An Outdoor publicity campaign in Mumbai

Outside andheri station. Thats the kind of graphics on outdoor publicity that I really appreciate. Its fantastic. you would want to book a pulsar, if u are its target audience. Reminds me of Street Hawk, the serial, as one of my friends pointed out.




© Copyrights 2009 www.bhaandgroup.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. Hardik Mehta

Music Aaj Kal...

a quick round up on the hindi film music scene these days:

Love Aaj Kal
Re-Hashed, Remixed - Sounds good in parts. But please nowhere near its predecessor Jab We Met. Can we do away with this logic that Rahat Fateh Ali Khan - matlab - the song must be good. Ya its been true at times - but here the song "Aaj din chadeiyan" starts well, than after a point it doesn't stir you up.

"Aahun Aahun" has a nice start again with the guitar going from L to R and R to L. Its Madan Maddi's rhythm as they say. The Rap part in the song makes it utterly sad. But the Madan Maddi's part makes you feel there is so much to Punjabi folk than whats been projected to us.

"Chor Bazaari" does have a nice beat, undoubtedly. And the Band part makes you go "dhinchak". But i dont agree that Niraj Shridhar was the best choice for the song. Sunidhi is apt.Loved the use of owrd "ghatna"

"Mei kya hoon"
KK has so much fond memories of my growing up with singing and going to the higher octave. It was some time since i heard his voice. He's back in this song and his voice soars like an eagle at some parts. But i think almost all of Love Aaj Kal's songs start well but cant match up in their antaras.




Jashnn:
my my - these guys (at Vishesh films) know how to make awesome music- Create, Beg, borrow, or steal - but they would surely come out with stuff that on a certain level clicks. Like we wait for Rahman's new album, there are people out there who wait desperately for music from the next Vishesh films venture. Jashnn's "dard-e-tanhai" works for me - it may not for some - but it surely will be on the top of chartbusters.
Even the "Nazrein Kahaan " has a nice crescendo in the end. It does sound like a desi-Enigma version - but people out here love it. Its already on the no 1 spot, as one of my friends told me.



Luck:
Did i read Salim-Suleiman on the credit list?
Only "Khudaya ve" deserves some mention, Salim Merchant's voice is good. Why doesnt he use often?the rest as the visuals look - ordinary fanfare.
"Jee Le" seems like been there, done that. A rehash of Aaja Nachle's Ishq hua.



Kaminey:
Lets save the best for last. Mohit Chauhan, Sukhwinder Singh, Suresh Wadkar - take the cake. What renditions! Easily the best singer of our times for romantic ballads - Mohit Chauhan.
Gulzasaab too saves all his ammunition for his people.
When was the last time we heard a beautiful romantic song and were reminded of those wonderful days - when life went past by in slow motion and you felt like running into the arms of your favourite person."Pehli baar Mohhabbat" will remind you of all those days, moments, memories.

The Pulp-fictionique song will do great for all the pubs. It too boasts of awesome lyrics. Visuals remind me of "kung-fu fighting" sequences of City of God.

Did Radiohead come to compose "Go Charlie Go"?. If you mix Radiohead, sprinkle a doze of Kalyanji Anandji and bits of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy you would get this theme.

You wouldnt expect a word like "Kaminey" in the soft number that Suresh Wadkar sings. I felt that there was some mistake in naming the song untill i heard Wadkar singing "meri aarzoo kamini...". Awesome. Stuff that can force you to think different.


P.S: if I listen to all songs made during last year in 2008 - the Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi harmonium still doesnt leave my mind. What a composition.



© Copyrights 2009 www.bhaandgroup.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. Hardik Mehta

Jimmy... Jimmy... jimmy...Jib

80% of times the Jib shot used in our films or television serials are almost unwanted. Its like an escape route - When out of ideas and imagination go for the Jimmy Jib shot. The moving camera will at least do something to your frame - and in a way engage the audience, if the actors are not able to engage or worse - if your filmmaking/story-telling techniques are not able to engage.

Its a dangerous route that many filmmakers are taking. One of my friends commented that if the Jib was not invented than RGV would have been a bartender by now. But I dont quite agree to it. Consider his earlier works, they were done with minimum resources and maximum content. But then if you take all of his later films almost all of it have so much excessive use of such gimmicks like jib - and its almost as if he's lost on the "substance" part. Only the style remains. Watch Nishabd's simplest of the simple scene - when Amitabh Bachchan enters the house in his jeep. The shot starts from top, the camera is perched on the tree and swing it comes down and revolves round and round with Amitabh in centre - on watching it i felt - RGV's really lost it with his Jib. Was Nishabd a horror film or what. After 2 or 3 such attempts from RGV, when i started watching Sarkar Raj - i got so bored in the first 20 mins with his used, abused, tried and tested camera angles - that i thought i could utilize this time in a better fashion.


