Music Review:Dilli 6

On the heels of the much heralded audio track of Slumdog Millionaire (I still wonder why), Rahman gives us Rakeysh Mehras next movie, Dilli 6.

Masakali - Kinda weird. I don't usually like Rahman when he tries this kinda stuff, but to the contrary to my usual assumption, Its not a bad hear. Surely a one month ear candy and some more.

Dilli-6 - The title track, this has a lot of character... kinda pacey. It has some lady rapping in some foreign language, probably french, and then in Hindi too with a similar accent. But nice mixing of styles...

Hey Kaala Bandar -  Sung really well and a very good english rap merge. The lyrics are actually good(for most part) and a catchy rhythmic tune and beat. This one will rule the radio channels for quite a while.

Bhor Bhaye - I am not classically inclined, but from what I heard, this is very well sung and otherwise out of my league. :-) One for Shreyas resume, if she will ever need one.

Dil Gira Dafatan - What does the title of this song mean ? Nice strumming and later on scottish pipes. Can't think of many music directors who can give us this kinda instrumentation feel. But that being said, the husky male vocals didnt do it for me and I didn't feel anything special in the tune either. I have an inkling that Rahmaniacs will brand this as one of the most brilliant tracks ever and stuff. To escape their wrath, lemme say, I don't have a clue of such high fundoo music, so let me be. :-) Hopefully situational song, otherwise the most pedestrian track of the album (for me).

Arti tumre bhavan mein - Whats with Rahman and devotional sounding songs ? He always seem to get it right, whether its bhajans or sufi songs. No real music to talk about, but a totally riveting tune. For reasons I can't well explain, this is winner of the album for me and would have loved for it to be longer that it actually was.

Arziyan - Again Rahman with his devotional sounding song and this one has got great male vocals. Both Javed Ali and Kailash Kher have exceled in my opinion.I didn't think there was anything out of the way in the tune, but a nice hear none the less. They neednt have had this as a 9 minute song though!

Ghenda Phool - Now this is what Rahman would call fusion, and why not. A rustic voice (Rekha Bharadwaj) mixing with club beats and yet sounding like they belong. This is the second song (first being Kala Bandar) that I would like to see the picturisation off. Though the lyrics give away the generic locale and feel, the music seems too 'out there' for it to be anything usual. Lets wait and watch....

Rehna Tu - Rahman sometimes keep the best track of the album for himself, but he hasnt done that here, since this is not a special song. Its OK sounding and Rahman sounds very Rahman like and there is nothing more to write home about.

So, all in all, we have a mixed bag with Dilli 6, with some songs that are good, some average and none that is bad per say. I would give it a 7 on 10, and the lesser rating coz, for me, there is no real cracker of a track in this album. :-(

Music Review: Yuvvraaj & Ghajini

I had been thinking of writing a review for Yuvvraaj for more than a week now, but just haven't gotten around to it. So, here it is, along with a bonus Ghajini music review. ;-)

Yuvvraaj:
Subhash Ghai wielding the directors mic after a long time (I think). Honestly, I don't think much of the guy as a director, but hey, what do I know! :-) So, as a movie, I was not looking forward to Yuvvraaj, and if I go by the reviews, I was right. But w.r.t music, "anything" from A R Rahman has gotta be more interesting than the rest of the fare. And this time, Rahman does not disappoint. The album is one of the best from Rahman off late and considering Jodhaa Akbar earlier in the year, bettering that, in my opinion was a tough ask. Rahman did just that with this album. Typical Kay-Kay range melody in Tu Meri Dost Hain and well rendered by Shreya and a good start in Bollywood by Benny Dayal. I feel he has goofed up around the end of a stanza at about a minute and 20 sec into the song, but I don't seem to find support from the most musically literate person I personally know (my wife :-)). Tell me if anyone else feels that Benny lost it. Next is Shano Shano which is a typical peppy number but a little slow for being a party song though. The next one, Tu Muskura, is my favourite in this album. How Rahman got Alka Yagnik to croon like her good ol' days will remain a mystery, but hell she has delivered! And Javed Ali, what can I say, I just like his raw, rustic and fresh voice. I need to hear this guy sing more! The album probably didn't need another light song, but it has Mastam Mastam. In my opinion, this is the weakest song in the album. Zindagi has the smooth-as-silk Srinivas delivering the song beautifully. This is more a Srinivas song than a Rahman one. Dil Ka Rishta is where Rahman displays his growing prowess in western style orchestration and does a really good job. Manmohini is an ok song I suppose, probably too classical for me to appreciate it. :-) . All in all, I loved 3 songs, and find the rest of the songs also to be good. I give it a 7.5 on 10. Have I ever rated albums before ?

