Those one and half minutes...!

The past two weeks have been pretty hectic for me, but I was kind of happy at the response that my review of Dilli 6 had got. Such good music deserves to be appreciated. So, coming to the point- what have I got to rant this time, then? I firmly believe that unless there is something worth writing about, I will not pick up the laptop to punch in whatever you are reading right now. And so it is, this time too. Over the two weeks of "hecticity" (which will probably worsen as winter fades out into spring) I went to a lot of buildings and did an awful lot of walking. When it comes to buildings, most of the American ones are embellished with generously outfitted lifts. Most of them are fast, extremely fast. Some may even claustrophobe you to a nausea- they are that scary. The first time I was in a lift in the US of A, I freaked out completely. My breath went for a walk, jaw dropped, teeth felt like falling out and the stomach felt as if it had been screwed up into my tonsil. The lift covered hardly four to five stories of the building, but it was insanely fast. I don't understand the need for such hugely accelerating lifts! What could people do with saving a milli-second or two? Foist in a date at Starbucks? (if the outlet is existent- I heard the economy busted even them).

Anyways, coming to the issue in question., this is a common experience everyone faces. What do you do when travelling with someone you don't know, in a lift ? I have encountered this problem of late... despite it being just a matter of a minute or two in total, I find it really difficult to remain to myself., keep off looking at what their cellphone looks like or who the person on the other end of the phone might be ( I am certainly not referring to any girl here ;) ) Seconds pass by like days, and the mind repeatedly asks me to look up at the person and give a gentle smile- only to be refused that by my neck muscles. I try to shut my mind and eye to the world, but the claustrophobic metal presses my forehead and pulls my eyelids apart. I proxy-open my cellphone to check non-existent missed calls and messages, only to realise the insides of the lift do not even receive cellphone signals. This is something I have no answer to- the "lift minute", I would say- is equivalent to a 100% busy day, or even more- in "mental confusion" terms. Despite having had so many tough moments in life, I have never come across something as awkward as going on a lift with someone whom you don't even know- for hardly a minute of fleeting company. Irony, they say- is the flavour of life. Bow to you, whoever said that !

Delhi 6 Music Review (Dilli 6)

What a pity - this single available poster I searched out on the net for Dilli 6, does not have the maestro's name on it as a part of the main credits. Anyways, in short, A.R.Rahman has hit all other composers for a clean six with the Dilli 6 album. Here's a short review of all the songs, in the order that I listened to.

Masakalli - Mohit Chauhan

Originality, and freshness, in instrumentation and tune, and vocals. Mohit Chauhan is the newest talent on the block to be unveiled by Rahman. (Apparently he sung in Jab We Met too, but this song will get him recognition, I bet.) Watch out for him as this song climbs up the charts and stays up there for a good while from now. Instantly likeable, and on repeated listening you tend to notice the background instruments and vocals - this man Mohit has got the metallic tinge to his voice, the likes we saw in Kailash Kher and Javed Ali- he is somewhere in between the two. I absolutely went fida over this song.

Maula Arziyaan - Javed Ali, Kailash Kher

Astounding. Brilliant. Devout. Goosebumpy. Powerful. Five words to describe this song. The twosome I referred to before, come together to give this splendid number, ( I reckon its a Sufi style devotional song on the lines of Khwaja from Jodha Akbar ). This song is going to be played ages down the line for the definition of a devotional composition. Eight and a half minutes of bliss, and beautifully rendered verses. May generate tears of happiness, in my case it did.

Rehna Tu - A R Rahman, Benny Dayal, Tanvi

Sung by Rahman himself, the first impression this song gives you is that its one of those "forgettable numbers" you hear while dining at a restaurant. Truth that it is just not that. Goes up and down, stops when you think it would'nt, and the last two minutes define the difference between Rahman and other composers. I just cannot think of anyone who would thrust in an instrumental like that in such a song other than Rahman! Modern music to start off with, Arabic in between, and Classical to end it! Loved it on repeated listening, and the last two minutes I went ballistic with Rahman on the Continuum. Please tell me the raga in which the last classical piece is set in, I love it!

