KAUFMAN - "Or cramming in sex, or car chases, or guns. Or characters learning profound life lessons. Or characters growing or characters changing or characters learning to like each other or characters overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end. Y'know ? Movie shit."
Kaufman is sweating like crazy now. Valerie is quiet for a moment - from "Adaptation".
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India doesn’t have anything to boast about at the ongoing Berlin Film Festival. Like any other cinema snob, if you don’t count Don2, Rajan Khosa’s Gattu is the only film in the official selection of Berlin. The film will be screened in the Generation section of the festival.
Since 1978, the Berlinale has devoted a section to children and young people: Generation. In two competitions, Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus, discoveries from state of the art world-cinema and on a par with young people are presented and the most outstanding of these are awarded the Crystal Bears. (from official release)
Gattu is produced by CFSI and the cast includes Mohammad Samad, Naresh Kumar and Bhura.
And here’s the official synopsis….
‘Truth with triumph in the end’ is the motto of the local school in the part of town where Gattu lives. But Gattu is too poor to go to school and he’s not always that truthful either. Gattu lives and works very hard at a scrap yard belonging to a man he simply calls ‘uncle’. Uncle bought him years ago from his sick father. Gattu is particularly inventive when it comes to thinking up excuses so he can slip away and indulge his passion for kite-flying. Day after day the children love to compete against each other with their kites. They’ve given the name Kali to one mysterious black kite that dominates the sky; strangely, nobody seems to know who owns it. If Gattu wants to win the next competition he’ll have to climb to the highest place in town. This is the school roof, of all places. Gattu manages to creep inside where he assumes command of a small but determined group of pupils. A dramatic battle of the skies ensues during which Gattu uses every trick in the book to claim the lead. But his greatest achievement is when, encouraged by his friendship with his new-found comrades, he decides to tell the truth.
If you still haven’t heard why this kolaveri di, am guessing you belong to a completely different planet. If you search for the song on youtube, there are some hundred versions of it – male, female, cat, mouse, chipmunks, bong, punjabi and so on. And since everyone was baffled by its instant success and nobody could explain the reason for it, now it’s the time for the bad copycats to try their luck. If only someone could explain to them that you can’t plan a viral success, it just happens because it’s so good. And if you plan a campaign, at least don’t be a copycat.
The first one is a song called Boka Chor – a desperate attempt by Bappi Lahiri and SaReGaMa. The entire video has been shot like the Kolaveri di video with some bad acting thrown in here and there. What’s worse is this info attached to the video – Bappi Lahiri is combining the Indian languages in the song Boka Chor. Enjoy this slang song in different Languages with Bappi Daa.
Combining Indian languages? Aha, where have i heard that before? Forget the video, even the idea of the song is not new. Lets’ go to the second one.
This one is by T-Series and for the promotion of Players. With Abhishek Bachchan behind the mic, it’s again the same style, same shots, same almost everything. If you want to copy the idea, that’s fine. But why can’t you add something new to it? Why it has to be a brain-dead one? Control + C —> Control +V. Done.
And the latest one is from a film called Jodi Breakers. Strangely, the makers haven’t released a teaser or a trailer of the film but are hoping for a viral magic with this one.
Am i the only who can’t see anything magical in these three videos? If no, i hope we don’t get any more of such tacky stuff.
The first look of Vidhu Vinod Chopra Prductions’ Ferrari Ki Sawaari is out. The film stars Sharman Joshi and has been directed by debutant Rajesh Mapuskar.
Though the teaser doesn’t say much but here’s my observation – a) why is the chroma looking so terrible? Why should tackiness be compensation for good content? It was the same with 3 Idiots. b) I may be completely wrong but it seems Boman Irani is playing a demented character again. I am bored of it. Can we give him a normal character to play? If am wrong, apologies in advance. Waiting for the trailer now.
Like everyone else, we have also started our “best of the year” posts. You can click here to read about the songs we looped and click here to read about the movie moments that stayed with us. In this post, Rohit looks back at the non-film music scene – on small screen, remixes, ghazals, virals and more. Read on.
While various music factories continue to churn out mass products (some of them as genuine and ‘durable’ as chinese products), we try to take a look at 11 instances wherein something good came out of independent factory owners. Of course they faltered as well, but they scored on more occasions and that’s what counts. Remember, this is what we feel. Let’s hear what you feel should be added/deleted/trashed/modified. Ok Mama ready? In no particular order.