Ghajini:
Getting two super albums in one year from Rahman that I love is rare and getting a third was almost too good to be true. But after hearing the promos of Guzarish, I knew I could well be surprised. Its Javed Ali again and another great song! As if his souding like Sonu Nigam was not confusing enough, the humming in the middle of the song is actually by Sonu Nigam! A very nice song and sung very well. Aye Bachoo is a fast number and ever so stylishly rendered by Suzanne. I liked it more for the attitude in Suzannes voice. Kaise Mujhe has Karthik at vocals doing a decent job and the song starts off with promise, but the song kinda moves into this lazy note and kinda lacks the initial emotions till Shreya does the rescue act. This is quite rare for a rahman song, and the album has been going only downhill from Guzarish. Behka by Rahman flavour of the season, Benny and the constant of the season, Shreya. The song didn't do anything for me. The promos of the songs seem interesting, but the song by itself was not. Latoo is a true run-of-the-mill song and somehow Shreya, though does a decent job, should leave this genre of songs to Sunidhi. A rather disappointing end to a promising start. I give it a 5.5 on 10, and I guess even this rating is being helped by the latent leftover effect of Yuvvraaj.

Rahman has been very busy this year, and I am yet to hear the soundtrack of Slumdog Millionaire. Maybe we have more to come from the Maestro before the year ends...

Flattery?

Someone once said "Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery". I am sure this was coined by some guy who plagiarized his way to the bank and then when he got caught, he had a well phrased statement coined and ready for use.

During the usual weekend manga sessions, me, my wife and cousins usually discuss about bollywood, movies, music etc. One of the constant topics over the last year or so has been the hits being delivered by the combo of Pritam, Kay Kay and a band of unknown singers. The constant in the equation is always Pritams music. I always had this gut feeling that he was definitely copying stuff from somewhere, but could never really find out from where. Even while watching his latest blockbuster Race, I was getting this nagging feeling... "Man, this guy has gotta be lifting this stuff!". My dad, who could care less about Pritam and his music, actually liked the songs of the movie and therein lies the secret to Pritams success. Every song revolves around 2 or 3 notes and catchy lyrics to go with it and viola you have a hit album. His music is shallow but peppy and that is apparently all that people need.

Unlike his predecessors like Anu Malik, Pritam does an extremely good job of choosing songs that he gets "inspired" by. During some general youtube browsing I came across these 3 videos which makes quite an eye popping revelation of Pritams flattering ways.







Since its unlikey that this info will ever reach the bigger audience, the hit music director, Pritam, will continue to make oodles of money on someone else's hard work. :-)

Music Review: M.I.A-Kala

To start off... Wish you and your family a very happy and healthy 2008!

A friend of mine pointed me to this youtube video. The music was extremely catchy and infectious! My friend and myself discussed this and felt it sounded a lot like dapang-koothu and very gaana sounding lyrics. To add, it seemed to have some sorta desi influences in the basic tune too. Now that it had got my attention, I had to dig around a little more...

The name of the artist is M.I.A and the name of the album is Kala. I remember seeing this as one of the best selling albums of 2007 on some music trivia page. At first sight, this reminded me of some hip hop artist from US and disregarded it. But after hearing it, was totally impressed with the peppiness. And once I got to the wiki page, I was convinced with whatever my friend and myself had discussed.

The artist M.I.A's real name is Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, a UK based artist originally from Sri Lanka. Her dad is a LTTE member and she has been shuttling between Sri Lanka, India and UK during her early years. Her first album is named Arular, named after her father and her second one is named Kala, which is named after her mother.

All in all, a very new and interesting sound. A definite must-hear.

The new radio city

We have a new FM radio station in Bangalore, Fever 104. These guys are not exactly new and have been around for 2-3 months now, but they have been pretty low key when compared to their competitors. This is strange considering the niche market that every station is trying to acquire. Also, the big name behind this station is Virgin who are a old name in the music game and should know that they need to woo the market, at least initially, even if they do present good music.



