sarvshresth wo hai, jisme hai jeene ki aas.
aaj kuch khaab, is blog-e-mehfil mein share karna chahoonga..aapke muntazar..
The protagonists : ekta kapoor - u know who she is, and ek shaks -- no prizes here too.
ekta kapoor -- main aayin hoon aapke paas, aapke kareeb, ek haseen sapna lekar.
ekshaks -- aapki khwahishon ko avashya anjaam milega mohtarma. yahan se koi khaali haath na lauta aaj talak.
ekta -- aapke short stories padhe, bade madmast hain. kahiye to inhe hi...
ekshaks -- are are..aisa hargiz na sochiyega. humare gine-chune readers ka kya hoga?
ekta -- accha, haan. kahin kisi roz ... na na paap lagega.
ekshaks -- eggjactly. Par aapki nazar dhoondhti kise hai?
ekta -- The rich do not need values, the poor do not have time for them. It is middle-class values that my serials are about.
ekshaks -- ho ho. (restraining his smile with enormous difficulty). (gambhir vachan) bhagwan buddha bhi middle-path mein believe karte the.
ekta -- hmm. maano ya na maano, meri kutumb bhi kahani ghar ghar ki hi kehti firti hai.
ekshaks -- bahot khoob. khair abhi is blog ki kahani likh loon, fir baatein hongi, mulaqatein hongi.
ekta -- blog? ye kaisa be sar-pair ka naam hua? kaun padhega us naamakool ki kahaani?
ekshaks -- nahi nahi..aap jaisa soch..
ekta -- aapse aise gair-zimmedaaraana harkat ki apeksha na thi.
ekshaks -- asthir na hoiye. vaisa kuch nahi hai.
ekta -- to fir kya hai? zaroor aapke recent readings ka prabhaav hai. kya padh rahe the "pi"..life of "pi"?
ekshaks -- ji. vaastav mein blog koi manushya nahi. ye ek web-based duniya hai -- blogworld kahen to behtar hoga.
ekta -- umhmm..getting interesting.
ekshaks -- (adding graveness to his tone) jee, kaafi interesting hai. yahan log bilkul unrestrained manner mein apne thoughts ko blabber karte hain. wo bhi khule-aam. koi dekhiye war of the nations pe tippani kar raha, aur koi apni gilehri ki taareef. kisi ko apne masterpiece ki padi hai aur koi apne sybaritic shabdon ko kifaayat se pesh kar raha hai. baarish aur msn messenger ki guftgoo aajkal ki hot picks of the day hain.
ekta -- wah wah. I envision entertainment for the masses..without the "saas"es.
ekshaks -- (genuine smile) ji, (grim)kaafi dil-chasp hai blog-world ki baatein.(deep sigh, chehre pe halki chanchalta)
ekta -- (a sly smile lighting up her face) are-are..humse na chipaao ae shaks. kuch to hai tumhare dil mein. bolo na. ab bol bhi do.
ekshaks -- (loud retort) nahi chalega tumhara ye roz-din ka emotional blackmail. Did I get any credit at all for all those scripts? sab kuch chura liya tumne..sab kuch! (puts down his gloomy head on the table)
ekta -- (caressing his hair) shaks, ae shaks! aisa nahi kehte. acknowledgement mein daala tha na naam. ae shaks..suno na suno na.
ekshaks - (pulls up grudgingly) kya? (again hides his face)
ekta - accha is baar vaada karti hoon. script section mein bold verdana font mein tumhara naam hoga.
ekshaks -- sach? (his broad smile asking for reassurance)
ekta -- aur kya? and u always wanted to compose na..i'll have a song every episode. u n only u wud write, compose n even sing them if u want..except perhaps if u want ur jaggu da to sing one of them.
ekshaks -- jaggu da!! (jumps up on his seat with excitement).
----- Intermission ---
I guess this is already too long..ho ho. (To be contd.)
--------- Intermission Over ------
[Recap : Pls read the upper part]
ekta -- kyun tumhe ghulam ali chahiye?
ekshaks -- (splitting with delight) nahi nahi..jagjit singh thik hai..acche hain. Tum kitni pyaari ho ekta.(touches her cheeks lovingly)
ekta -- (turning away..loud retort) jaao bewafa sanam..abhi itne tohmat lagaaye..i stole all naa? blackmail kiya na tumhe?
ekshaks -- na na jaan. (pleading miserably) tumse hi to hain saari aatishbaaziyan mere jeevan ki. kaho to aasmaan se chaand taare bhi tod laaon tumhare liye..jaan.
ekta -- chore rehne do. kya khaak laaoge aasmaan se taare. (glancing at the desk) ye kya khaa-ma-kha syaahi barbaad kar rahe ho?
ekshaks -- (ray of hope in his eyes) ye nayi story likh raha hoon. blogs ki duniya ke baare mein. kahaani blogworld ki.
ekta -- (trying to hide her ecstasy on the familiar sounding title..continues chiding) tum aur tumhara blogworld. koi masses wali nahi likh sakte yahan USA mein baithkar -- like..dating kiya to darna kya, sautan bhi kabhi tawaayaf thi etc etc.
ekshaks -- (flustered..again collectin himself) are suno to jaan. idhar..haan.(draws a chair..coaxing voice) haan idhar baitho to. tumne dil hi dil mein dekhi hai?
ekta (roothi jhoothi moothi) -- wo kya hia?
ekshaks -- accha..to fir you've got mail..ya fir mujhse dosti karoge to dekhi hogi?
ekta -- hmm..MDK..such a lovely concept na..over the mails..
ekshaks -- (rejuvenated...with greater zeal..) hmm..I've drawn inspiration from all of those. But, kaafi different hai meri kahaani.
ekta -- (with more interest) o really? mere bhole shaks..(plays with his cheeks).(seductive tone) kaho na..kya hai tumhari kahaani..kaho naa.
ekshaks -- (sobers his tone again) My story centres around the blog-world. Do main paatra hain. Ek blogger ladka -- a poor literary genious studying at MIT..aur ek ladki, the stunning damsel with THE template, working as a consultant in SFO..dono blog likhte hain. Dono or tanhaayee hai..aawaarapan, banjaarapan hai. The first thing that the guy does on waking up is reading her blogs (cos she writes at night) and she, inevitably drools over his before goin to bed(cos there is this 3 hr time difference).
ekta -- how romantic!! kuch kehna hai tumse, accha title rahega naa?? ya fir, kuch to hai, zaroor! !!
ekshaks -- (his pride showin on his smiling face) yesss!! haan haan. (tone changes again) and he wud be the first to comment on her blogs..and she wud shower him with praises for every word that he utters. They would have all the blogs in common, and like..their comments wud complement each other everywhere..
ekta -- yes i know..like painting the town in red..
ekshaks -- yes, eggjactly. slowly, they start exchanging emails. He would write his heart out n she wud drool over his each written word. One day, the guy suggests trying the instant messenger...she's at heights of ecstacy.(she wondered all these days..the dumb genious cudn't come up with that b4)..and they talk..n talk..
ekta -- ahaa..(dreams of the padma-shree) a chart-topper already..but (wiring her brows) don't u think they're getting way too talkative?
ekshaks -- hmm..(again gathering himself) u'll manage that dear..i know ur good at it..throw in a couple of other readers..a friend of hers..a rival of his..the blogger underworld don..then there is always this saas..i know u can do it, jaan.
ekta -- (refreshing smile sweeping across her face) u really think so?
ekshaks -- of course dear. and then in flashback u cud show them playing with mitti together in a dungy mumbai chawl. we'll get a bonanza hit out of this.
ekta -- We? (collecting quickly)..aah yes yes. They'll make you an overnight hero for this damn good script.
ekshaks -- (blushes..drools.) really..I knew you were my bestest friend, ekta.
and thus she departs, swept with joy, with the next crowd-puller script in her hands, never to return.
My heart cries for the Shaks.
sarvshresth wo hai, jisme hai jeene ki aas.
aaj kuch khaab, is blog-e-mehfil mein share karna chahoonga..aapke muntazar..
The protagonists : ekta kapoor - u know who she is, and ek shaks -- no prizes here too.
ekta kapoor -- main aayin hoon aapke paas, aapke kareeb, ek haseen sapna lekar.
ekshaks -- aapki khwahishon ko avashya anjaam milega mohtarma. yahan se koi khaali haath na lauta aaj talak.
ekta -- aapke short stories padhe, bade madmast hain. kahiye to inhe hi...
ekshaks -- are are..aisa hargiz na sochiyega. humare gine-chune readers ka kya hoga?
ekta -- accha, haan. kahin kisi roz ... na na paap lagega.
ekshaks -- eggjactly. Par aapki nazar dhoondhti kise hai?
ekta -- The rich do not need values, the poor do not have time for them. It is middle-class values that my serials are about.
ekshaks -- ho ho. (restraining his smile with enormous difficulty). (gambhir vachan) bhagwan buddha bhi middle-path mein believe karte the.
ekta -- hmm. maano ya na maano, meri kutumb bhi kahani ghar ghar ki hi kehti firti hai.
ekshaks -- bahot khoob. khair abhi is blog ki kahani likh loon, fir baatein hongi, mulaqatein hongi.
ekta -- blog? ye kaisa be sar-pair ka naam hua? kaun padhega us naamakool ki kahaani?
ekshaks -- nahi nahi..aap jaisa soch..
ekta -- aapse aise gair-zimmedaaraana harkat ki apeksha na thi.
ekshaks -- asthir na hoiye. vaisa kuch nahi hai.
ekta -- to fir kya hai? zaroor aapke recent readings ka prabhaav hai. kya padh rahe the "pi"..life of "pi"?
ekshaks -- ji. vaastav mein blog koi manushya nahi. ye ek web-based duniya hai -- blogworld kahen to behtar hoga.
ekta -- umhmm..getting interesting.
ekshaks -- (adding graveness to his tone) jee, kaafi interesting hai. yahan log bilkul unrestrained manner mein apne thoughts ko blabber karte hain. wo bhi khule-aam. koi dekhiye war of the nations pe tippani kar raha, aur koi apni gilehri ki taareef. kisi ko apne masterpiece ki padi hai aur koi apne sybaritic shabdon ko kifaayat se pesh kar raha hai. baarish aur msn messenger ki guftgoo aajkal ki hot picks of the day hain.
ekta -- wah wah. I envision entertainment for the masses..without the "saas"es.
ekshaks -- (genuine smile) ji, (grim)kaafi dil-chasp hai blog-world ki baatein.(deep sigh, chehre pe halki chanchalta)
ekta -- (a sly smile lighting up her face) are-are..humse na chipaao ae shaks. kuch to hai tumhare dil mein. bolo na. ab bol bhi do.
ekshaks -- (loud retort) nahi chalega tumhara ye roz-din ka emotional blackmail. Did I get any credit at all for all those scripts? sab kuch chura liya tumne..sab kuch! (puts down his gloomy head on the table)
ekta -- (caressing his hair) shaks, ae shaks! aisa nahi kehte. acknowledgement mein daala tha na naam. ae shaks..suno na suno na.
ekshaks - (pulls up grudgingly) kya? (again hides his face)
ekta - accha is baar vaada karti hoon. script section mein bold verdana font mein tumhara naam hoga.
ekshaks -- sach? (his broad smile asking for reassurance)
ekta -- aur kya? and u always wanted to compose na..i'll have a song every episode. u n only u wud write, compose n even sing them if u want..except perhaps if u want ur jaggu da to sing one of them.
ekshaks -- jaggu da!! (jumps up on his seat with excitement).
----- Intermission ---
I guess this is already too long..ho ho. (To be contd.)
