the music of ishqiya

The album is no doubt a masterpiece.  A perfect new year gift. Two songs on pain, one innocent, and the  last one wild-silly. Rekha bhardwaj excels at expression pain - raat ye bhi guzar jayegi (chachi 420), rone ko jiya kare (maqbool), and she is no less here.  

VB's patterns are to essentially take it slow, stress and elongate words, fill them with different laykaari all the time, but never sound dissonant. The album in general is strong on vocals, of course no arrangements can stop  Rekha or Rahat's voice from piercing through. Still, feels like we are getting back to basics again. Quite a bit of the blast-from-the-past thrown in.

rekha bhardwaj - rustic, frugal, meditative.

ab mujhe koi  (Rekha) - very rustic ghazal. beginning sounds like tujhe ae zindagi hum door se. unable to fully place it in memory. mostly supported by piano and strumming, arrangements pick up in the para. watch out for the classical guitar interlude. Love the para 3rd-4th lines. 

ab mujhe koi intezar kahan,
wo jo behte the aabshaar kahaan. 

aankh ke ek gaaon mein, raat ko khaab aate the.
choone se behte the, bole to kehte the.
udte khaabon ka aetbaar kahan. 2

jin dinon aap the, aankh mein dhoop thi.
jin dinon aap rehte the, aankh mein dhoop rehti thi
ab to jaalen hi jaal hain, ye bhi jaane hi wale hain (?)
wo jo tha, dard ka karaar kahan. 2
(VB's unique style of stressing via hamming notes "jo tha", "kahan". The expression in wo jo tha dard ka karaar is terrific.)

badi dheere jali (Rekha) - more wild imagery, very ostentatious arrangement. very unique composition, perhaps only people like zakir hussain could compose such numbers. variety of percussion, tanpura, veena. beautiful how the initial classical mood blends into a ghazalish (?) mood. its set in a common raag, wish i could tell which one. 

badi dheere jali raina, dhuaan dhuaan naina. 2
raaton se haule haule, khori hai kinaari.
ankhiyon ne taaga taaga, bhor utaari.
khari ankhiyon se, dhuaan jaaye na.

badi dheere jali raina (love the groovy return-of-beat here)

The imagery is goose-pimplish. Gulzar did some taaga-dori pull of chaand in Satya too, and who knows where else also. The para starts with the percussion getting bold, but suddenly shusshed. 

palkon mein sapnon ki agni uthaaye, humne do ankhiyon ke aalne jalaaye. 2
dard ne kabhi, loriyaan sunaayi to, (boring here)
dard ne kabhi, neend se jagaaya re.
bairi ankhiyon se, na jaaye, dhuaan jaaye na.
(love the way base kicks in at dhuaan)
badi dheere jaldi raina...

dil to baccha (Rahat) - accordion+strumming introduction, waltz beat. colored laykaari with staccato flat ends. expression of rahat out of the world - switching between softness, innocence, breeziness, irritation,  staccato - all done seemlessly. The raaa ra..(rara rara rara) structure is present at multiple places. accordion can do things which violin can't - very good choice. Again, very complex arrangement - arabic interlude added for free. Periodic drift of innocent, playful accordion into suspense modes. The lyrics are a treat, though I'm too tired right now to put them here. 

remix done well except that rahat's softness is somewhat out of place with the rough arrangements - yet quite coherent/consistent in itself. made me somewhat uneasy after a while but i guess listening to the remix after the original was my mistake. the change of beat is very well done. 

ibn-e-batuta (Sukhwinder, Mika) - lovely shehnai backing, reminds me of dev-d. its sukhwinder let loose - unbelievably let loose to twist the song to his full potential. and of course no furrrrr can be enuf for the audience. remix is traditional and boring - could have been done much better. the song is full of gems like:

dono taraf se bajti hai ye, zindagi kya dholak hai, 
horn bajaake aa bagiyan mein
thora aage, gatirodhak hai.

dil to baccha hai ji

The promotion of Ishqiya is gaining momentum, the gaali-galauj and the censors adding to its publicity. It has three of most superb, outstanding actors and favs of mine. Outside "tumhara ishq ishq aur mera ishq sex", here is a refreshingly innocent song just out from the movie.