They have a very consistent format unlike other radio stations and this is probably what makes them unique. They play 40 minutes of non-stop, ad-free music every hour and then pepper in a few ads in the next 20 minutes. The Bangalore arm of the station is headed by erstwhile radio city RJ Darius and has some other ex-radio city RJs like Fiona and Rohit Jayakaran pitching in. Their song selection though is very much like radio city, trying to play the most "popular" songs in Bollywood and International tracks, though the ratio is almost 1:1. I have not heard a single Kannada song being played, which I think is bold. I did hear an RJ late in the night speak a few Kannada words though. :-)



As of now, I prefer Fever 104 to radio city simply because they play better music with lesser Ads. Sunaina Lal not being around didn't help radio city's cause either. But an annoying thing about Fever is their non-conformance to standard(if there is one). There is some funda of radio station frequencies ending with an odd number, at least in the US there is. In Bangalore too, we have:

1. Radio Mirchi - 98.3

2. Radio One - 94.3

3. Surya FM - 93.5

4. Big FM - 92.7

5. Radio Indigo - 91.9



Radio city started of as 91.0 and changed not so long ago to 91.1. This being said, why did Fever start off with 104.0 ?? I just bought a Car CD/FM player from the US and I know that will not support even ending frequencies. :-( Now, do I upgrade or wait for Fever to upgrade?

American Idol - Indian Origin

The monotonous reality talent hunt show "American Idol" is going strong in its sixth season! This season has been ruled by an American of semi-Indian parental origin, Sanjaya. I have never seen him performing on the show, but a colleague of mine showed me his pictures on the net and must say, this guy has some whacky hair and dress styles! Its probably because of this whackiness that he has a huge fan following, some of whom are crazy enough to do this! :-)

Music Review: Ta Ra Rum Pum

Home sickness kicking in and nothing like some Bollywood music to pep you back to work. I had a slew of new films to choose from, but wanted to play safe and went with Ta Ra Rum Pum. As far as I remember, this film was supposed to have Shekhar Kapur directing and A R Rahman scoring the music. Apparently plans changed and both these guys have nothing to do with the movie. Since this is a music review I only care for the music director(s) and Vishal-Shekhar are as good as any out there in Bollywood music these days.



The first impression on hearing these songs were... "wait a sec, haven't I heard these somewhere?". This unfortunately stuck to my head throughout my listening and hasn't gotten any better. But none the less, the songs have merit and they exist with an identity(barely).



Of all the songs in the movie, the one that is the obvious hit and a class apart is O Shona by Shaan and Sunidhi. Shaan somehow manages to nudge ahead of KK even though KK does get some songs in some unexpected films to be hits. You can also sense the extra effort Sunidhi puts in to sound soft and suppress her otherwise more throaty sound. Definite hit (it must already be doing the rounds in channels back home) and a definite out of India picturisation. Its gotta be so, its Yashraj afterall! Haven't they forgotten that there are picturesque places in India too? :-) Another song which caught my fancy was Ab To Forever sung by Kay Kay. This is a real pacey number with an initial cue sorts sung by Vishal (part of the music director duo) which is so so catchy! Definitely ring tone material. ;-). Vishal has also sung a sufi number of sorts which again is pretty impressive. After hearing Shekhar in Aazmalae from Taxi No 9211 and Vishal now, I can quite boldly say that these are the best singing music director duo Bollywood has seen. But I do wonder though, if Kailash Kher had sung the sufi score, it would be so much more apt. These were the interesting parts of the album. We now have the typical Title song, which is ok but not really captivating and a slow version of the same song sung by Shreya Ghoshal. Nachle Ve and Saiyaan were typical and kinda brings the overall rating for the album down.



So, I think this album deserves somewhere between a 6 and a 7 out of 10, how about 6.5 ? :-)

Music Review: Sona

Wondering when a movie by this name got released or is gonna get released? Good luck finding it as I am not talking about any film. :-) This is a pop album which was released a while back, apparently, but the music video got released recently. Or more accurately put, I saw the video recently and then I just had to listen to the album, and I have no clue when the album was actually released.

I have been told that the songs of this album have been on FM stations in Bangalore, but surprisingly I hadn't heard them. The songs in the album are very fresh and nice. The lead singer is Sona Mohapatra, who is a slightly peppy and less strong version of Shubha Mudgal. Her sound is not soft and sweet but can still render melody. I don't know how good or bad she is in classical music, but for pop numbers, her voice is just about perfect. The video of the song Aaja Ve got me interested in the album just as much as the song. A song sung by a female, a good looking one at that, has a video that doesn't have skimpily clad item number girls shaking their booty. This for me is a novelty in itself these days and the Computer Graphics in the video do it absolutely no harm.

From the songs perspective, I personally enjoyed, Aaja Ve, Bolo Na and Sapne. The other songs in the album are also pretty decent, but right now, these 3 songs don my playlist. Ishq Nachaye is sorta given a sufi touch with Abhi nahin Aana showing that she can sing soft songs too. The music for the album is by Ram Sampat who had done the music for the bollywood film Khakee, but hasn't been seen doing any good films off late.

