I've taken a lot of tests on Blogthings and thought I'd put some of that stuff here. So get to know what color my blog should be (I'm not gonna change it thou), what color my eyes are and what is my hidden talent...

Been reading for some days about Naresh Iyer on the web and on numerous blogs. Although I did watch V channel Super Singer last year, I never got to see Naresh cos I started watching the show when the 6 finalists were shortlisted and from there on.

Naresh has been making waves for sometime esp after the music of Rang De Basanti came out and his Paatshaala, Roobaroo, and Tu Bin Bataye became popular. I, like every other music aficionado, started searching for other songs sung by this guy, and came across some Tamil albums namely Ah Aah, GodFather and Saravanaa. Listened to those songs, but this one song struck me like none other (the rest really didn't have the AR touch, but then I assume that I probably have to listen to them properly to let them grow on me). The song I got  hooked onto is Mayilirage from Ah Aah, sung by Madhushree and Naresh Iyer. The song is quite a piece, with wonderful thavil beats, that probably only AR Rahman can mix like this in this day of music :). I know nothing of Tamil actually (I can understand some words but I've never really been able to converse in the language/understand the song meanings - hey, btw if someone knows the meaning of this song or can translate it for me, I will be obliged to you :) ) but even I found Madhushree's pronunciation totally irritating. Tamil songs are usually free flowing, and Madhushree stutters across each word and the lyrics sound totally wierd when she sings the song. I love her voice though, so maybe I could bear with it.

Naresh Iyer in this song is radical. Listen to this part which he sings somewhere in the middle of the song (I took the lyrics from another blog :) so don't blame me if some parts of it r wrong - I anyway did make a few changes based on my hearing) My heart skips several beats when I listen to his voice here, I visualize wisps of feathers floating around and I feel those tugs and thumps of love deep inside me ...

uyirai thodanga varum
nee dhaane mei ezhuthu
naan podum kai ezhuthu anbae
ulagam mozhiyil varum ellame naer ezhuthu
kaadhal dhaan kal aRithu anbae

This guys voice is made for soft numbers. His voice in Tu Bin Bataye in Rang De Basanti is also amazing, esp. when he sings

mann ki gali tu phuhaaron si aa
bheeg jaye mere khwabon ka kafila
jise tu gungunaye meri dhun hai wahin
tu bin bataye mujhe le chal kaheen
jahan tu muskuraye meri manzil wahin

(Now these lyrics I can understand ;) ) Hearing him is like the feeling you get when tiny silvery snow flakes touch your face... his pronunciation, and the way his breath echoes some parts of the words; I'm totally hooked. I have heard some of the fast and peppy numbers he's sung and I think he's done a really good job, but with these two songs, he's the one new singer I'm really looking forward to hear more of.

Rahman has this penchant of picking up really class stuff out of the masses, and Karthik and Naresh are two of the real gems he's picked up in recent times. I have heard people say Naresh sounds like Karthik, but for me they belong to two totally different genres. Naresh's voice has a rough edge which is totally intriguing (listen to Roobaroo to get my point), while Karthik for me is trained and soulful, controlled yet free-flow (listen to Oru Maalai from Ghajini, Kiru Kiru from Kaadhal and Ale Ale from Boys).

Well, thumbs up to more music from these two new guys, and to Rahman for discovering them!

I feel liberated. During my search for fellow bloggers, I stumbled onto some posts on the topics of harassment of women in public, by peop le who dare to speak out and against... Here are some links including the one for the Blank Noise project:

Divine Thoughts

Broken Bangles

Blank Noise Project

Spare some time to share the pain and angst of these women, and the passion with which they hope to make a difference!

Yesterday was Women's Day celebrations in office.

As is the practice every year, the girls in my dept (about 40-50) get dressed in ethnic wear (usu. saree) and come to office. We all get roses (bought after pooling in money ourselves), and meet at sometime during the day, sit together, have introductions around the group, have snacks,show off talent, rag some newcomers and generally have fun.

Something we do during the day is combat a range of questions addressed to us by our male colleagues:

"When is Men's Day?"

