That be a Lata-Kishore sung and R D Burman composed song from movie Samadhi (1972). This song also reminds me why I don’t like Lata’s giggle, but that is a different story. For those whose exposure to old Hindi film music comes from remixes, may you be tied to a chair and be made to listen to endless repeats of Sridevi singing. There, now that I got that out of my system, let’s continue with what I was saying. This is the same Samadhi of thorny felt, yes felt, come o king .. behind your bungalow, under the berry tree, haay re drunk, aha re drunk fame. That’s kaantaa lagaa, hayy lagaa, aajaa raajaa .. bangle ke peeche terii, berii ke neeche, haayy re piya, aha re piya for you.

Of course, the original song has Asha Parekh singing to garam-Dharam. Which leads to one of the most disturbing visuals in Hindi cinema — Asha Parekh being coy. No seriously, there are few sights worse than Ms Tanpura trying to be cute. This is a lady who cracked one of the eternal unintended jokes of Bollywood when she went to the temple in the climax of a film (any film, specifics don’t matter) and said — bhagwaan, main tumhaare dar pe badi ass leke aayi hoon. Yep, priceless moment.

But moving onto pleasanter things, Samadhi has quite a listen-worthy soundtrack. One of those wish-more-people-knew-of-it types. Has the middle-eastern influenced, Asha crooned o yaaraa yaaraa (whose second line I can never understand), another exceptionally sung Asha solo — jab tak rahe tan mein jiyaa, vaadaa rahaa o saathiyaa, the racy Kishore solo jaan-e-jaanaa jaao kal phir aanaa besides the bubbly Kishore-Lata maine dekhaa ik sapnaa and of course, the most famous of them all — Lata’s kaantaa lagaa. Whether you can blot out the accompanying visual of Shefali Jariwala’s thong or focus your attention on it depending on your preference, the song (and we are talking of the original, thank you very much) is wonderfully composed and sung and a winner through and through. Kudos to Pancham!

Samadhi also has the distinction of being one of the only TWO movies I know of with Dharam-paaji in a double role — one moochwala (not to be confused with Detective Moochwala from Target) and one without (paired with Jaya Bhaduri). The other movie being the Dharam-Rekha starrer — Ghazab (1982) where he plays a buffoon with buck teeth, one of his underrated comedic performances. Thanks to Sagnik for the Ghazab trivia. Interestingly enough, neither movie was much of a hit. Twice the usual number of doggy-abuses can be too much to sit through, I suppose.

The original point of the post was about more earth-shattering matters. I intended to tell you about a weird dream I had last night, hence the opening song and all. Ah well, will save it for the next post instead. By the way, as good readers you are all expected to head over to Musicindiaonline while reading this post, listen to the songs of Samadhi and come back and write comments full of effusive praise for R D Burman. In return, I promise not to giggle like Lata-bai. Thankoo.

The music of this movie came as a welcome relief at a time when noise still ruled the scene. And in the midst of a powerful and violent movie, soft melodies like this brought peace and calm, much like the bird that symbolizes its title — Parinda (1989). The soundtrack has the more famous and universally favorite duet — tumse milke aisa lagaa tumse milke. But this song is my pick from the album. Outstanding music by R D Burman, exceptional singing by Asha & Suresh Wadkar, and simple, beautiful lyrics by Khursheed Hallauri, a rare female lyricist for Hindi films.

The scene — near the seashore. The moment — just around sunset, surrounded by the gold and orange hues of the twilight sky. The strains of the santoor, the bass guitar, the saxophone in the interludes, and Asha’s mellifluous voice .. the way she completes the antaras and returns to the mukhda, giving it a slightly different twist each time, something extra .. something more that tugs at your heart. Pyaar ke mod pe chhodoge jo baahein merii .. tumko DhuunDhengii zamaane mein, nigaahein merii ..

