Sunday, May 29, 2005

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.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

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.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

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.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

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.