Its a VB-gulzar gem rendered with his characteristic innocence and mithaas by rahat fateh ali khan. (just see how he enunciates dil-too-baccha-hai-ji). The sound is that of an oldie-classic set to a waltz beat (think dil ki nazar se, nazron ke dil se), with the crispiness of a modern recording.

aisi uljhi nazar unse hat-ti nahi,
daant se reshmi dor kat-ti nahi,
umr kab ki baras ke safeyd ho gayi,
kaari badri jawaani ki chhat-ti nahi

vallah ye dhadkan, badhne lage hai,
chehre ki rangat, udnee lagi hai,
dar lagta hai tanha sone mein ji.

dil to baccha hai ji.
thora kaccha hai ji.

Very passionate artists in the making of the song. Or maybe they resonate with me more than others do :) The para could have been composed better tho.

saari jawaani katraa ke kaati,
peeri mein takraa gaye hain,

dil dhadakta hai to, aise lagta hai wo,
aa raha hai yehin, dekhta hi na ho,

prem ki maare kataar re.

Plenty of usual gulzarisms - I bet he doesn't have to try hard, just bring in a new thought and let it flow with the usual metaphors. There's an interesting moment at 7:44, where VB cues raahat, which he conveniently (and with some guilt, a moment later) ignores and continues with his style. The song is a masterpiece. Awaiting the audio release (there is at least one sukhwinder song too).

Actually there is more. Here is this song in a promo, and another one ibnbatuta. Look at vidya balan man! mujhe is shareef-zaadi se ishq ho gaya hai. :)

rdb

a nice video remembering rahul dev burman. 

paa, again

Paa is a roller coaster ride. Extreme wit, full of irony and poignancy. Its perhaps one of the best native scripts after khosla ka ghosla, altho in a different genre. The bum jokes, the crazy giggle, the unfailing wit and sarcasm, boiling with irreverence, and of course the title song. The film does have its digressions - well the story teller needs his space. R Balki (I don't know what he was doing before) upps his cheeni kum humor interleaving between his childish and mature modes - the writer's source of craziness is a complete mystery for me. his sense of humor is unfailing - wonder how many more (deeply humane) slapsticks he's hiding under his belt. and seriously, i fell for vidya balan all over again.

and if this and this don't send you crazy, nothing else can. naseer and arshad put together, casting couldn't get better. add vidya balan with all her oomph and cold, you fall short of words. the latter RGBG is another crazy ensemble. The trailers give me butterflies :) I am hooked.

paa

Paa's music has been out for a while. The title song rendered by AB is only next to Maa by shankar mahadevan, though in an entirely different genre. Beautiful lyrics by swanand kirkire. Illayraaja has been recycling tunes from his non-Hindi movies for sometime. Paa too is one of them - here is the original sung by Illayraaja himself from a recent Tamil movie. Illayaraja doesn't sound as cool as SDBurman tho :) The older version has multiple string instruments in the interlude, while the newer version relies on a more complicated percussion. But the real credit for this song goes to AB for his mindblowing rendition.

and it couldn't get more difficult to distinguish between real and contrived than this speech by Om Puri.

tum mile

Just finished watching Tum Mile, review here. Far more mature version of love aaj kal in terms of depiction of the relationship. Has its flaws, but very well done. Vishesh films has quite successfully created its own genre, ever since they discovered Emraan Hashmi. I wish his face and voice expressed a bit more. Soha Ali Khan looks old in the movie, I was surprised she is 31. Its almost a crime to look so beautiful, more so if you are redoing it in the second generation.

Mohit Chauhan's new album Fitoor doesn't fail to recreate his sound. No praises enough for the nasheela voice immersed in the characteristic staccato style of singing. Already performed babbaji (the fact that i completely fail to understand that song makes me like it even more :), looking fwd to challeya. I wonder what language (peshtu?) that interlude blabber (in challeya) is in - never mind, the song can be done without it too. 

rediscovered songs

now that's not a good excuse to write a post but then..

so there was this shelved (?) movie called DUS (98), which was probably one of the first shankar-eh-loy's movies. two songs chaandni roop ki, and piya piya lived with me forever. chaandni roop ki is so amazingly meditative; its incredible how such compositions could be brought to life.

there's a relatively unknown ARR movie vishwavidhata (97). hariharan's zulfein ghataon si is so breathtakingly beautiful - both poetry and rendition.