pyaar ke mod pe chhodoge jo baahein merii
tumko DhuunDhengii zamaane mein, nigaahein merii

zindagii mein jo kahin aur main kho jaauunga
tumse milne ke liye lauT ke phir aauunga
ae merii jaan-e-wafaa dekhnaa, raahein merii

aisaa naa ho ae sanam jaao to phir aa naa sako
merii ye tamannaa hai tum mere paas raho
kyon tumhein bhaatii nahiin aaj, panaahein merii

koii ban jaaye meraa aisii taqdiir nahiin
dil ke aaine mein ab koii tasviir nahiin
ye haqiiqat hai, asar kho chukii, aahein merii

saath main tumhaare huun, ab koi gham naa karo
khud ko tanhaa mere hote humdum naa karo
hoke maayuus naa dum tod dein, chaahein merii

Film: Parinda (1989); Singer(s): Asha Bhosle, Suresh Wadkar; Lyrics: Khursheed Hallauri; Music: R D Burman

Love, from a woman’s point of view. No red roses, no pink teddy bears, no chocolate-covered candy-hearts. Just a gentle assurance that I’ll always be there.

After Lagaan, all eyes are now on Ashutosh Gowariker’s Swades. I for one, find the basic premise of the movie, quite interesting. The living-abroad desi returns home, wants to do something to give back to his desh, and the ‘even one person can make a difference’ theme is something ex-pats can find close to heart. Listened to its music over the weekend. Seven songs and two instrumental tracks. Here’s my thoughts on them.

Disclaimer: Opinions on most ARR soundtracks change on multiple listens, and since this review is being written after just a couple of listens, I might decide to contradict myself tomorrow.

(Music links on raaga.com)

Swades (Music: A R Rahman; Lyrics: Javed Akhtar) — The first thing that struck me was that ARR is in Lagaan mode here. By that I don’t mean the tunes are similar/identical to Lagaan, but the implementation is definitely more in that direction. More folk-influenced, more melody-based and tending to rely on the strength of the voice of the singers. His arrangements continue to remain his forte, but play more of a background role in the album, in my opinion. The lyrics by Javed Akhtar are nice and go well with the music, but none stand out as truly remarkable.

• ‘Ye tara woh tara‘ — Simple lyrics about the strength in unity make this song click for me, and the music is nice although nothing exceptional. I like the way the kiddie voices of Vignesh and Pooja join in the latter half to give Udit Narayan support. This is the kind of song that one cannot help sing along with!

• ‘Saanwariya saanwariya‘ — A really beautiful melody that would have sounded much better in a voice other than Alka Yagnik’s. She sounds so disinterested with the goings on in the song. Sadhana Sargam please?

• ‘Yun hi chala chal‘ — The longest song of the album, I like the level of enthusiasm that Rahman infuses in it. Will need to listen to it some more to come to any conclusions about it. The ‘allah ke bande‘ singer Kailash Kher resurfaces in this one after a while, with Udit and Hariharan for company.

• ‘Aahista aahista‘ — Minimal use of instruments and Sadhana and Udit’s singing makes this beautiful lorii a definite winner for me. Melody-wise this song reminds me of a mix of ‘o paalanhaare‘ and ‘mitwa‘ from Lagaan.

• ‘Yeh jo des hai tera‘ — The token ARR sung song on the track, this one is about asking the expatriates to return home. The not-too-preachy lyrics and the lilting background shehnaai makes this song come together beautifully. An instrumental version of this song on the shehnai appears later in the album.

• ‘Pal pal hai bhaari‘ — Sounds like a very situational song. The use of instruments reminds me of ‘radha kaise na jale‘ (I just cannot seem to stop making the Lagaan connections!) Am guessing this has a theatre/stage setting on screen, with the end of the Aranya kanda being enacted. An instrumental version of this song on the flute appears again in the album.

  (Digression — The exchange between Sita and Ravana, when he asks her ‘If your Rama is so great, then where is he? Why don’t I see him around to come and save you?‘ and she replies ‘Rama is everywhere, he is in my heart, my soul, my breath, my life.. — is this in the end of the Aranya kanda or at the start of the Kishkindha kanda? My childhood Ramayana fundas are foggy.)

