Thursday, December 31, 2009

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.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

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. :)

Friday, December 11, 2009

rdb

a nice video remembering rahul dev burman. 

Saturday, December 05, 2009

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.