Delhi 6 - Blaaze, Benny Dayal, Vivinenne Pocha, Tanvi, Claire

A good title song for a movie, works wonders for its publicity , like we saw with Sivaji and many other Rajni movies. This one delivers, bigtime. Set keeping in the partying-multiplexing generation in mind, the familiar grooving and mixing associated with DJ-ing make this number a good peppy one to listen to. Nice rhyme scheme for the lyrics :)

Hey Kaala Bandar - Karthik, Naresh, Srinivas, Bony Chakravarthy

Reminds me of "Kama Kama" from the Tamil movie "Enakku 20 Unakku 18", and more recently "Behka" from Ghajini in the way the lyrics are tinkered with to set in the tune. Nevertheless, this one is also a party track, but Rahman would not leave it at that would he ? Starts off with a "Desert Rose"ish vocal, and later he brings in some competition between the singers Karthik, Naresh, Srini and Bony and it ends up being quite a lot to reckon with on first hearing. Glaring similarity to "Dil ka rishta" from Yuvvraaj (in the humming) notwithstanding, repeated listening makes things clearer - this one is the "in" thing for ringtones. Overall, good work.

Genda Phool - Rekha Bharadwaj, Shraddha Pandit, Sujata Majumdar

Newbies at it again. Rahman uses a completely new set of singers for this composition, which is kind of the Ila Arun type lusty numbers. Effortless on the singing, and not a huge effort for the ears to take- this one meanders on, decent number. Not the best one, but is passable.

Noor- Amitabh Bachchan

This one's poetry, rendered by Amitabh Bachchan. I do not know why its been included in the album, but the verses are nice :)

Bhor Bhayi - Shreya Ghoshal,Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Gujri Todi

One of the best numbers in the album, this one's branded Hindustani from second one. Brilliant singing by Shreya Goshal with good backing by the Ustad. If you are a classical music person, this one will entice you to no end. It is just an immense pleasure listening to Bhor Bhayi! Rahman should be lauded for venturing into this one.

Aarti (Tumre Bhavan Mein) - Rekha Bharadwaj, Kishori Gowariker, Shraddha Pandit, Sujata Majumdar

As the title reads, its a Mangal Aarti song- makes for good listening, and is otherwise not a mainstream composition. Characterized with good vocal-instrument synchronisation.

Dil Gira Dafatan - Ash King, Backing: Chinmayee

Reminds me of some old Hindi song, but I liked this somehow. Its different, slow, got a beautiful guitar accompaniment throughout , thrumming into the ears- grows into a joyful symphony full of little nuances. Ash has sung it very well, Chinmayee impresses in the little that is given to her( I just wish she had a song for herself :( ) I just hope this does not go into the background score in the movie. It somehow feels like the type of song when parting with home and sundry. The surprise of the album, is this. I didn't expect it!

On the whole, Arabic, Classical, Hindustani, Modern music. Peppy numbers, sad ones, mangal aarties, classical, party tracks, symphonies - got to be A.R.Rahman's best work in a while. Notches above Yuvvraaj in its range and reach- splendid on the ears. This man has proven he is worth his weight in Golden Globes.

Delhi 6 - 9.5/10.

(make my previous rating of 9/10 for Yuvvraaj, 7 on 10. Rahman has pushed the scale up further with Delhi 6. )

Resolution !

One of these days on vacation I was feeling bored - result , was surfing through to download those car chases that we so often see on AxN or StarWorld in the name of "World's craziest cop videos". It took a while for me to figure out what all this "downloading from a mirror" and stuff meant. Meanwhile the site had asked me to wait for 2 minutes before the download could begin ( I figured that I had figured out what to do, finally! )


Oh God, don't those two minutes seem the worst you can have ? The longest , and most boring two minutes in which you cannot move your eyes off the screen and cannot even think of anything even if you wanted to ?


