Music Review: Taare Zameen Par :: A heart-tugging album

It requires an unconventional film to come up with unconventional music. Taare Zameen Par seems destined to be added to the list of such films. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, after a recent string of mediocre offerings, have finally come up with a stirring album that is melodious, soulful and moving. None of the typical thumping beats that you normally see in their tracks - this one concentrates more on emotion and expression.

The bonus here is the beautiful lyrics penned by Prasoon Joshi. I have always been a diehard fan of Javed Akhtar and his Urdu poetry, and have never found anybody else even remotely close. But I have to admit that this time, Prasoon has come up with lyrics comparable to Akhtar's standards.

Two songs stand out in the movie. One of of course, the title track - Kho Na Jaye Ye Taare Zameen Par. The subtle likening of little children with dewdrops, that forms the opening lines of the song, is simply breathtaking. Each line of the song draws beautiful analogies. My favourite lines are at the end of the song

Mohalle ki raunak, galiyaan hain jaise
Khilne ki zid par, kaliyaan hain jaise
Mutthi Me Mausam ki jaise hawaayein,
Ye hain Buzurgon ki Dil ki Duaayein!

Awesome!

The second song is again another emotional ride, this one simply titled "Maa". If you can listen to this song without a single tear coming to your eyes, you've got to have one of the hardest hearts ever. Lyrics that are amazingly simple, yet so stirring. True music lovers will surely find their eyes wet when they hear this one.

The importance of the singer's voice in soft songs can never be understated. The tenderness in Shankar's voice does ample justice to both the above songs, as he sings them soulfully. What you get in the end is a treat to the ears - Two emotion-filled songs with melodious music, touching lyrics and top-notch singing.

The rest of the songs (Bheja Kum, Bum Bum Bhole, Kholo Kholo) are mainly meant for little kids, and sound reasonably okay. But it's "Maa" and "Kho na Jaaye" that are the life of the album. Enjoy!

Finance MisManagement

After the CAT, it's time for an onslaught of dogs, sheep, goats, cows and the rest of the cattle. And the worst part is, each one of them is damn expensive! I've spent nearly ten thousand bucks on exam and college admission forms alone, and there are more to come yet. My folks think I've got a secret source of illegal income, that's why I'm spending so much of it. But how do I explain, that this is how this wretched world works? That you have to apply to several colleges EVEN BEFORE knowing how much you will score in their entrance exam? It is obvious that this is nothing but an easy way for these greedy colleges to make more money. Their excuse: If you get into one of these colleges, you'll make a hundred times more money after passing out.

Aha. Thus you learn the first principle of management before even getting into the college - I'll loot you, you loot someone else.

The Aftermath......

Phew!! The past several months of hectic preparation finally culminated in a nerve-wracking two and a half-hour climax last Sunday. And boy, was it a cracker! This was one hell of a wild cat - tough, tricky and dangerous. I was majorly mauled, but have survived to tell the tale!

First of all, the main lesson I learnt from this exam : Never underestimate others' intelligence and your own stupidity.

Was it tough? You bet! But then, that's the fun in it - as I keep saying - the bigger the challenge, the greater the glory. It doesn't get bigger and more challenging than this! This was surely the final frontier in terms of mental challenges.

Was it possible to tame it? Possibly. Could I have fared better? Definitely yes. But then, days are rare when each and everything goes exactly as planned. So, I end up with a score that is tantalizingly close to an IIM call. So near, yet so far. That's when you realize the value of a single mark. A mark that could have probably made a difference of a lakh in my earnings. A mark that could have changed my career, my life. Just one silly, goddamned mark.

I've always felt, that marks are like money. Inspite of how much you get, you still feel like having some more. That was exactly the case here. From what I can see, my performance here has been better than most of my mock cats :) That gives me some kind of solace and comfort.

As for the hope of that one single call, well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed ! The suspense unravels after another 40-odd days... Till then... adios amigo and hope for the best!

Enjoyyy
Vivek S.

Office Office

The end of this rather long vacation is approaching, and it's only five more days left before the regular office grind starts.
The same old work, the same old place, the same old cubicle. On second thoughts, it doesn't seem too bad either, except for the travelling part. Maybe, if Miss Kitty doesn't smile on me, this place wouldn't be a bad alternative after all. Less pressure, less work, less effort. I'm actually missing office ;) Now that's a scary thought.