"What has wearing a saree got to do with womens issues?"

"Why do you ladies need a separate day to celebrate Women's Day, when we don't have any such thing"

Some smartass immediately answers: "That's because all other 364 days in a year are Men's Day".

Yet again, another wisecrack from the womens section is "Men's Day is on April 1. Don't you know that?"

etc. etc.

A colleague of mine pointed out something interesting to me. In the newspaper, there was a picture of 2 women sitting on a heap of broken glass (yes, broken glass!) from broken bulbs, and sorting out/cleaning/ something of the sort. The glass was most probably piercing their feet (which would have been bleeding, and probably used to the bleeding), and they were bearing it just because the work would entitle them to the meagre wages they earned each day to support their family. The picture was heartbreaking.

The fun we had in office was a stark and maybe cruel contrast to the picture, because it represented how isolated we were from problems real women face daily in this country, and in this world. I received emails throughout the day about women-power and how wonderful women were, and all I could think of was the picture.

But then, as I thought about it, I realized there were two sides to the coin after all:

One side being: Yes, we (who are cloistered in these IT concrete jungles) should spend some moments of our lives actually thinking of the women out there who are living difficult and unbearable lives, women who earn wages themselves and at the end of the day hand it over to their husbands keeping none of it for themselves, women who will feed their children and family but go hungry night after night, women who are burnt because of dowry issues/superstition, women who are beaten and abused day-in and day-out, women and very young girls on the road who beg at the traffic signals, and have little babies in their hands (it always amazes me to think that there are men out there who make these destitute women pregnant when they cannot take care of even themselves), female children who are killed in the womb because of their gender, Pre-puberty girl children married off/sold to aging men/brothels, girl children not sent to school because the parents have to afford her brothers education and so on... In fact, if possible, we shouldn't just spend some moments thinking about these girls/women, but doing something about them. Maybe fund a girl child, or join organizations that do service to women, or teach illiterate girls for free, or speak up against atrocities against women, and all that. Not for glory or for getting your pic in some newspaper/website, but as an expression of gratitude to the creator who didn't make you as unfortunate as them. There should be moments in our lives when we feel guilty if we take life for granted, if we, for even one moment, underestimate the power of money and squander it on things that we don't need, if we crinkle our noses on those unfortunate people or forget that they exist... Women empowerment should be taken to the streets and evils against women (however cliched they may sound) should be done away with.

But I also think of the other side of the coin. Yes, the women in IT concrete jungles are the fortunate ones compared to the ones I spoke about in the paragraph preceding this one. But I don't think that most women in this group lead unbelievably happy lives. The group of women, in my office or in any office for that matter, I'm sure would have many stories to tell: of how we have to protect ourselves from every leering man, groping hand and sexual innuendos we come across each day - and this is not only from when we join college/work, but from the age of 1. Every bus/train ride for a woman in India is a prospect for some type of molestation.Every girl would have atleast 5 different incidents to recite when asked about the comments she's received on parts of her anatomy.Most women have been followed by a man atleast once in her life, and many have been exploited/abused my members of her own family. And this is just the abuse story before marriage.

After marriage, women in IT struggle to balance the needs of the home and office.Waking up in the morning,making and packing food for the family,cleaning up the house,sometimes managing family members,paying the bills,coming to office and working in the corporate environment where she has to struggle to keep her place and be given the same amount of respect that male colleagues get,brush away the sexual overtones in office,handle male subordinates who refuse to respect her and male managers who are either indifferent/underestimate her/are too careful with her,come back home,buy groceries and household stuff,if they have kids - teach the children,worry about their marks/reports from school, their psychological profile (cos children whose mothers work are a mixed bag of emotions and feelings of insecurity), worry about their sickness and health, and if they don't have kids - worry about pregnancy issues/undergo treatment/be questioned about infertility/worry that the gender of their unborn child will become an issue in their family,cook dinner and think about what to keep ready for the next day,have arguments/fights with their partners, worry about compatibility issues with partners/family members and finally plonk themselves on a bed ready for the next day.Getting time for themselves might sound like a joke.