--------- Intermission Over ------
[Recap : Pls read the upper part]
ekta -- kyun tumhe ghulam ali chahiye?
ekshaks -- (splitting with delight) nahi nahi..jagjit singh thik hai..acche hain. Tum kitni pyaari ho ekta.(touches her cheeks lovingly)
ekta -- (turning away..loud retort) jaao bewafa sanam..abhi itne tohmat lagaaye..i stole all naa? blackmail kiya na tumhe?
ekshaks -- na na jaan. (pleading miserably) tumse hi to hain saari aatishbaaziyan mere jeevan ki. kaho to aasmaan se chaand taare bhi tod laaon tumhare liye..jaan.
ekta -- chore rehne do. kya khaak laaoge aasmaan se taare. (glancing at the desk) ye kya khaa-ma-kha syaahi barbaad kar rahe ho?
ekshaks -- (ray of hope in his eyes) ye nayi story likh raha hoon. blogs ki duniya ke baare mein. kahaani blogworld ki.
ekta -- (trying to hide her ecstasy on the familiar sounding title..continues chiding) tum aur tumhara blogworld. koi masses wali nahi likh sakte yahan USA mein baithkar -- like..dating kiya to darna kya, sautan bhi kabhi tawaayaf thi etc etc.
ekshaks -- (flustered..again collectin himself) are suno to jaan. idhar..haan.(draws a chair..coaxing voice) haan idhar baitho to. tumne dil hi dil mein dekhi hai?
ekta (roothi jhoothi moothi) -- wo kya hia?
ekshaks -- accha..to fir you've got mail..ya fir mujhse dosti karoge to dekhi hogi?
ekta -- hmm..MDK..such a lovely concept na..over the mails..
ekshaks -- (rejuvenated...with greater zeal..) hmm..I've drawn inspiration from all of those. But, kaafi different hai meri kahaani.
ekta -- (with more interest) o really? mere bhole shaks..(plays with his cheeks).(seductive tone) kaho na..kya hai tumhari kahaani..kaho naa.
ekshaks -- (sobers his tone again) My story centres around the blog-world. Do main paatra hain. Ek blogger ladka -- a poor literary genious studying at MIT..aur ek ladki, the stunning damsel with THE template, working as a consultant in SFO..dono blog likhte hain. Dono or tanhaayee hai..aawaarapan, banjaarapan hai. The first thing that the guy does on waking up is reading her blogs (cos she writes at night) and she, inevitably drools over his before goin to bed(cos there is this 3 hr time difference).
ekta -- how romantic!! kuch kehna hai tumse, accha title rahega naa?? ya fir, kuch to hai, zaroor! !!
ekshaks -- (his pride showin on his smiling face) yesss!! haan haan. (tone changes again) and he wud be the first to comment on her blogs..and she wud shower him with praises for every word that he utters. They would have all the blogs in common, and like..their comments wud complement each other everywhere..
ekta -- yes i know..like painting the town in red..
ekshaks -- yes, eggjactly. slowly, they start exchanging emails. He would write his heart out n she wud drool over his each written word. One day, the guy suggests trying the instant messenger...she's at heights of ecstacy.(she wondered all these days..the dumb genious cudn't come up with that b4)..and they talk..n talk..
ekta -- ahaa..(dreams of the padma-shree) a chart-topper already..but (wiring her brows) don't u think they're getting way too talkative?
ekshaks -- hmm..(again gathering himself) u'll manage that dear..i know ur good at it..throw in a couple of other readers..a friend of hers..a rival of his..the blogger underworld don..then there is always this saas..i know u can do it, jaan.
ekta -- (refreshing smile sweeping across her face) u really think so?
ekshaks -- of course dear. and then in flashback u cud show them playing with mitti together in a dungy mumbai chawl. we'll get a bonanza hit out of this.
ekta -- We? (collecting quickly)..aah yes yes. They'll make you an overnight hero for this damn good script.
ekshaks -- (blushes..drools.) really..I knew you were my bestest friend, ekta.
and thus she departs, swept with joy, with the next crowd-puller script in her hands, never to return.
My heart cries for the Shaks.
Friday, April 30, 2004
alright. so this is crazy. 2 days now since i've been invited to orkut and i'm still surfing. the remarkable fact abt this friendster-like network is that there are tons of desi-babes-oops-mahilaayen with gorgeous pics. hoho. seems like another virtual-meet-real effort by humanity with good trust levels.
indeed it is fascinating. the virtual social network scene has had me thinking for a while abt its consequences. ppl are quite candid abt themselves. i guess nobody is clear now why he/she has singned up for it. hoho. if i cud, i wud have setup a smart match-maker bot inside n soon shaadi.com etc wud be out of business. hoho.the pure indian population is yet to join in masses as mostly amrikan desis seem to participate. got to see huge fan clubs of some of the bloggers too. in fact, thousands of virtual communities already exist there..like..jagjit singh, rdb, dance, bollywood, arr. u name it there's a community...even a hindi-speaking-videshi ppl community. i fear a lot of them mite back out once they perceive it as some kind of invasion of privacy. a lot of them mite not even join for the same reason. and there r plenty of long lost fellows too. communities of hi-schools n all. harping on an optimistic note: i guess we're moving towards a society with more candid ppl and greater acceptance levels. maybe virtual lives have some point to prove b4 the real ones.
and finally google IPO'ed today. guess they'll speculate more abt the imminent doomsday. fascinating user feedback on slashdot.
indeed it is fascinating. the virtual social network scene has had me thinking for a while abt its consequences. ppl are quite candid abt themselves. i guess nobody is clear now why he/she has singned up for it. hoho. if i cud, i wud have setup a smart match-maker bot inside n soon shaadi.com etc wud be out of business. hoho.the pure indian population is yet to join in masses as mostly amrikan desis seem to participate. got to see huge fan clubs of some of the bloggers too. in fact, thousands of virtual communities already exist there..like..jagjit singh, rdb, dance, bollywood, arr. u name it there's a community...even a hindi-speaking-videshi ppl community. i fear a lot of them mite back out once they perceive it as some kind of invasion of privacy. a lot of them mite not even join for the same reason. and there r plenty of long lost fellows too. communities of hi-schools n all. harping on an optimistic note: i guess we're moving towards a society with more candid ppl and greater acceptance levels. maybe virtual lives have some point to prove b4 the real ones.
and finally google IPO'ed today. guess they'll speculate more abt the imminent doomsday. fascinating user feedback on slashdot.
Sunday, April 18, 2004
songs - kabhi aar kabhi paar remix, kareena kapoor croons in dev. started liking songs of yuva even more. and lakshya has lovely musical paradigm yet hopeless lyrics. main aisa kyu hoon(very psychedilc music, beats kill bill ). hum tum's lovely romantic number: sanson ko sanson mein ghulne do zara by babul supriyo, alka yagnik. piya bawri in deewar, again by alka yagnik. a post eulogising her has long been in queue.
crazy out of the world zakir hussain concert (minus ranjit barot) in NY. taufiq qureshi - agnivarsha n misc. zakir+sultan in kithe meher ali from mr mrs iyer -zakir's debut. dream come true. was mostly out of my wits to see those two sing, to actually fine tune my binoculars on their faces. hoho.
more comic political drama. first hue n outcry on prospect of sonia gandhi becoming PM. ppl resigning, stock markets plunging. now she comes up with her inner voice telling her - no post, no power. columns on rediff shout bewafaayee, express disappointment. i wish i knew wot goes on behind the scenes in such cases. i hope manmohan singh takes a few acting classes in first few weeks as PM. he needs to obtain the charisma of a world leader n lose the geek in him. hoho.
crazy out of the world zakir hussain concert (minus ranjit barot) in NY. taufiq qureshi - agnivarsha n misc. zakir+sultan in kithe meher ali from mr mrs iyer -zakir's debut. dream come true. was mostly out of my wits to see those two sing, to actually fine tune my binoculars on their faces. hoho.
more comic political drama. first hue n outcry on prospect of sonia gandhi becoming PM. ppl resigning, stock markets plunging. now she comes up with her inner voice telling her - no post, no power. columns on rediff shout bewafaayee, express disappointment. i wish i knew wot goes on behind the scenes in such cases. i hope manmohan singh takes a few acting classes in first few weeks as PM. he needs to obtain the charisma of a world leader n lose the geek in him. hoho.
watched meenaxi twice in a row this evening. i'm quite fascinated altho no meaning came out of it, which makes me like it even better. hoho. Tabu is fabolous, gorgeous, terrific and sensuous. as a hyderabadi maiden, or a jaisalmer lady or maria from prague, she gets into the skin of the character effortlessly. esp the accent n body language of each of them. and more esp, her czech-slovenian accented hindi. completely adorable. so lovely. tabu has always looked beyond her years to me. in fact, it appears as a crime of condescension of nth degree when she chooses to play the routine girl. the half before the interval is better. some scenes of chemistry+humor between raghuvir yadav n tabu are amazing. kunal kapoor transforms into an actor of calibre as the movie goes on. the dialogues are out of the world. i need to sit down n produce a transcript soon. hoho. lazeez urdu zubaan ki baareekiyon se manje hue lafz aur kiredaar. har ek lamhe mein ek deewangi hai. the movie carries itself fwd with variance of Tabu's character n corresponding varied art of courtship of her man. as for the meaning, i think its basically abt inordinate pursual of romanticism. very aesthetic presentation. while direction, screenplay, actors seem to lose hold at few moments, overall i loved the aura created.
i was in cleveland for St. Thyagaraja Aradhana on saturday. altho we planned to catch the last two days, one full day of back2back concerts was sufficient to cause a buffer-overflow as my pal put it. my earlier fears of not being able to tolerate a carnatic concert were almost confirmed until the rejuvenating aruna sairam concert at the end of the day. i guess i'm too accustommed to n indian classical patterns n basically wasnt satisfied till i found hints of them here n there. plenty of raags are common in between, shivranjini n yaman being the favs. found myself humming jaane kahan gaye wo din, mere naina sawan bhado in between. inspite of all that, i found to my amazement how intoxicating cud such musical sessions can be provided one is ready to put in some initial aural effort. when i left, i was drunk like hell n cud take in infinite more. the only other such concert for me i rem was a n indian one, organized by spicmacay in calcutta few years back. all of us in the family sat awake all thru nite. an eminent passion, junoon takes over. aside: i wish there was a n indian classical festival once a year in amrika too.
and finally, found myself humming tu jo mila from alisha chinai's long forgotten Om. a sweet, lovely pleasing melodious number sung with child-like innocence. she is gorgeous, aint she?
i was in cleveland for St. Thyagaraja Aradhana on saturday. altho we planned to catch the last two days, one full day of back2back concerts was sufficient to cause a buffer-overflow as my pal put it. my earlier fears of not being able to tolerate a carnatic concert were almost confirmed until the rejuvenating aruna sairam concert at the end of the day. i guess i'm too accustommed to n indian classical patterns n basically wasnt satisfied till i found hints of them here n there. plenty of raags are common in between, shivranjini n yaman being the favs. found myself humming jaane kahan gaye wo din, mere naina sawan bhado in between. inspite of all that, i found to my amazement how intoxicating cud such musical sessions can be provided one is ready to put in some initial aural effort. when i left, i was drunk like hell n cud take in infinite more. the only other such concert for me i rem was a n indian one, organized by spicmacay in calcutta few years back. all of us in the family sat awake all thru nite. an eminent passion, junoon takes over. aside: i wish there was a n indian classical festival once a year in amrika too.
and finally, found myself humming tu jo mila from alisha chinai's long forgotten Om. a sweet, lovely pleasing melodious number sung with child-like innocence. she is gorgeous, aint she?