The CountDown begins....

Yikes! I almost forgot that I had a blog! Been ages and ages and some more ages since I last posted on my blog. I guess there are several reasons ranging from hectic work schedules to erratic internet connections (the main reason, however, is my eternal laziness).

Hmm.. Right now, the time is 12:05 AM (What a beautiful time to write a blog) on 25th October 2007. I'm on leave for the past few days for certain "feline" reasons (get the hint). However, I don't seem to be making much use of this leave, as is evident from the fact that I'm spending this leave writing blogs!


Another 11 days of leave to go, and less than 25 days before the feline finally strikes. Let's see whether I have an adequate answer this time. Every day I motivate myself with lots of inspirational thoughts like "Chak De!" and crap like that.. but every sunday morning brings me crashing back to reality.. reminding me that I'm just an ordinary bloke among the crowd, who stands no chance.

I'm gonna need lots and lots of favours from a certain lady, named Miss Luck.. But right now, she seems to be in a rather grumpy mood, so I'm just gonna hope that she finally smiles on me on the D-day.. (or rather, the C-day!).

Chalo cya.. the next post on this blog will probably be after my rendezvous with Miss Kitty, and I hope I survive to tell the tale!

Nowadays, I am busy meeting friends. And I found that I have more friends than required! Every weekend, I have one returning to Mumbai, or going away from Mumbai. So every Sunday, there is either a farewell party or a reception party.

My folks are highly bugged ("On weekdays, you are hardly seen at home, now you run away on weekends too!"). Actually sometimes I agree with them too.

Dual Joy....

Hmmmm... After nearly three weeks of surviving without a PC at home, I've finally got a new one. And how!! A roaring 64-bit Dual-core AMD Athlon 4400+ engine, powered by an ASUS 690G chipset-based motherboard, with a princely 1GB of Transcend DDR2 667 MHz RAM, plus a royal 256MB 7600GS graphic card which handles heavy-duty games like kid stuff. This is one wild beast for sure! And oh yes, there's also the visual and audio treat provided by the 19" Widescreen LCD monitor and my beloved Altec Lansing ATP3 audio system. Life sure has come a long way from my frail old Pentium III.

What makes this new PC special is that each and every part in this rig was handpicked by me after nearly seven months of painstaking research, and learning on computer hardware. All this hard work has finally culminated into a final product that has no possible drawbacks to the best of my knowledge. There is this immense feeling of joy when the shopkeeper at Lamington road tries to con you into buying something inferior, and you are able to see through his tricks. The knowledge that you know more about hardware than the guy in front of you.. it truly gives you a feeling of superiority. Knowledge is definitely a kind of power!!


Back on the work front, things looking gloomy as usual. Kintana still keeps springing new surprises for me, and am having a tough time handling her. But still, the frenzy of the previous weeks is now lesser, and I'm now slowly "getting into the groove".. but I guess I'll have a looooooong way to go before I manage to catch up with my teammates (most of whom seem to get some kind of divine pleasure in working for 12-15 hours a day!)

There's some kind of trek this weekend. I'm gonna be trying to heave my grossly unfit body over hills and mountains. Now that's what I call an "uphill" task! ;)

Indian Idol - Triteeya

What's with the new set of judges on Indian Idol? They don't seem to have ANY kind of authority while passing a judgement on the singers. The previous panel of judges - Farah, Sonu and Malik was a balanced one, with Sonu and Malik handling the subtle musical details whereas Farah monitored the performance. All three of them were assertive in their own way, having opinions independent of each other. None of them hesitated to voice their opinions even if it conflicted with the majority.


The current set of judges is pathetic. Anu Malik dominates over the rest of the judges. Udit Narayan remains neutral most of the time. Alisha Chinai merely rephrases Anu Malik's opinion. I have never seen Alisha having an opinion of her own. Javed Akhtar, as one would expect, focuses mostly on the pronunciation and poetic aspect of the performance. Now with Anu Malik out of action temporarily, the rest of the panel is completely clueless on how to judge the contestants. Anu Malik was the only judge who seemed to have an opinion on the 'singing' part. Without him, the rest of the judges just try to extol the singers endlessly. The panel went on and on about all the girls being "soooo brilliant". I, for one, felt that many of the girls were pathetic. Alisha and Udit merely keep praising the contestants with the same hackneyed "accha gaaya, fabulous, fantastic". Bullshit.


