christmas

the evening gets foggier. thanksgiving was unbelievably cold. christmas unbelievably foggy. do the calendar-makers conspire with God?

meanwhile, I watched an amazing danish movie (with english subtitles) - italian for the beginners. learnt that it belongs to the "dogme" genre of barebones film-making. must watch! def lifted my spirits. probably `before sunrise' n `before sunset' also belonged to that genre.

fotki.com has unbounded storage space. amazing! still haven't managed to see bluffmaster.

aur bas, kuch khwab bunne lageen wo tasveeren!

aaj maine dil se

aaj maine dil se,
baadalon se milke,
sapnon ki baarish se kaliyaan sajaake,
mehki umangon se khushboo churaake
halki si boond mein
lehron ke goonj mein
he he..gum ho jaana re

doob jaana re
mujhko doob jaana re
tere paas aana re
mujhko doob jaana re

chalte chalte, maine yun hi
jaane mere dil se aisa kya keh diya
kyun ye mausam, bhi hai lagta, ab suhaana re
dhadhkane bhi saath mere, gungunaati re..
khaamosh aahon ke simte eeraane(?)
masoom palkon pe sapne sajaake
halki si boond mein
lehron ke goonj mein ..

baadalon se, dil ka rishta, hai purana re
hai safar anjaan lekin, aazmaana re,

maine na socha, na samjha, na chaha
rukte kadam fir bhi aise kyun chahen
halki si boond mein...

lyrics: rocky khanna (??)
singers : sonu nigam, shreya ghoshal
music: rajendra shiv (??)
movie: main meri patni aur woh (2005)

ghulam ali - akhtar shirani - golden collection

Woh kabhi mil jaaye to kya kijiye
Raat din surat ko dekha kijiye.

Chandni raaton mein ek ek phool ko
Bekhudi kehti hai sajda kijiye.

Jo tamanna-bar na aaye umr bhar
Umr bhar uski tamanna kijiye.

Ishq ki rangeeniyon mein doob kar
Chandni raaton mein roya kijiye.

Hum hi uske ishq ke qaabil na the
Kyon kisi zaalim kaa shikwa kijiye.

confused abt sexuality

I love articles like this one. it comes out quite clear that we are still as confused abt the nature of sexuality as we've always been. the thing has been avoided, multiple theories propounded, some advocating complete abstinence vs some advocating complete sluttiness. a horrible uncertainty shadowing our existence n we're completely helpless before it. its almost the dual of the notion of god. still, experimental theories continue to be made - i guess there's still hope that some theory wud explain all of it somehow.

aur ik raat

aur ik raat suhaani si,
gayi wo jo thi, kahaani meethi si.

khaab tha shaayad, khaab hi hoga.

almost a month since the last post. horrribaleese. khair, tons of things have changed, par wo geet/ghazal goonjta raha.

guncha koi, mere naam kar diya,
saaki ne, fir se mera, jaam bhar diya.

tum jaisa koi nahi, is jahaan mein.
subha ko teri zulf ne, shaam kar diya.

mehfil mein baar baar, idhar, dekha kiye.
aankhon ke jazeeron ko mere, naam kar diya.

..
wo jo humse keh na sake, dil ne keh diya.

mohit chauhan, main meri patni aur woh. dying to watch the movie.

water

a r rahman does pure classical, with full force in Water. complete with subtleties of thumri, bhajan. nothing but vocal ornamentation. amply supported by sukhwinder singh (other singers do a terrific job too). overall, the perfection of composition+rendering is shockingly awesome. so comfortably attired in tradition that it hardly looks like arr; and well its certainly him - then I really need to know how he did and more precisely, what did he do.

its so classical 401. together with shringar lyrics, there are few things that can beat such stuff.

boriyat ki safayee

manushya bore tabhi hota hai jab koi vastu use kick nahi deti - arthaat wo saare kick dene vaale padaarthon se svayam khud ko bedakhal karta hai.

isi shubh khayaal pe miliye naye sangeet se - U Bomsi N Me. jhakkas naam, jhakkas music, ye movie hi jhakkas hai! the new kala ghoda, older one was lets talk.