Of course, this is a sum total of a lot of the problems that exist, and everyone's life may not be exactly like this. And since there are devils in each avatar, I am ready to accept that devils do exist cloaked as women. But somehow, that section of population isn't all that large, so we can refrain from ignoring the real problems of the rest just because some of them happen to be bad apples.

My point at the end of it all is that while it is important for the newspap ers and the media to notice the very evident problems of women out there (of course, they don't do much about the problems other than report them) who struggle each day for bread and butter and the right to live in general; lets not forget that for each and every woman in India, each day brings a fresh repertoire of struggles, wherever and whatever she may be. It is important to wish women on Women's Day just as a mark of respect for their endurance and their capability, and for the fact that they all are alive and prepared to endure responsibilities and problems of life.

Women's Day is for women to show their solidarity and support to each other. To remember to have fun on their own and to forget day-to-day problems. In addition, we also have to remember that every constructive thing we do for the cause of women sows the seeds of an easier life for our upcoming generations. This should be the motivation for supporting any cause for social empowerment of women.

And please don't crinkle your nose at any woman - even if she is on a street in a dishevelled and smelly attire with a baby in her hands, begging at the traffic signal or if she is in a party in an expensive dress looking like she's having fun - because you don't know which one of them is contemplating suicide the next day.

Music has the power of uplifting the soul. Even in the most depressed state of mind, there is a piece of music out there in the world that can make you believe in love, or be that companion of loneliness to you...

I believe A.R. Rahman is blessed with divine power. His music rises above the mundane and touches that which is heavenly and other-wordly. Many of his creations have power; power to uplift my soul. There are pieces of his which don't agree with my aura and musical colors but I'm sure they would agree to someone else out there, so I don't mind them either.

Today morning, on my way to office, I was sitting and listening to Radio City, while my mind was mired with deep and unpleasant thoughts. A song of his played out and it surprised me that a song could lift me almost physically out of the confused state of mind I was in at that time. That is when I decided that I'd list on my blog 10 Hindi songs of AR's that had that power to uplift me. There are many many other compositions of his, other than just these 10 that I've listed, but then I'll need a lot of space to mention all of them, so I thought that 10 was a good number.

All these songs come from superb albums and I had a tough time choosing which of the songs I should feature from the album. Some of you may definitely not agree with my choices, but then as I said, these songs are the ones that have mattered most to me, and may not be the popular pick of the album. I made conscious decisions to pick only one song so that I could feature 10 different albums also in the list - choosing the one best song out of a fantastic album is impossible, especially when the album is A R Rahman's creation. And I deliberately avoided the Tamil,Telugu,Malayalam compositions and am featuring only the Hindi songs. Here is the result (in no particular order):

1. Paatshaala (Rang De Basanti): RDB is an album that's grown on me these past few weeks. I've spent some time on each song, getting besotted with it, and then moved to the next. I chose Paatshaala for the list because this is the first one to hit me out of the blues. Listen to it when you are in a complacent state of mind, or simply bored. It inspires you with force; force of togetherness and strength. The other contenders from the same album for a place on my list were Tu bin bataye, Khalbali, Be a Rebel (Paatshaala's English version) and Rang De Basanti (Title song). I just love all of them for their uniqueness: Naresh Iyer's voice in Tu bin bataye when he sings "Mann Ki Gali", the waves in AR's voice in Khalbali, the contagious "Say Hoi Oh Hoi" in Be a Rebel and the crazy freedom in Rang De Basanti.

2. Dekho na (Swades): Can love be better than this? I realized the quietness of love through this song. Being together with that loved one, and saying nothing, but gazing at the stars (like Shahrukh and Gayatri Joshi in the movie) while holding hands. The epitome of companionship. While I love each song of Swades, the other contenders were Ye Tara Wo Tara (for the inspiring lyrics by Javed Akhtar - "boond boond saagar he, warna he saagar kya he", "rang hote akele tho indradhanush banta hi nahin"), Aahista Aahista (Udit never sounded better), Pal Pal Hai Bhari (again lyrics: "Mann se Raavan jo nikale, Ram uske mann me he", and Madhushree's voice).

