Remembrance of things past

Back in graduate school, when I was lot more of a bumbling idiot than what I am now, a couple of graduate students from India pitched an idea: why not perform a film song at the university's international students day (or whatever that was called.)

I had nothing to hold me back, and I said I will gladly sing along, while making sure they knew that my knowledge of Hindi was pretty basic at best.

It was a long time ago, and I have forgotten the names of people.  The leader was nearing the end of her PhD days--in the sciences, was it?  The name of one guy suddenly came back to me, and easily did I track him down on the web.   Another girl, whatever her name--we even worked together at the university's computing services--was the sister of this guy, as I recall.

Anyway, it was a group of about eight or ten of us.  And the song that our leader had us practicing quite a bit was this one:



A lovely tune, yes.  I had no idea what the lyrics meant.

Later on, this friend joked that I was pronouncing a few words like how somebody with a Bengali accent might.  (Interesting side note: through the years that I was there, he was working on his PhD in economics, and then I find out years later that he switched to film studies.  Only in America, eh!)

Those were the days, my friend :)

Oh, the performance itself? You had to ask? We sucked. Big time!

Shammi Kapoor dies ....

Reports the BBC

Here is one of my favorite Hindi film song with Shammi Kapoor (and Sharmila Tagore)



Of course, such slow numbers are not what he was really known for ... so, here is one of his crazy ones; I like this one too :)

Remembrance of things past: the girl next door

One of my favorites during my impressionable teenage years was Zarina Wahab.  She was a delight to look at and, despite all her natural beauty, was not up there on some pedestal either--perhaps that is why she was cast in those girl-next-door roles in romantic comedies, eh!



And another one, from the same movie:

Photo of the day: R.D. Burman

From the Source:

Rahul Dev Burman and his repertoire of Westernised beats revolutionised Hindi film music in the 1970s. With his emphasis on rhythm and beats, he had Young India of that time swinging to his tunes. At the same time, he proved his many detractors wrong by composing some of the most influential raga-based and folk-based songs.  
R.D. Burman: The Man, The Music looks at how he changed the way Indians perceived Hindi film music. With anecdotes and trivia and interactions with the musicians who were part of his team, the authors create a portrait of the man who continues to live on through his music even two decades after his death.
R.D. Burman: The Man, The Music; Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal, HaperCollins, Rs. 399

Yes, I have enjoyed quite a few Hindi songs that were set to music by R.D. Burman.  Here is one of the many, thanks to him:

Music videos of the day: Hemant Kumar

Even as a kid, I was drawn more to old movie songs in Hindi and Tamil--from the 1950s and 1960s--even as I enjoyed the contemporary ones. Well, contemporary as in 1970s and the early 1980s.  My familiarity with Indian movie songs pretty much end with the 1980s.

As I scanned through the ever-increasing options in YouTube, I came across the following two by Hemant Kumar.  He was a singer and a composer as well. A unique voice, that stirs images of a rural India more than the urban one, even though he was used in both the settings.  (SD Burman's voice is absolutely rustic.  His "Wahan kaun hai tera" is a gem)

Anyway, here is Hemant Kumar singing "Jaane woh kaise" in Pyaasa, which is recognized as one of the best movies ever--not merely Indian, but in a global listing. 



That is from 1957!
The one below is, according to the notes with the video, from a movie for which he was a composer, and a producer.



The female lead in this movie, Waheeda Rahman, was born in Tamil Nadu.  Even though I titled this post with "Hemant Kumar" it will be a shame if I don't include the video of Waheeda Rahman playing the dancer in "The Guide" for which Burman sang the intro song referenced earlier.  In the following video, it is one hell of a competition for "spectacular": Rahman and the choreography, the music, and the voice ... Incidentally, it is cool that Rahman, a Muslim, plays the role of Rosie, while dancing classically--she was a trained classical dancer. 



Does it matter that I don't understand a damn thing in the lyrics?  Nope! Never, ever ... :)

Never on Sunday--the crazy Bollywood style!

Rememberance of things past--12

One of the best Indian film songs ever.
This one, from "Anpadh" is quite minimalistic--very few instruments to back up the singer, and no bizarre set changes or anything.  It is one of those songs that makes me feel terrible at not having gained anything more than a basic, survival-level, knowledge of Hindi.  So, even if the translation is crude, it helps, a lot.
And, all the way from 1962--even before I was born :)

Remembrance of things past--11

Lyrics translation? Here

Remembrance of things past-9

Having left India in the second half of the 1980s, and not having kept up with popular culture since then means that, well, ....!  Life has been about creating entirely new sets of memories since then, and am all the better and wiser as a result.
Here is one of my many favorite film songs from years past; this one is by a classically trained singer, Vani Jayaram.  As with almost all the film songs that I still cherish, I have not watched the movies in which they were featured.  And, as with operas, I have no clue most of the time about what the words mean because all I had even then was a rudimentary understanding of Hindi, while the lyrics were poetry.  But, yes, no knowing what the words mean did not stop me from enjoying the music then--and even now, for instance, when I listen to Edith Piaff :)

Why the interest in Tina (Munim) Ambani?

Every time I look at the data on visitors to this blog, it turns out that my post on Tina Ambani (Tina Munim) is the most visited page, as I have noted once before.  What is the deal?  Why are so many people interested in that?  And, why do they come to my page for info on Tina Munim?
Of course, the web traffic data says that they reached the page by searching for it, and overwhelmingly it was a Google search.  The top five countries from where this search was done--from where I got these visitors--are:

India, US, UK, Canada, UAE.

The traffic data for India and the US are not significantly different.  The visitors from Canada + UAE exceed those from India ...
Here is Tina Munim (with Rishi Kapoor) in Karz


Btw, you folks reading this, will you throw me some details on how you ended up here ... about your interest in Tina Munim?  Am just damn curious :)