1. Coke Studio@MTV – Finally, the channel went back to what it was known for – music. Expectations were huge. Almost everyone who has seen a coca cola bottle ever in their lives had an opinion on what the music in the ‘studio’ should sound like. While secretly everyone was waiting to see ‘Pakistan wala’ coke studio being performed in India, even the die hard fans of Coke studio like me will agree that what was missing was ‘stillness’. In presentation, in the execution and of course lights! didn’t help either. Some compositions that stood out purely in terms of innovation include
* Theme of Coke studio India – (heard it?)
* Mera Yaar basenda – Tochi raina and Mathangi Rajshekhar
* Piya Ghar aavengey – Kailasa
* Indian Jadoo – Sanjeev Thomas and ChinnaPonnu
* Kaatyaayni – Ustad Rashid Khan and Bombay Jayashree
* Vethalai – Kailash Kher and Chinnaponnu
Not going into the details of what we didn’t like or what didn’t click. There is a separate post for it which you can read here.
2) MTV Unplugged – The expectations were again high and the reasons were quite same. World over we have seen the artists, good artists holding our hands and leading us to euphoria when it comes to MTV Unplugged. The teasers were inviting. However somewhere in between (and I mean – Indian Ocean, Rekha and Euphoria), they missed the trick. Lights were good! Setting was less intruding, artists were good too. Yet we couldn’t help but feel that it was all done in a hurry (leaving Mohit chauhan and Rabbi’s episode). The music setting overpowered the vocals (Especially in Rekha ji’s performance) and Couldn’t help but feel that Ranjit barot was trying too hard and can someone PLEASE tell Euphoria that there is a difference between LIVE ‘performance’ and MTV Unplugged. Inviting crowd participation killed the episode for us. Still. Some gems linger in our mind…
* Jugni – Rabbi
* Bilqis – Rabbi
* Babaji – Mohit chauhan
* Chambey – Mohit chauhan
3. The Bartender Remix – Mikey McClearly – Khoya Khoya chand! Wo ‘shaitan’ wala gaana! 🙂 An interesting (I dislike using this word for ‘remixes but well!) experiment done to some old gems from our old hindi film rack. Undoubtedly, the strategically smart choice to showcase the song in Shaitan and not featuring it on the OST CD worked well for the ‘curiosity’ factor but you take this superbly shot song out and you are left with ‘the following songs that made some impact
* Ye raat ye chandni – Loved the overall effect of the song.
* Babuji dheerey chalna – Goes well with the theme of the album.
Do NOT listen to waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam. :). Wish the album was stirred a little. Still a good concept and superb marketing.
4. Depth of Ocean – Susmit Sen takes the guitar and tells us why it is the most prominent sound of the legendary group of India. A group we are all very very proud of. All the die hard fans of Indian ocean will hold on to this album forever. The album features Shubha Mudgal as well who has whispered melodiously in the track ‘city of lights’. The not-so-die hard fans will also do well to pick it up mainly for the tracks mentioned below
* Tribute – 11 minutes of pure guitar. Tell me if this piece doesn’t take you back to the days when you preferred to let the room be dark while you sit and ponder life and beyond.
* City of lights – Whispering melody by Shubha Mudgal along with Susmit da.
* Rejuvenation – Aseem da features in it. Enough said
* Six string tribute – Probably the best version of the National anthem that has hit our ears in a long time.
(P.S. – I wanted to put the track intimacy also but am worried that it will all be too lengthy. So there! Just listen to it ok? 🙂
5. A.R. Rahman – Superheavy – Lots of bass, lots of message and a lot of beat embelished Satyamev Jayatey wraps this 4 track album which showed us how easily the emperor (AR Rahman) melts in the setting still makes his presence felt. Don’t tell me that anything in this album reminds you of ‘Jai Ho’ on sterioids. :). Our pick is of course Satyamev Jayatey (The one with radio mix)
6. Sifar, The band – Easily the most ambitious, exciting and important find of 2011. Sifar is an Alternative/Indie rock band from New Delhi. Lead by Amit Yadav on vocals (and at times on drums!), this band has come out with their first album and if you forget the fact that they haven’t been featured on ‘T.V’, you will be bowled over by the ‘sound’ of their music. Don’t go finding if they are trying to sound like some ‘Angreji bands of yore’. With no popular names attached to their band, it’s incredible how they have managed to create a good vibe about their work in a short span (click www.sifar.in for more and for free downloads as well!). Our picks from their album (titled – 1) are
o Main Jaunga – Powerful
o Roko na – Powerful
o Mita do – Powerful
o TV – Heard anything like this before in Hindi?