I realised that the two songs above are similar in theme. Sandeep chowta's mitti (?) had this beautiful groovy song khoobsoorat hai tu - the song sung by sukhwinder (+mahalaxmi?) is very hypnotical in composition, and the fusion between classical vocals and the groovy base is exploited to its best. I was surprised to find its video here and after watching the video I'm pretty much at loss of words: I guess people have their own clever ways of visual hypnosis. :)

I liked YMI, don't know if I wrote earlier. what's ur rashee is supposedly boring - still haven't got hands on it.

road, the movie

It's abhay deol's next. it has tannistha chatterjee. and the promos look splendid. a better one here. i don't know when its going to be released but it would def be a great watch. Its a desi "country" story done very slickly - among the few in 'we need to tell our stories' genre.

Interesting that dev benegal is directing it. I watched split wide open in 2000 in calcutta on a random occasion perhaps by mistake. It remains to date, one of the wildest movies (dark comedy, in particular) I've seen. I used to think that dev benegal was some sort of cinematographer - turns out he has directed only three movies in his lifetime of 30 yrs. I've always wanted to watch english august but could never lay hands on it.

Read somewhere that Phir Kabhi is lovely. Waiting to watch it.

ishq mein tere

Ishq mein tere kee karta main
haay, Ishq mein tere kee karta main
Khaali peeli mar gayaa

Ikraar-e-junoon mumkin na tha,
Ikraar-e-junoon mumkin na tha to
Tujhko hi tanhaa kar gaya

Bekhayaal tujhe jo karna tha
Bekhayaal tujhe jo karna tha, fir
Teri ulfat mein kyu tar gaya

amazing composition, isn't it? all copyrights reserved :)

to write abt

diaspora call center based movies - they're being creative but cant avoid cliches. the other end of the line, karma calling (just watched), and a couple more of them.

imitiaz ali definitely a portrait of a dedicated film maker. tho love aajkal was even more commercialized than jab we met. i wish he gets dissociated enough to make a movie like socha na tha again. i wish i could distance myself from the papers as soon as the first draft is ready :)
from PFC: Imitiaz Ali continues to show certain talent with dialogues, ‘creating moments’ and extracting natural performances from his cast members. love aajkal, inspite of its short comings, is still a delight to watch.

and of course, the origin of kaminey (the title, the phrase and the sentiment) lies with none other than gulzar himself. here is VB's confession.

i'm surprised that I didn't mention shekhar suman's tedhi baat earlier. the doode plays new characters every other day so effortlessly that its unbelievable. the script writers do ham but watching shekhar suman get into each and every character so wonderfully is a treat. won't mind gurpal ji showing an emotion or two. 

awaiting : kaminey (this friday!!), sikandar, antaheen, what's your rashee, ...

chaandan mein

Wonder what that title means or well it really means what it seems to mean. Kailash kher is back with his new album chhandan mein after kailasa. To say its beautiful would be understatement. He's severely toned down on his high-pitched vocals or maybe smoothened them with harmonies. His shrill cries in the past have always been a pain to listen to (more so, listen to others sing those songs) and in my opinion have severely undermined his music's potential/acceptance. The guy (and the group I guess) has done his homework with electronic accompaniment. It  feels as good as Hariharan's Kaash, although Kaash was more ghazalish and this one is more folksy+bhajanish - their respective fortes. I really get kicks when they manage to create well-placed fusion.

There is this na bataati tu peecha, dha dhin nin na song, which I really want to figure out but can't make head/tail out of it. tere naina is almost like a lori.  All the songs are consistenly nice with their lyrics.

And of course, there a couple of songs in feminine form, which are fantastic. Few can take over the feminine form so effortlessly as kailash kher and render those songs with utmost comfort.  chaandan mein, teri yaad mein, piya ghar aavenge, ishq ho gaya, albela saajan - more than half of the songs fall in that category with lovely lyrics by the doode himself. 

and yes, there's an unreleased madan mohan tracks album tere bagair released by the madan mohan family. digitially remastered - they even display the lost line from a track on the covers. such a wonderful family (: i'm glad some of songs retain the madan mohan touch unlike most in veer-zaara.

kaminey

the soundtrack for kaminey is out. VB-gulzar never disappoint, so this one's another one of its kind. the most beautiful number to me is definitely the title song where VB romances with the word kaminey. Gulzar gets more imaginative as he ages (or maybe i was born too late :). sometimes I felt the out-of-the-world poetry was let down by the music, esp. the song pehli baar mohabbat (mohit chauhan). besides, I really hope mohit chauhan doesn't get stereotyped with these kind of songs.

