Omkara

This weekend, I went to watch the movie, Omkara, 15 mins into the movie, I was itching to go buy the soundtrack. The movie was very nice. Othello, has been one of my favorites, mostly because of my feministic tendencies. But more about the movie and Othello at some other times, this is about the music.
It has been a dry season as far as new hindi music is concenred. But the wait is so over!
Ah! I couldn't believe, I did not buy this CD earlier, with music of Maachis, Satya and Maqbool under his belt, I should have known better.

Omkara. Sukhvinder Singh
Uma’s favorite track in the album. It has captured the iterant –singer-retelling-a - folk-lore element very well. Very very nice.
The song starts with a jangly sound akin to an ektara . The music wells, as a metallic clang of a matka and percussion join and then tinkling of ghunghroo, the beat is taken on by the Nagada and unexpectedly, sound of clapping hands. The beauty of the song is in how the beat is carried forward on varied instruments, like a relay race the baton is passed from the booming drum- to the war drums to the matka- to the clapping hands- to the wooden stick- to the voices of the chorus and then back- to the booming drums. The song relies very heavily on Sukhvinder Singh’s voice which waxes and wanes and moves thru the octaves effortlessly. There are plenty of modern tricks like multiphased echos and reverb and the synth filling in spaces; it is done with subtlety, cleverly disguised by overlaying chorus. Masterful.

O Saathi Re Shreya Ghoshal, Vishal Bharadwaj
Starts with keyboard piece which with a very subtle use of the metal kabbas, transitioning to Shreya’s voice. Flute, subtle beat and occasional twirling of the kabbas. There is a full orchestra in the background( a bevy of violins in tow), but it doesn’t overwhelm the song. The short synth piece in the middle seems false. The guitar is nice, Vishal and Shreya’s voice blend well and convey the languorous, sensual mood of the song very well. The ending piece when the orchestra lets off is very nicely done.

Beedi Sunidhi Chauhan, Sukhvinder Singh, Nachiketa Chakravorty, Clinton Cerejo
The raunchy lyrics are uttered with a relish! Sunidhi is awesome, the song utilized her vocal chords well as she backs up Bipasha’s seductive eyes with her voice. Sukhvinder Singh is himself ( love the way he rolls his r’s :)). Nachiketa Chakrotrovorty is an interesting find, the male voices blend well except for the first few lines where hand offs have an edge. Somewhere in the middle the song switches for a bit to good old harmonium and dhol, and the song carries on as if nothing happened. The end is nice and abrupt.

Gulzar out did himself in this album, I never expected this from him. The dialect is perfect, the imagery, leaves you a little stunned. The vocabulary is a little arcane; you feel the impact, rather than understand it. Very in keeping with wordsmith image.

Jag Ja Suresh Wadekar
I haven’t heard the guy in a while, in the movie the lullaby-like song doesn’t have any musical accompaniment, in the CD the music is at its minimum. The minimalistic style adds to the song very well. The words are amusing, the guy is trying to wake up the girl, calling her a doll, a princess, a fairy a queen and then things like ‘ Mooi’ and ‘Maari’ ( god forsaken). Very pretty.

Namak Rekha Bhardwaj, Rajesh Pandit
Sung by Rekha Bhardwaj, a fully trained classical musician ( and Vishal's significant other), it has definite makings of the 'item' numbers. She has rich trained voice. Song is sung in a semi-sufiana style ( with the back ground chorus a-la- Qawali), with harmonium, tabla as the instruments of choice. The training in Rekha’s voice is very obvious as she renders the semi-classical vocal gyrations with ease. The pace is controlled, as always, by the percussion.

Naina Rehat Fateh Ali Khan
Of the ‘Rahet Fateh Ali’ style, strong on vocals and

minimalistic in music, yet it manages to distinguish itself. The overwhelming sense of betrayal; helplessness, anguish is palpable, some of it is the words-some of it is the music. Naina thag le ge…
Haunting.

Laakad Rekha Bharadwaj

Laakad jal kar koyla hoye jaye, Koyla hoye jaye khak;
Jeya jale to kuch na hoye re, naa, dhooa naa rakh

Nice rendition, in keeping with the tone, wistful, melancholy ….
The song starts with a sound of a oars dipping in the water, the dhak carries the beat of the oars. Synth backdrop, mostly keyboard, violins. Rekha's voice emotes better than Kareena's face. The song ends with a huge audible sigh. Very well done.

Tragedy of Omkara
Short piece, instrumental. Stands up on its on an not just a medley of the soundtrack. Ominous, overwhelming cresendo. What seems like the marching army, or is it Othello’s destiny?

Verdict? With this one album, this guy is now on my list of composers to buy before I listen. One of the best albums I have heard in a while.

Never assume malice...

... when ignorance will do.