7. Dewarists – Someone told me ‘Dewarists’ is what Coke studio in India should have been. Hmmm. While that’s a bit harsh and out of context (because Dewarists is more of a journey in making music and showing the product at the same time, Coke studio is supposed to undertake the journey off camera and get the performers to the studio to perform and make the world watch it), I guess the end result is what matters. This was a great initiative to show the artists, travel with them to a new place and make a new song. Though the format made the show look repetitive after few episodes but this was the best thing that happened on Indian Tv in 2011.
As long as there are more hits than misses, we are fine! Our picks
o Minds without fear – Imogen Heap teamed up with Vishal-Shekhar and gave us a very ‘bollywood-ish’ offerring but it touched the right tracks thanks to some superb mixing.
o Kya Khayal hai – Zeb, Haniya, Swanand kirkire and Shantanu moitra. I guess we don’t need to mention anything else.
o Sacred Science – Hear it. Hear it.
o Khule da rabb – Finally a song where someone looks Rabbi right into his eyes and challenges, melodiously of course. This is the song of the season according to us.
o Durr Kinara – Shubha Mudgal and Swarathma come together to showcase beautifully what Dewarists is all about. The video. The music. Superlative.
Wilfully not mentioning much on Indian ocean, Punditz and the parikrama song, which starts so well and loses it’s steam mid-way thanks to too many efforts to tug at your heart strings. Strange as it sounds, Shilpa Rao wasn’t required in this song.
Can we please have the 2nd season soon?
8. Band called Nine – Rewind – Who doesn’t want to go back to their good old days with a dash of melody and a cup of coffee? Thats just ‘Rewind’ does. A unique album comprising of a story which is narrated in a conversational mode with some songs thrown in for good measure. Although it has a strong North Indian bent to the entire story, chances are you will like it almost immediately. (Am a small town guy from Lucknow so well I may have extrapolated your liking a little bit) :). The band which is called nine consists of Shilpa Rao (famous bollywood singer), Amartya Rahut and the famous lyricist Neelesh Mishra.
No particular favorite as the entire album is worth a good listen.
9. Ae Dosheeza – Kshitij Tarey – The singer whose voice has given ‘soothing’ a new definition, has come out with a good album. Mixed with romantic and traditional songs with a dash of jazz, it’s quite an exciting album. Let the videos hit the T.V. (We sure hope it does). A detailed review is posted here. And you can can hear some of the songs from the album here.
Our picks would be
o Yaad piya ki aaye – A traditional thumri sung in jazz arrangement and boy does Kshitij does a justice to this one! Must Must Must hear.
o Saanware – Originally done by Roop kumar rathod and was also featured in the album Shor In The City, Kshitij displays consummate ease which is so good on ears.
10. Irshaad – Rekha and Sudeep – A very good and pure ghazal album with such variety! Not many of us have heard of this album isn’t it? Just hear it at one go and tell us if you don’t feel for such good efforts when they go unnoticed? Anyway, this album gets Rekha Bharadwaj and Sudeep Banerjee (Earlier albums – Phir bhi, Saqiya). Our pick for this album would be
o Wafa karne se – The way we all know ghazals.
o Subhe Roshan se – Spectacular lyrics with a haunting tune. Ghazal at it’s best.
o Mere mehboob – Recited by Ameeta Parsuram
o Mere Mehboob – Sudeep.
If you like ghazals, our request to you is to NOT miss this entire album. Click here to read the detailed review of the album.
11. Why this Kolaveri di – Dhanush and Anirudh – Yes, the song that gets us to the end of 2011. Amidst a lot of bashing and some self declared regulators of pure hearted fun, this song has made a splash like no other this year. A tamil song (Yes, Ms. Shoba Narayan, it will be tagged Tamil song forever) creating such a rage in the world is such a pleasant surprise. Heck! Any Indian song causing so many smiles is a matter of pride for us all. So if someone is crying because their tamil milkman and other tamil people who interact with her isn’t singing/talking about this song, let me suggest her to write an email to her milkman asking for a litre of milk and perhaps she will get her answer.