Friday, April 16, 2004
brihat sannata,
vyaktigat sannata,
stabdh sannata,
vichalit sannaata.
peeda hai koi,
kyu nahi bataata.
kshobh hai kiska,
use sataata.
vyomkaaya sannata.
baar baar khokhle tanon mein,
gum ho jaata.
hai kabse icchuk,
koi upaay mit paata.
nidraa pukaarti,
na jeevan bulaata.
use sukh ya dukh,
koi na choo paata.
ghanghor sannata.
prakaash bolon ki,
anginat wo paata.
mook dhwani se,
wo kisko samjhaata?
sannaaton ki bheedh mein,
tanha wo sannata.
arth khojta jidhar,
kewal paata sannata.
kritrim jeevon mein ghulkar,
gaganbhedi anarth pukaarta.
haahakaar ki been bajaata,
duh-saahsi sannata.
akasmaat bhram ke kokh mein,
kinchit lupt ho jaata.
vyakul hridaya ke shor mein,
punar-janm paata.
bheeshan sannata. baawla sannata.
vyangya-kreedasthal ki,
raunak sada badhaata.
astitva mera odhkar,
jhoom uthaa sannata.
the poets of this world shud try being less abstract. hoho. an ode to sannata, shud we call it?
vyaktigat sannata,
stabdh sannata,
vichalit sannaata.
peeda hai koi,
kyu nahi bataata.
kshobh hai kiska,
use sataata.
vyomkaaya sannata.
baar baar khokhle tanon mein,
gum ho jaata.
hai kabse icchuk,
koi upaay mit paata.
nidraa pukaarti,
na jeevan bulaata.
use sukh ya dukh,
koi na choo paata.
ghanghor sannata.
prakaash bolon ki,
anginat wo paata.
mook dhwani se,
wo kisko samjhaata?
sannaaton ki bheedh mein,
tanha wo sannata.
arth khojta jidhar,
kewal paata sannata.
kritrim jeevon mein ghulkar,
gaganbhedi anarth pukaarta.
haahakaar ki been bajaata,
duh-saahsi sannata.
akasmaat bhram ke kokh mein,
kinchit lupt ho jaata.
vyakul hridaya ke shor mein,
punar-janm paata.
bheeshan sannata. baawla sannata.
vyangya-kreedasthal ki,
raunak sada badhaata.
astitva mera odhkar,
jhoom uthaa sannata.
the poets of this world shud try being less abstract. hoho. an ode to sannata, shud we call it?
Saturday, April 03, 2004
tumhe mehboob kehta,
palkon pe bithaata,
nazron se sajaata.
baat sirf itni, tum gar maan leti:
tum, tum na hoti.
meethe neem ke narm chaaon mein,
svapn-desh vichraata.
nabh ke taaron se,
zameen ko sajaata, behlaata.
bas ek sirf,
tum, tum na hoti.
lekhniyaan tum par mohabbat ki,
din raat lutaata, dohraata.
mridul ritu ki deewangee jutaakar,
man ki jalti pyaas bujhaata.
ae kaash agar,
tum, tum na hoti.
khamoshiyon ko bikherte,
tumhare saundarya ke raag gaata.
chanchal titli, tere chitt ko,
apne hridaya ka vishaal vyom thamaata.
bas wohi, ae jaanejaan,
tum, tum na hoti.
ho anumati agar,
ek aagrah karoon tumse?
path mile firse, tumse agar,
in tanhaayiyon par taras khaana.
milte rahe kayee mujhse,
is baar tum mil jaana.
palkon pe bithaata,
nazron se sajaata.
baat sirf itni, tum gar maan leti:
tum, tum na hoti.
meethe neem ke narm chaaon mein,
svapn-desh vichraata.
nabh ke taaron se,
zameen ko sajaata, behlaata.
bas ek sirf,
tum, tum na hoti.
lekhniyaan tum par mohabbat ki,
din raat lutaata, dohraata.
mridul ritu ki deewangee jutaakar,
man ki jalti pyaas bujhaata.
ae kaash agar,
tum, tum na hoti.
khamoshiyon ko bikherte,
tumhare saundarya ke raag gaata.
chanchal titli, tere chitt ko,
apne hridaya ka vishaal vyom thamaata.
bas wohi, ae jaanejaan,
tum, tum na hoti.
ho anumati agar,
ek aagrah karoon tumse?
path mile firse, tumse agar,
in tanhaayiyon par taras khaana.
milte rahe kayee mujhse,
is baar tum mil jaana.
Friday, April 02, 2004
As if we didnt have enuf of Tabu in maqbool already, here's the next big surprise - meenaxi. afterall, who cud do a better job than a painter like MF Hussain to depict tabu's beauty on celluloid. in all her varied forms, full of sensuality, charm n most of all seduction. meenaxi is an abstract poetic journey into the heart n mind of restless womanhood. much toned-down n abstract maya memsaab i guess.
Believe me, if her voice was a lil less hoarse, she wud have displaced madhuri dixit long back. hoho. yo tabu!
and btw, rediff is turning more n more classy in its choices. print media has seldom seen such a support for the alternatives on the front page. but then, everything now is on the cover (web)page. hoho.
am voraciously reading anything related to meenaxi since yesterday. went back to its music trying to look at it in a new kind of light. not a mere acquaintance but someone u wanna love, get emotionally involved with. the songs are incredibly fascinating n each one of them except perhaps dhuan dhuan, which i learnt was done in 3 hrs. ARR says he's learning to compose good qawwalis n i fully agree. noor-un-ala-noor captures all the intriguing aspects of qawaali. in retrospect, i found that we've been exposed to some elaborate qawaali finery thru NFAK n ARR. looking back at those 70's movies, where qawalis were degraded to rishi kapoor, swivel n clap depiction, somehow it seems to me that this version of sufi music was on verge of being lost. one cud study n lay down several principles of this genre in detail (beginning with the dual purpose of the songs wrt both the beloved n the god), but a couple of them can be seen right off. qawaali has a pass-the-parcel flavor in between two or more lead qawwals. one of them proposes while the other stresses upon the idea. altho similar, the two propositions are independent in their classical intonations, the guy with the parcel being the boss for the moment. one doode being busy with serious stuff while the other frivolously indulging in his alaap. some of my fav expressions:
zindagi ek raaz thi, ek raaz hai, ik raaz hai,
jaankar hoga kyaaaaaa,
jaankar hoga kyaa, kisne hai jaana,
koi kahe mohabbat, koi ibaadat.
deewaangee kahen chaahe junoon,
deewaangee kahen chaahe junoon,
chaahat hi meri adaaaaaa.
Believe me, if her voice was a lil less hoarse, she wud have displaced madhuri dixit long back. hoho. yo tabu!
and btw, rediff is turning more n more classy in its choices. print media has seldom seen such a support for the alternatives on the front page. but then, everything now is on the cover (web)page. hoho.
am voraciously reading anything related to meenaxi since yesterday. went back to its music trying to look at it in a new kind of light. not a mere acquaintance but someone u wanna love, get emotionally involved with. the songs are incredibly fascinating n each one of them except perhaps dhuan dhuan, which i learnt was done in 3 hrs. ARR says he's learning to compose good qawwalis n i fully agree. noor-un-ala-noor captures all the intriguing aspects of qawaali. in retrospect, i found that we've been exposed to some elaborate qawaali finery thru NFAK n ARR. looking back at those 70's movies, where qawalis were degraded to rishi kapoor, swivel n clap depiction, somehow it seems to me that this version of sufi music was on verge of being lost. one cud study n lay down several principles of this genre in detail (beginning with the dual purpose of the songs wrt both the beloved n the god), but a couple of them can be seen right off. qawaali has a pass-the-parcel flavor in between two or more lead qawwals. one of them proposes while the other stresses upon the idea. altho similar, the two propositions are independent in their classical intonations, the guy with the parcel being the boss for the moment. one doode being busy with serious stuff while the other frivolously indulging in his alaap. some of my fav expressions:
zindagi ek raaz thi, ek raaz hai, ik raaz hai,
jaankar hoga kyaaaaaa,
jaankar hoga kyaa, kisne hai jaana,
koi kahe mohabbat, koi ibaadat.
deewaangee kahen chaahe junoon,
deewaangee kahen chaahe junoon,
chaahat hi meri adaaaaaa.
Thursday, April 01, 2004
fir chidi raat, baat foolon ki,
raat hai ya, baaraat foolon ki.
fool ke haar, fool ke gajre,
shaam foolon ki, raat foolon ki.
aapka saath, saath foolon ka,
aapki baat, baat foolon ki.
fool khilte rahenge, duniya mein,
roz niklegi baat foolon ki.
nazren milti hain, jaam milte hain,
mil rahi hai, hayaat foolon ki.
ye mehekti hui ghazal, 'makhdoon',
jaisa sehraa mein raat foolon ki.
fir chidi raat baat foolon ki
a song dedicated to the fool's of this world. hoho. one of the most passively seductive song ever made.
raat hai ya, baaraat foolon ki.
fool ke haar, fool ke gajre,
shaam foolon ki, raat foolon ki.
aapka saath, saath foolon ka,
aapki baat, baat foolon ki.
fool khilte rahenge, duniya mein,
roz niklegi baat foolon ki.
nazren milti hain, jaam milte hain,
mil rahi hai, hayaat foolon ki.
ye mehekti hui ghazal, 'makhdoon',
jaisa sehraa mein raat foolon ki.
fir chidi raat baat foolon ki
a song dedicated to the fool's of this world. hoho. one of the most passively seductive song ever made.
Monday, March 29, 2004
I initially thought that the music of Yuva sucked pretty uniformly and I was completely sure of it. uff..khuda. The music is catching on and I dont know wot to do about it. The last time this happened was for Main Hoon Na, whose songs I abs adore now. Not with this album, again. I was pretty sure the songs sucked with the amount of orchestration put in. random lyrics, only dhish dhish.
well, with time, the lyrics haven't changed but the feeling of the music has and i've grown to like it (not really!) I'd imagined that the movie, coming from Mani Ratnam wud have the strong romantic feeling associated with it. Yet, the music seems to convey a strong on-the-run feeling. the 3 pairs running away from home? or well chased for a murder they havent committed? hoho. ARR's experiments lead me to define a notion of rhythmically appeasing class of music. hoho. much like wot we call hummable melodies, these songs have a tappable attraction to them. often they are interspersed with quite hummable melodies. of course u wont be able to hum them since they appear rite in middle of deafening percussion. enuf. i must rant less at a meta-level n talk more abt songs.
2 favs: baadal jo aaye, kabhi neem. a 3rd one khuda hafiz for its wonderful on-the-run percussion. alka yaagnik deserves terrific kudos for on-the-fly enthralling performance. the way she pauses after aaayee before she sings the whole line is beautiful. of course, adnan sami cudn't be less better but the flows in alka's voice remind you of Asha in accha ji main haari. (again the mode of comm is nothing new, all i feel good about is the re-creation in contemporary times). madhushree (who?) has sung the kabhi neem neem number, altho i think its sadhna sargam. the credits are wrong. really wrong! hoho. noone but her can create the rustic aura around the song. rem. jhooth ka pat chalkaini from saathiya? anyhow, if its madhushree, she has done a terrific job. really incredible.
and finally the bang bang hey khuda haafiz. mehboob, the doode! this is the last warning. either come up with good lyrics or pls, pls pls quit the filmi industry. why put that khuda haafiz stuff right at the beginning of the crappy number? it sounds seducing does it? damn. anyhow, the reverberating anjaaanaa...anjaaani... make for an incredible on-the-run screenplay. and here's one damn good dance number for me to do the energizer-bunny dance to (hoho, they say thats how i dance). of course, the desi DJs are stuck in the ancient world of punjabi mc n shaawa shaawa, one can never hope they'll get to appreciate or even introduce such songs. aeklaa dance koro re! hoho.
now sth completely unrelated: I was looking out today morn for the new desi beauties at the miss india thing. Now, I dont know if it is me or there is something actually wrong with the way they were looking when the camera clicked. Most of them have a look which one of my friends wud euphemistically call "unconventional". I think they look terrible downright. (slight exceptions: aarti, sahiba, chesz looks hot, mexican). why cant we have familiar next-door faces here? lovely, charming, some amount of symmetrical well-ordering of features. of course, tanushree dutta is from jamshedpur n only other biharis cud be more proud than i am, but i really think she doesnt have that familiar look to provide. I guess then all the khel is abt unconventional faces, sought out anxiously by model-hunters. another possibility is that my sense of beauty has really grown old, which might well be true given all these newcomer heroines look alike to me. but, why to worry? indulgence is the rule with art forms, rem? indulge more n suroor chadhta nazar aayega. hoho.
well, with time, the lyrics haven't changed but the feeling of the music has and i've grown to like it (not really!) I'd imagined that the movie, coming from Mani Ratnam wud have the strong romantic feeling associated with it. Yet, the music seems to convey a strong on-the-run feeling. the 3 pairs running away from home? or well chased for a murder they havent committed? hoho. ARR's experiments lead me to define a notion of rhythmically appeasing class of music. hoho. much like wot we call hummable melodies, these songs have a tappable attraction to them. often they are interspersed with quite hummable melodies. of course u wont be able to hum them since they appear rite in middle of deafening percussion. enuf. i must rant less at a meta-level n talk more abt songs.
