a kinship beyond blood...

Sunday was a movie marathon day for me - totally had a blast - after a loooooong time...
Managed to pack in Jab we met, Bommarillu and Rang de Basanti... and even as I write this, I am seriously considering watching Dil Chahta Hai ...

Rang de is an all time favorite of mine - for a number of reasons... I first saw it in the theatre in Feb 2006 - with my gang of buddies after a friend's wedding ... the timing was so brilliant ... it was our first year in the real world after post-grad college - the movie perfectly captured on-screen the camaraderie and affection I felt for my friends - the 9 of us managed to survive the post-grad course (and I am not talking about the acads) and like I mentioned in my first post - these 8 were my reason for living through the course with my sanity intact...

I could write pages and pages about why I love Rang de but will try to keep it short here... I dont want this to end up as a movie review...

Rang de joins the rank of all time awesome buddy movies - Dil Chahta Hai is another favorite of mine... the fact that Aamir has starred in both is just a coincidence...

I found Rang de's execution to be brilliant - story, screenplay, music, dialogue, costumes, camerawork .. you name it..

Some lines from the movie crack me up every time - "mere paet mein toh chuhe kabaddi khel rahe hain yaar" or "yeh sab samajhti hai yaar" or "puchchu aur daer nahin ruk sakte? kash, par puchchu ruk nahin sakta... [all the guys]: puchchuuuuuuuu!! " or even "miss freedom contest da sari round" - my favoritest though is "maut ki ungli".. precious...

The dialog that Aamir's character mouths when Karan and Sukhi go to drop off Aslam - about how baahar duniya hame nachaati hai but university ke gates ke is paar ham zindagi ko nachaate hain ... struck a chord with me - so true, so true... And sadly, he was right about even the best of friends not getting to meet after leaving college - working hard to make their own lives... I've first hand experience of that... but .. life moves on... And yes, you 8 out there - I miss you all badly...

The highlight of the movie was, for me, how well each of the characters had been defined and how well they gelled together (I know I know, they had all those orientation sessions to get familiar & comfortable with each other... still)... And tell me, who didnt want to be friends with them or have friends like them... Karan the cool rebel, Aslam the shaayar, Sukhi the clown, DJ the mischevious, Ajay the sexy IAF pilot or Sonia the sweetheart of the group... Aise dost kahaan milte hain... I also loved the way the friendship between Aslam and Pandey - who went from tearing each other's throats to solid buddies, slowly developed ...

I usually run the Rang De dvd only till the part before Ajay dies - I'd watch the rest of the movie but I usually cry my eyes out and given the current temperatures where I live, I'd run the risk of serious dehydration... Rang de is and always will be an instant pick-me-up for me...

I love every track in this movie - you already know how big a fan of ARR I am - this was one of his best I think - cool, hip and even after 2 yrs, gets me grooving - be it to Khalbali or the title track or Paathshala...

And yes, if you also noted - it was two Siddharth movies in a day - I'm a big fan and I love how he does tamil, telegu & hindi films with ease - he is an under-rated actor but I'm sure his time will come...

Since then I have gone on to watch these guys separately in starring roles - Aamir in TZP, Soha in Khoya Khoya Chaand, Kunal in Laga Chunari mein daag, Sharman in Life in a Metro, Madhavan in Evano Oruvan ... all fine actors in their own right... young blood...

Anyways, I think I will stop rambling here... my ipod beckons... till the next post then.. ta!

And so my ipod says...

My second post wasn't going to be about the music I am listening to currently - but here we are anyway... And this is not going to be a music review - just some thoughts induced by my current repeated-ipod-playing-till-the-play-button-is-worn-out phase...

there are a lot of words out there about ARR's two new releases - JTYJN and Ada... here are a few more... As far as the former goes, ARR managed to drag yours (initially reluctant) truly over to the side where Pappu can't dance but we all sing along anyway... And I love the nod to his earlier jazz venture in Iruvar - jazz is definitely a forte for you sir... the title track instantly transports me over to a lazy sunday afternoon that could be spent mozing around at the local Starbucks with this track playing over the shpeeker, mocha frappucino in hand... aah that's the life...

if only my ears had any verbal abilities, they would thank ARR for Kabhi Kabhi Aditi and the sombre-yet-engaging Jaane tu mera/meri kyaa hai...

But more than these tracks, Meherbaan from Ada has enraptured me... there is something about that song that takes me from feeling like I'm walking along a beach at sunset to watching a slow, gorgeous sunrise to strumming a rock ballad atop a cliff somewhere...you know - wind in your hair-black leather jacket-rockstar jeans - shades and a stunning lead guitar included...

this man is pure genius I tell you... This song's got me hook, line and sinker....

And so far I have only been talking about the instrumentation and the arrangements...

As a very knowledgeable friend and I were discussing (you know who you are) - the lyrics are a thing of class and perfection and as he put it, in chaste Urdu! Although it took me a while to hunt down the correct meaning/translation (thanks to time wasted on a couple of @#$@#$ translations of the song), by the time I got there, the song had me around its little finger anyway...

I love the way ARR says 'henna' in the song - his enunciation of the words themselves are a clear indication of the underlying intimacy...

Afore said friend and I were discussing Ada at length and as I was telling him, compared to ARRs previous body of work, this is quite unstructured and free form ... Ok so this album is supposed to be experimental, so I will give it the exact amount of latitude it deserves.. but still...

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for change and all that jazz (so you noticed the pun huh? ya that's intended *wink* ) - but I am a stickler when it comes to music - clean notes, skillful execution and masterful arrangements...take me to a place where the harmony makes me melt like butter...

Except for Meherbaan (and its oh-so-awesome instrumental version) - Ada has not managed to capture my already wandering attention...

I read somewhere that Ada has taken 6 yrs to complete (is that true chotu?) - and while it may have started out as ARR perhaps testing waters beyond familiar shores (any resemblance to the saagar & kinaara in Meherbaan is purely coincidental *cheesy grin*) , I doubt the album will be remembered as a breakout act in the current music landscape...

ARR is great at setting up well defined boundaries in his songs and then doing wonders within - but in Ada, it is the other way around - it is so free-form that it would take more than two-relatively-raw-voices to execute the tracks in a way that justifies the creative boundaries being tested...which has now got me thinking who would have sung these tracks better *scratches chin thoughtfully*

The two versions of Ishq Ada (M&F) are contrasted in themselves and left me feeling like my ears had been dealt with some serious injustice... While the arrangements in the song are quite engaging, the same cannot be said for the vocals - I'm all praise for the attempt at the execution, but it just falls short.. I'm sorry...

Maybe if the complexity had been put into the instrumentation instead of the vocals, we'd have had a whole new ballgame...Maybe, just maaybe ...

So what do you think of Ada? Does ARR break free and soar? Or, do you feel the way I do about Ada, tickled but not satisfied by the attempt?

Till the next post (whenever that is)...

Tu hai nazar, main nazaara...
Tu hai saagar, main kinaara...
Tu hai zabaan, main hoon bayaan...
Tu hai nihaan, main hoon ayaan...