Music Review: Woodstock Villa

Well, I started writing this for Sikandar. I mean, mainly because it's the debut movie of Sikandar Kher, son of Anupam and Kirron Kher, yet another star-son to enter the Indian film industry, almost at the same time with Mimoh, Mithun Da's son. But the songs turned out to be quite good, at least more than I had expected. So here is the music review of Woodstock Villa, the much awaited debut of Sikandar Kher.

Woodstock Villa is almost a typical Anu Malik album with songs just fine, nothing much exceptional, but not disappointing either.

The album contains 9 songs including 2 remixes.

First song of the album is 'Dhokha' sung by Anchal Dutta Bhatia. The song a slight cabaret feel associated to it, even with the harsh voice of Anchal. An average song whose popularity will depend a lot on advertisement.

Next there is 'Sawan mein lag gayi aag' sung by Mika Singh. The popularity of the song is not to be doubted though there have been some changes in the original one. There is also a club mix of the song at almost the end of the album which is not bad but not likely to replace the original.

Third comes 'Kyun' which seems promising, just like from the Pritam's school. Sung by 'The Aryans', The song has something that we have been liking for past one year or so, again and again, and I don't think this one is going to be an exception.

The fourth song of the album is 'Yeh Pyaar Hai' sung by Anchal Dutta Bhatia with Shaan. The song has a few background voices in the start that give the song a beautiful feel. Shaan has sung the song beautifully and so has Anchal Dutta Bhatia. The song is a light romantic, feel good number which is likely to be liked by people.

Then comes 'Koi Chala Ja Raha hai'. It's yet another song well sung from Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. The song starts with a slow rendition in Rahat's own voice which is followed by a fine, slow number.

Sixth on the list is 'Raakh ho ja tu', by Shibani Kashyap, of course giving her special guitar-voice touch to the song. The song moves slowly with beats matching the slow pace in the background.

The last original number of the song, or say un-remixed number, as we can never be sure of original with Anu Malik, is 'Dhokha Dega' again by Shibani Kahyap. The song seems to be a background score in itself with an espionage feel that matches the movie's posters and promos.

Finally there is the club mix of 'Sawan mein lag gayi aag' followed by a remix of the first song 'Dhokha' which has nothing much to it except for a increased speed while compared to the its original. But if promoted well, the song can be popular.

Overall, the album has three good songs, Kyun, yeh pyaar hai and Koi chala ja raha hai. So with the rest of the songs being average, the album is can be put in a 'slightly better than average' category.

Do kadam aur sahi

Kiski aawaz hai, sunn,
Ye naya saaz hai, sunn,
Kaun deta hai sadaa,
Chal ke dekhen to zaraa,

Raah veeraan sahi,
Raat sunsaan sahi,
Har ghadi saath rahe,
Kitne gham saath sahe,

Thode gham aur sahi..
Do kadam aur sahi..
Do kadam aur sahi...
Do kadam aur sahi....


singer: Sonu Nigam
music: A R Rehman
album: Meenaxi - a tale of three cities

Tashan

Ever had the cheap namkeen at the thela in a corner in the market? It has a lot of spice there, with not much substance, surely nothing for your health, and while you reach the end of the packet, there's so much of spice only that it gets unbearable. Though, some people like it a lot.

I think Tashan resembles that namkeen very much. Even though the cover resembles that of Haldiram's or Bikanerwala.

The director Vijay Krishna Acharya has put every spice in the movie, and until you reach the extremely spicy end of it, the movie is bearable, and at times interesting.

Well, with Tashan, Hindi cinema gets a Rajnikant of its own, at least in terms of action. As Bachchan Pande aka Akshay Kumar fights and beats up some 10-12 black cat commandos and takes a pole off the earth (inspired by Sunny Deol of course) Kanpur gets a star for the place as Saif claims he should be either dangerous (Anil Kapoor in background) or clever (Kareena in background) or Kanpuriya (Akshay in background) after the fight sequence.

The bikini clad Kareena in Chhaliya attracts like anything for sure and even other songs are a pretty much on the good side. Though not very well placed in the movie, the songs are well placed as far as locations of the world are concerned. The cinematography is wonderful and so is the background score.

Kareena has acted just fine. Saif hasn't got much except Kareena and Anil seems to be overpowering Sanjay Dutt playing a successful don for the second time, after welcome. The entry of Akshay Kumar in the movie promises a new era but it turns out to be fake as the movie gets into too much of Rajnikant-sunny deol-and more action and the end sequence removes any good flavor the movie had given you.

In all, Tashan is all good in the first half if you do not use your mind and just bearable on the start of second half, but in the end it gets to your nerves.

Still, with all odds, it must be kept in mind that a good movie and a hit have no connection and Tashan is all set to prove that yet again as I hope it will be a hit even with all the action and reaction. And at the end it will be Vijay Krishna Acharya singing Tashan mein.

U me aur hummm....