2 favs: baadal jo aaye, kabhi neem. a 3rd one khuda hafiz for its wonderful on-the-run percussion. alka yaagnik deserves terrific kudos for on-the-fly enthralling performance. the way she pauses after aaayee before she sings the whole line is beautiful. of course, adnan sami cudn't be less better but the flows in alka's voice remind you of Asha in accha ji main haari. (again the mode of comm is nothing new, all i feel good about is the re-creation in contemporary times). madhushree (who?) has sung the kabhi neem neem number, altho i think its sadhna sargam. the credits are wrong. really wrong! hoho. noone but her can create the rustic aura around the song. rem. jhooth ka pat chalkaini from saathiya? anyhow, if its madhushree, she has done a terrific job. really incredible.
and finally the bang bang hey khuda haafiz. mehboob, the doode! this is the last warning. either come up with good lyrics or pls, pls pls quit the filmi industry. why put that khuda haafiz stuff right at the beginning of the crappy number? it sounds seducing does it? damn. anyhow, the reverberating anjaaanaa...anjaaani... make for an incredible on-the-run screenplay. and here's one damn good dance number for me to do the energizer-bunny dance to (hoho, they say thats how i dance). of course, the desi DJs are stuck in the ancient world of punjabi mc n shaawa shaawa, one can never hope they'll get to appreciate or even introduce such songs. aeklaa dance koro re! hoho.
now sth completely unrelated: I was looking out today morn for the new desi beauties at the miss india thing. Now, I dont know if it is me or there is something actually wrong with the way they were looking when the camera clicked. Most of them have a look which one of my friends wud euphemistically call "unconventional". I think they look terrible downright. (slight exceptions: aarti, sahiba, chesz looks hot, mexican). why cant we have familiar next-door faces here? lovely, charming, some amount of symmetrical well-ordering of features. of course, tanushree dutta is from jamshedpur n only other biharis cud be more proud than i am, but i really think she doesnt have that familiar look to provide. I guess then all the khel is abt unconventional faces, sought out anxiously by model-hunters. another possibility is that my sense of beauty has really grown old, which might well be true given all these newcomer heroines look alike to me. but, why to worry? indulgence is the rule with art forms, rem? indulge more n suroor chadhta nazar aayega. hoho.
Friday, March 19, 2004
des bides mein, dhoondhe fire hoon wo to,
jab dekho tere sang hai.
shringaar ras mein duboye hue ye geet ke lafz from maqbool, ustad sultan khan. notwithstanding the initial disdain for the gagri mori, panghat n chede mohe shyam genre of classical songs n the unusual harping on the gagri for half n hour, I slowly grew a liking for it. after all, it seems one of the most natural n pure expressions of romanticism. wot better than the hansi-thitholi between the lover-beloved cud form a subject for easy romanticism. nevertheless, i still believe that this realization has been exploited to such an extent in north indian classical songs that its not even funny. cmon man, there is fool-patti, there is gagan n earth, there are nadiyaa n parvat : all having some kind of romantic aura associated with them. and undoubtedly, one of the major reasons we're able to still appreciate bollywood songs is that they talk abt better or at least other things. hoho. yet, once in a while it feels good to indulge in the naive notions of romance. esp if someone like ustad sultan khan chews those words for u. hoho.
and yes, here's the latest (quite detailed) blog-related survey. i guess it highlights wot most bloggers feel/think.
jab dekho tere sang hai.
shringaar ras mein duboye hue ye geet ke lafz from maqbool, ustad sultan khan. notwithstanding the initial disdain for the gagri mori, panghat n chede mohe shyam genre of classical songs n the unusual harping on the gagri for half n hour, I slowly grew a liking for it. after all, it seems one of the most natural n pure expressions of romanticism. wot better than the hansi-thitholi between the lover-beloved cud form a subject for easy romanticism. nevertheless, i still believe that this realization has been exploited to such an extent in north indian classical songs that its not even funny. cmon man, there is fool-patti, there is gagan n earth, there are nadiyaa n parvat : all having some kind of romantic aura associated with them. and undoubtedly, one of the major reasons we're able to still appreciate bollywood songs is that they talk abt better or at least other things. hoho. yet, once in a while it feels good to indulge in the naive notions of romance. esp if someone like ustad sultan khan chews those words for u. hoho.
and yes, here's the latest (quite detailed) blog-related survey. i guess it highlights wot most bloggers feel/think.
Thursday, March 11, 2004
aakhir waqt nikal hi aaya,
bheeshan bojh ko kisi tarah hataaya.
milte rahaa aksar unse,
jaane kaise aisa deewaar aaya.
sangeet tha, ya fir bewajah kaaraawaas,
hume nahi, shayad tumko samajh aaya.
hridaya ki pyaasi marubhoomi ko,
aakhir karm ne hi gangajal pilaaya.
jaagrit huaa har lamhaa,
aur fir ye khayaal saamne aaya.
ronaa chaha jab man ne,
hothon par yun hi ik gulaab aaya.
raaste alag hue ye jaana,
bechain dil ko karaar aaya.
maan gaye tumko, ae 'shaks',
khokar toone waapas, apna saath paaya.
not bad I guess. esp if this is the place where us "shaks" ne janam paaya.
addendum:
I've slowly learnt how to carve out my expressions in poetic form with time. as opposed to the resorting to the usual rhyming patterns which come to me like pennies, i've gradually acknowledged the sense of satisfaction obtained by backing it up with a chain of thoughts. of course, a set of random rhyming paras dont make a poem at all. nor do entirely disjoint, unordered ideas provide the user with the reflection of my thoughts. its definitely an art to remain subtle n abstract, yet get the point across. (most of jagjit-singh-picked ghazals as opposed to usual orthodox bhaari ones). its easy to be too subtle or abstract, therefore only u understand. the nice thing I'm led to believe is that given one's able to emote poemically (hoho), the act of writing a poem puts a lesser toll on attention or concentration in contrast to writing even a short story. at least i wud believe so, hoho. I took to rhyming patterns earlier for fear of lack of "real" creativity inside. now, its wonderful to see how feelings take the poetic form without much conscious intervention. again, no wonder, cos that is the way with most art forms. indulgence provides u with all the necessary creativity.
bheeshan bojh ko kisi tarah hataaya.
milte rahaa aksar unse,
jaane kaise aisa deewaar aaya.
sangeet tha, ya fir bewajah kaaraawaas,
hume nahi, shayad tumko samajh aaya.
hridaya ki pyaasi marubhoomi ko,
aakhir karm ne hi gangajal pilaaya.
jaagrit huaa har lamhaa,
aur fir ye khayaal saamne aaya.
ronaa chaha jab man ne,
hothon par yun hi ik gulaab aaya.
raaste alag hue ye jaana,
bechain dil ko karaar aaya.
maan gaye tumko, ae 'shaks',
khokar toone waapas, apna saath paaya.
not bad I guess. esp if this is the place where us "shaks" ne janam paaya.
addendum:
I've slowly learnt how to carve out my expressions in poetic form with time. as opposed to the resorting to the usual rhyming patterns which come to me like pennies, i've gradually acknowledged the sense of satisfaction obtained by backing it up with a chain of thoughts. of course, a set of random rhyming paras dont make a poem at all. nor do entirely disjoint, unordered ideas provide the user with the reflection of my thoughts. its definitely an art to remain subtle n abstract, yet get the point across. (most of jagjit-singh-picked ghazals as opposed to usual orthodox bhaari ones). its easy to be too subtle or abstract, therefore only u understand. the nice thing I'm led to believe is that given one's able to emote poemically (hoho), the act of writing a poem puts a lesser toll on attention or concentration in contrast to writing even a short story. at least i wud believe so, hoho. I took to rhyming patterns earlier for fear of lack of "real" creativity inside. now, its wonderful to see how feelings take the poetic form without much conscious intervention. again, no wonder, cos that is the way with most art forms. indulgence provides u with all the necessary creativity.
Sunday, March 07, 2004
ok guys. I hate to admit but here is the album slated to be the newest hit. SRK is back with his choclatey form once again in Main Hoon Na and the farhaKhan-anuMalik duo will make sure this one grosses the most this year. The sad part (in my opinion) is that the music is a complete rehash of KalHoNaHo genre. of course, that brought fwd only one dimension of SEL's wide repertoire and it feels just wrong that someone (anuMalik in this case) should simply carry it fwd without adding a grain of creativity.
having cribbed so much, let me talk abt the lovely songs that it has. hoho. most of the numbers are quite foot-tapping. abhijeet is back with his chalte-chalte n yesteryears' magic. anuMalik successfully taps him for the title song, whose melody i guess is stronger than both chCh n knkh. javed akhtar's geniosity shines again in these lyrics. simple words flowing with the melody. giving the public just wot it needs without sacrificing much. the music has kind of SEL+jatinLait flavor, kind of combo of knkh-chalteChalte, which sets it apart in some sense.
khoya hai paake, jisne pyaar, main hoon na.
bechain main hoon, bekaraar main hoon na.
koi to ho aisa, jisko apna keh sakoon.
koi to ho aisa, jiske dil mein reh sakoon.
koi to kehta, ek baar, main hoon na.
khoya hai paake, jisne pyaar, main hoon na.
bechain main hoon, bekaraar main hoon na.
the first song chale jaise hawaayen, sanan sanan is an awesome dance number. full of enthusiasm and KK, hoho. shreyal ghoshal sounds great as usual. sonu nigam does the title song well too, just that it reminds too much of knkh title song. tumse milke dil ka jo haal brings another dim to the melodies floating (resembles aur pyaar ho gaya, NFAK genre). these two are my favs from the album. tumhe jo maine jaana brings back the DDLJ feeling. din jo suhaane hain, to dil deewane hain is another superb foot-tapping, dance number. man, u cant help loving those lovely tunes altho they just sound the same.
hoho. ok this is not the end of this post. I think i need to write more abt chale jaise hawaayen. i guess the duplicate-mere mehboob percussion brings the foot-tap effect here. there's a closely-following synthetic accompaniment to the vocals, increases its lustre n adds to its melodious aura. KK really brings the song to its full glory. you can almost hear him talking thru the song. vasundhara das sounds obnoxious a couple of times, but thats ok. simple melodies are often have a powerful effect when rendered beautifully. and i guess this place needs the lyrics too, hoho:
chale jaise hawaayen sanan sanan,
ude jaise parinde gagan gagan.
jaayen titliyan jaise chaman chaman,
yunhi ghoomoo main bhi magan magan.
having cribbed so much, let me talk abt the lovely songs that it has. hoho. most of the numbers are quite foot-tapping. abhijeet is back with his chalte-chalte n yesteryears' magic. anuMalik successfully taps him for the title song, whose melody i guess is stronger than both chCh n knkh. javed akhtar's geniosity shines again in these lyrics. simple words flowing with the melody. giving the public just wot it needs without sacrificing much. the music has kind of SEL+jatinLait flavor, kind of combo of knkh-chalteChalte, which sets it apart in some sense.
khoya hai paake, jisne pyaar, main hoon na.
bechain main hoon, bekaraar main hoon na.
koi to ho aisa, jisko apna keh sakoon.
koi to ho aisa, jiske dil mein reh sakoon.
koi to kehta, ek baar, main hoon na.
khoya hai paake, jisne pyaar, main hoon na.
bechain main hoon, bekaraar main hoon na.
the first song chale jaise hawaayen, sanan sanan is an awesome dance number. full of enthusiasm and KK, hoho. shreyal ghoshal sounds great as usual. sonu nigam does the title song well too, just that it reminds too much of knkh title song. tumse milke dil ka jo haal brings another dim to the melodies floating (resembles aur pyaar ho gaya, NFAK genre). these two are my favs from the album. tumhe jo maine jaana brings back the DDLJ feeling. din jo suhaane hain, to dil deewane hain is another superb foot-tapping, dance number. man, u cant help loving those lovely tunes altho they just sound the same.
hoho. ok this is not the end of this post. I think i need to write more abt chale jaise hawaayen. i guess the duplicate-mere mehboob percussion brings the foot-tap effect here. there's a closely-following synthetic accompaniment to the vocals, increases its lustre n adds to its melodious aura. KK really brings the song to its full glory. you can almost hear him talking thru the song. vasundhara das sounds obnoxious a couple of times, but thats ok. simple melodies are often have a powerful effect when rendered beautifully. and i guess this place needs the lyrics too, hoho:
chale jaise hawaayen sanan sanan,
ude jaise parinde gagan gagan.
jaayen titliyan jaise chaman chaman,
yunhi ghoomoo main bhi magan magan.