taggin science

A wonderful post abt the cognitive explanation of tagging. really lucid n well-written. a note: categorization is one-step ahead of tagging and needs costly decision-making, therefore it is an overload on the user. the concepts of digial/virtual life are not universally tagged/categorized as things in the real-world, eg. terrier and spaniel dogs, are. i think that's the reason its an overload on ur brains. perhaps becos all this is new n the elements/concepts of the virtual world are still in their infancy.

all you need to know

The things that everyone needs to know are essentially how to get along in society- the three Rs, the basic structure of society, and how to coexist with others without fighting. Add in the ability to learn new things as you discover that you need to know them, and you've come to the end of what everyone needs to know.

i had to write about

salaam namaste - awesome movie, story, style, attitude, acting ..everything. the next x-gen flash, after DCH. a contrasting note.

wots so captivating about a set of well-crafted interacting characters in a story?

and an old-sher-new-andaaz: to solve a problem, you have to let it in first. tell me huzur, would you let me in?

and there is stuff about google n microsoft suing each other abt ppl hung in between. the google blog does lend a humanly character to the s(r)oaring company.

and of course, believe it or not, salaam namaste has managed to create history (if only in my eyes). here's the mmmm. here's another review. and another one. some highlights.


thanks google blogsearch.

too bad, the french kisses didn't get hyped at all. nice foot-in-the-door tactic for censors. i love watching bollywood break hurdles, be it for good or bad. and yes, the striking resemblance to nine months was all so forgotten. aha, so maybe it is the sleepless+nine months idea.
I guess that's why it seemed like seeking your soulmate was all about an agreement on having babies.

extreme thinking - or- science via self-help

An interesting link on self-help for those with scientific n abstract pursuits. The author is a physics professor who summarizes/abstracts his tough learning experiences in doing research as a 3-point memo. really nice points raised abt research except that he sounds much like those "change ur life" books/articles. believable overall.


--

nice articles on large number of phds, moving from acads to industry, and misc.

list of movies

list of movies that i've watched this summer IN THEATRE! follows. thanks to regal cinema, north brunswick and the wonderful bollywood summer season, i've had a blast.

bunty n babli, parineeta, sarkar, dus, maine pyaar kyun kiya, the rising, my wife's murder, no entry

red eye, mr n mrs smith, war of the worlds,

on monitor:
7.5 phere, D.

I'll update if i rem more. surely more than one movie per week for 12 weeks. BnB was almost a classic, parineeta wow for vidya balan, my wife's murder was amazing + wow anil kapoor, no entry was hilarious, and pankaj kapur was awesome in dus. Too bad the season is still not over but the holiday is.

yalgaar

geeton ka fir se yalgaar hua hai. suresh wadkar is running high on 2 superb melodies from bhagmati and ramji. sonu nigam obviously is on with dhuan dhuan from ramji. vishal bhardwaj and his uncanny musical sense.

wadkar's unmatchable effervescence and the magical wadkar-bhardwaj combo re-created from maachis:
dil mein bhi jale jugnoo,
aankhon se tapke khushboo,
sapna hai, ya jadoo,
janoo main na jaane tu.

chalti hai hawaa choo choo,
ye pooche hai kaisa tu,
mere sang chalta hai,
koi rab sa hoo-ba-hoo..

chaaon kosi kosi lage
dhoop paali posi lage
chaand baate vaate kare
raat soti soti jage

do do ..do do do..

-----------------------
raahen dhuaan dhuan
kaanpe ruaan ruaan
ye mere saath kya kar rahi zindagi..
ye he...

(note the elec guitar support)
meelon talak hai soonapan, hai soonapan,
har saans mein hoti hai koi jalan,
soonepan se...jal na jaayen...
hum.....
(the final note hum.. - and later gum.. - awesomely crafted. set at the parakaastha of longing, simulates a held breath.