I find it so ironic that in the absence of Anu Malik, it is a lyricist who makes the most pointed observations on the singing quality, inspite of two professional playback singers being on the panel. Is this a healthy trend? No. Alisha and Udit praised ALL 28 singers as potential Indian Idols. They seem to have forgotten that many times, the viewers get highly influenced by the kind of feedback that the judges give. Obviously the viewers are not so knowledgeable about music to pass a judgement on who sings better. Most of the decisions taken by the viewers are either on the basis of emotion or after listening to the judges' feedback. If Alisha and Udit keep extolling all the singers, then the audience will vote solely on the basis of emotion. The end result would be that we will have an Indian Idol who doesn't really deserve to be there.


The judges should be more strict while judging the contestants, and point out the flaws and merits of each performance in more detail, so that the audience gets a clearer idea. I can only hope Anu Malik gets on the show soon, coz he is the only guy who speaks fearlessly.

I sincerely hope the the best singer wins!
Signing off.. (it's getting late)
Vivek S.

Change - For the better or worse?

Every now and then, I run into a few old friends. And almost everytime, I get that nostalgic feeling - the typical "those were the good old days" kind of emotion that takes you back in time when life was much simpler, our hearts and minds were clearer, unlike the emotional muddles and ego hassles that we are in now.

I met someone the other day. This was a guy who I was not too close to during my school days. Most of the time, I used to look at him with a contempt, a guy who I felt was a troublesome pest. But that day my mind was surprisingly devoid of such feelings. I spoke with him as though he was a dear friend. We chatted for nearly an hour, reliving the days gone by. He seemed to have undergone a complete change from the guy that I had known during my childhood. He was now more sober, more polished in his behaviour and speech, more sophisticated in the way he conducted himself. When I pointed out this change to him, he replied back, "You have changed a lot too!". I desperately wanted to ask him, "For the better or worse?", but I stopped myself.

The question still keeps haunting my mind.

The 'Special Someone' in my life....

Nowadays I have a special someone in my life... Kintana! What an exotic name you might think. She is far more exotic than the name itself. I spend most my day paying attention to her. I have to try and keep her happy as much as possible. Everyday, I meet her in office the first thing in the morning. She is always there, waiting for me, with new surprises for the day (sometimes pleasant, mostly scary). And before I leave office late in the evening, I just check up on her, in case she's got a few late surprises up her sleeve, that will keep me with her for that extra few hours...

She's quite reserved actually, coz she never meets me outside office. I have to take utmost care not to anger her, because her temper can be devastating too. She couldcomplain to my boss about it (who by the way, pays a lot of attention to her too). But nevertheless, when you spend more than half the day with Kintana, it's hard not to fall in love with her. She's become my heart and soul. My every heartbeat, every pulse, every breath, every twitch of muscle is now governed by her. She must know exactly what I have done in the day, whether I spent the day constructively, or in frivolous activities. I've almost surrendered myself to her all-pervading power.

And I know one thing for sure, as long as I'm in TCS, my tryst with Kintana's gonna continue...

Dombivli Fast

Saw a stirring Marathi movie today named 'Dombivali Fast'. A movie about a man standing by his principles in a corrupt world. Nothing out of this world, but excellent treatment of the subject, coupled with brillant acting. Heartening to see that people still make (a few)good films in India.
Our richer Bollywod directors and script-writers would do well to learn a thing or two from these talented blokes who may be short on finance but are rich in talent and ideas.

End of another weekend..

In a few hours from now, it's gonna be Monday morning, and the start of another monotonous week. I am starting to believe that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday have no legs, because they really seem to crawl! Saturday and Sunday must have wings, because they literally fly past you!

Another week where I have to commute to the distant suburb called Borivali, and back again. (And try to do some work in between these two trips). What a life....