Saturday, March 06, 2004
i'm watching maqbool rite now. given its strong muslim background, and illustrious filmmakers behind it, one wud expect an strong dose of ground-shaking (hoho) urdu. a superb watch. some of the moving lines:
humaare badan pe baarah til hain. dekhna chahoge?
gilori khaaya karo gulfaam, zubaan kaaboo mein rehti hai.
agar teri jegah koi aur hota na saale, to teri tehrwi nibat chuki hoti.
sach mein maar doongi. meri jaan bolo. ehsaan kar rahe ho? pyaar se bolo. jaan meri. meri jaan. (this one is hilarious)
tum saath chalo to lakhnau kya allah miyaan ke paas jaane ko bhi taiyaar hoon.
kitni mohabbat se banwaa raha hai yaar. jee karta hai apna goshta lagwa doon teri biryaani mein.
bach gaye dilip kumar. kaun dilip kumar? underworld mein na hote, to film star hote. waah kya actor hain abba ji!
aag ke liye paani ka dar bana rehna chahiye.
agar main shani ko kha jaata to kya hota? are miyaan, aadmi shani ko nahi, shani aadmi ko khaata hai. aur in dinon bahut bhookha hai ye.
kise khayega? ha ha..kise khilaana hai?
ding dong! miyaan ji ghar pe hain? kaaaaun? main dariyaaa..dubone aaya hoon.
ab zaroorat aapki hai. dariya mein kaarobaar karne aaye hain. pehle tair ke dikhaaiye.
khoon jam gaya hai deewaron par miyaan. kaise chootegaa?
pankaj kapoor is simply amazing. a numb half-eye-closed dispassionate don. his overbearing personality is terribly magnetic. and if someone needs a 101 on seduction, watch tabu. she actually goes to 700 level n higher too. hoho.
and this lovely song sung by reena bhardwaj.
rone do, jiya kare- the latest addition to my sad seductive genre of songs.
of course, jhin min jhini is the most wonderful song. the way it unrolls. from a few bubbly notes to a full-blown classical chorus.
the movie is a sparkling adaptation of macbeth. it prolly wud have taken lot of insight to see how that same old story wonderfully fits in underworld context. The killing of abbaji scene shines in its artistic glory. moments of cinematic perfection.
humaare badan pe baarah til hain. dekhna chahoge?
gilori khaaya karo gulfaam, zubaan kaaboo mein rehti hai.
agar teri jegah koi aur hota na saale, to teri tehrwi nibat chuki hoti.
sach mein maar doongi. meri jaan bolo. ehsaan kar rahe ho? pyaar se bolo. jaan meri. meri jaan. (this one is hilarious)
tum saath chalo to lakhnau kya allah miyaan ke paas jaane ko bhi taiyaar hoon.
kitni mohabbat se banwaa raha hai yaar. jee karta hai apna goshta lagwa doon teri biryaani mein.
bach gaye dilip kumar. kaun dilip kumar? underworld mein na hote, to film star hote. waah kya actor hain abba ji!
aag ke liye paani ka dar bana rehna chahiye.
agar main shani ko kha jaata to kya hota? are miyaan, aadmi shani ko nahi, shani aadmi ko khaata hai. aur in dinon bahut bhookha hai ye.
kise khayega? ha ha..kise khilaana hai?
ding dong! miyaan ji ghar pe hain? kaaaaun? main dariyaaa..dubone aaya hoon.
ab zaroorat aapki hai. dariya mein kaarobaar karne aaye hain. pehle tair ke dikhaaiye.
khoon jam gaya hai deewaron par miyaan. kaise chootegaa?
pankaj kapoor is simply amazing. a numb half-eye-closed dispassionate don. his overbearing personality is terribly magnetic. and if someone needs a 101 on seduction, watch tabu. she actually goes to 700 level n higher too. hoho.
and this lovely song sung by reena bhardwaj.
rone do, jiya kare- the latest addition to my sad seductive genre of songs.
of course, jhin min jhini is the most wonderful song. the way it unrolls. from a few bubbly notes to a full-blown classical chorus.
the movie is a sparkling adaptation of macbeth. it prolly wud have taken lot of insight to see how that same old story wonderfully fits in underworld context. The killing of abbaji scene shines in its artistic glory. moments of cinematic perfection.
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
tum aur hum,
gaaye sargam,
sargam zindagi ki, har khushi ki, aur pyaar ki.
hum aur tum,
gaaye sargam,
sargam zindagi ki, har khushi ki aur pyaar ki.
was naturally driven this morn to this song from armaan.
hain lafzon mein ulllaas,
samooche geet mein uska vaas.
berang si subah,
khilkhilaayi, jagamagaayi, ban gayi kuch khaas.
esp. the jugalbandi of saxophone n violin is really out of the world.
gaaye sargam,
sargam zindagi ki, har khushi ki, aur pyaar ki.
hum aur tum,
gaaye sargam,
sargam zindagi ki, har khushi ki aur pyaar ki.
was naturally driven this morn to this song from armaan.
hain lafzon mein ulllaas,
samooche geet mein uska vaas.
berang si subah,
khilkhilaayi, jagamagaayi, ban gayi kuch khaas.
esp. the jugalbandi of saxophone n violin is really out of the world.
Friday, February 27, 2004
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
here's the most terrific real-life affair-management story i've ever read. i managed to read till the end even tho it was soo long. must be sth abt it. hoho. formalising the business of extra-marital affairs is the last thing i had ever thot of reading. hoho. its superbly written. one cud bring out a dozen of movie scripts from this article. much like how few publications drive so many startups. hoho.
my bondhu on mention of the dance party few days back says - cool..tum saale..naach naach kar ghiste ho..ghiss ghiss kar naachte ho.. hoho.
my bondhu on mention of the dance party few days back says - cool..tum saale..naach naach kar ghiste ho..ghiss ghiss kar naachte ho.. hoho.
Saturday, February 21, 2004
this is crazy. damn crazy crazy.
how cud one be awake at 7 in morn on saturday? aur saala fir neend bhi nahi aaye.
it was ok during the week. i guessed it was some kind of hyperactivity.
but on a saturday?! unbelievable..abhorrable..hoho.
lekin meri ye jo neend hai,
wo udi kyu hai?
kehte hain log aksar aisa hota hai
ishq aur mohabbat mein.
haan, ho ho ho.
ab samajh aayi na baat
is band khopdi kothri ko.
sahaab, ye ishq ka junoon hai,
subah subah ho gaya noon hai.
fir mati thanki, aur dil besabr hua.
aakhir kaun hai wo?
hohoho kaun hai wo.
wo pari hai ya apsaraa,
wo jaanasheen ya fir koi dilrubaa.
gum tha isi soch mein,
ki achaanak door se ik aawaz aayi.
lagaatar, barkaraar.
pi pi, pi pi, pi pi.
main baukhalaaya, thora tharfadaaya.
wo bechain sur dil ko
kinchit nahi bhaaya.
hairaan usne ek operation search daudaaya.
ki tab achaanak, padosi ka kamraa saamne aaya.
muskuraaya dil, aakhir shrot kabze mein aaya.
shor-gul machaaya, bistar se uthaaya.
kambakht raaz sunkar bada krodh aaya.
week bhar ki aadat ne saahab ko majboor banaya,
har aadhe ghante pe alarm ko snooze kar,
saala saturday ko bhi meri neend udaaya.
hoho.
so again these are the nice times. lots of good music in the air.
lakeer - nachle, paighaam,..
tale of 3 cities, meenaxi - ye rishtaaaa (man this is so cool) kya kehlaata hai. i've to put this up someday too.
maqbool - jhin min jhini (the way it picks up)
laagi man ki lagan, baawra man dekhne.
reena bhardawaj is a suprising discovery. wonder why vishal didnt use her in maachis itself. hoho.
hoho. and i have to share this one. the lakeer song goes like -
shaan n kavita:
paighaam laaya saawan,
........
jee karta hai pankh lagaakar ud jaaoon,
..
RJ: seems like the only guys in the world who want to get bird flu here.
hohoho.
how cud one be awake at 7 in morn on saturday? aur saala fir neend bhi nahi aaye.
it was ok during the week. i guessed it was some kind of hyperactivity.
but on a saturday?! unbelievable..abhorrable..hoho.
lekin meri ye jo neend hai,
wo udi kyu hai?
kehte hain log aksar aisa hota hai
ishq aur mohabbat mein.
haan, ho ho ho.
ab samajh aayi na baat
is band khopdi kothri ko.
sahaab, ye ishq ka junoon hai,
subah subah ho gaya noon hai.
fir mati thanki, aur dil besabr hua.
aakhir kaun hai wo?
hohoho kaun hai wo.
wo pari hai ya apsaraa,
wo jaanasheen ya fir koi dilrubaa.
gum tha isi soch mein,
ki achaanak door se ik aawaz aayi.
lagaatar, barkaraar.
pi pi, pi pi, pi pi.
main baukhalaaya, thora tharfadaaya.
wo bechain sur dil ko
kinchit nahi bhaaya.
hairaan usne ek operation search daudaaya.
ki tab achaanak, padosi ka kamraa saamne aaya.
muskuraaya dil, aakhir shrot kabze mein aaya.
shor-gul machaaya, bistar se uthaaya.
kambakht raaz sunkar bada krodh aaya.
week bhar ki aadat ne saahab ko majboor banaya,
har aadhe ghante pe alarm ko snooze kar,
saala saturday ko bhi meri neend udaaya.
hoho.
so again these are the nice times. lots of good music in the air.
lakeer - nachle, paighaam,..
tale of 3 cities, meenaxi - ye rishtaaaa (man this is so cool) kya kehlaata hai. i've to put this up someday too.
maqbool - jhin min jhini (the way it picks up)
laagi man ki lagan, baawra man dekhne.
reena bhardawaj is a suprising discovery. wonder why vishal didnt use her in maachis itself. hoho.
hoho. and i have to share this one. the lakeer song goes like -
shaan n kavita:
paighaam laaya saawan,
........
jee karta hai pankh lagaakar ud jaaoon,
..
RJ: seems like the only guys in the world who want to get bird flu here.
hohoho.