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

It has been a while since I wrote about Hindi film music,a dry season so far, not much to write about. There are three Hindi movie music directors that I would buy, without listening. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are one of the trio. While their sound is not heavy duty, the soul gripping kind, it is, light and frothy, easy on the ears, without sounding like a total rip off. Vocals are ususally the best you can get ( I love the Shankar's voice) and the songs are usually grounded with a very strong underlying beat.
This is one of their weaker album, I almost didn't write this post, I was so disappointed....

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna- the title track is insipid and uninspiring. I am not a big fan of Sonu Nigam and Alka Yagnik, I wish I could blame them... The opening bars on the piano and synth transition start out nice, the solo voice with just the piano bars kinda keep you listening to the first 15 seconds. As soon as the percussion ( a ghatam like sound) starts, the song is lost. From there on it is banal. Reminiscent of a hundred songs you might have heard. The musical interlude borrow the theme from kal ho naa ho.
Disappointing.

Mitwa- Shafqat Amanat Ali, Shankar Mahadevan, Caralisa.
This is typical Shankar Mahadevan fare. Reminds me of one of his initial albums, breathless. Full of energy, he completely lets go of his voice, the result is very nice. The two male voices blend really well. The beat is at odds with the song, it overpowers the song. The dhin-chak after the first salvo makes me want to cry, it ruins the effect, subtler beats would have been so much better ....The lyrics are the by Javed Akhtar, the words make this an introspective song,
yeh jindagi jo hai nachti to
kyon bediyon me hai tere paon.
Alas...

Where's the party tonight-Shaan, Vasundhara Das, Loy, Shankar Mahadevan.
As the words say, a dance floor song, strong two step beat and tons of echo effects. Vasundhar's voice has so much substance to it, it is not the typical ephemeral, ethereal voice ( like Lata, shreya et all), earthy without being all character, bordering atonal (like Ila Arun) and fills the song nicely. Between Vasundhara and Shaan and the occasional taan's by Shankar, the song is dancable, listenable, hummable version 2 of 'its the time to disco' ( kaal ho na ho).
Okay...

Tumhe Dekho Na - Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik
Extention of title song. Pretty much the same stuff. forgive me for not being inspired.

Mitwa Revisited - Shafqat Amanat Ali, Shankar Mahadevan, Caralisa.
Umm, being better acquainted with the song does nothing to improve its charm. This time the beats are heavier, while the heavier beats take away any pretense to introspections (words or no words), it transitions to a good old dhin- chak song. And it fits in with the 50 million songs produced in bollywood for this category. :( Ok, that was too harsh, but serously, I expected more from these guys.

Rock N Roll Soniye - Shankar Mahadevan, Shaan, MahaLaxmi Iyer
Now, this is what I was talking about. It is, as the song says, bhangra on rock n roll. The song is high energy with a hyper beat. But the beat is not the only thing contributing to the soongs charms, it has numerous little interludes that come in and change the song's pace.
The attempt at baritone by Shankar Mahadevan adds a little something to the song. The sar pe -topi lal interlude is interesting as is the boogie woogie piano work. The wham-bam reference threw me off a little :)
The mainstay of the song is beat, the basic beat is a two step which sort of holds the song together. The second beat which overlays moves it between, rock and roll and bhangra and at times goes double time into with the typical shift level piano work...very very nice.
Love the 50 rock n roll with jazz, R& B and gospel influence. I love they way they have merged the two different music genres and made it sound so seamless and comfortable in each other's proximity.
rock and roll - to the beat of the dhool
Honey honey honey honey mere sang dol -- to the double time is lovely, it makes me break out into a big ol grin even when I hear it in my head :)

Farewell trance-Shweta Pandit, Caralisa
Erm, what? this is a plain old instrumental for the title track, need I say more?


Over all, the album was redeemed by that one number. I am sure, all songs will look lovely on the screen.

As far as the movie is concerned, all I can say is I am intrigued. Karan Johar has made a lot of name for himself in the past few years. The movies he has directed or produced have been lavish affairs, exceptionally executed with remarkable attention to detail. Stylistically he is wonderful. But the topics addressed and the treatment of the topics has been, erm, naive. The settings are ususally affluent and the motivations noble. Sordid details, petty meanesses have no room. That is not real. So this venture, which talks of relationships, with the byline "what do you do, if you meet your soulmate, when you are married to someone else?" leaves me, as I said before, intrigued.
There are rumblings of the movie being a rip off of silsila and/or closer. The guy is shah rukh khan, and from the previews, it looks like he is being his usual self. So despite Rani and Abhishek, my hopes are not very high content-wise. But one thing I am sure of, it will be a treat for my eyes :)

Perfectionism ...

... is the highest order of self-abuse.

how's that for a rattling thought?

Seattle