Not exactly. I decided otherwise. This time I was going to beat my "don't-think-of-anything-just idle-around" tendency. Drifting my eyes to the surroundings , I suddenly realised there could easily be a five hundred odd things to think about. Well, taking that as a legitimate number, it works out to 2/500 = .004 seconds per thought. Impractical. That meant I had to end thinking about something even before I could think of it.. That's crazy to say the least. Even if I had started thinking of say, Katrina Kaif , I would need a day or two instead of a second or two to get back to sanity ... Not joking but that's true of any desi guy I'd say - atleast over the last year. Why would she be the most Googled celebrity if it weren't otherwise.


The Vista sent a beep and my download had begun - successfully ending another unsuccessful resolution of mine. Only this time it was'nt for the New Year , and lasted as much as Monty Panesar on the field.


P.S. The picture that's carried in this blog entry, I feel- is the picture of the year. It is solely intended to poke fun at the Australians , and hardly took around 0.01 seconds to emerge out of nowhere as my favourite. Not bad , I'd say - 2 minutes is a lot of time if you're making fun of someone. :-)

Captured, on film!

For good or for bad, more or less everyone of us has a cellphone in hand today. Most of the middle class(like me) , and upper middle class can afford one with a camera in it., in some cases even with a high resolution that one may not even come across in a conventional camera by itself!

So much for a mandatory introductory paragraph to every writeup. I am bugged of it, but as all wannabe-decent writeups need to consist of, I need to keep that in there to atleast give you an inkling of what may be coming by , in case I sound little "out-of-the-box". Frankly I'm just writing something till I get an idea to develop on, so never mind.

Of late, there have been a lot of things I have come across, worth photographing (I know some intelligent brains would think I'm referring to the female fraternity, OK people- they're included too! Agreed, for once :) ) There have been instances which have made it worth being captured on Memory(Its not Film, even figuratively, anymore :( So much for technology! But let's keep it as film, though.)






Recently, one of my friends passed on a picture taken in our childhood, with all the fade and conventional oldness of the paper-print set in perfectly. It brought back memories of all the fun we had playing cricket in spaces hardly a hundred square foot in size... losing tennis balls by the dozen, the trip to the local circus.. fighting over melting ice-pepsi's ( as they called it locally- those thin sticks of color-flavored sweet ice ) roaming the streets in 40 Degrees C heat , and probably a thousand thoughts more which could fill up all the print quota I have for my semester.

The thing was, the photo had captured all of us- by each other, posing for the Kodak moment. The beauty behind the thing was that, probably all the little incidents I had thought of when I saw the photo first up- had never been recorded anywhere- but in my mind.

The best moments of our life, I realise, may have never been captured on film.

Mumbai Massacre - Waking up to reality.

The past few days saw me driven into what I can easily call "a writing euphoria". Walking back home a hundred metres from class , gave me a thousand different thoughts to write a blog on. The traffic signs, pedestrians crossing, the stray dog, emptied parking lots, church hallways, petrol bunks, the cloudy sky, even the wind that gently bristled my "not-so-long" but definitely unkempt hair. It is another story as to why I could not convert everything into writing - maybe on the reoccurence of that euphoria I would stop whatever I was doing and get to the nearest computer to write my heart out.

For now , I have been hooked to the news channels - since a few hours. As everyone would guess , this is just another write up on the Mumbai blasts , unless you take some effort to make out that it would be a little bit different ( from whatever you have read until now ) , and fortunately continue to read on.

Most people could classify me as a news-freak., bent upon getting apprised of all the happenings in the world, and especially the country of my residence. The Mumbai blasts also saw me do the same, only that the way I viewed it was a bit off the block from the way I had viewed the previous so-many attacks in various parts of India.

To say exactly, I was bored of these "terrorist attacks - people dead and injured - two days of continuous news programming - relief from government in form of money - ministers visiting injured and getting primetime footage - a week of incessant debates on terrorism - politicians blaming each other - a week later move on to newer stories - and then forget about it" routine. I know every one of us would have seen all these unfold on every previous occurrence of a terrorist attack. Maybe it was time I told myself that I was anti-national? I asked myself that question. The answer was a firm NO. I love my country, like no other, and I'm selfish when it comes to protecting it. Then I asked myself " Or maybe it was time I(we) responded maturely to this?" . Thinking over this for less than a second, I landed up with a Bingo for an answer.