3. Fanaah (Yuva/Ayudha Ezhuthu): This is the song that came on Radio City today morning. A song with no beginning, and no end... no antara, mukhda, pallavi, anupallavi as I see it. Techno music at its best. Waves of brute force accompanied by drum beats, AR's and Sunitha Sarathy's gay abandon. Makes me want to just let my hair loose and go crazy... The Yuva/Ayudha Ezhuthu album is a technical marvel (listen to Dol Dol). All the songs are on the top, but I chose Fanaah for its sheer power. There is too much to say about the other songs, so I let silence speak :)

4. Saathiya (Saathiya/Alaipayuthey): I prefer the Pachai Nirame song in the Tamil version of Saathiya - Alaipayuthey. Sonu Nigam is a gr8 singer, but Hariharan in Pachai Nirame is to die for. Again, choosing Saathiya/Pachai Nirame when the album contains Chupke Se/Snegidhane is difficult. But the wavy melody in Saathiya is crazy... it transports me to a different world altogether, each time I hear it - I smell fresh green leaves, wet earth, cool breeze and flowers, even in the midst of the IT concrete jungle where I actually sit. And the synergy of colors in the tamil version (they didn't quite achieve it in Hindi) with the video, makes it one of the best videos ever made.

5. Radha Kaise Na Jale (Lagaan): Aah. The plight of every woman in love. Lagaan is a milestone album, but I think Radha kaise na jale is Rahman's best work in it. From the sound of the dandiya sticks, to the pure flute at the end... for those 5 minutes of listening, I inevitably soak in the mire of feelings it evokes - The besotted Radha in a quagmire of anger, jealousy and fury, combined with total devotion and love to Krishna, complaining about his affection for and the attention he receives from gopis, and he in turn, assuring and pacifying her with his love and smart repartee. Saroj Khan's dance movements in the song were amazing, esp. at the end where Aamir gives a naughty knowing look, while he mouths "Kahna ka pyaar kisi gopi ke mann me jo pale, kisliye Radha jale, Radha jale, Radha jale?"

6. Thaiyya Thaiyya (Dil Se): Strangely, I love this song the most in the entire album, much above the popular Chaiyya Chaiyya version. I felt this version was more pure, emotional and invoked the burning angst of love. Sukhwinder's voice is passionate, and transcends levels above excellent. Jiya Jale, and Ae Ajnabi from Dil Se are also outstanding compositions, but Thaiyya Thaiyya for me takes the cake.

7. Ramta Jogi (Taal): Hear this song to understand the technical effulgence of Sukhwinder Singh - this is one of his best songs. Creative brilliance from Rahman. One never knows when and where the song's pace changes - at one moment its the jogi in a drunken stupor reflecting on his love, and in the next moment, the music gains pace and reaches a crescendo where passion play meets racy love... Alka is also brilliant in this song. Taal se Taal mila (the original) also has some impressive vocals by Alka and Udit, but Ramta Jogi is outstanding.

8. Mangta He Kya (Rangeela): Aiyaiyo. If someone asks me to choose a fav Rahman song, I would really tear my hair out. This song starts on a chorus of "Jadoo" and unintelligible vocals... but it succeeds in setting a magical environment around you. Swetha Shetty's voice in this song is wisp-like and raucous by turns, and AR blends her voice with his own to create a startling synchronized effect. Music is total techno...I wasn't much appreciative of some part of the visuals of this song, like the part where they travel on a sofa in the sky. But the choreography at the start of the song, and at the end, justify the song completely.

