rang de basanti

the biggest the ironies of lives that come to me - the eminently watchable movie rang de basanti is released all over but not in pittsburgh. dard itna hai ki bayaan bhi nahi kar sakte!

khair, the music by arr is awesome. awesome lyrics by prasoon joshi too. learnt that he also wrote for hum tum. khalbali, roobaroo, luka chuppi, tu bin bataaye. the complete album is a treasure. and specially, there is mohit chauhan with khoon chala.
wanted to post lyrics.

like the ziddi ziddi part of khalbali a lot.

abhi ishq ke intehaan...

Complete coincidence that while watching katha, (too bad we don't see much of sai paranjape these days) I came upon this old n famous sher by iqbal. It was a resonating background score in dil se, for which I commended arr and sukhwinder singh (I guess) much. It was left to haunting memories until (again with all coincidence) some doode reminded me of its existence. Since then, till yesterday, kewal mukhde ke saath jeena pada. and finally, it struck me yesterday (inspiration being the sher-on-blackboard in the katha movie) that it had to be something bigger.
shud have guessed cos gulzar also tepo'ed extensively from ghalib in dil se.


sitaaron se aage jahaan aur bhi hain,
abhi ishq ke intehaan aur bhi hain.

.. (other paras are in deeper urdu)

tu shaahin hai, parwaaz hai kaam teraa,
tere saamne aasmaan aur bhi hain.


isi roz-o-shab mein ulajh kar na reh jaa,
ke tere zameen-o-makaan aur bhi hain.

gae din ki tanhaa tha main anjuman mein,
yahaan ab mere raazadaan aur bhi hain.

the new year commings

with many bangs n whistles, 2006 has entered the doors.

should be fun.

christmas

the evening gets foggier. thanksgiving was unbelievably cold. christmas unbelievably foggy. do the calendar-makers conspire with God?

meanwhile, I watched an amazing danish movie (with english subtitles) - italian for the beginners. learnt that it belongs to the "dogme" genre of barebones film-making. must watch! def lifted my spirits. probably `before sunrise' n `before sunset' also belonged to that genre.

fotki.com has unbounded storage space. amazing! still haven't managed to see bluffmaster.

aur bas, kuch khwab bunne lageen wo tasveeren!

aaj maine dil se

aaj maine dil se,
baadalon se milke,
sapnon ki baarish se kaliyaan sajaake,
mehki umangon se khushboo churaake
halki si boond mein
lehron ke goonj mein
he he..gum ho jaana re

doob jaana re
mujhko doob jaana re
tere paas aana re
mujhko doob jaana re

chalte chalte, maine yun hi
jaane mere dil se aisa kya keh diya
kyun ye mausam, bhi hai lagta, ab suhaana re
dhadhkane bhi saath mere, gungunaati re..
khaamosh aahon ke simte eeraane(?)
masoom palkon pe sapne sajaake
halki si boond mein
lehron ke goonj mein ..

baadalon se, dil ka rishta, hai purana re
hai safar anjaan lekin, aazmaana re,

maine na socha, na samjha, na chaha
rukte kadam fir bhi aise kyun chahen
halki si boond mein...

lyrics: rocky khanna (??)
singers : sonu nigam, shreya ghoshal
music: rajendra shiv (??)
movie: main meri patni aur woh (2005)

ghulam ali - akhtar shirani - golden collection

Woh kabhi mil jaaye to kya kijiye
Raat din surat ko dekha kijiye.

Chandni raaton mein ek ek phool ko
Bekhudi kehti hai sajda kijiye.

Jo tamanna-bar na aaye umr bhar
Umr bhar uski tamanna kijiye.

Ishq ki rangeeniyon mein doob kar
Chandni raaton mein roya kijiye.

Hum hi uske ishq ke qaabil na the
Kyon kisi zaalim kaa shikwa kijiye.

confused abt sexuality

I love articles like this one. it comes out quite clear that we are still as confused abt the nature of sexuality as we've always been. the thing has been avoided, multiple theories propounded, some advocating complete abstinence vs some advocating complete sluttiness. a horrible uncertainty shadowing our existence n we're completely helpless before it. its almost the dual of the notion of god. still, experimental theories continue to be made - i guess there's still hope that some theory wud explain all of it somehow.

aur ik raat

aur ik raat suhaani si,
gayi wo jo thi, kahaani meethi si.

khaab tha shaayad, khaab hi hoga.

almost a month since the last post. horrribaleese. khair, tons of things have changed, par wo geet/ghazal goonjta raha.

guncha koi, mere naam kar diya,
saaki ne, fir se mera, jaam bhar diya.

tum jaisa koi nahi, is jahaan mein.
subha ko teri zulf ne, shaam kar diya.

mehfil mein baar baar, idhar, dekha kiye.
aankhon ke jazeeron ko mere, naam kar diya.