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
a complete deja vu song. possibly due to the rupak taal. possibly the raag, possibly the singer. dont know. completely taken in.
and a complete baawra one. very impressive.
movie: hazaron khwaishen aisi
music: shantanu moitra
singer: swanand kirkire
baawra man dekhne chala ik sapna
baawre se man ki dekho, baavri hai baatein
baawri si dhadhkanen hain, baavri hain saansen.
baawri si karvaton se, nindiya kyun bhaage
baawre se nain chaahe baawre jharokhon se
baawre se nazaaron ko taknaa
bawre se is jahaan mein, baawra sa ik saath ho
is sayaani bheed mein, bas haahton mein tera hath ho
baawri si dhun ho koi, baawra ik raag ho
baawre se pair, chaahen bhaawre khayaalon ke
baawre se bol pe hi rakhna
baawra sa ho andhera, baawri khaamoshiyaan,
thartharaati lauh madham, bawri madhoshiyan
bawra ik ghunghta chahe, hole hole bina bataaye
baawere se mukhde se hatna
baawra man dekhne chalaa ik sapnaa.
terribly captivating. another one from the same album - ae sajni. full blown rock bhojpuri number. hoho. they continue to surprise. my affinity seldom declines.
and a complete baawra one. very impressive.
movie: hazaron khwaishen aisi
music: shantanu moitra
singer: swanand kirkire
baawra man dekhne chala ik sapna
baawre se man ki dekho, baavri hai baatein
baawri si dhadhkanen hain, baavri hain saansen.
baawri si karvaton se, nindiya kyun bhaage
baawre se nain chaahe baawre jharokhon se
baawre se nazaaron ko taknaa
bawre se is jahaan mein, baawra sa ik saath ho
is sayaani bheed mein, bas haahton mein tera hath ho
baawri si dhun ho koi, baawra ik raag ho
baawre se pair, chaahen bhaawre khayaalon ke
baawre se bol pe hi rakhna
baawra sa ho andhera, baawri khaamoshiyaan,
thartharaati lauh madham, bawri madhoshiyan
bawra ik ghunghta chahe, hole hole bina bataaye
baawere se mukhde se hatna
baawra man dekhne chalaa ik sapnaa.
terribly captivating. another one from the same album - ae sajni. full blown rock bhojpuri number. hoho. they continue to surprise. my affinity seldom declines.
Monday, February 16, 2004
Sunday, February 15, 2004
presenting the next chartbuster: quite an unusual place to come from.
movie: paapsinger: rahat fateh ali khan
music: shahi
lyrics: amjad islam amjad
a lovely catchy folksy melody, rendered in a superb baritone voice. the singer doode is marvellous. indeed a kawwal, this song makes him explore his ghazal, bhajan n of course kawwal techniques all at same time.btw, last time i heard lagan, was aisi laagi lagan meera ho gayi magan - anup jalota. hoho. this one has strong bhajan overtones too. its a simply awesome well-crafted mix of diff genres.
laagi tumse man ki lagan
lagan laagi tumse man ki lagan
(almost flows the ghulam ali way, so smooth, so harmonic)
gali gali ghoome
dil tujhe dhundhe
tere bin tarse nayan.
lagan laagi tumse man ki lagan.
(faintly like silk route here)
aa jaao meri jaan,
mere dil ka jahaan.
maange teri khabar
dhoondhe teraa nishaaan.
laagi tumse man ki lagan
lagan laagi tumse dil ki lagan
(the full blown qawwal here, bhakti ras me dooba hua)
teraaa tujhko saunp de,
kya laagat hai mor,
mera mujhme kuch naaaahi,
jo howat so tor.
tere bin meraa man,
jaise ban mein hirani
(i wonder i'll live thru this particular line's rendition more than a couple of times hoho)
jaise pagli pawan.
laagi tumse man ki lagan..
(and here come the harmonies, arousing melody)
pa dha sa re ga re re sa
pa dha sa re ga re re sa
maa$ ga re
pa dha sa re ga re re sa
paa$, ma ga re sa.
sa re ga ma
ma dha dha pa
sa ni dha, ni dha pa, dha pa ma, pa ma ga
gamagaregamapa
gali gali ghooome, dil tujhe dhoondhe. haay haay. awfully melodious. hoho.
also reminds of the recent toota toota ek parinda (or allah ke bande) by kailash kher from waisa bhi hota hai.. a bare melody rendered with no more than a guitar n a captivating voice.
movie: paapsinger: rahat fateh ali khan
music: shahi
lyrics: amjad islam amjad
a lovely catchy folksy melody, rendered in a superb baritone voice. the singer doode is marvellous. indeed a kawwal, this song makes him explore his ghazal, bhajan n of course kawwal techniques all at same time.btw, last time i heard lagan, was aisi laagi lagan meera ho gayi magan - anup jalota. hoho. this one has strong bhajan overtones too. its a simply awesome well-crafted mix of diff genres.
laagi tumse man ki lagan
lagan laagi tumse man ki lagan
(almost flows the ghulam ali way, so smooth, so harmonic)
gali gali ghoome
dil tujhe dhundhe
tere bin tarse nayan.
lagan laagi tumse man ki lagan.
(faintly like silk route here)
aa jaao meri jaan,
mere dil ka jahaan.
maange teri khabar
dhoondhe teraa nishaaan.
laagi tumse man ki lagan
lagan laagi tumse dil ki lagan
(the full blown qawwal here, bhakti ras me dooba hua)
teraaa tujhko saunp de,
kya laagat hai mor,
mera mujhme kuch naaaahi,
jo howat so tor.
tere bin meraa man,
jaise ban mein hirani
(i wonder i'll live thru this particular line's rendition more than a couple of times hoho)
jaise pagli pawan.
laagi tumse man ki lagan..
(and here come the harmonies, arousing melody)
pa dha sa re ga re re sa
pa dha sa re ga re re sa
maa$ ga re
pa dha sa re ga re re sa
paa$, ma ga re sa.
sa re ga ma
ma dha dha pa
sa ni dha, ni dha pa, dha pa ma, pa ma ga
gamagaregamapa
gali gali ghooome, dil tujhe dhoondhe. haay haay. awfully melodious. hoho.
also reminds of the recent toota toota ek parinda (or allah ke bande) by kailash kher from waisa bhi hota hai.. a bare melody rendered with no more than a guitar n a captivating voice.
Thursday, February 12, 2004
india ke sharmnaak pradarshan ko dekh, humaare fellow-bondhu kuch is prakaar vilaap kar baithe:
yeh vb series, woh world cup, kya hai yeh sab, kuch
bhi toh nahin, aakhir sab maaya hai ...
tum kya leke aaye the, tum kya leke jaaoge ...
jeevan ke dukhon ka ek hi solution hai - iccha ko
tyaago balaak, iccha ko tyaago ...
peeda evident thi, par anaavashyak roop se hridaya-bhedi thi. isliye humne uttar diyaa:
eeshwarayee gyaan,
the aapke vichaaar mahaan.
vb series hi, ya kuch aur tha?
jo bramha ka akasmaat hua dhyaan.
hoho.
yeh vb series, woh world cup, kya hai yeh sab, kuch
bhi toh nahin, aakhir sab maaya hai ...
tum kya leke aaye the, tum kya leke jaaoge ...
jeevan ke dukhon ka ek hi solution hai - iccha ko
tyaago balaak, iccha ko tyaago ...
peeda evident thi, par anaavashyak roop se hridaya-bhedi thi. isliye humne uttar diyaa:
eeshwarayee gyaan,
the aapke vichaaar mahaan.
vb series hi, ya kuch aur tha?
jo bramha ka akasmaat hua dhyaan.
hoho.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
a superb exposition of the history of sexual/erotic movies. interesting to see how stds have risen, bandhans broken and reality relived on screen.
I rem a geeky joke the prof shared in one of those deep-down-dead classes. Developing the same proof technique around same time in history and having received similar awards for their breakthroughs was not happening for the first time in the history of mathematicians. wot was special in this case was that they shared the same woman. of course, the geniuses were simultaneous while the lady went thru them sequentially.
I rem a geeky joke the prof shared in one of those deep-down-dead classes. Developing the same proof technique around same time in history and having received similar awards for their breakthroughs was not happening for the first time in the history of mathematicians. wot was special in this case was that they shared the same woman. of course, the geniuses were simultaneous while the lady went thru them sequentially.
Sunday, February 08, 2004
aaj morn soorya-devta ki kirnen dharti ko jalaane lagin.
band kamre ki ghutan se mishrit kaanton ki chubhan sataane lagi.
antarvedna ke klisht bandhanon ko kahin jodti, kahin todti.
unmukt nabh-vicharan ki pyaasi aag.
wo chitt ek se do hua, ya ek se aadha?
thora bhramit, thora saada.
fantastic one from RDB, Lata : Bemisaal: last nite they played it on radio.
aye ri pawan,
dhoodhe kise tera man,
chalte chalte.
baawri si tu fire,
kaun hai, tera sajan.
i fucking rem how many times i've stopped short after gungunaaing the first 2 lines. really bad if u dont know the lyrics of sucha beautiful song.
its kind of rdb meet salil chaudhary/madan mohan stuff.
isn't that hi pitched baawri si tu phiire between paras, breathtakingly amazing?
as usual, an ingenious percussion, replacing plain tabla with triple-tabla mix.
drills deep into ur rom-rom.
hoho. i can't help singing that baawri si over n over again. actually if u sing the graver n full-blown versions alternately, its even more fascinating. and finally the hooo... utaar. still not perfected. pretty obliged i am to those who made the world so wonderful.
band kamre ki ghutan se mishrit kaanton ki chubhan sataane lagi.
antarvedna ke klisht bandhanon ko kahin jodti, kahin todti.
unmukt nabh-vicharan ki pyaasi aag.
wo chitt ek se do hua, ya ek se aadha?
thora bhramit, thora saada.
fantastic one from RDB, Lata : Bemisaal: last nite they played it on radio.
aye ri pawan,
dhoodhe kise tera man,
chalte chalte.
baawri si tu fire,
kaun hai, tera sajan.
i fucking rem how many times i've stopped short after gungunaaing the first 2 lines. really bad if u dont know the lyrics of sucha beautiful song.
its kind of rdb meet salil chaudhary/madan mohan stuff.
isn't that hi pitched baawri si tu phiire between paras, breathtakingly amazing?
as usual, an ingenious percussion, replacing plain tabla with triple-tabla mix.
drills deep into ur rom-rom.
hoho. i can't help singing that baawri si over n over again. actually if u sing the graver n full-blown versions alternately, its even more fascinating. and finally the hooo... utaar. still not perfected. pretty obliged i am to those who made the world so wonderful.
Thursday, February 05, 2004
a superb link to a '91 newsgroup post. I dont think I've ever come across a classication of ghazals acc to raags. yo this one!
things I humbly noted:
Chupke chupke raat din aanso bahana yaad hai- this all-well-known by Ghulam Ali is bhairavi. hoho, this one almost goes everywhere on notes.
Ranjish hi sahi, dil hi dukhaney ke liye aa- one of the few ghazals i've heard of Mehdi Hassan. This is Yaman doode. the primary basic raag. wow!
Ranj ki jab guftagoo honey lagi - Ghulam Ali in Bhoop Kalyan. nope, dont know this one.
Hangama hai kyon barpa"- Ghulam Ali - Darbari. typical halla in darbaar. hoho.
Kal chaudvin ki raat thee, shab bhar raha ... Ghulam Ali - Khamaj. sophisticated shringaar.
Yeh dil yeh paagal dil mera, kyon ... aawargee Ghulam Ali - Bhairavi is back! same halchal, aawaragi as chupke chupke
Mehfil mein baar baar kisi par nazar gayi - Ghulam Ali - Megh . I've heard only the Soldier version of this one. hoho.
we need a bigger annotated collection for ghazals. sb do it pls!!
Here's a huge list for movie songs.
things I humbly noted:
Chupke chupke raat din aanso bahana yaad hai- this all-well-known by Ghulam Ali is bhairavi. hoho, this one almost goes everywhere on notes.
Ranjish hi sahi, dil hi dukhaney ke liye aa- one of the few ghazals i've heard of Mehdi Hassan. This is Yaman doode. the primary basic raag. wow!
Ranj ki jab guftagoo honey lagi - Ghulam Ali in Bhoop Kalyan. nope, dont know this one.
Hangama hai kyon barpa"- Ghulam Ali - Darbari. typical halla in darbaar. hoho.