anyhow, the album is a masterpiece, with multiple soon-to-be desi anthems. and of course, the movie shud be mind blowing desi cult never seen before :)

gulzarisms:

dil nichode, raat ki matki tode, 
koi 'good luck' nikaale -> aaj 'gullak' to fode

-------

and fatak is probably the first time sukhwinder and kailash kher get on mic together. very impressive abstract poetry/song colorfully decorated with the voices of two great singers (and mandolin? base).

jitna bhi jhooth bole 'thoda' hai,
keedon ki basti ka 'makauda' hai.
ye raaton ka bicchu hai kaatega
ye zehreela hai, zeher chaatega.
darwaazon mein kunde do,
dafa karo ye gunde, ye shaitaan ka saaya re.

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

I would need to write a separate post to fully praise and dissect the title song kaminey. i can hardly express the emotion that this song thrives on. the lyrics convey the stoic pain and pathos tastefully - i don't know if i've heard this particular metaphor (cf. sthayi) before. the composition however, goes far far beyond the lyrics. VB caresses the song with his own genius, very out-of-the-box (though we saw the style in the title of U, me aur hum).

kya karen, zindagi, 
isko hum jo mile.
iski jaan, khaa gaye,
raat din ke gile.

meri aarzoo, kameeni.
mere khaab bhi, kameeney.
ik dil se dosti thi,
ye huzur bhi kameeney.

kabhi zindagi se maanga,
pinjare mein chand la do.
kabhi laalten leke,
kaha aasmaan pe taango.

jiska bhi chehra cheela,
andar se aur niklaa.
maasoom sa kabootar,
naacha to mor nikla.

kabhi hum kameene nikle,
kabhi doosre kameene.

meri dosti, kameeni.
mere yaar bhi, kameeney.
ek dil se dosti thi, 
ye huzur bhi kameenay.

the song climaxes into a violin ensemble, marinated by VB's crooning :) Its just remarkable how he so aptly embedded the last four lines into the western classical ambience - such a made for each other feeling.

well, i really can't recall if i've heard the metaphor before. somehow it leaves me craving for more - they should have hit us harder, no?

kal nau baje

again awfully out of touch.

I'm hooked on to this utterly silly number from upcoming movie short-kut called kal nau baje

music: SEL
lyrics: javed akhtar.

reminds me and a bunch of other ppl of ghar se nikalte hi -- glad that sonu nigam n alka yagnik manage to create the magic of this utterly silly song. and again hats off to SEL for recreating a melody of this kind.

New York isn't that bad as claimed by many reviews. Anubhav wasn't carried off well by the director - it needed to be in better hands. Mumbai and New York are pretty much the same - from vada pao to hot dogs. 

Summer is here. I'm waiting for the 600 movies in the next 6 months. Particularly, love aaj kal and kameenay.

double oscars with maa

ARR finally gets his due, and, more interestingly, reveals his PJ repertoire. It starts with
mere paas maa hai
and ends with
i always had a choice between love and hate. i always chose love and here i am.

I've observed that his PJ delivering abilities have significantly improved as he got up to received more n more awards. At golden globe, he was jumping with "this is unbelievable" much like poolkutty yesterday. At the oscars, he beamed so very kingly after each of his PJs before an audience that could hardly relate to most of them. Sort of majestic oh-yeah-I-know-you-are-goin-to-rotfl. I believe that most of the audience, including the desi-tv-viewers were forced to re-evaluate their sense of humor during those moments. (more than a) Few were also taken aback by ARR's supreme audacity put forth to us with a sly smile and a childlike voice. A priceless moment in time!

India is confused why slumdog gets so many oscars. Some call it poverty-porn, some say its about hope. I don't have an explanation. But I simply adore the collective confusion.

PS: I've never felt this excited and nervous since my marriage.

And yes, Gulzar inadvertently wins an oscar. The world behaves in strange ways. Here's his interview full of ifs n buts.

13B

I'm hooked on to aasmaan odh kar from 13B. SEL should be renamed . Amazing how they do melody effortlessly.

ode to mohit chauhan

I've been extremely fond of mohit chauhan perhaps since boodein. However, I don't remember being an ardent fan before I heard guncha and tried to imitate the tough song. The song masakali brings him to the limelight, and I hope he is here to stay. The guy's voice is out-of-the-world nasheela, his style extremely original, his notes are perfect, and his saadgi commendable.

main meri patni aur woh was a remarkable movie, a complete delight. I really could never figure out who composed the music for the movie. and I still would like to know if mohit chauhan himself composed guncha. Mohit also sang ye zamana hum se hai in that movie, a nice number which was forgotten.

