Sangeeta Sudhaa Saara

Fanaa - in urdu means "destroyed". Is it a mere co-incidence that this movie did infact bring to fore-closure the successful partnership between Jatin-Lalit, one of the most promising and successful duo of Bollywood. But indeed, they have parted with a huge aplomb! The songs of Fanaa, are anything but forgettable and insipid! A Top Scorer all the way! The lyrics by Prasoon Joshi breathe a fresh air!

I must begin this post by giving a heartfelt thanks to my dear ol' friend Manu. If it weren't for him, maybe I would have completely driven this song into oblivion.

Madhur Bhandarkar's movie - Page 3, was a very candid and lucid depiction of the life of the personalities featured usually in the so called "page 3". It held a gleaming mirror to their lives raft with hypocrism, personal miseries, crimes, jealousy, moments of glory and deploration - much akin to any common man's life! Except that they are revered and people find it an awe to know of their daily rigmaroles! It blatantly exposed the inner secrets of the movie stardoms, and dealt with several sensitive issues, everyone knows exist, but no one dares to touch viz., Child Abuse, Homosexuality, and exploitation. Well, those things apart, coming to the issue at hand, one particular song rendered by Lata Mangeshkar, and Suresh Wadkar (each separately) was what caught my attention (again thanks to Manu). What was surprising is that, though I watched the movie, somehow this song doesn't seem to have registered in my mind. I cannot but be surprised over that! The song is "kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe". The song startled me with its simple and yet hard-hitting lyrics! In the many songs of the recent movies, I have rarely come across a song that is as profound as this one! I'd say the entire summary of the movie is well established in the few words of this song.

The lyrics are included:

The music has been rendered by Shamir Tandon. I personally liked the version of Suresh Wadkar compared to that of Lata Mangeshkar. Sadly enough her aging voice is more prominent in this particular song. The other really note worthy songs of this movie include "Mere wajood mein tu kaash" - by Adnan Sami and Sadhana Sargam (rendered separately), "Kuan Ma Doob Jaaungi" is another hot-spicy dance number by Sapna Awasthi, and Blaaze fit for a hip party! "yahaan zindagi ek alag zindagi hai" by Shaan, Saagarika, and Shabab Sabri turns out rather bland and fails to impress. The song reminded me a lot of "yeh mumbai shehar haatazon ka shehar hai" from Disco Dancer!!!!!! "Huzoor-E-Ala" by Asha Bhonsle and Abhijeet, though well sung, remains as just yeddanoder song! The sole winner of this album seems to be "kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahaan pe", but then no surprises there!!

Long time since I wrote anything in here. Well, let's just say that the trend may continue for a few more days! But not withstanding that, it took Asha Bhonsle's soulful voice to bring me back to the keyboard to key in about 2 songs in particular, that have been looping in my player for a while since! Both the songs are from the movie - Ijaazat. A movie that created waves in the film industry for all the right reasons! A 5 Star performance by Rekha, Naseeruddin Shah! Heart stirring music by RD Burman, the magic of Asha inter woven with the deft handling of direction and lyrics by Gulzar Saab.

Panchamda's music paints a wonderland, replete with lush greenery, the skies resplendant with bright colors of the day and the twilight alike! The two songs am talking in particular are "Chhoti is kahani se" & "Khaali haath shaam aayi hai". The lyrics are as follows:

I guess am gonna go back to it for quite sometime now! Peace! Ciao!

30th April was a Sunday, unlike the others! What started as yeddanoder normal day, took a U Turn by the afternoon, when a friend of mine (bless his heart), came with the surprising news that Mandolin U Srinivas was performing in Wichita that evening! Now I will save you all the pain of having to hear/read about the multitudinous levels of ecstasy, I felt upon hearing it. Suffice it to say, it was up for grabs, and I'd have gone out on a limb for it! Then came the arduous task of having to wait the painful 6 hrs! The program was due to start at 7 PM at the Twentieth Century Hall in Wichita.

I knew that the evening would be anything but ordinary! And so it was! It had an 'extra' appended to it in the fore front! Me and my friend were there right on time.

U Srinivas was accompanied by his brother U Rajesh, and percussionists - Sri Muruga Bhoopathy on Mridangam and Sri Ramani on Ghatam. The concert began with a varNa, soon to be followed by his famous rendition of Sri Muttuswamy Dikshitar's kRuti "vAtApi gaNapatim bhajE" in hamsadhwani raaga, set to Adi taaLa. It was followed by a few kRuti's of Sri Tyagaraja - "Sobillu saptaswara" (in jaganmohini raaga, rUpaka taaLa), "marugElara O rAghava", for which the alaapana in between featured a mesmerizing jugalbandi between Srinivas and Rajesh. This was followed by a 20 mins break.

The concert resumed with an enthralling rendition of "Saamajavaragamana" (raaga hindOLa, Adi taaLa), that featured an almost 20 mins rendition of jugal bandi between all the instrumentalists! Sri Ramani and Sri Muruga Bhoopathy were clearly the stars of this part! One could not help but notice the mellifluous partnership between all the players. The experience of listening to it, can never be summarized in mundane words of limited expressions and meanings! The other kRuti's played included a Sai bhajan, Annamayya's keertane - "Brahmamokkate (tandanaana bhala)", "Siva hara chandrashekhara", and finally a tillana.

There are no words to describe the talent vested in Srinivas. Clearly, his brother Rajesh is not to be counted less in any way! Infact, it was Rajesh's instrument that sounded better than Srinivas' all through the concert! But then, the playing was equally matched between the two. The percussionists only amplified the aura of an already shining performance! The sound quality did suffer a bit in the later part of the concert, but was soon rectified.

Apart from the omniscient irritability of Indian audiences' apathy towards fine art, the poor propaganda given for the event was an cause for personal ruse! Occassional noises of cell phones ringing held a mirror for the etiquette those persons held! Well let's not get into that!

After a wonderful 2 hours of divine music, the small rendezvous with them in person, left me humbled! Finding an artist of his stature, to be so humble, and down to earth, only showed the shallowness in us and again went to prove the greatness of an art like music! It was a moment of personal satisfaction, coupled with divine experience!