------------------

and of course salaam namaste is the next big romantic musical hit. dil goes mm, title number and of course the mandatory number tu jahaan. i'm glad mahalaxmi iyer is being roped in at proper times. and sure, suresh wadkar seems to be making a comeback - altho it is only vishal bhardwaj who wants/is making him sing.

morning chai

usne kahaa zindagi hogi,
beshak, bepanaah khushi hogi.
aur main moorakh,
uski baaton mein aa gaya,
ya khuda teri,
is duniya mein aa gaya.

kuch naya

chaliye aaj..kuch naya..kuch hatke..kuch romaanchak sa.

raat ke andhiyaare mein,
ya fir zulfon ke saayon mein,
arth ki roushni dikhaayi di,
koi puraani pyaas sunaayi di.

shoonya tha aakaash,
khaali the haath,
raah thi chalti,
us manzil ki trishna ko.

komal haasya karuna aadi
the ateet ke kaagar
maano bhikshuk sa
dole dvaar baar jaakar

tan svatantra, man partantra,
shraap si bandhi
chitt ki gaanth

svarg-may jeevan
makhmali upwan
kyun bane tum bebaat ashvaas?

saaye se prithak
zameen se alag
shayad wohi puraani pyaas.
lautoon kaise, fir apne paas.

hai na ekdam jhakkas?

celebrity AB

AB on being a celebrity here. nice that he puts it from both his and media's pov.

jagjit singh

Another interview. I simply love going thru them again n again. things he says about fine poetry, good training and keeping urdu alive.

uninit topic

time flies and there is so much to write. Dus is a cooool movie, full of unabashed attitude, which sticks out more than a few times. the aura dulls ur senses to the extent none of us cud predict the so-predictable ends. nevertheless, pankaj kapoor was amazing to say the least. the rest were all busy with themselves. anubhav sinha's fascination with canada pays off again - lovely locales, etc.

looking fwd to MPKK. should be a dhamaaka. edinburgh was amazing. esp the nights. another instance where words are few and so much to say.

life is busy, to say the least.

paheli + mm kreem

finished long-awaited paheli. first day, third show. desi harry potter. brimming with colors. rani is as usual great. srk in double role after long time. rani didn't seem to be into the character earlier on, but then she managed superbly. as for srk,
to me, he's the real surprise of the movie. either it was his mooch, or well his character, that i really couldn't see much of his repetitive characteristic stuff.
refreshingly subdued (he takes liberty with his characteristic brazen look once in a while) and surprisingly coy in one of the roles. a new kind of coy expression again becos of mooch or becos he got into the character.

splendid colors. it wud be a sin not to color the portrait in lush-yellow backdrop of rajashthani deserts. amol palekar + artists make no mistake with that. still, a general sense of slickness was lacking. or rather, it was meant to be taken in a laid-back style. the suspense at end should have been dealt better. the last act was quite disjointed from the earlier ones - should have dwelt on his magical powers better/diff way. overall still, a lovely movie.

and more from the genious here. his upmaas are interesting.

sher of the day

Andaaz-e-zamaane par hum bhi yun rote hain,
phool bhi dete hain,
izhaar bhi karte hain,
fir bhi wo kambakht dil-sakht, ye tawazzu karte hain,
kya sachmuch hum unse mohabbat karte hain?

Dus

Dus's music rocks. Quick peppy sound, flowing music. Jaaniya ve, esp. of course becos of hariharan's touch. saamne aati ho tum, deedaar de, well almost all of them.

bunty n babli is almost a classic. knapsacked entertainment, slightly slow in last part. full of parodies and impeccable acting.

weekend: a fantastic trip to DC. kuch puraane lamhe, kuch naye log.

jasraj

Almost a week since the wonderful concert. amazing teen-saptak khel. obviously he never misses an opportunity to show his vocal brilliance, plus throw some wt around. managed to sneak in for a pic. bhagwan bhala kare cameraman ka. the jooti thing is undoubtedly wot all these classical musicians pay special attention to. its simply classy, out of the world.

and now I'm off to NJ for the next 3 months. desi food, yum yumm. desi galiyaan wah wah. aur desi kudiyaan..haay haay.

teach12

a wonderful blog/discussion on (as i see) issues with post-modern (audio, online etc) lectures. came across this site as a result for the first time. Never knew teaching had taken up such proportions - the previous link is full of praises for the economics lectures on teach12.