• ‘Dekho na‘ — Generic sweet romantic song, but didn’t really stand out for me, lyrically or musically. I was recently educated by a friend that Rahman reused his own tune for this track, from ‘baba kichchu tha‘ of the Rajnikanth Tamil movie Baba. Thanks Zaph!

Overall, this is a nice album that is worth multiple listens, but it has a distinct Lagaan hangover that is hard to ignore. But then again, I love Lagaan, so I guess I cannot complain.

(Music links on musicindiaonline.com)

Dhoom (Pritam Chakraborty) — This being a Yash Raj film, one might expect the heroine in a white saree, foreign locales, mist covered mountains, santoor playing in background.. *screeeech of brakes* Wait. Dhoom is kinda a desi cops-and-robbers story, The Fast and The Furious and Torque all rolled into one. This cinematic theme change is also apparent in the music. This album is about pace and general catchiness so the sarees will have to remain in the costume cupboard for this one. Three songs of this soundtrack are worth mentioning —

• ‘Dhoom machale dhoom‘ — The energy of this song and Sunidhi Chauhan’s spirited singing work in its favor, although it gets noisy in parts. It falls flat in the antaras at times, but the mukhda picks up the pace once again. Though I don’t really care for the ‘do you want more.. are you sure? oh-kayyy‘ in the middle of the song, it is fortunately short-lived so I can tune it out. Incidentally, this is the song that plays in the promos, with bikes, cars and trucks falling over each other and dutifully exploding into flames.

• ‘Shikdum‘ — A playful and catchy composition (which at times, sounds suspiciously like some other song i’ve heard, although I cannot place it) that is further enhanced by the singing chemistry that Shaan and Shreya Ghoshal share. Their voices have been altered a lil, to give it a synthesized feel. The Soca/Calypso influence is apparent throughout the song, even more so in the interludes (steel drums et al). What in the world does ‘shikdum‘ mean, you wonder? Don’t. Sameer is the lyricist. Watch the movie and figure it out.

• ‘Dilbara‘ — This song started out sounding average, but Abhijeet’s singing, a rather interesting chorus and an assortment of percussions (especially at the start of the song) have made it worthy of more listens. Sowmya Raoh joins in the latter half of the song. This song is definitely better for its music/interludes than its singing though. Nice breezy number this.

The soundtrack isn’t one to stay in your head for long, but it fits in well with the mood of the movie. The movie itself — a timepass flick that has plenty of eye-candy for all. Bad boy John Abraham on a bike. Abhishek Bachchan, period. Hmmmmmm. And for those who want to know — Rimi Sen and Esha Deol. Well, we all know what I think of the latter, so i’ll be nice and not say a word. Uday Chopra, who so far has excelled in roles that annoy you, finally seems to have found his niche as the tappori-dude-with-a-heart-of-gold. (A role Aamir Khan redefined in Rangeela but its best not to compare.) All in all, paisa vasool.

Sidenote — If you’re suffering from withdrawal symptoms from the lack of the mountains and sarson ke khet in Dhoom, not to worry. The trailer for the upcoming Yash Chopra Diwali venture Veer-Zaara, shown along with Dhoom more than makes up for it. Indo-Pak love-fest this is gonna be, it seems. Veer Pratap Singh (Shahrukh Khan playing a desi fighter pilot, good grief) falling in love with Zaara Hayaat Khan. (Preity Zinta playing a Pakistani cutie) Doomed love and all that goop. Not to fikar though. Yash Chopra has a solution to your problem is the form of Rani Mukherjee — ‘a lawyer who fights to bring the lovers together’. Hm, we’ll see. Love and justice ek saath? Bhai wah. Gotta watch out for the music though. The late maestro Madan Mohan’s unused tunes being arranged by son Sanjeev Kohli. Sounds promising.

The love and justice thing reminds me of an Utpal Dutt dialogue from Rang Birangi, in which he plays a cop (with a zabardast name like Dhurandar Bhatwadekar) and is yelling at some paploo who has just been arrested for selling movie tickets in black. He goes — Cinema ke ticket?! Woh bhi black mein?! Yaani ki paap bhi aur jurm bhi! Utpal Dutt ROCKS!