Kal chaudvin ki raat thee, shab bhar raha ... Ghulam Ali - Khamaj. sophisticated shringaar.
Yeh dil yeh paagal dil mera, kyon ... aawargee Ghulam Ali - Bhairavi is back! same halchal, aawaragi as chupke chupke
Mehfil mein baar baar kisi par nazar gayi - Ghulam Ali - Megh . I've heard only the Soldier version of this one. hoho.
we need a bigger annotated collection for ghazals. sb do it pls!!
Here's a huge list for movie songs.
Sunday, February 01, 2004
tum chale jaaoge to sochenge,
humne kya khoyaa, humne kya paaya.
muddatein huin dil ko apnaaye hue,
sadiyon guzre use dikhaaye hue.
more than ik arsa hua, dukhaaye hue.
badi taiyaariyaan, dhol-manjire,
yaar aaya, saj-dhaj ke mera yaar aaya.
yaar, ya puraana rishtedaar aaya? hoho.
naari-svabhaav, anoothaa prem-bhaav.
hath andekhaa, aawargi apaar.
khoja tha aksar, sparsh ka komal vyavhaar.
bechain karti teri aas,
kuch khwaab, koi meethi pyaas.
madhosh khushbuon ne anaayaas hi,
baandhi koi alaukik paash.
suljhaata kaise unhe,
har pal rang badalta ehsaas.
khojta kaise main khudko,
khona chodti nahi tu khudko.
us dhuen ke tan se lipti,
deekhti kyun chhal ki parchhayin?
divya naynon mein chalakta prem,
jyada nahi, kam dena tha prem.
is udhedhbun mein bhool gayi tum,
kuch tha yaad dilaana mujhko.
aur ek choti si love story. thori adhoori, thori poori.
hath/krodh ki devi, cynicism/khamoshi ka devta.
humne kya khoyaa, humne kya paaya.
muddatein huin dil ko apnaaye hue,
sadiyon guzre use dikhaaye hue.
more than ik arsa hua, dukhaaye hue.
badi taiyaariyaan, dhol-manjire,
yaar aaya, saj-dhaj ke mera yaar aaya.
yaar, ya puraana rishtedaar aaya? hoho.
naari-svabhaav, anoothaa prem-bhaav.
hath andekhaa, aawargi apaar.
khoja tha aksar, sparsh ka komal vyavhaar.
bechain karti teri aas,
kuch khwaab, koi meethi pyaas.
madhosh khushbuon ne anaayaas hi,
baandhi koi alaukik paash.
suljhaata kaise unhe,
har pal rang badalta ehsaas.
khojta kaise main khudko,
khona chodti nahi tu khudko.
us dhuen ke tan se lipti,
deekhti kyun chhal ki parchhayin?
divya naynon mein chalakta prem,
jyada nahi, kam dena tha prem.
is udhedhbun mein bhool gayi tum,
kuch tha yaad dilaana mujhko.
aur ek choti si love story. thori adhoori, thori poori.
hath/krodh ki devi, cynicism/khamoshi ka devta.
Monday, January 26, 2004
snow-driving
here, may I present before you mezbaan n meherbaan,
the new sport of snow-driving.
a new game, full of adventure. alas, only to be played where there is nothing but snow.
when ur out to meet a friend, or simply shuttling from school to home.
when ur running to meet a deadline, or an occasional bout at the bar/restaurant.
all the time u can play the game of snow-driving.
Disregarding the heeds of fellow men, I decided to drive this winter, irrespective of whether dharti hile, ya aasmaan gire or there is 6-inches of snow. shuru, shuru mein thokte thokte..matlab thok hi diyaa. n then i saw the prospect, maybe inspired by one of the skating sessions I had.
let it skid, doode. let it skid. let the snow yield. let the wheels go astray.
If u have faith, and balance on the steer,
bless thee o bachcha.
the game is all urs.
u may go criss-cross,
hoho rem the way is all urs
(for no men of this world appear fond of this game in 6-inches snow).
u mite skid past the red-lights,
dont worry cos they'll forgive u,
for was it nething but the snow?
play the sound of snow along,
sometimes dense sometimes waste.
once a grrr in a haste,
once a khrr to ur taste.
and when the inside warmth is tantalisingly close,
do not pause to park at shore.
bring it in S, the gaily style,
crushing the snow with all ur mite.
and perchance, the rear meets one of its kin,
don't tremble, no fear
for all's fair in the game of snow-driving.
and either way, there is none to hear.
to meherbaanon, aapse bhi yehi aasha hai.
is abhootpoorva khel se adbhut aanand uthaayen.
man mein aahlaad failaayen, soul ki tripti paayen.
the new sport of snow-driving.
a new game, full of adventure. alas, only to be played where there is nothing but snow.
when ur out to meet a friend, or simply shuttling from school to home.
when ur running to meet a deadline, or an occasional bout at the bar/restaurant.
all the time u can play the game of snow-driving.
Disregarding the heeds of fellow men, I decided to drive this winter, irrespective of whether dharti hile, ya aasmaan gire or there is 6-inches of snow. shuru, shuru mein thokte thokte..matlab thok hi diyaa. n then i saw the prospect, maybe inspired by one of the skating sessions I had.
let it skid, doode. let it skid. let the snow yield. let the wheels go astray.
If u have faith, and balance on the steer,
bless thee o bachcha.
the game is all urs.
u may go criss-cross,
hoho rem the way is all urs
(for no men of this world appear fond of this game in 6-inches snow).
u mite skid past the red-lights,
dont worry cos they'll forgive u,
for was it nething but the snow?
play the sound of snow along,
sometimes dense sometimes waste.
once a grrr in a haste,
once a khrr to ur taste.
and when the inside warmth is tantalisingly close,
do not pause to park at shore.
bring it in S, the gaily style,
crushing the snow with all ur mite.
and perchance, the rear meets one of its kin,
don't tremble, no fear
for all's fair in the game of snow-driving.
and either way, there is none to hear.
to meherbaanon, aapse bhi yehi aasha hai.
is abhootpoorva khel se adbhut aanand uthaayen.
man mein aahlaad failaayen, soul ki tripti paayen.
here, may I present before you mezbaan n meherbaan,
the new sport of snow-driving.
a new game, full of adventure. alas, only to be played where there is nothing but snow.
when ur out to meet a friend, or simply shuttling from school to home.
when ur running to meet a deadline, or an occasional bout at the bar/restaurant.
all the time u can play the game of snow-driving.
Disregarding the heeds of fellow men, I decided to drive this winter, irrespective of whether dharti hile, ya aasmaan gire or there is 6-inches of snow. shuru, shuru mein thokte thokte..matlab thok hi diyaa. n then i saw the prospect, maybe inspired by one of the skating sessions I had.
let it skid, doode. let it skid. let the snow yield. let the wheels go astray.
If u have faith, and balance on the steer,
bless thee o bachcha.
the game is all urs.
u may go criss-cross,
hoho rem the way is all urs
(for no men of this world appear fond of this game in 6-inches snow).
u mite skid past the red-lights,
dont worry cos they'll forgive u,
for was it nething but the snow?
play the sound of snow along,
sometimes dense sometimes waste.
once a grrr in a haste,
once a khrr to ur taste.
and when the inside warmth is tantalisingly close,
do not pause to park at shore.
bring it in S, the gaily style,
crushing the snow with all ur mite.
and perchance, the rear meets one of its kin,
don't tremble, no fear
for all's fair in the game of snow-driving.
and either way, there is none to hear.
to meherbaanon, aapse bhi yehi aasha hai.
is abhootpoorva khel se adbhut aanand uthaayen.
man mein aahlaad failaayen, soul ki tripti paayen.
the new sport of snow-driving.
a new game, full of adventure. alas, only to be played where there is nothing but snow.
when ur out to meet a friend, or simply shuttling from school to home.
when ur running to meet a deadline, or an occasional bout at the bar/restaurant.
all the time u can play the game of snow-driving.
Disregarding the heeds of fellow men, I decided to drive this winter, irrespective of whether dharti hile, ya aasmaan gire or there is 6-inches of snow. shuru, shuru mein thokte thokte..matlab thok hi diyaa. n then i saw the prospect, maybe inspired by one of the skating sessions I had.
let it skid, doode. let it skid. let the snow yield. let the wheels go astray.
If u have faith, and balance on the steer,
bless thee o bachcha.
the game is all urs.
u may go criss-cross,
hoho rem the way is all urs
(for no men of this world appear fond of this game in 6-inches snow).
u mite skid past the red-lights,
dont worry cos they'll forgive u,
for was it nething but the snow?
play the sound of snow along,
sometimes dense sometimes waste.
once a grrr in a haste,
once a khrr to ur taste.
and when the inside warmth is tantalisingly close,
do not pause to park at shore.
bring it in S, the gaily style,
crushing the snow with all ur mite.
and perchance, the rear meets one of its kin,
don't tremble, no fear
for all's fair in the game of snow-driving.
and either way, there is none to hear.
to meherbaanon, aapse bhi yehi aasha hai.
is abhootpoorva khel se adbhut aanand uthaayen.
man mein aahlaad failaayen, soul ki tripti paayen.
Saturday, January 24, 2004
A fantastic article on bloggers n blogging. exposing the inner psych.
talks mostly abt teenage turmoils altho quite universal in its concerns. walking the thin line between privacy n exposure. exposes plenty of thoughts which we adults wud not like to confess with a straight face. hoho.
sparkling snippets:
In such an unstable environment, it's no wonder that distinctions between healthy candor and ''too much information'' are in flux and that so many find themselves helplessly confessing, as if a generation were given a massive technological truth serum.
its refreshing to read stuff from those who haven't learnt the art of hiding it even from themselves.
talks mostly abt teenage turmoils altho quite universal in its concerns. walking the thin line between privacy n exposure. exposes plenty of thoughts which we adults wud not like to confess with a straight face. hoho.
sparkling snippets:
In such an unstable environment, it's no wonder that distinctions between healthy candor and ''too much information'' are in flux and that so many find themselves helplessly confessing, as if a generation were given a massive technological truth serum.
its refreshing to read stuff from those who haven't learnt the art of hiding it even from themselves.
Friday, January 23, 2004
--slow motion--
kal unse pehli mulaaqaat hui.
unhone pehle meri ungliyon ko pyaar se chuaa.
fir madhosh aankhon mein aankhen daal kar,
dekhaaa.
pyaaar se gaaalon ko,
chuaa.
fir dheere dheere, hole hole, baalon mein
haath daaala.
--slow motion end--
aur fir achaanak, haathon ko pochte hue,
restaurant se baahar chale gaye.
background voice:
jo aapko chaahte hon,
zaroori nahi ki wo aapke chipchipe baalon ko bhi chaahen.
kal unse pehli mulaaqaat hui.
unhone pehle meri ungliyon ko pyaar se chuaa.
fir madhosh aankhon mein aankhen daal kar,
dekhaaa.
pyaaar se gaaalon ko,
chuaa.
fir dheere dheere, hole hole, baalon mein
haath daaala.
--slow motion end--
aur fir achaanak, haathon ko pochte hue,
restaurant se baahar chale gaye.
background voice:
jo aapko chaahte hon,
zaroori nahi ki wo aapke chipchipe baalon ko bhi chaahen.