Tu meri khamoshiyon ka, saaz hai
Teri lafzon mein meri aawaaz hai
Raaz ye sabhi hum tum,
Jaan lein abhi hum tum.

Teri aasoo ki ladi,
Meri aankhon se bahe
Har khushi chhoti badi,
tere hoton pe rahe,

O chal yun jeeyein,
Sau, gham bhi ho gar,
aankh nam bhi ho par,
Dil, dil hi rahe,
Milke saare khwaab jeeyein
Milke sabhi bharam
U me aur hum?

These are the lines I love the most while I listen to U me aur hum. But the lines weren't there in the movie. Still, I loved the movie.

Though it wasn't as such a perfect sort of movie, neither can we compare Aamir Khan and Ajay Devgan at their debuts, yet I'd say it was a great effort from the actor.

In fact after seeing the movie U may feel that he has learnt making movies pretty fast as u can feel how good the second half of the movie is, compared to first one.

The best part of the movie: Kajol. Second best being the title song, especially by Vishal.

Worst: A few extra songs.

And the credit goes to: Ajay Devgan. Very much for making such a fine movie especially after losing it in the start.

Unnoticed credits: Monty Sharma, for a good background score. And lacs of SMS addicts, for dialogs.

My opinion: Worth a watch. Will be all the more good if u have a remote with the first half. But if u r a Kajol fan, u can watch it anyways.

Pranali

A movie out of nowhere. I just picked up the songs cause it was Kailash Kher in a new outfit. As a music composer for a movie, with a duo called Paresh and Naresh. And finally, it paid, at least something.

The movie has four songs including a 'Tandav' from Pt Birju Maharaj.

Of the other, the first song 'Sach na batana' is a good listening experience. We get a whole new Kailash Kher when the song starts as such a hip-hop music could hardly be expected from him. But then comes his high-pitched voice, a lot like Subhanallah of Chand Sifarish, and then the song unfolds itself with beautiful lyrics and a soothingly falling music.

The song has an Udit Narayan version which again is pretty good. But interestingly, surprisingly or shockingly, it has a complete hip-hop remix version too, which I suppose, cannot come out of Kailash Kher and must be the work of the remaining two guys.

The second song, Bikhar gayi, is another thing to be discussed. It's a female song and has the lyrics like 'main janani hoon, main devi hoon'. But the song in the female voice almost disappoints, at least when compared to the Kailash Kher's version.

The third song 'Sakhiyaan' seems to be having a touch of 'Dola re dola' from Devdas, especially due to more than one female voices and similar type of instruments.

And this one is not sung by Kailash Kher. :)

The Tandav of Pt Birju Maharaj must be good if you are a student of classical music, which I am not, so couldn't review it.

In short, a somehow surprising album, containing a truly surprising song. You won't feel bad downloading it for free, though it's not worth buying really as other songs are not that good.

Their masters' voices

If it's the best, it's mine.

It's not a dialogue from Hitler or Napoleon (I don't guarantee though) but it's the policy of the music composers since time immemorial.

When I was a buyer of cassettes, I used to see the names of composers as they were brands to me. And most of the times these brands gave good results, Nadeem Shravan being the most consistent until they gave Jeena Sirf Mere Liye.

But soon the time of cassettes was over and I got digital format, that is MP3 songs. Now I had to find which were the best songs in every album so that I could listen to them first. To remain a leader in the hostel.

And that was when I got my algorithm to find the best songs.

My initial algorithm was made of two standard parts.

1. If there is a song sung by the composer of the album, it should be listened first.
2. The longest song of the album should be listened first otherwise.

The first part is generally applicable to movie albums only but the second one is applicable almost universally.

For those who believe in superstitions, I got a third part that says a song if 3 minutes and 28 seconds must be good. (Dus bahane and One love are examples)

Well, superstitions apart, the first two hold good most of the times and later I realized that it was an old formula that the best songs were always captured by the music composers themselves.

Want some examples?

Let's start with the King of Indian music industry, A R Rehman. Rehman has not sung many songs. But the best of the songs in almost all the albums he has composed are sung by Rehman himself. Be it 'Dil se', Guru's 'tere bina', or Jodhaa Akbar's 'khwaja mere khwaja'.

Other than Rehman, it's been Vishal from the Vishal-Shekhar duo and Shankar from the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy trio who have given their voices to the best of the songs for the past few years. Both have been quite selective about the songs they sing and such songs have either had the best of lyrics, or something 'different'.

'Aazma le' from Taxi 9211 and Saaiyaan ve from Ta-ra-rum-pum are the best examples of Vishal's love for good lyrics. To some extent, the same can be said about Shankar Mahadevan for his Mitwaa and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom title song.

Even composers who have not been this regular at composing music for Hindi movies, have also tried the same. And succeeded to some extent, at times. Awarapan from Jism and Khoobsoorat hai wo itna from Rog sung by MM Kreem and a try of Adnan Sami at Sun Zara of Lucky have been such examples.