Amidst funny lyrics and funnier music arrangement, don’t understimate the music director Anirudh for a minute because if you listen to the song intently, you will actually come across smartness of execution. A music director to look forward to. Surely.
The year hasn’t been great for non film music but what’s promising is so many ‘Music projects’ blooming (read finding sponsors!), and reaching us just the way they intend to. Coke studio didn’t get it right fully but then the same applies to Dewarists, MTV Unplugged and ‘The Tehelka Music Project (heard of it?) as well. The best part is to see all of them going live with what they create and improvise as they go along…and sometimes that just adds up to the melody…hai na?
The year is about to end and since the world is busy making the top ten lists, we thought why should we be left behind. We are scooping all the best lists from across the world here. Or just scroll down and see under the tab “what we are reading”. We are starting our 2011 Rewind series with a post on the songs/albums of the year.
There are hit songs, there are chartbusters, flop songs, cult hits and then there are the songs which we played in non-stop loop. Sometimes for few hours, days, weeks or even months. And it’s not easy to dissect why a specific song got you hooked so much. Read on to see if you agree, disagree and if you played the same songs in non-stop loop this year. In no particular order.
1. Bekaran (7 Khoon Maaf) – Ek baar toh yun hoga, thoda sa sukoon hoga. Na dil me kasak hogi, na sar pe junoon hoga...It started with these four lines. And i was hooked. And it ended with anothem gem of a word ‘Lillah’, which slowly became a part of our dictionary. At a time when twitter asks you to be smarter and put everything in just 140 characters, you can say so much in just one word -“Lilaah“. With Vishal Bharadwaj’s voice and Gulzar’s words, it was love, longing and goose flesh all over.
Extra Playlist – Tere Liye in Suresh Wadekar’s voice and the haunting Yeshu in Rekha Bharadwaj’s voice. Well, play the entire album in non-stop loop.
2. Kun Faaya Kun/ Dichotomy Of Fame (Rockstar) – The name is A R Rahman. I am not sure where and how to start. Will say the same thing which i keep on saying – if i ever convert to Islam, blame it on Rahman. If Piya haji ali (Fiza), Khwaja mere khawaja (Jodha Akbar) and Maula maula (Delhi 6) weren’t enough, he added one more to the list – Kun Faaya Kun and this one i played in non-stop loop for days. Though Kun faaya was the starting point, the album had another beautifully arranged instrumental piece – dichtomy of fame. A blend of shehnai and guitar created a haunting mood.
Extra Playlist – Play the entire album.
3. Yun Hi (Tanu Weds Manu) – I discovered the film and the album quite late. Realised that this is the best musical debut of the year – Krsna (music director) and Raj Shekhar (Lyrics). The laidback charm in Mohit Chauhan’s voice almost works everytime but there is a danger of getting repetitive. Krsna and Raj Shekhar made sure that they didn’t fall in the trap.
…Kitne dafe hairaan hua, main ye sochke,
Uthti hai ibadat ki khushbuyein kyun mere ishq se,
Jaise hi mere honth ye choo lete hai tere naam ko,
Lagey ke sajda kiya, kehke tujhe shabad ke bol do,
Ye khudai chodke,
Fir aaja tu zamin pe,
Aur jaa na kahin,
tu saath reha ja mere,
Kitne dafe dil ne kaha,
Dil ki suni kitne dafe…
Extra Playlist – Rangrez, Piya, Manu Bhaiya, Jugni and Saddi Galli. Aha, another album where you can play all the songs .
4. Hawa Hawai (Shaitan) – Like this music review of Shaitan, almost all other reviews missed this Hawa Hawai remix. Because strangely, the song wasn’t available for download. So all those who downloaded the music and reviewed it, had no clue about it. The twang in Suman Shridhar’s vocals and Mikey McCleary’s arrangement added a new zing to the song.
Though after the film’s release, it was a completely different story. Everyone was just googling Khoya Khoya Chand sequence and if you have seen the film, the reason is quite obvious.
