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.

tera emosanal atyaachar

The trailer for Dev D has been out for a while. The emosanal atyaachar song was a serious warning how eclectic/crazy this movie was going to be. After all, its the next anurag kashyap movie and has abhay deol - so only the unexpected can be expected. The modern day Devdas is going to be a mega-treat to watch.

Now, the audio is out. The song list is unbelievably long - and when you consider the variety, you are nothing short of plain dumbstruck. Who's this Amit Trivedi doode. Amazing sort of folk, western, classical genres, all put together in a single album. The album is a major celebration of the man himself, whom I know nothing of, at least at this moment.

tauba tera jalwaa
tauba teraa pyaar
teraa eemosanal atyaachaar.

Of course, there couldn't be a better matching song to the context than emosanal atyachar. Here's the director's cut on it. The other favorite is paayaliya - I guess I like it more cos the seamless fusion with classical. and, btw the singer shruti pathak is of the mar jaawa (fashion) fame. The song has all kinds of crazy instrumental, vocal, percussion and accapella effects fused together that one can ever think of - totally mind-boggling composition. and no words enuf for the My God! effect. Nayan tarse is another fabulous number - I still don't know what its reminding me of. Someone write a wikipedia page on Amit Trivedi! Plzzz.

Alright, so its his second movie after Aamir. Now I've to go back to Aamir's soundtrack.

kishore kumar, RNBDJ, SM

I chanced upon this hilarious interview of Kishore Kumar. Probably taken during late 70's - maybe he got more mad with age - or maybe he only spoke in atishayoktis. The article is such a comic masterpiece. Intrigues you so much about the character.

On a side note, Passion for Cinema is a wonderful site for people like me.

And on the main note, I'd like to (finally) put it down on paper that Rab ne bana di jodi and Slumdog Millionaire are, in true sense, movies built around the same exact theme - romantic idealism. The quintessential theme is the one which bollywood is identified by, and scoffed at by our beloved desi-movie-watching pseudo-intelligensia. SM is made a thousand times more wonderfully than RNBDJ, which is perhaps why it is receiving so much applause. But, when you start looking for the key idea, the germ, the inspiration (if any) that the writer may have had - its plain old romantic idealism. And sadly, none of the movies does justice to the thought - in fact, I would say that RNDBJ is a far more sincere portrayal of the idea that SM - SM merely manipulates the critic to convince him/her of an illusion of the inspiration, almost like an insult to the thought. However, SM's story had the real potential (due to its true-to-life characters) to put forth romantic idealism so that it would jhakjhor the audience; the depiction failed to milk the potential. RNBDJ instead was complete fairy tale - a sweetened dose of romanticism; I don't know, maybe it is the bollywood thing - depth of emotions is often diluted for the common masses. The interesting thing that I found was how Aditya chopra managed to recreate the scene from DDLJ - the girl begs the guy to elope with her, and the guy refuses, as a true romantic hero. It was turnedaround though in RNDBJ (the villain and the hero were indistinguishable), but how so beautifully.

oye lucky

watched oye lucky lucky oye yesterday.
- dibankar banerjee has done it again. the second movie generally shows if the director is truly capable. difficult to find even a small hitch in his work.
- abhay deol is the cult genre star of the bollywood.
- its kind of sad that to keep up with the out-of-the-world script of khosla ka ghosla, one has to make a black comedy of the oye lucky fame.
- manorama six feet under, mithya, and now oye lucky. fabulous black comedies. (i recall some old ones too - waisa hi hota hai part 2, .. )
- neetu chandra is such an amazing actress.

Incredible amount of details - sometimes pretty overwhelming. the characters, the execution, the gripping slick story telling, and of course, the script - a masterpiece. perhaps it won't be such a huge hit since its a black comedy - i hope it is.

raaste hain juda juda

rahat fateh ali khan gets to do nusrat in zindagi ye song in the forthcoming Dil Kabaddi. This one should rise quick on charts, I hope. The music director is somewhat unknown (sachin gupta) but the other tracks are fine too. The movie should be fantastic given the fine ensemble of actors. I wanted rahul bose and irrfan to come together in a movie since long. it was so much fun to watch arshad warsi with irrfan in Sunday.

zindagi ye safar mein hai

kat raha hai raasta

humsafar to hai magar

manzilen hain juda juda.

I'm not impressed with the soundtrack of rab ne bana di jodi. Salim-Suleiman have plenty of melody in them and a fine arrangement sense too - I don't know what happens to them with Yash Raj. O re Piya was the only impressive one in Aaja Nachle. and rith rnbdj, the best they get is haule haule with sukhwinder - some fine lyrics, some nice modulations. Old fashioned dholak or even tabla gets to me - but well looking back at DDLJ, the songs were pretty old-fashioned there too. Perhaps they could have put in some more melody. something. But, the real creative song is phir milenge chalte chalte. fabulous lyrics and note combination.

yuvraaj

ARR is at it again - yuvraaj has fantastic melodies. subhash ghai comes back with another magnum opus with old wine in new glass feel. tu hi to meri dost hai and tu muskura are both superb numbers woven in melody. funny how both songs play in the interlude of the other. tu hi to meri has a hair-raising note combination at the end when ARR starts singing. tu muskura is somewhat more ethereal. but i grew attached to zindagi first, probably because its strongly emotional and so well sung by srinivas - we see gulzar play again with do naina sakhiyaan. i think it was srinivas in kaisi hai rut (DCH).  manmohini morey is ARR's take on lat uljhi suljha ja bandish - ultra modern accompaniment with full classical base. i didn't really like the tune/melody in the beginning, but then ARR makes sure that  it will definitely grow on you. somehow all the songs (except zindagi) fall a little short of the mark, perhaps due to the overbearing arrangement or perhaps they were intended to touch only superficially.

shankar mahadevan

shankar-ehsaan-loy (SEL) have been a recurring theme in my blogs since the very beginning. ever since dil-chahta-hai, they've been growing on the bollywood scene - and perhaps would be the most consistent performers after a r rahman, getting the melody and the mood right each time. 

have been watching srgmp 09, where shankar is a judge. quite an appealing personality. again a unique combination of humility, megalomania, and street-smartness. its amazing to watch such people perform. effortless singer. breathtakingly soulful voice. gifted with melody and sensitivity. god, for lack of a better term. i wonder how he feels up there. 

i sang "maa" recently (shankar, taare zameen par) with the usual besurapan and anavashyak kalaakari. still, it was lovely the way it turned out.

two fascinating movies

i watched two lovely movies this weekend. hulla, and, saas bahu n sensex. hulla is horribly cool except the end. saas bahu n sensex is a part-cliche-part-awesome movie about nothing by shona urvashi (her last movie was chupke se, another lovely movie about nothing with superb soundtrack). farooq sheikh in parsi form is incredible - its so inspiring to see an actor like him live such a well-crafted role. all good supporting actors, and you definitely can't ignore farooq's assistant (sorry I dont know his name) -"we're back in business", "i think i miss her".

both these movies fall into the hrish-mukh, basu-chat genre. feels so good. btw i'm a fan of both gul panag n minisha lamba. minisha looked lovely in srgmp.

kuch geet

ek hi khaab

the song feels as good as love. amazing how rdb-gulzar combo cud be so inspired.

welcome to sajjanpur - shantanu moitra, swanand kirkire (parineeta, khoya khoya chand ) combo- bheeni bheeni, ek meetha marz de ke. have to figure out wot the second song means. hehe. shyam benegal directs again - should be interesting.

colonial cousins - dekhoon main jahan. the hariharan classical appetite that i've inherited. such a difficult-to-sing song couldn't sound simpler.