Tag: Music

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cinema cinema: hindi Music

What’s Music Doc? Tere Bin

I have been fence sitter when it comes to the song or no song debate, I jump sides often (ya it’s me) . My reasons for this are grounded in the hours and hours of political news coverage by national and regional channels. “Issue based support” being the correct phrase, if you please.

This song from Wazir definitely deserves a WMD post.

tere-bin-story_647_120415045355

I do not know if anything else from Wazir deserves writing about, ok that was quite rude.

You can’t get always what you want, so my dream of ‘seeing’ the songs ONLY along with the film is more than always killed. Technically the songs should ONLY work in the boundaries of the film, yeah the song might be great, composed with a mind that has been aided by the hands of the divine or verses that have been taken right from the surface of a calm lake.

All that is ok, but what is the song doing in the movie, yaar?

Wazir has this genius level intro song, there is no prelude to this introduction(prelude to the introduction a? ennada solre), you have no idea who the characters are and there is no associated speak or visual cues for us to identify with; in other words Bejoy Nambiar was on a ‘wing and a prayer’ (we like to use phrases, kid writers we be) when he begins his film on loss of kids masquerading as a thriller with the absolutely wonderful ‘Tere Bin’

Shot in enjoyable slow motion, which although seems forced at the very beginning comes to its own being towards the end of the song; ever since I heard the song I had wanted to see it and ever since I have seen it, I can now never forget it. Which is success in a way.

But I’ll tell you what real success is, these flash backs are one irksome lot in movies, but the thing is most dramatic films can’t do without them, they lend character to the characters, essentially these are parcels of emotions which make us realize the motivations and why a certain character is behaving in a certain way at present. And this takes up a lot of screen time and when done badly makes you wish you were never born.

In 3 minutes Wazir establishes what most movies take a good part of the ‘first quarter of the post interval’ phase (hehe not that technically, buddy), there are no scenes as to how Daanish (Farhan Akhtar, a disoriented ATS officer) and Ruhana (a very oriented Kathak-ist? played by Aditi Rao Hydari) meet, there are no scenes of their courtship period (this being a Delhi film would have been shot in Humayun’s Tomb etc),there are no scenes to show each doting on the other, how their firstborn was cherished like little Simba and how love was so much part of their family like most Bollywood families tend to be; but all this is there in the song ya. ( director laughs like Blofeld who has plans to take over the world but doesn’t know Bond is lurking somewhere in the shadows)

And all this is very necessary for the audience to feel the weight of child loss when the kid is killed a few minutes later in a rather umm ‘This-is-not-supposed-to-happen-now’ moment (OK I spoiled that for you), so now you see that this is a genius move to open with a song that adds something to your movie and more importantly, doesn’t eat up time. Do not know if it will work every time, but here it did!

While Shreya Ghoshal and Sonu Nigam take you through the lives of the protagonist and family, couldn’t help wondering if these moments are like those carefully selected photos that are seen on facebook, highlighting the happy moments, even more stressing to the general populace that happiness is abound. ALWAYS.

But is it?

That’s for another post. but if only Wazir had been quite as amazing as the song and used judiciously the time created by this number.

 

Yeah, here is the song. 

 

 

Categories
cinema cinema:tamil Music

CROSSING OUT FAVORITES: P B SRINIVAS

 

In my limited years on this planet and with my limited knowledge mostly brainwashed by the waves of the late night radio, the sweetest masculine voice I have ever heard was that of PB Srinivas.

In the age of instant availability, the remembrance of a song is lost, when you can listen to whatever song you want to listen when you want to, a large part of longing for the song is lost. Along with that longing also is lost the widening eyes of discovery of a song and the amazement when the choice of playing your favorite song was reduced to probabilities.

PB Srinivas along with P Sushila and TMS ruled during a time of untroubled easy radio listening, for me personally the three represented the largely un-churned ocean of music in which every song represented a memory or story, but primarily the aforementioned amazement of discovery of a beautiful song.

 

And PB Srinivas and P Sushila are more so close because they have sung my all time favorite song, “Katru Vanthal Thalaisaayum” from Katrirundha Kangal, a simple happy riddle-answer love song that Kannadasan seemed to write out so brilliantly often that it makes you doubt that whether an extra hand of God was involved. It is the happiest song I’ve ever heard and it produces same happiness every time and it is sad that this type of indescribable happiness, I am unable to transfer; esp time when Sushila goes “Naanum…” and PBS joins in to complete the couplet.

The happy thing is that all the songs are still there, the sad part however is that he won’t be there to sing them anymore.

For one who doesn’t know the nuances of music or the theory of ragas how they might affect the spirits of the listener, there are only two type of songs: the pleasant and the unpleasant and all the PBS songs I heard were pleasant.

Even the ones he wrote were.

Death has claimed another favorite.

 

Categories
cinema Music

THE BEATLES AND BAASHYAM MAMA

DEDICATION

There is a Baashyam Mama in most families, the slightly irreverent, unconnected patriarch still living life to their terms and singing “Anda naalum vandithato!” amidst chaos. I believe music began with such people. This is dedicated to all those people, and to the Beatles, for no apparent reason.

 

ONE

Is it right, if a sad song? A song about loss and suffering brings more cheer than discomfort?

It has to be the night; otherwise he wouldn’t have to worry about passing it. The Night becomes so insufferable which it makes it very difficult to think of anything else but her. He even wishes the rainy season for which he has fond memories.

A man reduced to drink, that which should allow him some scope to escape only drags him down into the blackness.

Irony it may seem, that a song on discomfort is so comforting.