Aha. Got some info on my previous blog's topic, after some research.... Here is a shamlessly lifted link from indiainfo.com :

http://movies.indiainfo.com/2007/04/27/hansika.html

So that girl is indeed Hansika motwani. Hmm.

The Return of Himesh

Himesh Reshammiya has made a comeback to Bollywood after a refreshing break(for us). Though I hate this guy from the bottom, top, inside and outside of my heart, he still keeps amazing me all the time. He's composed music(?), lent his voice(??) to his songs, now he's starring(hahahah) in a film of his own!! Boy, this dude's really got the guts to stretch his luck this far. What next? Direction? Production? Choreography?

And that new girl paired with him... why is she being called "Riyaa" ??.. To my eyes, she is the little girl Hansika Motwani from Koi Mil gaya, now grown up. There are so many people with similar sounding names... Riya, Riyaa, Rimi, Rimii, Rima, Reema, Raima.. (Oi Maa!!) I've lost count of them. By the way, she was supposed to debut with Mithun's son Mimoh right? Guess she couldn't resist Himesh's offer...

Ta Ra Rum Pum..

Just finished listening to the songs of Ta Ra Rum Pum. Can't stop raving about one particular song - 'Saiyaan Ve'. What a beauty of a song. Easily the best song in an otherwise boring soundtrack. It starts off with a folksy guitar, then progresses on to some Western percussion beats, finally blending and playing in tandem with the dholak. And you can't miss the rock pieces from an electric guitar throughout the song, plus the occasional title piece on a piano and the folksy guitar instrument providing the accompaniment. Phew! One hell of an amazing sound arrangement!

Sung by the music director Vishal Dadlani himself, this touching yet inspirational song is a winner all the way. It's difficult to believe that this is the same guy who sang the Western-sounding title track of Dhoom 2. Here he sounds like a combination of Kailash Kher and KK. Very classical, very soulful, very indian. Javed Akhtar, as he always does, delivers top-class lyrics the way only he can. Don't miss this track! Miss the film, but not this track!

India Whining... Are we overdoing it?

Three people - a Japanese, an American and an Indian were conversing.

Japanese : In Japan, even cats can understand English!
Americans: In America, even dogs go to space!
Indian : In India, even donkeys play the cricket World Cup!

The above SMS is currently doing the rounds after India's sudden and unexpected exit from the World Cup. The advertisers have lost money and the fans have lost faith. Everyone is deriving great pleasure commenting about the bleak future of Indian cricket. Suddenly, India-bashing has become the "in" thing nowadays. The cricket team itself is facing the heat from all quarters. Since the day it lost to Sri Lanka and bowed out, I regularly read in the newspapers about the various ways in which the team is getting screwed. From pay cuts to curtailments in product endorsements , the BCCI is severely cracking the whip on the players.

In such circumstances, I can't help but feel sympathy for Dravid and his boys. This article is not to condone their below-par performance in the World Cup. But one seriously needs to examine whether the Indian team's performance is really as bad as it is being made out to be.

Let's look at things from a statistical point of view. India played just three matches in the World Cup. In one of those matches India not only won, but also notched up the highest One-day total in World Cup history, and also won by the greatest margin in World cup history. Agreed this was against a team like Bermuda, but you've got to give them credit for what they did. As far as the loss against Sri Lanka is concerned, you can't really be too harsh on the team for it, considering the fact that both Sri Lanka and India are more or less evenly matched. Either of them could have defeated the other on any particular day.

Thus we come to the main argument of the critics, the loss to Bangladesh. Almost everybody had assumed that India would win against Bermuda and Bangladesh, and go through to the next round. The match against Sri Lanka would then have been mostly irrelevant to India's chances. By that one loss to Bangladesh, India screwed up their World Cup party. One loss for a team, One huge loss for Indian cricket. No doubt India played badly in that match. But hey come on folks, it was a one-day match! Upsets frequently occur here, that's why One-day cricket is so unpredictable. A single bad day in the field for the team can lead to a loss. That's what happened during the India-Bangladesh tie. Unfortunately, this bad day proved too costly to the team's fortunes in the World Cup and before you knew it, Bangladesh had muscled their way into the Super 8 and India had found their way out of the World Cup.