..
wo jo humse keh na sake, dil ne keh diya.

mohit chauhan, main meri patni aur woh. dying to watch the movie.

water

a r rahman does pure classical, with full force in Water. complete with subtleties of thumri, bhajan. nothing but vocal ornamentation. amply supported by sukhwinder singh (other singers do a terrific job too). overall, the perfection of composition+rendering is shockingly awesome. so comfortably attired in tradition that it hardly looks like arr; and well its certainly him - then I really need to know how he did and more precisely, what did he do.

its so classical 401. together with shringar lyrics, there are few things that can beat such stuff.

boriyat ki safayee

manushya bore tabhi hota hai jab koi vastu use kick nahi deti - arthaat wo saare kick dene vaale padaarthon se svayam khud ko bedakhal karta hai.

isi shubh khayaal pe miliye naye sangeet se - U Bomsi N Me. jhakkas naam, jhakkas music, ye movie hi jhakkas hai! the new kala ghoda, older one was lets talk.

taggin science

A wonderful post abt the cognitive explanation of tagging. really lucid n well-written. a note: categorization is one-step ahead of tagging and needs costly decision-making, therefore it is an overload on the user. the concepts of digial/virtual life are not universally tagged/categorized as things in the real-world, eg. terrier and spaniel dogs, are. i think that's the reason its an overload on ur brains. perhaps becos all this is new n the elements/concepts of the virtual world are still in their infancy.

all you need to know

The things that everyone needs to know are essentially how to get along in society- the three Rs, the basic structure of society, and how to coexist with others without fighting. Add in the ability to learn new things as you discover that you need to know them, and you've come to the end of what everyone needs to know.

i had to write about

salaam namaste - awesome movie, story, style, attitude, acting ..everything. the next x-gen flash, after DCH. a contrasting note.

wots so captivating about a set of well-crafted interacting characters in a story?

and an old-sher-new-andaaz: to solve a problem, you have to let it in first. tell me huzur, would you let me in?

and there is stuff about google n microsoft suing each other abt ppl hung in between. the google blog does lend a humanly character to the s(r)oaring company.

and of course, believe it or not, salaam namaste has managed to create history (if only in my eyes). here's the mmmm. here's another review. and another one. some highlights.


thanks google blogsearch.

too bad, the french kisses didn't get hyped at all. nice foot-in-the-door tactic for censors. i love watching bollywood break hurdles, be it for good or bad. and yes, the striking resemblance to nine months was all so forgotten. aha, so maybe it is the sleepless+nine months idea.
I guess that's why it seemed like seeking your soulmate was all about an agreement on having babies.

extreme thinking - or- science via self-help

An interesting link on self-help for those with scientific n abstract pursuits. The author is a physics professor who summarizes/abstracts his tough learning experiences in doing research as a 3-point memo. really nice points raised abt research except that he sounds much like those "change ur life" books/articles. believable overall.


--

nice articles on large number of phds, moving from acads to industry, and misc.

list of movies

list of movies that i've watched this summer IN THEATRE! follows. thanks to regal cinema, north brunswick and the wonderful bollywood summer season, i've had a blast.

bunty n babli, parineeta, sarkar, dus, maine pyaar kyun kiya, the rising, my wife's murder, no entry

red eye, mr n mrs smith, war of the worlds,

on monitor:
7.5 phere, D.

I'll update if i rem more. surely more than one movie per week for 12 weeks. BnB was almost a classic, parineeta wow for vidya balan, my wife's murder was amazing + wow anil kapoor, no entry was hilarious, and pankaj kapur was awesome in dus. Too bad the season is still not over but the holiday is.

yalgaar

geeton ka fir se yalgaar hua hai. suresh wadkar is running high on 2 superb melodies from bhagmati and ramji. sonu nigam obviously is on with dhuan dhuan from ramji. vishal bhardwaj and his uncanny musical sense.

wadkar's unmatchable effervescence and the magical wadkar-bhardwaj combo re-created from maachis:
dil mein bhi jale jugnoo,
aankhon se tapke khushboo,
sapna hai, ya jadoo,
janoo main na jaane tu.

chalti hai hawaa choo choo,
ye pooche hai kaisa tu,
mere sang chalta hai,
koi rab sa hoo-ba-hoo..

chaaon kosi kosi lage
dhoop paali posi lage
chaand baate vaate kare
raat soti soti jage

do do ..do do do..

-----------------------
raahen dhuaan dhuan
kaanpe ruaan ruaan
ye mere saath kya kar rahi zindagi..
ye he...

(note the elec guitar support)
meelon talak hai soonapan, hai soonapan,
har saans mein hoti hai koi jalan,
soonepan se...jal na jaayen...
hum.....
(the final note hum.. - and later gum.. - awesomely crafted. set at the parakaastha of longing, simulates a held breath.

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

and of course salaam namaste is the next big romantic musical hit. dil goes mm, title number and of course the mandatory number tu jahaan. i'm glad mahalaxmi iyer is being roped in at proper times. and sure, suresh wadkar seems to be making a comeback - altho it is only vishal bhardwaj who wants/is making him sing.

morning chai

usne kahaa zindagi hogi,
beshak, bepanaah khushi hogi.
aur main moorakh,
uski baaton mein aa gaya,
ya khuda teri,
is duniya mein aa gaya.

kuch naya

chaliye aaj..kuch naya..kuch hatke..kuch romaanchak sa.

raat ke andhiyaare mein,
ya fir zulfon ke saayon mein,
arth ki roushni dikhaayi di,
koi puraani pyaas sunaayi di.

shoonya tha aakaash,
khaali the haath,
raah thi chalti,
us manzil ki trishna ko.

komal haasya karuna aadi
the ateet ke kaagar
maano bhikshuk sa
dole dvaar baar jaakar

tan svatantra, man partantra,
shraap si bandhi
chitt ki gaanth

svarg-may jeevan
makhmali upwan
kyun bane tum bebaat ashvaas?

saaye se prithak
zameen se alag
shayad wohi puraani pyaas.
lautoon kaise, fir apne paas.

hai na ekdam jhakkas?

celebrity AB

AB on being a celebrity here. nice that he puts it from both his and media's pov.

jagjit singh

Another interview. I simply love going thru them again n again. things he says about fine poetry, good training and keeping urdu alive.