So here’s some reviews, comments, digs, complaints, rants and judgmental opinions about an arbitrary selection of songs and soundtracks that have been in the news or have simply caught my eye. I’ve randomly reviewed music from my ’2003′ folder, so a lot of this stuff is more than a year old. If you’re one of those Hindi film music listeners who rushes to the nearest music store (or its .com equivalent for us ‘phoren’ log) when a new album is released, a majority of this is old news for you.

A cautionary note — a number of the songs mentioned here fall in, what I call, the ‘dhinchak‘ category, the generally catchy, not much long term value, but good timepass ‘enjoy-now-forget-tomorrow’ type stuff. So if, upon reading this review, you expect superlative music, you are sure to be sorely disappointed.

Enough with the disclaimers, on to the rants! (Music links on musicindiaonline.com)

1. Chalte Chalte (Jatin Lalit, Aadesh Shrivastava) — The album is kinda generic romantic, standard Jatin-Lalit fare. Aadesh Shrivastava’s ‘layi vi na gayi‘ stands out for me though. I think its probably in raaga Puriyadhanashri, although not sure. Even though I don’t fully understand the lyrics, the song conveys the pain of a broken heart beautifully. I think its the rawness of Sukhwinder Singh’s voice that somehow always does it for me. Think the lyrics translate to something like ‘our relationship broke apart like a star falling from the sky’ .. Very nicely sung.

2. Chameli (Sandesh Shandilya) — If you love Sunidhi Chauhan’s voice (like I do) then this is the soundtrack for you cos she’s in all 6 songs. This gal can hit supersonic notes and make it seem as easy as .. um .. eating ice cream. (I couldn’t think of a better analogy :|) ‘Bhaage re mann‘ has a beautiful melody and some wonderful flute interludes. The song has a very easygoing and relaxing feel, kinda like a babbling brook or flowing river. ‘Jaane‘ is again a lovely song — great saxophone bits and Udit Narayan does full justice to it. Also a very tough song to sing, IMO. Its two variations ‘bheegi hui koi‘ and ‘jaane kyon humko‘ are nice as well. Overall, Chameli is a softer, breezy, jazz-ish album.

3. Chhal (Viju Shah) — Viju Shah creates music only once in a while, but when he does he always reminds us why he was the original god of the synthesizer, much much before A R Rahman happened. As I always say, if you want synthesized songs that don’t sound synthetic, then VS is the man for you. Two songs stand out in this soundtrack —
   • ‘dil jhan jhanaale jaan-e-jaana‘ with Asha Bhosle’s sultry vocals working very well in tandem with a dark husky uncredited voice. The arrangements are very reminiscent of Tridev, especially like the ‘gali gali mein phirta hai‘ number from it.

   • ‘chup chaap‘ — Simple melody, minimal use of the synth, and a simple heartbeat-like rhythm pattern make this song a winner for me! I like how the rhythm goes from being played on the electronic drums when Shaan sings to the tabla when Sadhna Sargam hums the ‘aa aa aaa’ portion (which is my favorite part of the song). And I love the prelude saxophone in the Sadhna Sargam solo version! Just an overall sweet romantic number.

4. Chura Liya Hai Tumne (Himesh Reshammiya) — A movie that was supposedly a remake of The Truth About Charlie (which in turn was a remake of Charade, the Cary Grant-Audrey Hepburn flick). The things that stay in your head after you watch the movie — Esha Deol’s acting ‘skills’ that make you feel a compulsive need to boil yourself in oil (Yes, I have seen this movie, so sue me) and the superhit dhinchak number — ‘mohabbat hai mirchi‘, a song that is a must-hear just so you can go ‘oh that song, yes i’ve heard it’. Oh, and while I like Shaan’s singing why oh why does he have to roll his Rs when he goes ‘mirrrrchi‘ Most annoying! Grr.

That completes the C movies. Ah, you didn’t think there was a method to my madness, did you? :)

I have been getting gentle and not-so-gentle reminders from people who insist I will ‘lose readership’ if I don’t blog soon. Was very gratified to know I have readership to begin with! Thankoo thankoo! *graciously bows to all readers* And thank you Ekta, Saurabh, iii, Karthik and Madhav for the motivation! :)

A friend recently asked me to review and suggest some worthwhile Hindi film music to listen to from the past year. Apparently, in her words, ‘You listen to all the crap in the world anyway, so how about filtering some of the better stuff and reviewing it, so I know what to listen and what to avoid’. Hmpfh, crap she says. Another friend suggested that I write a music album review when I mentioned that I couldn’t think of what to blog. ‘You can’t seem to stop talking about music anyway, so why not blog about it?’ he goes. With friends like this.. tsk tsk.

But it did get me thinking. How is it that I have just *one* measly blog about music until now? What a sacrilege! (cut to song playing in background – yeh kya hua, kaise hua, kab hua, kyon hua.. etc etc) So I’ve set out to remedy that. Of course, once I got started, my blog soon looked like a 500 page manuscript, so in the interest of everyone’s sanity, the actual reviews shall follow in subsequent blog posts. Consider yourself duly warned :)