This is just a case in point. I better not open the idiot box and its excessive use of Jib. Will leave it here. Come on filmmakers we have such powerful tools with us, why to go out of ideas?

© Copyrights 2009 www.bhaandgroup.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. Hardik Mehta

Ek Chatur Idea and How to travel, when in Mumbai

Its something that almost all of us who travel in Mumbai observe. especially when we are returning towards our homes on the sweaty and crowded evenings. Faces - Faces that tell stories - of people who are tired, who are weary and who are returning after "god-knows what kind of day at work". The usual scene inside a public mode of transport is - Men either thinking or sleeping. Young girls perpetually busy on their mobiles, women lost in their thoughts about preparing meals after a tiring day. Yes, life is tough here. And oh did I forget the "horny" drivers, the motionless traffic, the ubiquitous smoke, the permanently "under-construction" infrastructure and add to all of these nightmares, the incessant Rains –all of them contributing towards the agony of reaching home. My purpose for pointing out this fatigued atmosphere is something that I happened to experience today.


In midst of all of the above mentioned factors, since last few days - the BEST bus service has started a new initiative. On the two screens installed inside the bus, they regularly show popular hindi film songs especially old songs. Its not as if this is an "out-of-the-box" idea, but it surely seems to be working. Why Old songs? – coz of the wide target audience that the public transport caters too. Now, as I entered Bus no. 266 on a rainy evening, I heard two glasses – clinking against each other and out came Vijay Arora holding his guitar. Zeenat Aman started singing “chura liya hai tumne jo…bolo ticket…” – seeing me getting inside the bus, the conductor was quick to pounce.


As the journey went on, after the “yaadon ki baarat” song, some “badly-made, less said about them” commercials came and went without disturbing the Corner Seat Uncle from his slumber. Inside the bus, the atmosphere was like the first paragraph of this write up – dull and boring. A little while later, the bus – like a giant elephant roared, stuttered and halted. The aunty sitting ahead of me got irritated.

“ye roz-roz ka traffic jam ho gaya hai…”

The visuals on the screen inside the bus flickered and then began the song. Mehmood, Kishore Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Saira Banu – “Ek Chaturnaaar….”. Now I consider this song as one of the most difficult songs ever to be composed and sung in hindi films. Manna Dey & Kishore Kumar were the singers and of course RD Burman’s music. The song had just begun and my eyes were instantly fixed to the screen. People in the bus were still fighting with either their or the city’s demons. As the song progressed, Mehmood’s antics began – “jis naari ka das…” – Back came the answer from Kishorda. And the battle on screen had just begun. I started to sing along, the guy sitting next to me started to talk on his cell phone. The Bus was still at its snail’s speed. The conductor had probed everyone over ticket and was now glued to the screen.


On screen, the “ghoda-chatur, ghoda-chatur” conversation began amongst the singers and actors. It started to turn hilarious. I could hardly control, I laughed out. A few men in the bus now started enjoying the song. A girl stopped staring outside the window and looked at the screen. The guy next to me put his cell down. The Deep Slumber Uncle now moved his head and in a while was staring at the screen like a kid. People started watching the song. They saw Mehmood confused with his harmonium keys. Sunil Dutt confused over the words. Kesto Mukherjee with his Chaplinsque moustache permanently confused. Inside the bus, those weary faces, those tired souls smiled. A sense of cheerfulness spread amongst the passengers. It was a wonderful sight, watching those “lightened” faces. Almost everyone knew about the song. By the time Mehmood had jumped from the window and the song had reached its ultimate crescendo – It was an amazing sight. Kishore Kumar had psychologically strangled Mehmood. I laughed out so loud that a few passengers were taken aback but chose not to respond. Infact they too smiled. Happiness had spread through the air. The smoke was now having a bad time. It was choking. Happiness was the cause. The bus in the meantime had started traveling. As the song came to an end, I was wondering at the genius of the people behind Padosan’s song and suddenly – the conductor came:

“tumko Apna Bazaar utarne ka tha na?”

And suddenly I realized that I had missed my bus stop. Movies, I tell you. It can surely work wonders on you. As Dev Benegal would put it “the magic of cinema”. I jumped out and saw the bus passing by me – in a second’s glance I saw the stern-looking conductor on his seat, smiling. No, not at me – to himself, to the song, or to the song called “life”


Note: So when you are stuck in those traffic "jams" while returning after earning your bread & "butter" – Take the BEST buses and the songs would surely provide you a reason to say "cheese"




© Copyrights 2009 www.bhaandgroup.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. Hardik Mehta