F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b

Like many of us, Fatema Kagalwala is also tripping on LSD these days. But the big fuck up is that the music is still not available at many places! Yes, even after the film’s release. WTF is Sony Music upto ? I checked with Landmark (Andheri west) today. They have no clue. Thats quite a landmark, right ? Anyway, back to the dope.  

LSD music is LSD. Not the film but its actual abbreviation namesake- the psychedelic hallucination-inducing, drug. And in its 8 song package it packs every kind of delirious phantasm the drug can induce. 

I have no idea about music, you won’t get a review. I cannot write intelligently about instruments, rhythms, notes, genres and all that but there is this absolute compulsion I have, to write about the music of Love, Sex aur Dhoka. (Last I felt like this was for Gulaal and before that Dev D’s music. There is no comparison, these two and LSD music being in totally different spaces, the only similarity being how they got stuck to my playlist, fevicol-ka-mazboot-jod-types). Hence, this deluge of words which actually could begin at ‘rocks!’ and end at ‘awesome!’ But aren’t we all suckers for a little more than simplistic minus 20 IQ FYBA expression? I am going to have fun with it here while LSD songs play right now on my comp, yes, giving that extra kick.

Title track – Starts with a high-pitched shriek. Goes onto an equally mind-fucked ‘Dhishkiaaooon’. And the number of ways it is said in makes me imagine a character experimenting in different ways to say it, all mad but. Sets the perfect tone for this crazy song. And the mayhem then breaks loose. Obsession, destruction, wild fantasies all roll out without warning. What love! Destructive and protective in the same breath. I think it’s quite an interesting kind of love. But the killer are the lyrics. The schizophrenia in them is so much fun! Great perverse pleasure. In a twisted way embodies the point of the film. I don’t know if it was supposed to. If yes, then it’s genius. If no, even then I am thankful for the serendipity. And the way suddenly Kailash Kher softens down on the ‘Love, sex aur dhoka darling, love sex aur dhoka’ going into the frenzied pitch again is…Sneha Khanvalkar, take a bow. Actually, quite a few.

I can’t hold it longer – I think I LOVE this one because of it irreverence, its brazen-ness. And maybe also because being the ONLY female song in the bunch, I guess identify with it the mostest. But I also don’t think so, that’s too subconscious a reason because the song is a class-act in its own right. It’s more trippy than anything else in the album. Oh, the magic done with turntables, flutes, dholaks and what-nots (How I wish I could distinguish which instrument makes which music in the song!) The Rajasthani folk turned into a crazy, starved pop song! And does it work? The one that works the most in the album because of all the elements. Lyrics. Whoever thought of Rajasthani words and that too belted out in such a pop-ish style, in this case Mr Banerjee, is a genius. But for me the real genius is Sneha, the ensemble put together, with her bare-it-all, rendition, adding to the craziness. The fun she seems like having while singing it, makes me jealous. And the FO? It’s the juiciest cherry I have seen on any cake yet! My roomie put it on her cell after she listened to it once (by compulsion being in the same room with me) and now does not need permission to go upto my comp and put it on whenever she pleases which has become all the time in two days. More testimony for Sneha’s genius and our madness?

Tu Gandi – Controversy’s child. I first read about it on Anurag Kashyap’s status on facebook and me being the prude that I am, was more than a little taken aback. But of course, a curiosity for anything ‘atrangi’ (not for a want for a better word but there is no word that clearly translates the full meaning of this word in any language), call it attraction rather, drew me to it. Where the hell did the ideas of this song come in from? I want to go to that place… Explore it superficially or delve a little deeper, it explodes. A song that starts with something as crass as ‘Tu gandi achhci lagti hain’ goes onto something as spiritual as ‘Main kya jaanu kya sharam haya, tujhe jaanke main sab bhool gaya, woh kehte hain yeh kufr-khata, kaafir kya hain, kya mujhko pata.’ Then it goes into a starker yet deeper zone, ‘Sach, sach main bolnewaala hoon, main manka behad kaala hoon, tere rang mein man rang loonga, tu rangeen achchi lagti hain.’ There can be no song more honest about love and sex than this one. Personally, I think the music is a bit of a let-down in this one. Or maybe it is just that I am not a trance fan and this one falls in that pattern, the repetitive rhythm structure. Had the variations in the melody been more, it would have been a much much more interesting song. But guess, Dibakar thought we wouldn’t be able to handle the RDX then? 😉

Tainu TV pe wekhya – The craziness for me ends with the songs above. From here begins another trip, a bit closer to reality, dripping sarcasm, tongue-in-cheek, laughing at the knowledge that those being made fun of will not even get the point. This song reminds me of the news item years back saying how Abhijeet Sawant was inundated with marriage offers after he won whatever music contest he did. Wow. But the view of the dystopia we live in is delicious. Laughing at oneself and one’s surroundings is another kind of liberation.

Na Batati tu – The trip in this one is the music and KK’s rendition. Starting with classical beats going onto western beats and KK coming in with classical vocals going na dhin dhin-na over western rhythms gels for me! Again the self-deprecatory tone of the music and singing hide the meaningful lyrics. And the under-emphasis works so well, just adding that splash of meaning in an environment of lightly charged music! Sample this –

Nabh ke sitare (when was the last time we heard ‘nabh’ in any Hindi movie song?)

Aise saje hain dwarein

Jaage Jaage ujiyare

Mukh rang gaye saare

Palkon ke tale chhupa chand na

Tujhko padega pehchanna

Kuchh samajh ishaare…

My, my! Is this part of a movie about vouyeurism, materialistic changing values, love, sex and dhoka??? I am waiting for the film, if the songs alone pack in so much.

Tauba Tauba – Roomie tells me this is part of KK’s ‘Kailasa’. I imagine it as a spoof of some kind much like the ‘Love Bollywood Style’. The pace, very disco-ish and the rhythm very Arabic, makes it danc-ish. Ish! Why am I writing like this? Maybe cause its a song just to be heard and not to be spoken about at length???

Bollywood style – Makers of silly ‘nostalgia-inducing’, ‘tributes’, spoofs of 60, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and hell even 2000’s songs must learn a thing or two from this Love Bollywood style song. Not that it’s the best in this category. “Woh ladki hain kahan hain’ from DCH and ‘Dhoom tana’ from OSO rock (I am out of words now) but this one’s got a tongue-in-cheek satiric attitude that the two above didn’t have. I like the sly tone of the song, making fun at prevalent popular film songs/situations/attitudes and the treatment is so genuinely serious it’s quite funny!

I’ve spoken too much about that just needs to be heard. And I can’t stop playing it repeatedly and can’t stop saying, ‘Fuck, awesome’ every other minute or so. Hope you like it too! And hope it catches on like Dev D. Not comparing but seeing how big a hit it was with the youth these songs sure do have the capacity to catch fire and heat up things more on the alternative film music scene. And by god we know how bad we need it.

But now I need to go watch the film. I caaaaannnnn’t hold it any LONGER! And shouldn’t either, na?