In fact, he has lent his voice to a series of superb numbers, which got lost each and every time. The album boodein was followed by a sapnay album - sapnay hain sooni aankhen, which had a couple of other lovely numbers, including a breathtaking folk number (chupi ja na chandrama..). The whole album was lost to the audience. Not sure, but sabse peeche hum khade, probably belongs to the same album. guncha did remain in the memories, however, and is still appreciated.

I hate to read that he got a semi-break through rang de basanti, and this post was written to set history straight :). Then, jab we met, kismat connection, welcome to sajjanpur, fashion, ...., and dilli 6 happened.

I pleasantly discovered today that he had been part of mission ustad last year - you get to see him singing all through those episodes - awesome! Its really heartwarming to see the singer getting his due recognition now.

dilli 6

I was eagerly waiting for this ARR track. The track is plain awesome. just pure magnificience. All amazing kinds of sounds. Pure brilliance. Its the rang de basanti team again - prasoon joshi and ARR. The lyrics are lovely, esp. note masakalli.

Masakalli has mohit chauhan creating the allahadpan of kishore kumar with all the verve. Choosing rekha bhardwaj to lead the bhojpuri genda phool was a superb decision - how beautifully can she combine her tangy voice with softness of emotions. ARR's second bihari number (after jhooth ka pat chalkaini, from saathiya), replete with grooves this time - it almost sounds funny or perhaps it is meant to be.

The most beautiful song is perhaps dil gira dafatan (altho masakalli wud be terrific to sing) - amazing ensemble of emotions, sung by someone called ash king.

dil, gira kahin par hai dafatan
jaane magar ye nayan
teri khamosh zulfon ki gehraayian hain jahan
dil mera uljha hua hai wohin, kho gaya
tu magar hai bekhabar, hai bekhabar

..
samandar lehron ki, lehron ki
chaadar odh ke so raha hai
par main jagoon, ek khumari, ek nasha sa,
ho raha hai.
tu magar hai bekhabar, hai bekhabar,
dil...

The samandar lehron ki tune is simply breathtaking with its painful emotion.
The rehna tu sung by ARR has a crazy sense of expression last seen in tu bole glass aadha khali (jaane tu ya jaane na) - its the same genre, rendered even more effectively this time.

I couldn't help but write down masakalli lyrics - an unrivalled tribute to allahadpan.

aye masakalli, ud matak kali

zara pankh jhatak, gayi dhool atak,
aur lachak machak ke, door bhatak
ud dagar dagar, kasbe kooche,
nukkad basti, masti mein ye ye ye
ithri se ud, adaa se mud
karle poori dil ki tamanna
hawa se jud, ada se ud
phur phurr phurr, tu hai heera panna re.

ghar tera salonee, baadal ki colonee,
dikhla de thenga unko jo udna na jaanen,

udiyo na dariyo, kar manmaani ...
badhiyo na mudiyo, kar naadaani
gar taan le, muskaan le, (??)
bas sansananan hawaa,
bas thaan le, tu jaan le,
keh sanananananan hawaa

ae masakalli ..


tu kya gam tera rishta
gagan ki baansuri se hai
pawan ki guftgoo se hai
sooraj ki roshni se hai
udiyo na dariyo, kar manmani,
badhiyo na mudiyo, kar naadani
....

masak-kali...

rahman wins golden globe

worldwide accolade was long due. the track was avg by rahman standards, but the prize was definitely due - both for ARR and the country. the video is here. hope he gets the oscar too.

slumdog was a true bollywood masala film. the article here sums it up:
Partly in Hindi, the movie is an uplifting tale, but manages to balance fantasy with a stark look at the life of the urban poor in India. It is this balancing act that seems to have touched a chord in audiences abroad.

I'm still confused WHY it touched a chord. Here's another interpretation:
The scam gives the film a moral: The difference between those who are poor and those who are rich is only a scam and underdogs can beat the odds if they adopt the practices of those who control their destiny.
By a clever use of subtext, Slumdog Millionaire becomes a work of art.