ustad divas

finally laid my hands on this album. supposed to be a sequel to piya basanti. only that it pretty much lacks the soul of the previous album.

this is the title song piya basanti video.

this is the "leja leja" video from the new album. pretty much commercialized (n state-of-the-art :) ) tho with a cute undertone. the video, for most part, is pretty harsh to suit the song - they could have easily made a more sensitive presentation(again to make it more commericial, i guess). and the models don't look good at all. I wish it was more like the prev one (minus the overacting). seriously i dont understand why they needed to baby-dollize this could-be-wonderfully sensitive song n video.

the haiye re, more piya are better than leja leja in my opinion. sandesh shandilya surely lets me down - he could have really avoided the heavy arrangements and the usual feet-tapping stuff.

arr on guru

here is arr's latest one on guru.

- we don't get to hear somebody called qadir khan, too bad esp if arr says it was a brilliant recording.

- so gulzar taapoes again - this time from amir khusrau. yeh sharbati aashiqui = ae hairate aashiqui. it was ghalib+iqbal in dil-se, and of course the zihaal-e-muskin (gulami). interesting that guru is shot in turkey too (amir khusrau was half-turkish)

salaam-e-ishq

audio is out. SEL have done a good job. movie should be a craze. funny how many cool releases are still lined up this year. songs are highly situational. a lovely review here: the colors of songs put into words very nicely.

- as the review says, babuji lacks the sensuality.
- adnan sami is fabulous. i think he sang a song in taxi 9211 last. i realised his voice is nasal; but his renderings have way way more expression than other singers. and his compositions for "lucky" were terrific too. the "uhnnn" before "that's rite" gets on the nerves slightly tho.

- ya rabba almost gets there but really doesnt make it. don't know if SEL wanted shafaqat ali for this one and couldn't get him. somehow kailash kher (altho he has tried very hard) doesn't fit into this songs mood - one needs sonu nigam's expressions here. perhaps rahat fateh ali (jiya dhadak) should have been called for here.

- saiyaan re is the one i truly like (besides adnan sami one). yet another kajra re but very different. and as the review says, shilpa never seems intimidated by shankar m. sameer's lyrics rise to the occasion.

SEL retain their stress on melody (n pronounced dholak) - even at the cost of sounding repetitious. much unlike arr, they rarely play with unconventional note patterns- all compositions are smooth n melodious and generally have a slight deja vu. still i'd like to complain more about guru than S-e-I.