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
ok ppl..i'm swept all over again. When I first heard it, I was extremely disappointed. No way was this music goin to win over my senses. and again, I am proved wrong. Lakeer has a couple of lovely compositions to boast of. paighaam is sweet - a south-indian classical ghazal, hoho, no wonder it sounds slightly strange, but indeed very soothing. mistakes from tehzeeb repeated. ARR is yet to learn ghazal-formation. Sadiyaan has a gungunaata flavor with sufi stuff freely thrown in. But, clearly the winner is nachle, na na nachle. wild, balle-balle dance number embellished with deep bass n percussion. a go-wild song really. ARR brings it out so well in Daler Mehndi. His mind-blowing voice oozes with folksy mithaas n a distinct classical touch. i guess he even leaves sukhwindara singh behind when he renders those high-pitches harmonies. royally maddening. engulfing. captivating. Royally! God, its just crazy how ARR arranges this one, unifying the essence of the song with Daler's magical vocal touch. and i've still got to figure out the lyrics. khaas lafz chune hue, u've to see how all that alliteration n onomatopoeism blends with musical transitions.
and esp the thing daler mehndi does once or twice at high pitch in the song. sodiye ee eee ee . a jittery giggle like taan at a pitch beyond reach. mind-blowingly captivating. i've to practice that. he did that in the kajraare kajraare nainawalen too from chupke.
picking it up from an inner verse:
ye hai kamaal-e-ulfat
naazaan hai dil se kudrat
zanjeer na deewaren
na raoke koi taakat
milan ki dhun jo lage
to fir duniya na dikhe
jale ho shole raahon mein,
lage hon kaante paaon mein,
sochna kya,
fir se chalen,
wahaan jahaan le chala humdum.
(wot a superb reprise here!)
o nachlen, na na nachlen,
o chal taal taal nachlen,
sondiyen, o heere-motiyen,
chal haath thaam chag len.
darna kya,
hum tere,
hain rabbaaaaaaa sang tereeee.
i relish loud wild wailings. hoho. of course, with some sur pls.
and esp the thing daler mehndi does once or twice at high pitch in the song. sodiye ee eee ee . a jittery giggle like taan at a pitch beyond reach. mind-blowingly captivating. i've to practice that. he did that in the kajraare kajraare nainawalen too from chupke.
picking it up from an inner verse:
ye hai kamaal-e-ulfat
naazaan hai dil se kudrat
zanjeer na deewaren
na raoke koi taakat
milan ki dhun jo lage
to fir duniya na dikhe
jale ho shole raahon mein,
lage hon kaante paaon mein,
sochna kya,
fir se chalen,
wahaan jahaan le chala humdum.
(wot a superb reprise here!)
o nachlen, na na nachlen,
o chal taal taal nachlen,
sondiyen, o heere-motiyen,
chal haath thaam chag len.
darna kya,
hum tere,
hain rabbaaaaaaa sang tereeee.
i relish loud wild wailings. hoho. of course, with some sur pls.
Sunday, January 18, 2004
a Hot story of a surrogate mother. Anybody reminded of Filhaal? Even chori chori chupke chupke. Filhaal was terrific. a genuine characterization of the turmoil. so-sensitive n full of pathos. real life is not that apart from wot shows on the reel. yo bollywood!!
i just remembered, one of the days last week, i managed to catch an hour of the angrezi version of mr. n mrs. iyer. ( lost in translation. ppl, dont kill me for it) quite moving as usual. hollywood romance is far more individualistic than bollywood. as the desi young ppl seek more n more of their individual indentities, bollywood wud turn individualistic. characters with own personalities (n of course more genuine), seemingly different, varied ppl under one umbrella. again, DCH comes to mind. mr. n mrs. iyer definitely was. btw, the rahul bose doode is terrific. he's churning out classic inde-bollywood movies, one after another. seems like he had a stroke of enlightment one night n then he's been on to it. hoho. a marvellous actor. and always picking up characters centered arnd the common man. as the indian society veers towards individualism, he might just become the godfather of such roles. hoho. cheers to him!
i just remembered, one of the days last week, i managed to catch an hour of the angrezi version of mr. n mrs. iyer. ( lost in translation. ppl, dont kill me for it) quite moving as usual. hollywood romance is far more individualistic than bollywood. as the desi young ppl seek more n more of their individual indentities, bollywood wud turn individualistic. characters with own personalities (n of course more genuine), seemingly different, varied ppl under one umbrella. again, DCH comes to mind. mr. n mrs. iyer definitely was. btw, the rahul bose doode is terrific. he's churning out classic inde-bollywood movies, one after another. seems like he had a stroke of enlightment one night n then he's been on to it. hoho. a marvellous actor. and always picking up characters centered arnd the common man. as the indian society veers towards individualism, he might just become the godfather of such roles. hoho. cheers to him!
Sunday, January 11, 2004
kabhi kisi ko mukammal jahaan nahi milta,
kahin zameen ko aasmaan nahi milta.
jise bhi dekhiye, wo apne aap mein gum hai.
zubaan mili hain, magar hum-zubaan nahi milta.
bujha sakaa hai bhala kaun waqt ke shole,
ye aisii aag hai jis mein dhuwaan nahin miltaa.
tere jahaan mein aisa nahi ke pyaar na ho,
jahaan ummeed ho us ki, wahaan nahi milta.
I thought this one was by gaalib. hoho. its actually by nida fazli.
simple precise caricature of facts.
movie: aahista aahista
sung by: both asha bhosle, bhupinder.
kahin zameen ko aasmaan nahi milta.
jise bhi dekhiye, wo apne aap mein gum hai.
zubaan mili hain, magar hum-zubaan nahi milta.
bujha sakaa hai bhala kaun waqt ke shole,
ye aisii aag hai jis mein dhuwaan nahin miltaa.
tere jahaan mein aisa nahi ke pyaar na ho,
jahaan ummeed ho us ki, wahaan nahi milta.
I thought this one was by gaalib. hoho. its actually by nida fazli.
simple precise caricature of facts.
movie: aahista aahista
sung by: both asha bhosle, bhupinder.
Saturday, January 10, 2004
achanak yaad aayi puraane logon ki. jinke hum deewaane the. abhi bhi hain. lekin wo gum ho gaye. somehow i rem of benjamin gilani. pretty surprised to find him in a cameo in main madhuri dixit banna chahti hoon. (shudnt renuka shahane have done that role? hoho). a related google search revealed that its actually the ram gopal varma doode again. he managed to cast gilani in Kaun too. i rem him as a wonderful actor from Udaan days. oo it wasnt gilani prolly, it was vikram gokhale, hoho. and there were days when he was everywhere. wonder where the Udaan girl went. She was a terrific actress, beauty. anyway, i found gilani too classy. Going ahead, there was the comedy genre. Om puri was classic in kakkaji kahin, pankaj kapoor in Phatichar, n few others.
indeed classy actors: Benjamin Gilani, Tom Alter, Mita Vashisht, Shriram Lagoo, Malavika Tiwari, Neelima Azim ( she used to be my fav, u rem Zameen? Mahesh Bhatt directed this silly serial on DD.), kulbushan kharbanda, lalit tiwari, arun bali, ravi baswani, rakesh bedi, anant mahadevan . I've mentioned pankaj kapoor, farida jalaal, naseer shah, om puri earlier too. I wish the bollywood scene was swept by these actors. yes, u'd need intelligent scripts to bring them together, but i guess they'd give hollywood a run for their money if that was possible.
used to dote on them. Swabhimaan, Itihaas,(pratima kazmi shot into fame here) and there was a serial that replaced the bakwaas Shanti - some politician doode, terrific actors including lalit tiwari. damn! i wish i cud get ahold on them again. and damn again, it was scrapped in middle.
the only historical saga i liked was chanakya - awesome chandraprakash dwivedi doode..a complete prati-roop of the historical character that he portrayed. so meticulous, perfect in every sense.
here's a nice article abt comedy on indian television. why cant they make a desi-Seinfield? i managed to catch Hum Log on its repeat-show. The ones I still feel bad abt missing: Mulzim Haazir, Yeh Jo hai zindagi, Nukkad. Hope I'll find the archives somewhere. I hate to sound like a budhau, lekin they Were the real gems.
I just finished watching ishq hai tumse. a terrible remake of hum aapke hain kaun. watch it for the incredulous twist at the end. hoho. bollywood has definitely moved ahead with the zamaana. hoho. ppl who think bipasha basu has lots of oomph n is sexy are definitely justified. deep, nice voice too. wud suit a mc job more hoho( at least a couple of scenes). her eyes are indeed beautiful. bas, thats it. those eyes were not made for that face. an evolutionary mistake, i guess. its all just wrong. cant say more, and esp when she underplays herself. and i tell u, eyes of both the bhabhis are wrongly superimposed too. i think its the director. lovely songs tho. must watch for the songs n the incredddible twist at the end.
indeed classy actors: Benjamin Gilani, Tom Alter, Mita Vashisht, Shriram Lagoo, Malavika Tiwari, Neelima Azim ( she used to be my fav, u rem Zameen? Mahesh Bhatt directed this silly serial on DD.), kulbushan kharbanda, lalit tiwari, arun bali, ravi baswani, rakesh bedi, anant mahadevan . I've mentioned pankaj kapoor, farida jalaal, naseer shah, om puri earlier too. I wish the bollywood scene was swept by these actors. yes, u'd need intelligent scripts to bring them together, but i guess they'd give hollywood a run for their money if that was possible.
used to dote on them. Swabhimaan, Itihaas,(pratima kazmi shot into fame here) and there was a serial that replaced the bakwaas Shanti - some politician doode, terrific actors including lalit tiwari. damn! i wish i cud get ahold on them again. and damn again, it was scrapped in middle.
the only historical saga i liked was chanakya - awesome chandraprakash dwivedi doode..a complete prati-roop of the historical character that he portrayed. so meticulous, perfect in every sense.
here's a nice article abt comedy on indian television. why cant they make a desi-Seinfield? i managed to catch Hum Log on its repeat-show. The ones I still feel bad abt missing: Mulzim Haazir, Yeh Jo hai zindagi, Nukkad. Hope I'll find the archives somewhere. I hate to sound like a budhau, lekin they Were the real gems.
I just finished watching ishq hai tumse. a terrible remake of hum aapke hain kaun. watch it for the incredulous twist at the end. hoho. bollywood has definitely moved ahead with the zamaana. hoho. ppl who think bipasha basu has lots of oomph n is sexy are definitely justified. deep, nice voice too. wud suit a mc job more hoho( at least a couple of scenes). her eyes are indeed beautiful. bas, thats it. those eyes were not made for that face. an evolutionary mistake, i guess. its all just wrong. cant say more, and esp when she underplays herself. and i tell u, eyes of both the bhabhis are wrongly superimposed too. i think its the director. lovely songs tho. must watch for the songs n the incredddible twist at the end.
Thursday, January 08, 2004
I sometimes write replies to mail n stuff, which only I end up adoring. hoho. Here's one of them: ( I guess the context is quite apparent).
to kuch baat aisi hai,
kuch kambakht logon ki naajayaz harkaton ke vaaste, hum ravivaar afty bhookhe nahi reh sakte.
isliye ek kraanti ki leher hum uthaayenge, indian garden ki or.
about 1 hr mein wahaan, main, k and r prakat honge.
jo sazzan humaare maafik pet ki jwaala se peedit hon, kripaya wahaan nazar aayen.
aapka shubhchintak,
ekshaks
to kuch baat aisi hai,
kuch kambakht logon ki naajayaz harkaton ke vaaste, hum ravivaar afty bhookhe nahi reh sakte.
isliye ek kraanti ki leher hum uthaayenge, indian garden ki or.
about 1 hr mein wahaan, main, k and r prakat honge.
jo sazzan humaare maafik pet ki jwaala se peedit hon, kripaya wahaan nazar aayen.
aapka shubhchintak,
ekshaks
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
online journalism
online journalism is definitely undergoing a change. well, apart from being more tabloidish, the writing style has definitely changed. I've grown a liking to a style with paras with no more than 1 or 2 sentences, separated out by line-breaks. indeed i learnt it from from few bloggers here. To say the least, this style taxes ur attention span at a bare minimum, with the reader getting rewards every now n then out of finishing up a paragraph. eg., see the rediff articles, or the TOI ones. I guess NYT is still growing up. hoho.
and surprisingly, it appears that the information content is just the same as it used to be in those long-paragraphed paper-newspaper articles. either they've managed to split stuff down into precise coherent sections, or well the information presentation has been improved to be just more compact.
and surprisingly, it appears that the information content is just the same as it used to be in those long-paragraphed paper-newspaper articles. either they've managed to split stuff down into precise coherent sections, or well the information presentation has been improved to be just more compact.
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