Vishal Bharadwaj has also sung the best of the songs in his previous movies Omkara (O sathi re) and U me aur Hum (title song).

But for a long time I was thinking that it was a new trend and only the composers of this age were trying to keep the best songs for themselves.

Guess I was wrong.

And I got this when I came to know that the song I liked the most in Guide, 'Wahaan kaun hai tera' was sung by SD Burman himself instead of a professional singer.

There were legendary singers like Mohammad Rafi, Kishor Kumar and Mukesh available at that time, but Burman Senior decided to sing it himself. And the result is there. A superb song.

In fact, now a new trend has started where lyricists have started singing their songs. This is about Swanand Kirkire singing Khoya Khoya Chand, even though his voice is not that good and the slow version of the song shows the discrepancies. I don't have any stats on the trend if this too is an old and is being followed since then.

Anyways, next time you see an album for the first time and you have to decide where to start, just pick the number sung by the composer. Hope it will be good.

Khoya Khoya Chand

Opinions matter. As long as they do not clash with those of mine.

I hadn't heard a good word about Khoya Khoya Chand except for from Mittal who had seen the movie just a day before myself. But when I saw the movie I didn't find anything wrong with the movie. I liked the movie a lot actually.

Though I had seen the movie in three rounds, yet I can say I wouldn't have had a problem seeing it in one sitting. In fact the times I closed my media player, it wasn't that easy because I wanted to continue.

I'm not sure why people didn't like the movie but probably it was because of the mixed up relations that might have confused people.

What I liked in the movie was the superb direction of the times gone and the depths of the industry and the personal grudges of professional people.

But above all, the best thing of the movie was the clash of the egos that is capable of creating troubles among lovers and bringing enemies together.

Shiney Ahuja is good as always but Soha is much better compared to her previous performances. Vinay Pathak is the most convincing in his role even though Saurabh Shukla hasn't lived up to his own brand. Rajat Kapoor lives his role yet another time. Soniya Jehan too is not bad.

Sushmita Mukerjee hardly gets a role but plays it as good as possible. The unknown N Ganguly has been pretty good with his small role.

The background of the movie is almost perfect as far as I could see it. Dialogues are impressive in places.

But the movie is a flop. Probably because it was not an entertainer and probably because it was not for all those who saw it.

Or probably I've been very wrong somewhere.

Still, I think if you do not have problems in watching 'offbeat' movies, you should watch it.

Today's lyric

jab kabhi yeh dil laga dard hi hamein mila
dil ki har lagi ka sunlo dard hi hai ik sila
kyun.. naye naye se dard ki firaaq mein talaash mein udaas hai dil
kyun.. apne aap se khafa khafa zara zara sa naaraaz hai dil

yeh manzilein bhi khud hi tay kare,
yeh faasle bhi khud hi tay kare
kyun.. toh rasto pe phir seham seham sambhal sambhal ke chalta hai ye dil...
(Khoya Khoya Chand)

Tashan mein

Tashan. One of the expected hits of the year. Even with a debutant director who is not a hero at least even though he is pretty famous among behind the screen people.

I was really excited about the movie and wanted to get the songs as early as possible. Finally in the end of March I got the songs and after two days I was completely Tashan mein. Hats off to Vishal Shekhar again.

The title song of the movie, Tashan mein, was a great experience. Vishal and Salim singing semi rock and semi sufi were simply superb. I could listen to the song in a repeat mode for hours. And I did.

The next number that caught my attention was 'Dil Dance Maare'. The made-to-be-hit lyrics are going to play a big part with the completely danceable music of the song. A must listen.

'Dil Haara' is a good and a kinda untraditional number in the voice of Sukhwinder. But the song is surely not bad.

'Chhaliya', again is a good song rendered by Sunidhi and has been given kinda effect by voices in the start. I expect it to be a hit with Kareena Kapoor's dance.

Then comes 'Falak Tak', the Udit Narayan style song sung by Udit himself. :)

Falak Tak is a typical romantic type with a light feeling associated with it. Kinda Jatin-Lalit way.

The album also has the actors' voices called 'Pooja Ka Tashan', 'Jimmy Ka Tashan', 'Bachchan Pande Ka Tashan' and 'Bhaiyyaji Ka Tashan' which maybe popular based on movie's success. But anyhow, the album is pretty good with Falak Tak, Dil Dance Maare. End of the day, you are bound to be Tashan mein.

Musicalised

Hi. This is my blog on music. I have always been a music freak and so a song distributor, playlist maker and song advisor.

But when my friends and acquaintances started asking me which songs I would recommend to them, I felt my choice was important for people and finally I have decided to give it out.

So if u want to know about music, music from Hindi movies and albums to be precise, and some movies too, you are invited to be musicalised too. I won't be providing gossips, or even songs and wallpapers here. All you get here is advice. You can find the songs on your own or ask me where to find them. I shall be happy to help.

No more wait. Get musicalised.

Today's song: 'Zara sa' (Jannat)