original is gold, but...

...there are some exceptions even to this rule.
now id told you a million years ago that i absolutely LOVEEE bollywood.
but more than that i LOVEEE bollywood music.
its so dramatic, larger than life and really can describe practically each and every feeling, emotion you've ever experienced in life!!
yup, you name a feeling, a situation and voila! we have a song :)

i love it all.
old music, new music. romantic songs, sad one, dances, cabarets, mujras everything.
what i dont like are REMIXES. they almost always ruin beautiful compositions.
but in the last couple of years, ive been doing a quick rethink on that theory.

here are some, which ive really really come to love.

1. THIS one is my absolute fav. THis song is guaranteed to improve my mood no matter what. oh and i must confess, i absolutely hated the original of this song...but it may have something to do with the fact that annoying babita (karishma n kareena kapoors mother!) starred in it...and in effect ruined the song for me.





2. i liked the original as well sung by legendary mukesh, but in this version from 'namesake' susheela raman's voice takes you to another world altogether...a hypnotic trance that you never wanna come out of.





3. this one is the most interesting in the list, i think. kishore kumar, the man i worship..had simply rocked the original version. great lyrics, all the right beats and kishore's magical voice...not a note was out of tune. and yet somehow without changing too much nitin bali...who is not even a great singer gave this smashing song. sometimes i think he chose the song well..thats it. perhaps u agree?!





4. Bombay Vikings, what can i say...they've taken a very beautiful song and turned it into something completely different and even more beautiful. Im so glad that Neeraj Shridhar, the lead singer from the Bombay Vikings is now creating 'original' magic in bollywood.





5. in the original its a sweet laid-back beautiful song again sung by mukesh...which gets completely transformed by energetic anamika. im no really sure WHAT i like in this new version...but for some inexplicable reason, i do.





6. Now in this one...its the same original composition...they've just re-filmed it. And thank god they did. Now ul say...its the same song?! Only those who've seen the original will know why I chose to put it here. The original picturisation KILLED the song piece by piece, note by note. not to mention the ugly actors..raj kiran and shoma anand for cryin out loud!!! I mean just look at this beautiful man. sigh.




you know in remixes....its not just about a faster pacier beat...which let's face it...sometimes just ruins the songs and more than that...the whole mood of the song. after all not all songs can be in the same peppy mood...now can they?!

let me know ur thoughts on this whole business of remixes. oh and pls share if you can think of any other great ones!


m

Bollywood ke naam...

"Kitne aadmi they..." or "mat ro pushpa...i hate tears re!" or the more recent "rahul...naam to suna hoga". Over the years so many of these dialogues are now practically part of everyone's memory.

But there are some bollywood fans like me...who alongwith all these mega blockbuster films also have as part of their growing up memories some films/songs/dialogues that most of you would not even have heard of. Well...unless ur a crazy fan like me...in which case we may have loads to reminisce about.

Now....ive dug out a few gems for those who are not fans...yet.

For example...
- how many of you know that once there was a hot debate in the industry in early 90s on whether rahul roy should be shown in the buff in a film called "Junoon". From the mahesh bhatt camp....this film had roy turning into a tiger everytime there was a full moon night because he had killed a tiger on one such night. So dutifully he lures women on full moon nights with songs picturised in discos .."prem prem o' meri dilruba tu dil ke kareen hai...tera pyaar mera naseeb hai..." and then eats them up in the disco loo!! (after such an exciting plot would you even THINK about rahul roy in the buff?)

- Now Rangoli on sunday mornings and chitrahaar on wed and friday nights at 8pm were nector for starving souls like me. I still remember at 7.15 my sunday morning made...when I caught the song from Meera ka Mohan....an Avinash Wadhawan (who couldnt dance to save his life!) with a flute in his hand..singing..."O Krishna...you are the greatest musician of this world.." in Bappi Da's inimitable voice!

- In late 80's and even till mid 90's....when cable hadn't invaded homes and hearts the way it has now...small publishing houses used to take out booklets for newly released films...almost like a comic book...full with dialogues and songs etc! My sister will tell you...all my pocket money went towards buying those books. I remember "reading" Tehelka...and even though it was a true classic...cos id heard it on the radio many a times...it was only much later that i SAW the songs...main hoon naram garam....arre kaisi sharam! or aditya panscholi ...naseer and javed jaffery dressed in bikinis singing...meri chhatri ke neeche aaja...kyun bheege re kamla khadi khadi!!

- "where is the time to hate...when there is so little time to love...come on lets sing sing sing...come on lets dance dance dance....come on have fun fun fun...meri jaan"...from saatwan aasman. Do I really need to elaborate this?!

- classic hollywood dialogues like "think and hit" from Ghost became "socho aur maaro..." in a straight lift Pyaar ka Saaya

- My personal fav is "if you want to shoot....shoot....don't talk" by ajay devgan...in phool aur kaante and "bolte bahut ho keshav.." by anupam kher from roop ki rani choron ka raja...just after he shoots "keshav"....for talking too much.
Interestingly..had it released much earlier Rakeysh Mehra's pigeon in Dilli 6;s....the much talked about...masakalli....would have been in direct competition with Anil Kapoor;s 'Jango' in the film...!!

Im not even sure if anyone is reading my ramblings....but if you are...and have some of those gems to share...do write in.

Love and think money!

m