Shauk Hai

Kaash ye zindagi Khel hi khel mein kho gayi hoti... - How true? If only life were a child's play....

This has been one of my Google talk status messages in the past few day. It's from a track from the movie Guru called Shauk Hai. I made a mention of this in one of my earlier posts. But I felt the need to put down an entire blog in dedication of the song itself....

A subtle one, featured on Vidya Balan mainly in the movie, did not make it to the audio CD's or Cassettes, but did come out in a A.R. Rahman Special MP3 cd by Sony. A heavenly voice, Soumya Raoh, breezes through this song and the picturization of the song fits in well in the movie.

It's one of ARR's simplest songs ever, mainly accompanied by keyboard notes. The interlude 2:36 - 2:57 is ARR at his best. The song never fails to grow on me, and I am tempted to repeat the track several times, each time I hear it. The 'subah ki roshni' has a nice outburst, proving that ARR is a musical genius once again.

I could go with a lot of adjectives for this one - soft, gentle, subtle, tender and so on.... but nothing could capture the entire essence of the song.

At times, I feel that the song did not get enough attention as the other songs in the movie. But, I am sure there is a silent majority that loves this song. There is no full video on this one, as in any Maniratnam movie, it appears in parts. However Youtube does have a remix video, which doesn't have the same feel though (makers of the video, kindly excuse me).

And some kind souls put up their versions of the English translation of the song up on the web. Though, I read them, 'kavidhai variyin suvai, artham puriyum varai' doesn't hold hold in this case, since I come up with a new thought everytime I listen to this song....

Guru - A Mani Ratnam Film - Music

The title says it all.

It was sometime during the Fall semester that I knew Maniratnam was doing a movie starring Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai. And mid-November I heard that there was a music release function, but the audio was out only by nov 18-19th(don't remember the exact date). I was on the website www.musicindiaonline.com and see that the Guru audio was already on there, while the music was yet ot hit the stores(which was a couple of hours away).

I heard the songs and I first one that I heard was Baazi Laga, which actually seemed very ordinary. And I was curious to see to how Bappi Lahiri sounds, becuase there was a hype surrounding the song he sung, this too failed to interest me(but only for the first couple of times).

After this came Ay Hairathe Aashiqui, Jagaa Man.. Pairo se zameen ...........(literal pause in the song). As written in one of the blogs, Rahman can do wonders with music and the "lack of it" as well. I fell in love with the song the first time I heard it. Alka Yagnik proved that she is a seasoned singer (a few of her other songs that like are Mehendi Hain Rachnewali, Maahi Ve, Taal Se Taal Mila, Kuch Kuch hota Hai, Ghoonghat hi Aadh se etc). I hadn't heard too many of her songs. But after this song, I went on to listen to her other songs and she seems to have had a lot of soul-stirring melodies to her share too. But her diction in this was too plain. [Her 'Ashiki' sound literally as 'Ashikuyi'(Supraja's observation)]

Then came Mayya Mayya, and this one is sung by Maryem Toller and Chinmayi. Maryem I believe is an Egyptian by birth and trained in Arabic singing. I just loved this, even though I knew this was picturized on Mallika Sherawat and I am no great fan of her. But, this seemed to have a distinct flavor apart from all the other songs that I listen to these days. And this turned out to be true. I was amazed to see how Mani had incorporated the title credits in the same song.

Next cam Jaage Hain, which I guess would be a theme that would be running through the movie. This had amazing vocals by Rahman and the Madras Choral group. And I love the lyrics
"jaage Hain Der Thak hamen, Kuchch Der sone dho..... thodi si raat aur hain Subah tho hone dho".

Finally I heard "Tere Bina" sung by Chinmayee and Rahman along with others. It started the same way as Ay Hairathe but in a paced manner. This was "THE" song that I was looking for. Chinmayee, earlier I had heard her in Oru Deivam Thandha Poove from Kannathil, and she was amazingly good in the song. And she was good in her rendition of the title track for the soap Anbulla Snehithiye. Overall I loved this song and knew that the song video was one to watch out for. But, seeing the 1 minute clip on Youtube, I felt this was a Sanjay Leela Bhansali kind of song, especially, I could see only Salman khan with Aishwarya throughout the song as in Hum Dil De chuke Sanam. But, the choreography for Abhshek was funny. In the movie this comes in a portion where Aishwarya leaves Abhi after learning he married her for the dowry, this sat in place and at the end of the song Abhi comes in a car and aish who is waiting comes and hugs him, and that's Mani, not losing time because of a song either.

I was waiting for the movie all through my winter break listening to this audio. And this came to the Tempe Cinemas on the 12th Jan and this was going to be my first movie of the year and perhaps only one too. This was a solid packaging of a 10 hr movie in 2 hr 45 minutes. I have no words to describe the movie. Maybe that would be another blog.