(Music links on musicindiaonline.com)

Phir Milenge (Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Bhavatha Raja, Nikhil-Vinay) — The combined talents of S-E-L and Bhavatharini (Ilayaraaja’s daughter who provided the music for Mitr, Revathy’s first film, now back with a slight change in nomenclature) give us a consistent and quality soundtrack. But why on god’s green earth do we have Nikhil-Vinay in this mix? Their ‘contribution’ to this soundtrack is as dispensable as the dhink-chak dhink-chak dholak rhythm that they use. Uff. Groan. Anyways, my picks —

• ‘Jeene ke ishaare‘ — The beauty of this song lies in its simplicity. Minimal instrumentation, the solo acoustic guitar start, the clapping rhythm, all come together nicely to create a very relaxing and uplifting feel that perfectly complements the wonderful lyrics by Prasoon Joshi (henceforth referred to as PJ). This chap has clearly arrived in a big way after Hum Tum. There a scale(?) change towards the end of the song which is nice too.

• ‘Yaad hai vo pehli mulaaqaat‘ — Melody-wise this is a slower version of ‘jeene ke ishaare‘ although there are some changes in arrangements, the finger snapping instead of the clapping and a change in singer as well — Abhijeet sings a slow song that is usually not his forte, and does a decent job. Now if only we had PJ’s lyrics to sing instead of Sameer’s rehashed blah.

• ‘Khul ke muskuraale‘ — This is *the* song of the soundtrack, for me. A seductive and soulful number, asking you to live the moment and seek happiness in it. PJ’s magic with words and the wonderful vocals of the ‘zara zara mehekta hai‘ lady — Bombay Jayshree, along with a simple rhythm and the near absence of instruments make this song a winner. In lines like —

  Utaar gham ke mozey, zameen ko gungunaane de,
  Kankaron ko talwon main gudgudee machaane de

  .. the metaphor of ‘gham ke mozey‘ is just a lil odd, but lovely nevertheless. When was the last time you walked barefoot and let the pebbles tickle your feet? Hm, nice.

• ‘Kuchh pal‘ — PJ once again shines in this second-generation song (Ilayaraaja’s daughter + Yesudas’s son) Vijay Yesudas’s voice is much like his dad’s and fits perfectly with the philosophical lyrics about the passing moments.

(Music links on musicindiaonline.com)

1. Jhankaar Beats (Vishal-Shekhar) — ‘Lots of masti, lots of timepass, lots of dhamaal!‘ A soundtrack that totally appealed to me, although i’ll admit, part of it was the intentional RD Burman feel. (All hail the loRD!) Good melodies, wonderful arrangements, due importance to individual instruments, spirited singing, all come together to create an album with a whole lot of pizzazz! I’ll listen to all the songs happily, but my picks for the day are ‘jhankaar‘, ‘jab kabhi‘, ‘tera muskuraana‘ and ‘suno na‘.
   • ‘Jhankaar‘ is totally RD-ish, singing wise too. A lot of the musicians who played in this song were from RD’s troupe, I believe and Sudesh Bhosle does a good job of imitating RD’s singing style. Bursting with enthusiasm, its a very obvious ode to the ‘Monica o my darling‘ type stuff from the 70s. Boy the bass guitaring brings back such fond memories of Pancham! *sighh*

   • Good electric guitar work once again in ‘jab kabhi‘ and does Kay Kay know how to hit high notes when he sings, or what!

   • ‘Tera muskuraana‘ — Heavy on the synthesizer, this racy, breezy song grows on you after a couple of listens. Reminiscent of the electronica-inspired but also bass-heavy numbers that RD created in the mid to late 80s.

   • I love ‘suno na‘. Don’t ask me why, I just do. Wonderful electric guitar work and minimal use of instruments, unlike the noise that dominates today. Plus i’ve lately started to really like Shaan’s voice a lot and he sings this song well, so maybe that has something to do with it.

