Uncategorized

Bangalore…and Some Excellent Soundtrack Albums

Because I had promised to be there, and because no unforeseen change in scheduling happened, I was in Bangalore for the weekend. ‘Twas Madhav’s quiz, folks, and it was superb. Too bad I didn’t couldn’t make it to the finals. Maybe I should have taken a peek at his laptop when I had the chance. But the Onam lunch made up for everything. *Inserted satisfied sigh here*

kvk, al_lude and Mitesh, otherwise known as the Metaquizziks, swept the finals ( with a point-lead twice of that the next team).

My self-control amazes me. I managed to come back from Bangalore without buying any books this time. Inspite of seeing the biographies of Orson Welles and Francis Ford Coppola and a neat-o Harlan Ellison short story collection at Blossom. (Which incidentally has shifted to a new, much spacier place on the same road) I bought a couple of cds, though. Passion: The Original Soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ – a pending wishlist item, Mike Oldfield’s The Killing Fields: Soundtrack, and Salim Sulaiman’s Ab Tak Chhappan.

Note: I am not losing my touch. I would have definitely bought those books from Blossom if I had cash with me. Alas, I didn’t.

Other soundtrack updates:

Inspite of buying Kyon! Ho Gaya Na two weeks ago, I listened to it properly just a couple of days ago, and wow, regardless of what the movie is or pretends to be, the music is fantastic! Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy stick to their formula of generating catchy songs with dollops of techno and an advertising hangover, what impresses me most is the way they stay away from getting caught in a groove, melodic or otherwise. These guys hit the bulls-eye with the selection of voices for each of their songs, the brilliant use of instruments, just the right mix that distinguishes a cacophonic hack-job from something that genuinely brings a spring in the step when you listen to it.

My current favourite happens to be “No No”, the second song. The credits say it’s sung by Shankar Mahadevan himself, Kunal Ganjawala, Chetan Shashital ( who’s the official voice for Amitabh Bachhan on the album), and oddly enough, Loy Mendonsa himself ( spelt wrongly as “Mendonca” on the album cover) The highpoint of the song however is the female voice, Dominique Cerejo.

slight digression: Dominique has this ethereal church-choiry voice, much like Anupama, she of Koncham Nilavu fame, very good for background tracks, and ARR used her to sing in the background tracks of both Fire and Iruvar, and also Kaadhal Desam ( from what I remember right now!) I did not know her surname was Cerejo, which means she is related to Clinton Cerejo, the guy who is responsible for vocal arrangements in ARR’s compositions and S-E-L’s. Husband/wife? Brother/Sister?

Dominique and Kunal’s voices complement each other very well on “No No”, her’s soft and silky and his husky-gruff-nasal-anglicised. Loy is probably the guy who’s chanting the English lyrics , and Chetan Shashital’s there for the Bachhan laugh.Trust me, the vocal arrangements are superb on this one.

“Aao Na” by Sadhna Sargam, Udit Narayan and Shankar Mahadevan ( his vocals uncreditted on the cover) is next. Slow melody, with brilliant strings, elevated to God-stature by Sadhna Sargam’s vocals. Parts of “Main Hoon” remind me of Remo’s “Shinga Linga” from Khamoshi:The Musical. Chetan Shashital gets Amitabh Bachchan’s voice just right in “Baat Samjha Karo”,, a song with much folksy overtones and bedroom-dance potential.

Ouch. I just thumped my head against the keyboard.

This is about all I can afford to type tonight, thanks.

Standard

35 thoughts on “Bangalore…and Some Excellent Soundtrack Albums

  1. And have you already heard the songs of Dil ne jise apna kaha?

    It’s title track, the aforementioned “Aao na”, and “Jeene ke bahaane” from Phir Milenge are my current favourites among ‘fresh’ Hindi movie songs.

      • Re: Definitely!

        i wish i could come to hyderabad, it seems like an interesting place, but unfortunately it lies too far out of the itinerary to visit on this trip–maybe next time, though.

        anyway, here’s the (planned) itinerary:
        1 week in srinagar, kashmir (in a houseboat on dal or nagin lake)
        2 week guided auto tour of rajasthan
        a few days in varanasi
        long train trip down to goa, few days in panjim & surrounding beach towns
        trip to hampi (vijayanagar)
        a few days in gokarna, karnataka
        backwaters of kerala

    • A recently-released book is more likely to end up in the second-hand stores in Bangalore earlier than in Hyderabad. But the prices in Bangalore are higher, and hence I prefer to buy them in Hyd. unless I have been desperately looking for that book for sometime.

  2. I was just listening to “breathless” yesterday. And I realised… this song if difficult to even whisper in several breaths. And this guy sang it one.

    I would think these guys compose using classical raagas and then mix it- like ARR. Makes me wonder… has a discernible influence of classical music become more acceptablt these days? Or has it always been like that?

  3. “Salim Sulaiman’s Ab Tak Chhappan.”

    these guys are perhaps the best background-music composers in the industry today. loved the main theme of Ab Tak Chappan with the cool bassline. will chk it out when i catch up with ya sometime :)

    • While I would be a *wee* bit argumentative about calling Salim-Suleiman the “best”, they are definitely good. Ab Tak Chhappan rocks, the complete album.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.