There are other misc interesting online resources i've come across:
thislife. masala in ordinary american life.
abc.net.au. all kinds of informative/masala video documentaries. check out science/catalyst/mind.
bbc's reith lectures.

mm kreem+more paheli

paheli is catching on and i must chastise myself for not liking hariharan in "khaali hai tere bina". he' simply terrifc and terribly soulful. i guess i don't like the na-na-na ne-ne-ni-na-ni-na-naa approach to the first line. hoho. mm kreem saahab,it sounds too characteristic of you (eg., is raat ki subah) - could have been different. still, the album reinstates him as a genius, way above his fellow music directors. he has performed consistently much above expectations- staying
out of limelight all the time - which i guess is a smart decision or just the way he likes it. The biggest reason I'm taken in i guess, is because of the strong vocals that this album has. I realise that there are plenty of similar geniuses in their own right: arr (only his melodies pls), ismail darbar(more classical than folksy or down-to-earth), sandeep chowta(pep, classical funk, light melodies), sandesh shandilya (more strongon melodies but no desi mitti flavor, modern)..maybe some more. Each of them is sadly, hung on to the arrangement: almost like their music would fall through if unsupported. Paheli (plus his history: zakhm, jism) makes Kreem stand out as the best in my eyes. Because, he has exactly made up for what we've been missing for such a long time:strong vocals, vocals which stand out, sound clear even after all percussion+background music have subsided. Basically, as one would hear someone live, only the style is filmi. I believe that this is one of the most prominent reasons why oldies are dear to us: pure, unadulterated vocals. also, the reason why today's music fails to sound like yesteryears' (i.e. supposing they were goldies). and of course, we've to thank the accomplished singers, sonu nigam, hariharan, shreya ghoshal and there are a few others too. more analogies: more than one song reminds me of "utsav" - which perhaps was a step higher still.

mm kreem's album list: is raat ki subah nahin, zakhm, jism, sur, paheli. (did i leave out any?)
he had a couple of lovely jingles(political tho) during narsimha rao's reign.

But, beside this musical outburst, there's something more. Came across this on Lalitya Munshaw (laalitya manshaa). interesting name. I guess another of those classy folks who have managed to stay out of limelight. She has been trained by great gurus - interesting what she says abt lesson from kalyanji. Well, more importantly, she looks absolutely gorgeous. We have her album here esp looks lovely in this one. The pics traverse thru her life from next-door-girl to simi-garewal cutie ..hot model pics..n finally to sharp bahu looks. She's still Ms. though,would be interesting to know the details, hoho. Man! she's awesomely stunning! (note her shikari brown eyes in model pics). Lesson to be learnt: don't ignore the girl-next-door!

wud love to get those 2 songs of hers'. longing and balamwa.
also an interesting site on promoting classical music (of course munshaw is there!).

paheli

here we have the doode going ga-ga over music of paheli. No doubt wot he says abt MM Kreem is true (some older post of mine must have analysis dedicated to him). But the review is well over bound. Seems like s k jha truly wants to reinvent the magic of the melodies thru his words: leave the music director himself, the review is good enuf to make a fan seem flattered. very colorfully written. note how the "quality" is said to "irrigate". hoho.

Paheli is not your run-of-the-mill soundtrack. It's got a great deal of that quality known as melodic wisdom. The quality seeps through the luminous poetry and irrigates the very essence of the drama that unfolds through the songs.

o yes, so the music is lovely, very melodious, tho yet to catch on- it was released online 2 days back. strong (sometimes a bit too) rajasthani flavor, unbeatable gulzar's poetry. very strong on vocals - sonu or shreya. somewhat shocks you into deja vu of delightful oldies. as i noted in prev post, sonu nigam now does rafi with ease, no questions abt that. welcome back shreya and its good that we again start to hear sukhwinder more n more. hariharan sounds good but cud have been a bit more soulful.

finally, the movie shud be a delight to watch- the adaptation seems to done faithfully, be it sounds or sights.

classical funk

classical funk is in the air and there's too much of it to keep count. i guess it needs further categorisation. and tons of movies

kuch meetha ho jaaye, both the movie and music rocks. movie becos of arshad warsi. the same troupe from waisa bhi hota hai is repeated. less of a black comedy, more of a message. putting together so many divorcees+tobedivorced stories at an indian airport within couple of hours. maybe jaspal bhatti's first non-cameo in movies. yet, it could be better. everything - script, screenplay, twists were in place. many were splendid, terribly terrific but a few sucked, really sucked. i wish they had put in a bit more. watch to see wot it cud be. on to the music - fabulous aane do ghazal-thumri n funk.shoma ghosh (whoever she is) performs masterly - makes it sound one of the farida khanum or iqbal bano kind.

more stuff:
bunty n babli gulzar+SEL combo for the first time? gulzar sounds way too toned down altho you can hardly stop him from beign himself. chup chupke is the most lovely one.

