bedford diaries

and I must confess, this is the best TV serial EVER made. of course, this might turn out to be an atishayokti but who cares. also note: sukanya verma n her screwed up reviews :
Here, in trying to do something different, J-L ends up dishing an uninspired score, which can be rated above average at best.
is it that difficult to make a decision? or maybe its a typo - "below average" perhaps she meant. anyhow, some of what i said earlier got confirmed.

fanaa

the fanaa audio released last friday i think (first n last i heard of the word fanaa was in that yuva song, lyrics: mehboob). jatin-lalit seem to have done a arr+vishal-shekhar plus some melodies. its vs(+arr) in the arrangements style and truly arr in the way that it slowly catches on - i guess i like all of the songs by now, hoho. but the melodies sound cliched, somewhat. and it goes further - the musical ambience is much like dil se. in fact in some ways, the story is reverse dil-se. so i guess the apparent coincidence is not completely unfounded.

although the main reason i set to write this down was that prasoon joshi, the lyricist and the adman, is going places. hum tum was decent, rang-de-basanti was cool but in fanaa, his lyrics are awesome, on the verge of being superb. (and therefore forcing a comparison with gulzar in dil se) he's abstract too but his lyrics are much more peppier than gulzar. and they rhyme so well too.

mere haath mein tera haath ho,
saari jannatein mere paas hon.
tu jo paas ho, fir kya ye jahaan,
tere pyaar mein ho jaaoon fanaa.

jitne paas hain khushboo saans ke
jitne paas hothon ke sargam (lovely mmm here)
jaise saath hain karwat yaad ke
jaise saath baahon ke sangam

jitne paas paas khaabon ke nazar
utne paas tu rehna humsafar

jitne paas paas, dhadhkan ke hain raaz
jitne paas boondon ke baadal
jaise saath saath chanda ke hai raat
jitne paas nainon ke kaajal

jitne paas paas saagar ke leher,
utne paas tu rehna humsafar

on writing it down, it seems more like the doode has gathered all his life's metaphors and put them in this one song. pata nahi fir mauka mile ya nahi? chaand sifarish - fanaa for you with subhaan allah and dekho na (re ma pa ni sa ni sa) are nice too.

sometimes i feel like i shud make a list of truly difficult-to-sing or thoroughly unconventionally-done numbers. much of salil choudhary collection - o sajnaa, naina barse, na jaane kyun squarely fall into that category. i was reminded of this due to this truly mesmerising song by mukesh - taaron mein sajke (LP)

priceless video

one of the most hilarious videos i've seen in a while. and just the right tone for priceless.

the sound of the nasals

I guess the himesh reshamiyaa nasal high-pitched sound phenomenon didn't happen out of the blue. In fact, the stage has been slowly set by host of pakistani sufi-pop performers:

nusrat fak -> strings (..,dhani) -> fuzon (saagar) -> jal (aadat) (only counting the main ones)

and bollywood has closely followed the movement:
kailash kher (wbhh,swades) -> rahat fak (paap, kalyug) -> himesh reshamiya

In fact, all of nfak, strings, fuzon and jal have performed in one more bollywood movies, e.g., strings: zinda, jal: kalyug, and perhaps more to follow.

can't get enuf of this song (movie: kalyug, band: jal, orig album: aadat):

naa jaane kab se
ummeeden kooch baaki hain
mujhe fir bhi teri yaad
kyuun aati hai
na jaane kab se

door jitna bhi tum mujhse, paas tere main
ho ab to aadat si hai mujhko aise jeene mein
zindagi se koi shikwaa bhi nahi hai
ho ab to zinda hoon main is neele aasmaan mein

?? jaisi hai teri badhti jaaye
aahat aisi hai ye teri mujhko sataaye
yaadi gehri hain itni dil doob jaaye
aur aankhon mein ye gam nam ban jaaye
he he.. oo..

ho ab to aadat si..
he e ..

sabhi raatein hain..sabhi baatein hain
bhula do unhe..mitaa do unhe..
aa aa aaa..

ho ab to aadat si..