important lesson for making films in bombay

a cliche is a cliche is a cliche because it works!

rab ne bana di jodi - salim sulemaan ki... !

if anyone in commercial film music knows how to use harmonium in songs after AR Rahman - it has to be the jodi of salim-suleman.

O re piya from aaja nachle was an example they had set and now they have followed up with haule haule from rab ne bana di jodi.

Its so much fun to hear a well-tuned harmonium, add to it Sukhwinder's magical voice and the result is pure mesmerizing!

the best coincident that ever took place in history

An interesting thought occurred to me today in the local train – George Bush and Kyunki Saas bhi kabhi Bahu thi both have left our lives for GOOD. And they both left it together. 5th Nov – Obama elected and 6th Nov – the last episode of the soap. Wow! How wonderful our lives will be without these two now.

And to add to this wonderful coincidence – now I recollect – they both made it into our lives almost together in the year 2000. The TV soap became such a phenomena that India, as a nation was never together glued to TV like this. And so was Bush – his acts affected the world like never before. The Bush regime was also almost like a family saga – the way Bush Sr. ruled US and also was the Chief of CIA - caused wars in Kuwait, made friends with Arab leaders and the Jr. continued with Iraq and so on and so forth.

I almost thought if there was one person in India who I could put it in place of Bush and the way he and his policies were – then that person would be Ekta Kapoor. Am sure the insiders at Balaji telefilms will agree with me on her policies and the way she chooses content for all her soaps. She Sucks big time and so did Bush.

One of these days - I read an interview of the soap queen – Ekta Kapoor – she said this and I quote “Television has reached where even Bollywood has not reached in India”. This probably is the most idiotic statement made in any interview – why does the soap queen forget that it is all courtesy Bollywood that the television has been surviving. So dear soap queen – Television has and will always remain a poor cousin of film – so please don’t open your mouth too much.

mumbai moorings!

in suketu mehta's Maximum City - there is a character who when returns from his native place in Gujarat to Mumbai - feels extremely frustrated on seeing Virar station - thats how pretty much i too feel when i return to this megapolis -
but then half a billion people who go and come back hardly have a option - the city sucks u in...!

so here i am..back to mumbai - the karmabhoomi. Although like Suketu - i too once upon a time lived here for 11 years - before i left for good or bad - but now again coming back to this city - i dont feel the same love for Mumbai which i had for Bombay...:)

maybe it will take time. and as such the same city where you were once a school going kid and now where you are working your ass of - will never be the same...!

but am learning to love this city. and ya am in no mood to learn marathi!

Kailash kher, the writer

Kailash kher is now into film music - he s composed for this film called Dasvidanya. But the more interesting part is that he also has written the songs for the film. So he is on his road to become music’s abbas tyrewalla - written, sung and composed. I observed an interesting thing in his writing. There’s a song on maa in the film Dasvidanya.
Somewhere in the start there is a couplet that goes:

haathon ki lakeerein badal jaayegi
gham ki yeh zanjeere pigal jaayegi...

Now this is where me thinks that Kailash- the writer borrows from the Sameer School of lyrics - which I think is not up there. Like what he is trying to say here is fake yet poetic - the way sameer has been all this while in industry since last I don’t know how many years - but wait - just before I conclude or write off Kailash, the writer - he comes up with this gem in the same song - a little ahead. Here is the couplet:

tu kaan pakadti hai
badi zor se lagtaa hai... (that is referring to his maa)

Now here is where he writes practical - stuff that happens in real life. No poetic shit and stupid nonsense rhyming like zanjeerein, lakeerein... - but that couplet is sincere and straightforward - ke maa sahi mei bahut lagtaa hai jab kaan pakadti hai uss tarah. This is where I term Kailash - the writer coming from a Prasoon Joshi or a Gulzar kind of school. Not that these 2 legends do not write poetic stuff - but I am not taking that now because Kailash is yet to reach to that level where I can compare his lyrics to the poetic gulzar or the poetic Prasoon.

And here’s more. Or maybe it’s just me reading too much into this song. There s a line that comes in the song where Kailash refers to maa as:

“tu hai amar ka jahaan...”

Now from the trailer of the film I know that the main protagonist in the film is called Amar. So maa is refered to here as she is “amar ka jahaan” - which I think is Kailash- the writer taking inspiration from abbas tyrewalla - to include the character’s name in the song - after all a song is as much a part of the universe of the film - So you see, Kailash - the writer has chartered the right kind of route for his writing - only thing I would suggest is that go less on sameer and go as high as possible on the gulzar road.

But yet the best part of the song comes from Kailash - the composer when he sings: pyaari maaa... mum... maa...” the way he sings “mum...maaa...” cant be expressed through the writing medium. So I suggest, you listen to this wonderful song and if possible sing for your mother - that would be truly wonderful. In the meantime, my only comments for Kailasa would be - Rock On..!