The moment everybody realized that India is out, the swords have been drawn out, the blame game has begun and the mud-slinging has started. The attitude of senior players has been criticized, the efficiency of the coach has been questioned and the captain's skills have been doubted. All this, just because of ONE upset. This was the same team led by the same captain under the same coach, which has been performing for the past one year. Where were these doubts about sincerity, attitude and skills then? The point is, there is no reason for such drastic censuring of the team after one defeat. People take one defeat too much to heart and act on impulse. How many of these critics have themselves played in a World Cup? How do they know what a player feels when he is playing the World cup for his country? Every budding cricketer aspires of donning a World Cup cap, at least once in his lifetime. Nothing can give a player more pride than the satisfaction of having represented India in a World Cup. Any player would give his hundred percent to a tournament that decides the best cricket team in the world. A tournament that comes just once in every four years, a tournament that very few players actually get to play.

So let us stop cursing the cricket team and let the poor blokes try and improve themselves. Excessive criticism by us will only add to their frustration levels. Let us motivate them to do better and once again become the dangerous team that nearly won the world cup in 2003. Indian cricket has plunged to great depths in the past, only to recover and strike back again. History bears testimony to the fact that in times of despair and scepticism, the Indian cricket team has always recovered and shone back to its brilliance. Remember India's tour of Australia a couple of years back? All Indian supporters were expecting a 3-0 whitewash. But contrary to expectations, the team almost managed a series victory. Even during the 2003 World Cup, India were in danger of getting eliminated in the opening round itself, but managed to rise from the dead to almost winning the World Cup. Let us hope that the Indian cricket team stages such a comeback very soon and wins the World Cup next time.

Till then, sit and watch the other teams slog it out in the current World Cup. Our time will come soon. Better luck next time folks!

Abhi-Ash and the wedding bash

I am still reeling under the onslaught of the media coverage of a certain Bollywood actor-actress's wedding. Seriously, the hype regarding this event has reached such monstrous proportions that it has totally overshadowed even the World Cup. Of course, with India being thrown out of the tournament, the World Cup doesn't seem very interesting anymore, unless you are one of those who watch the game "for the pleasure of watching the sport". Who cares a damn about the sport? All I wanted to see is India winning. Pity it wasn't meant to be.

Coming to the point, if India had managed to stay on till the super 8's, it would have been interesting to see which event received greater TRPs - the live telecast of India's cricket matches or the live telecast of this over-hyped star wedding. The frenzy that has been whipped up by the various news channels has touched sickening levels. Media persons are camping outside the houses of the stars just to provide all the "juicy details" of the event. Over-enthusiastic correspondents are excitedly providing a running commentary of the even right down to the minutest detail, right from a starlet slashing her wrists to Aishwarya getting emotional about her "bidaai".

A Smart Alec once quipped: "Marriage is nothing but a public announcement of private intentions." In this case the announcement has evidently become too public, albeit unintentionally. Even the Pope's visit doesn't get this kind of media coverage. It was a good thing that Mandira Bedi and Charu Sharma were busy with the World Cup presentation, or else we would have had them presenting a show before the live telecast of Ash's wedding, titled "Extraaa Innings" (pun unintended!).

Which brings us to the question, "Are we really interested in watching this wedding?" Agreed, the two are probably the most desired stars in the film industry, adored by millions. And it is also true that with this marriage, millions of hearts have been broken. But very few people in India actually have the time and patience to sit and watch it on TV for three days. The media is trying to hype this event by literally forcing it down our throats. Each and every news channel is showing the same footage, looping it over and over again. Even the families involved in the wedding would be irritated by this unprecedented hysteria.

Under such circumstances, the question remains to be asked whether it was a wise idea to have such a wedding in the city at all. What a striking contrast this wedding is with Aamir Khan's private wedding to Kiran Rao at Panchgani, with minimal media coverage. Aamir saved himself (and many of us) a lot of headache with this smart move. Any star planning a wedding in the near future would do well to learn a lesson from this.

Hopefully by tomorrow, all the din will have died down, and everything will be back to normal. It will be business as usual for everybody, the world will be as it was before. Just one small difference.. Ms. Rai will now be Mrs. Bachchan.

And before I sign off, here's wishing you both a happy married life, Abhi-Ash!