9. Kuch bhi na socho (Bombay): Bombay is the first album with which I fell in love, with Rahman's music. I remember, I was in school in the 11th and I had some 50 rupees with me as pocket money. Went to the audio cassette store, and in a nervous voice, asked for Bombay - "the hindi version please". The guy handed over an audio cassette with a black,grey and red cover featuring Manisha and Arvind Swamy costing Rs. 26/-, yes, that's right :) That was of course when I'd never heard of a term called MP3 and couldn't even dream of a contraption called the iPod.
Kehna Hi Kya, Tu Hi Re, Hamma Hamma, Kuchchi Rakma are all deserving candidates on this list. But I reserved the place for the one song that I've always felt got less credit than it deserved. This is a crazy piece, filled with the innocence and playfulness of childhood; the music is a mixture of different voices, and creates calculated and beautiful chaos. The interlude of the baby gurgles is what makes this song so remarkable. Listen to it, and be transported into the world of children; without guile and the fallacies of life...

10.Yeh Hasin Wadiya (Roja): The pièce de résistance. The visuals of the song were very different from what I would have picturized it. I would see the romance of love in a night environment, complete with stars, the moon, candle light, and the twinkle in the lover's eyes. Mani Ratnam picturized this song in snowy locales and actually presented to me a different picture. The heavy chill that the music at the start conveys were justified by the visuals of the snow capped mountains, and the wonder in the eyes of the innocent, naive just-married bride. The music is everlasting. A worded symphony in the sensual tones of S P Balasubramaniam and the silvery voice of K S Chitra. When I first heard the tamil version of the song, I was amazed - didn't think that music like that existed ever before. Little did I know that it was just the beginning of creation for Rahman...

For those of you who're interested in knowing everything about Rahman, visit http://members.tripod.com/gopalhome/arrbio.html" title="http://members.tripod.com/gopalhome/arrbio.html" target="_blank"http://members.tripod.com/gop... and read about his biography and details till the year 2002.

Note: This post is strictly for people who're familiar with Indian Cinema, and primarily Hindi Cinema... 

For those of you who've watched the 51st Filmfare Awards ceremony on Saturday (25th Feb), you may understand some part of what I will be saying here:

8 of the biggest awards namely: Critics award for Best Director, Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Popular Award for Best Director, Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actress all went to the same film: Black, by Mr. Sanjay Leela Bhansali. I'm not mentioning the other small awards that the film picked up - Best Editing, Background Music etc.

You'd think that that was an achievement like none other - imagine a critics panel and a whole lot of audience, all agreeing on the same thing. The film must be one of the best movies India has ever seen, right?

Wrong. My views are that the whole set of those people have all just agreed on one thing: mediocrity and the propensity to agree with "the common notion".

The common notion being: "Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a great director, Amitabh Bachchan is God, the story is a great one (inspired by Helen Keller, designed to touch hearts and win awards) and Rani Mukherjee is the current queen of the marquee. Nothing can go wrong with the movie".

So okay. The movie is something in a new direction compared to the run-of-the-mill movies that Hindi cinema (Bollywood is a word that I detest, so I'm not using it here) produces. When I watched the movie, I was impressed with only one thing: the kid Ayesha Kapur. She was wonderful, fresh and new. I loved her portrayal of angst, of being trapped in a world without light and sound. And I liked the brief duration where her interaction with Amitabh the teacher was shown. But that was it, period. The rest of the movie just seemed to me like a premeditated attempt at garnering all the awards this season. Parts of the story were just unnecessary, for eg. the role of the sister. Here we have an innocent, blind and deaf woman who gets all the attention in the family, and next to her we have a jealous sister who's upset with all the attention the deaf-blind is getting. Okay, I understand that. But why give her such an undeveloped role? There is no beginning, explanation or solution given to the jealousy - the only reason i could find for the track to be there in the movie was so that the heroine would get a chance at an outburst and some histrionics at a dinner table (which reminds me of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Khamoshi, where the dinner table was the primary location for outbursts). Also the sister's wedding gives the heroine a chance to ask her teacher to kiss her.