5. Saigal Blues (Delhi Belly) – Though Mikey’s work got noticed, another superb effort by Ram Sampath went completely unnoticed. Chetan Shashital, the man who can do wonders with his voice, went behind the mike to create the Saigal Blues.
…is dard ki na hai dawai…..majnu hai ya tu hai kasai..
Extra Playlist – Switty switty, Ja ja ja chudail
6. Senorita (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara) – This album is Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s only saving grace in recent times. The song captures the casual, boisterous and celebratory mood of the Spain and Tomatino fest so well. And the use of untrained voices of Farhan, Hrithik and Abhay made it look natural and completely impromtu. Add to that, those perfect pauses.
Extra playlist – Khwaboon ke parindey
7. Saibo (Shor In The City) – This came as a complete surprise. The song and the film. Shreya Ghoshal’s melliflous voice and Tochi Raina’s husky vocals leaves a powerful impact. Music – Sachin-Jigar. Lyrics – Sameer/ Priya Panchal.
Extra Playlist – Karma is a bitch,
8. Main Ek Bhanwara (Sahib Biwi Aur Gangster) – Music by Amit Sial and sung by Shail Hada, this one is an under-rated gem. A melodious track, the song instantly takes you back to the time when dhoom-dhaam noise wasn’t considered music.
9. Hona Tha Pyaar (Bol) – Purists still don’t believe that Atif Aslam can sing. But you can’t dismiss his voice so easily. There is something charming about the way he sings, though besura most of the times. This song is again one of the least played songs of the year. Heard it on FM radio first and then found out that the song is from the Pakisani film Bol.
10. Uh-ho Uh-Ho (Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge) – This album marked the bollywood debut of musician Raghu Dixit. As if the film’s title isn’t weird enough, this track is called uh-ho uh-ho. I never expected anything good from Y Films but this peppy number sung by Ash King and Shilpa Rao hooked me instantly.
11. Ban Gaya Kutta (Pyaar Ka Punchnama) – I have never laughed so much during a song. Had to play the song few times to get the lyrics and they smartly play with some of the words. Music and lyrics by Luv Ranjan and its sung by Mika.
What am i missing? What’s your non-stop loop playlist? Do let us know in the comments.
Bedabrata Pain’s Chittagong has been in the making for quite sometime. And now, the first poster of the film has been released. We are guessing the film should be releasing soon.
The poster is simple and effective, reminds you of Raavan’s first look. Two issues – too much text in such small space. And who uses so many exclamation marks!!!
Written by Bedabrata Pain & Shonali Bose, it stars Manoj Bajpayee, Raj Kumar Yadav, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Barry John and Dibyendu Bhattacharya. To read the official synopsis and see the trailer of the film, click here.
The Dirty Picture is still going strong on buzz-o-meter. And here’s the latest trailer, the animated version. Best animated bit – 00:25 – 00:32.
If you haven’t heard this song yet, you are missing the latest viral hit. Blogosphere is buzzing with this song. The song is from a movie called 3, written and sung by Dhanush and has been composed by Anniruddh. To know more about the song, click here and here.
But first, click on the play button and enjoy. As they say, a good viral has no barriers.
Because it’s Marty Day! So if you haven’t seen Martin Scorsese’s student film The Big Shave yet, click on the play button. And to read more about the film, click here.
Director Maneesh Sharma’s Band Bajaa Baaraat was a surpsrise hit last year. And now, he is back with the same team with a new film titled Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl. It stars Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, Dipannita Sharma, Aditi Sharma and Parineeti Chopra. Screenplay is by Devika Bhagat and dialogues are by Habib Faisal.
The film is releasing on 9th December and strangely YRF is releasing it’s theatrical trailer just a month before the release. These days most producers release the trailer of their films at least 2 months before the release date and then slowly built up the buzz with songs and videos . Though the makers of LVRB released two music videos before the trailer but the response has been lukewarm so far. Click on the play button to check out this trailer.
If I ever convert to Islam, put the blame on A R Rahman. Aha, that’s rhyme too. Piya Haji Ali, Maula maula and Khwaja mere khwaja – can play these three songs in non-stop loop. And Rahman is going in similar territory again, with a new track in Imtiaz Ali’ Rockstar – Kun faaya kun.
Click on the play button and enjoy! It’s sung by Rahman, Mohit Chauhan and Javed Ali.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 