Give it a listen people, some creativity from an Indian artist in the Indipop scene after a long time. Definitely prefer this over Atif Aslam's Doorie, which again is a rarity these days with singers from Pakistan doing very well for themselves in the Pop and Bollywood scene. I give the album a 7/10.

Music Review: Ustad and the Divas

Ustad Sultan Khan (Piya Basanti fame)is back and he has more than a diva to keep him company. The evergreen Chitra is joined this time around by the two best that Bollywood has to offer, Sunidhi and Shreya. There are 6 songs and a few remixes(this is the norm!) in this album and on first hear they seem like an OK compilation.

The best song of the album and the one whose video is already being aired Leja Leja, sung by Shreya Ghoshal and she has done a fantastic job! The video is also very catchy featuring the extremely good looking lass from Bangalore, Nina Sarkar. This is the only song by Shreya but I think she has the meatiest one! There are 3 songs by Sunidhi with Billo being the best one. Chitra has 2 songs in this album with Rangeela Rut is probably the peppiest number in the album. The sound of this song sounds very familiar, but I can't place where I have heard it. There is this constant presence of Ustad Sultan Khan's voice in every song and somehow that didn't do it for me. He must be a great Sarangi exponent(he is after all a Ustad), but I somehow don't find his voice that captivating or romantic.

The music of this album is by Sandesh Shandilya who had a pretty good run in Bollywood not so long ago, but has been on the fringes since. All in all a decent offering from him with the Divas taking the cake. I most certainly couldn't get the Piya Basanti feel in any song, but maybe more listening of this album would help. I rate it a 6.8 on 10.

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Many Thanks :-)

Today has been a good day for me as a blogger. I had some 100+ unique visitors today and almost all of them came because of this. Thanks a lot Gopal. It was fun having so many comments and replying to all the brickbats. I have to thank A R Rahman too for getting me the few seconds of fame.

The two most viewed entries at my blog:
1. Guru vs Kabul Express
2. Smile Specialist

I guess celebrities do matter.

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Music Review: Guru vs Kabul Express

This weekend saw two high profile music releases, Guru and Kabul Express. Guru is the much awaited Mani Rathnam directed, music by A R Rahman and starring Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and more. Kabul Express has a good star cast and is directed by Kabir Khan, recently associated as the cinematographer of The Journalist and the Jihadi: The Murder of Daniel Pearl. The music for Kabul Express is by Raghav Sachar, the very talented Indipop entrant.

Spent the better part of Saturday listening to these two soundtracks and the decision on which is a better one became clear towards the end of the day. The music of the Guru, in Rahmans own words, "a Gujarati sound, goes on to Turkish, then very north Indian friendly kind of music and also some opera stuff". One of my cousins is a big fan of A R Rahman and Mani Rathnam and Guru symbolises the highpoint of his movie experience for the year. He has been having me hear promos and small bits of music from Guru for the last few months and I too was pulled into this inevitable hype that seems to be passe for every Mani Rathnam movie! With A R Rahman, you always have to listen to his songs a few times before they hit you, but I must say that Guru doesn't seem to have the songs to do that. "Tere Bina" by Rahman and Chinmayee is the most captivating in terms of music and Rahman continues his recent trend of keeping the best song to himself. "Barso Re" has Shreya Ghosal doing a great job and "Ay Hairathe" is the most soulful song of the lot and sounding a comeback of sorts for Hariharan. The rest seem more like musical fillers, but movie relevance will be known in a couple of weeks.

Kabul Express promised a lot less because of the music being from a newcomer. True to his indipop experiences earlier, Raghav has given a definite pop touch to the songs in the movie. There are 2 songs to contend with, one is "Kabul Fiza" sung by Raghav himself and 3 versions of "Banjar" sung by Shubha Mudgal, Sunidhi Chauhan and K K respectively. Both these songs in all its forms are very foot-tapping. The tunes have a definite newness about them and the peppy music adds to the energy of the songs.

Maybe its to do with all the hype surrounding Guru, but the music has definitely not lived up to the hoopla. On the other hand, Kabul Express is surprisingly pleasing. Though this is no comparison between A R Rahman and Raghav Sachar, it does go to show that all the time spent outside by the ever busy Rahman may be helping him in many ways, but doesn't seem to inspire his music enough! All in all a disappointing release from the maestro while another young gun is in the reckoning for stardom.

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