   <digression rant> — When I say this soundtrack appeals to me cos of the RD factor, let me get on the soapbox and state that I think baloney like Dil Vil Pyaar Vyaar (which simply took RD tunes, changed the interludes a little, that too for the worse and had them resung by today’s singers) is not what I consider to be music, forget an ode to RD. The music of Jhankaar Beats in that sense captures the essence of Pancham in a much better way. As a movie too it’s pretty entertaining, although not what you would call a ‘family’ film! Debut director Sujoy Ghosh does a good job. Plus Sanjay Suri and Rahul Bose.. *sigh* okay, i’ll shuttup now :) To continue rant, people like Anant Mahadevan (the perpetrator of the DVPV atrocity) just tried to ride the RD popularity wave and make a quick buck. Pancham-spirit, my foot! <end rant>

2. Joggers Park (Tabun Sutradhar) — ‘Badee nazuk hai‘ is regular Jagjit Singh fare. I know I ought to gush over it as a loyal JS fan, but its not one of his better songs, so nah. There’s a kinda annoying synth-chorus that could have been done without. The lyrics are nice in parts though, so one could give it a listen. ‘Ishq hota nahin‘ by Adnan Sami is my pick from this album. A semi-depressing song that rises above the ordinary solely on the basis of Sami’s singing. There’s something about this guy — its not just his voice (which is kinda raw), nor his pronunciations (which range from decent to comical to atrocious) but the fact that he sings so completely dil se.. like he really feels what the song says. That spirit, the feeling that the person is really into the music/song he’s creating, that’s what makes Sami click for me!

   Side note — This Tabun Sutradhar is the guy who came out with a CD called ‘Soft Instrumentals of R D Burman’ some time ago, a CD that is most commonly heard playing in the background in a typical desi restaurant in the US :)

3. Kuchh To Hai (Anu Malik) — A baaaaad remake of I Know What You Did Last Summer starring Tusshar Kapoor (he’s the hero not the evil monster killer, although you could easily be confused :| ). My pick from the movie, ‘dil ding dong ding bole‘. The song is reasonably catchy and Sunidhi seems like she’s having so much fun! So if you can block out the image of Tusshar dancing to it, it can click for you!

4. Kyaa Dil Ne Kahaa (Himesh Reshammiya) — One of *the* worst movies of all time. Made me develop new found appreciation for Janasheen (which was my prior ‘worst movie’ status flick). My friends are of the opinion that I have a secret crush on Tusshar Kapoor (since I insist on seeing every movie of his). I am of the opinion that some healthy self-loathing never hurt anyone :| On to the song ‘nikamma kiya is dil ne‘ — a dhinchak hit category song, peppy and fast, although noisy at times (I *don’t* like the English bits), but generally very catchy. Shaan and Sanjeevani (who shone in Kareeb) sing in both versions.

Realization at the end of review — I watch a lot of really bad movies. Some by choice, that too. Tsk tsk.

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? :)

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 :)

Was revisiting one such song today, after many months.. Gulzar’s evocative lyrics set to a simple and beautiful melody by R D Burman. The questions that life throws at us, ever so innocently.. and the storm of emotions and thoughts that we pass through as a result of it..

Tujhse naraaz nahin zindagi hairaan hoon main
Tere masoom sawaalon se pareshaan hoon main

jeene ke liye socha hi nahin, dard sambhaalne honge
muskuraayen to, muskuraane ke karz utaarne honge
muskuraaooN kabhi to lagtaa hai
jaise honTon pe karz rakhhaa hai

aaj agar bhar aai hain, boondein baras jaayengii
kal kyaa pataa inke liye aankhen taras jaayengii
jaane kab ghum hua kahaan khoya
ek aansoo chhupaake rakhaa thaa

zindagi tere gham ne hamein rishte naye samjhaaye
mile jo hamein dhoop mein mile chhaon ke thanDe saaye..

Film: Masoom (1982); Singer(s): Lata Mangeshkar, Anup Ghoshal; Lyrics: Gulzar; Music: R D Burman

When I smile, I feel the smile weigh on my lips like a debt. When the tears flow, I don’t stop them, for my eyes might crave for those very tears tomorrow. Eloquent words that tug at our heartstrings.. This song will always have a special place in my heart.