Leave aside the media , which I believe blows out of proportion the troubles of the rich and discounts the value of the lives of the poor ( which even the government does ) , let us think on our feet first. Here are a bunch of hardly 20+ guys who come into a city which is more or less the economical crux of a country which is threatening to break into the top 5 countries list of the world. They came, they shot, and they conquered us , even if it be for only a few days. They killed our loved ones, removed our prized possessions from us, mowed down the people who protect us, and spread panic all around. Fear for life non-existent, we could only see in disbelief and awe as they rummaged through our valued friends and landmarks. What do they have that we do not? What makes them so much more attacking and gutsy than the police whom we bank upon to protect us?

Will Power. Unity. Choosing your time to strike. Building up your network to inflict the maximum damage. Lack of fear. Lack of love. Commiseration with the fact that death is inevitable at all costs. Patriotism to the organization served. Clearness of achieving a goal. On the whole,Maturity in response.

Look at all the above statements. Even a little bit of a terrorist in you could hit back against them. This is our country, let us not let it go. A maturity in mind is required for us to go ahead. Let us hit them back hard, in the best way possible- by not brooking the insanities that these organizations unleash on us. This blog is not a knee jerk reaction to what may have been the worst terrorist attack ( in type ) India has ever seen. But it is an opinion built upon years of looking at fateful incidents such as the one on Nov. the 26th. Looks it is time, finally. India is waking up to reality.

Inspirational Lyrics ( Translated) of one of the best songs I have heard.

This country of yours is your motherland
And is calling out to you
This is a bond which can never break

How can you forget the scent of your earth
You can go anywhere but you'll always come back
In new paths, in every sigh
To your lost heart
Someone will say
This land of yours is your motherland

Life is telling you
You have achieved everything now what's left
Looks like happiness has been showered on you
But you're far from your home
Now come back oh crazy one
Where at least someone will call you their own
And will call out to you
That very same country
This land that is yours..

This moment has hidden in it
A whole century of life
Don't ask why, in the road
Has come a fork with two ways
You are the one who should choose the path
You should choose which direction to take
This very country

This country of yours is your motherland.

Of Manholes and Movies...

Sometimes one tends to get abstract thoughts - questioning the very existence of some things which we may as well have taken for granted. It could be anything - like for example "why are manholes round in shape? " - most of my well-informed friends would know the answer to this, but for the benefit of who do not know , manholes are round in shape because they cannot fall inside the sewer below even if wrongly placed in position on top of the hole. If it were a square or rectangle, chances are that it may fall through.

This is just one example of things taken for granted - a very pedestrian one. As is the habit of the writer of this blog, who always lives in some dreamland where he wishes that everything he writes be classified " powerful, sophisticated, yet touching"- this time I came up with a cranky thought when my statistics course was getting too mindblowing to be accommodated into one night-out.

Are we ever able to imagine a movie without the concept of "love" ? Just ask yourself - and name a few movies (be it any language) - say ten of them from the past year which you know have no love stories in them at all as the crux of the film. Chances are that you may not be able to name that many- if you did then you should either be a critic or a genius! (Does not imply all critics are fools , although I wont object to it - ;) ) I do not know from where filmmakers came up with the idea of projecting "love stories" on screen - but agreed well and good that it has worked for what I would call eternity. Of late even animation movies are having lovetracks in them to reach out to the adolescents , and garner more recognition and acceptance among a larger age group. Hollywood though has started improvising on new issues of late - documentaries are also being widely accepted by the populace.

What about Bollywood and the other Indian regional film industries ?

Amitabh loves a 16 yr old (Nishabd) - Rajnikanth still runs around trees with women less than half his age ( I'm a Rajni fan but have to be little unbiased out here ) - Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna still fight goons and have more than one woman singing and dancing around them.

Love is the best feeling even when in excess , but that doesn't mean any kind of an overdose of it is acceptable.

High time filmmakers wake up to creating meaningful cinema.

P.S.- I started this blog entry thinking of writing about manholes alone for the day. Alas- perfection avoids those setting out to achieve it.