dekhna mere sar se,
aasmaan ja raha hai.
dekhna aasmaan ke sire
khul gaye hain zameen se.

chup chup ke chup chup ke
chori se chori..
chup chup ke.

parineeta vidhu vinod chopra has benegal's simplicity n bhansali's opulence. shoudl be a treat to watch. music yet to catch on. very classical aura.
lucky is very adnam sami. mithun da is characteristically re-invented. the ash look alike is omg so look alike but really she's a real kid. very cute casting. the chori chori song (again!) is superb.

sonu nigam sounds better by the day. amazing depth in his voice. his voice's beginning to show rafi's maturity. and sukhwindar singh seems to be making a comeback- b n b, . seemed like he had disappeared. his taaseer is far better than kailash kher et al.

sudhir mishra

On rediff: http://us.rediff.com/movies/2005/apr/19mishra.htm

I quite relate to the lower paras on black. Emotional blackmail is an interesting way to put it. It was mostly a 'flash a scene - audience absorb it! - feel it deep! - move to next one' kind of drama.


a superb choice of a subset of superb filmmakers. He doesn't talk about shyam benegal et al, altho they have touched the mainstream sparingly too.

aazaadi paayenge..

arr brings me out of self-imposed musical exile. aazaadi from bose playing for hours in repeat mode. arr excels at another slow patriotic number. this is iguess the 3rd one after - des mere des mere and ye jo des hai tera.


jaage hain ab saare, log tere, dekh magan
goonje hain naaron se, ab ye zameen aur ye gagan

kal tak main tanha tha
soone the sab raste

kal tak main tanha tha
par ab hai saaath mere,
laakhon dilon ki dhadkan, dekh vatan

aazaadi paayenge,
aazaadi laayenge,
aazaadi chaayegi,
aazaayegi aayegi.


The shrills aazaadi sound out of the world. wonder if anybody else cud do it. deep outbursts are so well-expressed thru high notes.

I wonder why nobody told him that he has a terrible accent in kal tak main tanha tha. almost sounds like gantak me tarhaaa dhaa, hoho. altho he manages to create magic one way or other, i believe arr does half of wot he is capable of - the tunes appear pretty mediocre overall. many songs almost sound monotonous - all words on the same notes with a characteristic easy-to-predict finishing note-sequence. of course, some superb melodies owe themselves to magical repetitions of only a few notes. but arr cannot be forgiven on basis of even that. his songs appear more forced than instinctual. novelty of patterns is hard to digest, agreed. but songs-growing-slowly-on-you-everytime syndrome is too unnatural. i wud say most beautiful songs like most creative ideas/concepts are simple and easy to identify with. one cannot push ideas or concepts against the natural instinctual flow for long.

well..inspite of all these cribs - i guess we're more indebted to him for all he has given us. ghoomparani is the best one from bose. ekla chalo has been fantastically adapted to hindi - the closest to the best possible adaptation and arr's terrific merging of new and old tunes. apne des ki mitti is wonderfully sung but appears too forced and monotonous.

zakir interview

and finally we have some exposition of his motivation n goals here.

I've been to both masters of percussion n the one with shankar n sivamani. been trying to guess what his subtle motivations are cos he doesnt seem keen to attract all the attention in those concerts, as one may expect.

and he seems to be exceptionally serious in this interview. someday i'll like to meet subash k. jha too. quotes:

I believe language is for communication. My father Jan Nissar Akhtar used to say, it's very easy to write difficult songs and very difficult to write easy songs. Simple language possesses a kind of transparency which a lyricist can afford only when he is sure of his ideas. If you enter a dark room and you don't know where the light switches are, you keep groping in the dark. I'd like to believe that I know where the switches are. Ambiguity forbids simple expression. I shy away from ambiguity.

Technically our films have progressed. The same cannot be said about the content. And the problem is outside the film industry. Earlier, we had ideals, philosophies and values upon which films were based. But without sanskar it's difficult to tell black from white. Earlier, the mill owner was the bad man and the farmer was good. We no longer know who is good and who is bad! Somewhere, society's collective morality is lost. There is a kind of moral confusion in our society which reflects in our films. Film-makers are hiding behind romance, ghost stories, murder mysteries and sex. We suffer from a lack of history and sanskar .