Amitabh's role transcends within the movie from the utterly stupid to magnificent to wacko. He has an introduction scene where he looks at a light-bulb and mouths some funny dialogues, an insipid love track between him and Mrs.Nair (was that Ms.Nair), some overtly dramatic and theatrical dialogues said to the kid's father - during those scenes, all I was wondering is what is the nature of the character that he's trying to portray? Eccentric is not crazy for heaven's sake. If the attempt was eccentricity, then God help Mr. Sanjay Leela Bhansali. From totally nuts, the man transcends to being lovable and nice for the rest of the movie till he loses his mind. Of course, those couple of scenes (where he realizes that he's beginning to forget) are the only ones truly justifying Amitabh Bachchan's craft. There's nothing much else to do in the last part of the movie with him in the thick of the Alzheimer's disease, since all he has to do is shake and walk around a bit searching for beds and walls. And of course try to say "water".

I do not want to say anything about the supposedly (quote: Mr. S L Bhansali) best actress in the country (was Mr. Bhansali purposely forgetting that this country has regional cinema and talent that he's probably not even seen?) and her role in the movie. Some of her actions were nice, but for the most part of the movie, I just felt that she was trying too hard. Her role didn't touch my core, and I thought Ayesha did a much better job. And there is just too much of emphasis of de-glamourized roles and sundry. What the hell. There are hundreds of actresses in this country who have done and are doing much better work, not just as heroines, but also in character roles, without all this hype.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a smart man, from what I've seen. He made one good movie (Khamoshi) with some flaws, but that was one movie which had its heart in the right place. It touched me, made me cry and to this day, I rate it as a great movie - some part of which had to be forgiven, but I'm ready to do that, just for the sheer brilliance some of the characters displayed. The movie bombed badly at the B-O. There was no publicity and too much of music, and the stars of the movie gave a thumbs down sign when the box office results came out. Mr. Bhansali was at that time a virtual nobody. Since afterwards, he came up with 3 big movies: Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas, and Black, I assume that he spent some time thinking after his Khamoshi flop and came out with the success mantra, which is:

Don't ever be sincere to the subject completely and attempt to make a real movie - instead, lace the story with sincerity here and there, but add the commercial elements (like chips in a chocolate cookie) that are vital for your film to score at the B-O. Build hype about yourself - go to all the award ceremonies, put on a know-it-all face, put your mother's name in between yours, to emphasize how important she is to you so that a whole crowd of women just go: "he's so chweeet". Drag your mother to every awards function, and if you have to receive awards, take her with you on stage and tell everyone that you dedicate it to her. Make movies which are large in size, pretentious, and set in huge houses, which have ample spaces for heroines to run from one end to another (I think he has a special fetish for Aishwarya Rai running across huge hallways and on even bigger stairways). Have a color palette in your films and exhaust the viewer's eyes by filling up each screen with every possible color. Have a  couple of movies with lots of songs, a beautiful actress, a popular hero and another popular hero/heroine to make the triangle love story. Then go ahead and make a movie which has only background music, a black-gray-brown color palette, a heroine sans makeup, an ageing 60 year old hero who's the darling of the masses, and take a subject that is sure to pull the strings of every movie-goers heart. Be as secretive about this last effort so that critics/film magazines are clawing their way for sound-bytes. Release the movie, put up a martyr face and dedicate the movie to the deaf-blind. Say its a service to mankind. And walk away with all the awards, while people keep saying "waah waah. He's a brilliant craftsman", "Black is the most beautiful movie made in recent times" etc. etc.

I feel sorry for the Nagesh Kukunoors and Iqbals out there, the Hazaaron Khwahishen Aisi's, even the Sarkars, Paheli's and Parineeta's. The poor blokes really don't stand a chance do they? They are all up against a leviathan, built up of hype that blinds everyone's eyes to even mediocrity. I don't think there exist many people in the film industry who would stand up to this monster, and face it and say: "No, I don't think Black is such a wonderful movie as its portrayed to be". I mean, if they do, they would be swallowed in the disbelieving stares and the horror cries of the know-it-alls.  Mediocrity is in, baby. And talent is out.

Its times like these that I agree with Ayn Rand's objectivism theories, and want to go and read my copy of Fountainhead once more. I hate mediocrity. And I hate the public shunning of creativity too. And I wish that people like S L Bhansali stop being the media figure for such movements...