Sunday, June 01, 2008

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Music Review

Movie - Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Director - Abbas Tyrewala
Music Director - A.R. Rahman
Lyrics - Abbas Tyrewala

An A.R. Rahman album is mostly the one with an experience outside this world and with Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (JTYJN) Rahman again solidifies this fact. The launch vehicle for Imran Khan (Aamir's nephew) couldn't have had a better start than this. Two weeks after the audio release a couple of songs are already topping the charts. So here is my take on the songs.

Track -1 , Kabhi Kabhi Aditi - Rashid Ali
Undoubtedly the best song of the album, this song has a young feel to it. The talent of newcomer Rashid Ali is very well exploited in this song. This one pleases your ear from the first go itself. We need to lookout for Rashid Ali, he definitely has got a jumpstart to his career.

Rating 9/10

Track -2 , Pappu Can't Dance - Benny Dayal, Naresh Iyer, Satish Chakravarthy, Aslam, Blaze, Tanvi, Bhargavi
On the first listening this never looked like a Rahman track, and in addition the unorthodox lyrics by Tyrewala didn't help either. But after a few listening this peppy young song does catch up with you and its presence is now all over the music channels. I assume that this song may be enjoyed well on the big screen when the movie releases and the list of singers in the song act as a fresh breeze.

Rating 7.5/10

Track - 3 , Jaane Tu Mera Kya Hain - Runa
One of the songs with typical Rahman songs which grows on you with each listening. Has a nice pleasing melody and good vocals by Runa. Incidently after the aditi song this is another song which contains the name of the title "Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na" within the song. Surely some innovative lyric writing for the movie.

Rating 8/10

Track - 4 , Nazre Milana Nazre Churana- Benny Daya, Satish Chakravarthy, Sayonara, Darshana, Svetha, Bhargavi, Anupama
One of my favorites for this album whose video is now on air on music channels. Again unorthodox mix of English and Hindi form lyrics for this song and gives it a pretty young feel. Multiple singers in the song add that peppy college feel to the song.

Rating 8.5/10

Track - 5 , Tu Bole- A.R. Rahman
This is definitely very different which Rahman has ever explored both with music and his own singing. This song can be categorized as jazz/blues and really well executed by rahman. Though this does not in the league "Lukka Chuppi" ,"Jaage Hain" or "Khwaja Mere Khwaja" but it's totally different from anything attempted before hence we would need to look out for this. I suspect that this might be the title song for the movie.

Rating 8.5/10

Track - 6 , Kahin To- Rashid Ali, Vasundhra Das
slow number with Rashid Ali again doing a tremendous job with his vocals. This song is pretty hummable and should catch up after the release of the movie.

Rating 7/10

Track - 7 , Jaane Tu Mera Kya Hai - Sukhwinder Singh
A slow version of the song by the same title sung by Ruma. This also has a different set of lyrics but does not loose the original magic touch. Sukhwinder Singh as expected is dependable and delivers the good pretty well.

Rating 8/10

Track - 8 , Pappu Can't Dance (remix) -
I was never a big fan of x and this song makes my belief stronger. Not sure why we ever need to remix a song like 'Pappu Can't Dance" which originally is a party number and pretty good.


So the final verdict as for most Rahman album is that it is a must buy if you are a music lover. A couple of songs (like Aditi and Nazre Milana nazre Churana will stay in our mind for a long time).
Final Album Rating - 8/10

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Double Bonanza For A R Rahman Fans

You obviously couldn't have asked for anything more. Two Hindi movie releases of Rahman within a week is too good. Both Ada and JTYJN (Jaane Tu Yeh Jaane Na) are real gems. Currently relishing this moment. Will come back soon with music reviews of both the albums, so keep looking out for this place.

Enjoy ....

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Delhi Daredevils vs. Mumbai Indians, Firoz Shah Kotla - 24th May 2008

Like any other average Indian guy I am also a great cricket fan, and the current ongoing IPL tournament has meant lots of entertainment for all. Though I have been following cricket matches for more than 15 years for now, but had never got an opportunity to watch a match live from a stadium.

Finally managed to get hold of the cheapest tickets available for the critical Delhi Daredevils vs. Mumbai Indians (though not that cheap priced at 500 Rs.) match which would definitely decide the fate of the two teams for a semi-final berth.

The match was supposed to start at 2000 hours and the gates were supposed to open at 1800 hours. I had planned to reach the stadium at around 1800 hours to avoid the maddening crowd which was expected in a stadium with a capacity of around 40,000 but come on being in Delhi I knew we would be expecting a few more audiences as usual :-) . Somehow got late due to some traffic restrictions at CP and after parking the vehicle at Ramlila ground (around 0.7 kms from the stadium) reached the stadium gates at around 1900 hours, i still thought well in time for the match which was scheduled to start an hour later. But as usual I was proven wrong, getting inside the stadium was probably more difficult that clearing the IIT JEE entrance exams (pun intended). Though I didn't clear the IIT JEE entrance in an hour I came victorious and managed to get entry into the stadium in around an hour at around :-) all soaked in sweat. Finally entered the third floor stands and took a seat on the third floor and got a seat in the fifth row from the back. But as soon as took the seat along with my wife the view was definitely breathtaking and all the pains and below which we had to take to get the venue finally looked worthy. The stadium among the flood lits was shining with glory .


By the time we were settled in the seat Tendulkar and y had come to bat, and Jaysurya was in his golden touch smashing 66 runs off just 42 balls. But as expected Tendulkar got the biggest cheer while we was bating though he could just manage 18 off 16 balls before getting out to a beauty from Mahesh. In addition a good stint by Uthappa in the middle order helped Mumbai to reach a respectable total of 177 off the alloted 20 overs.

After a small break Sehwag and Gambhir came out to bat. Sehwag after hitting four great boundaries (18 of 6 balls) got clean bowled by Nehra as has been captured in the unclear video below captured on the cellphone.




In the coming overs Tiwari, Dhawan and Mahroof stabilized the innings but the icing on the cake was the exhilarating 56 of 32 balls from Karthik which took Delhi to victory with one ball to spare and 5 wickets in hands. The below video captured the last two balls played by the Delhi Daredevils team emerging victorious and coming a step closer to the semi-final slot.



If i thought that after the match my woes was over, i was wrong. Coming out of the stadium was no easier than getting inside. With a gate as wide to accommodate two people at a time getting out of the stadium was not a cakewalk. Look at the snaps/video below to see what I meant.






So finally managed to reach home at around 1 early in the morning, after a quick bite at Mc. Donalds (yes finally Delhi is matured enough to keep restaurants open till 1 in the morning). Sure it was a great experience, but the poor administration and management (esp. during entry/exit) from the stadium really left a bad taste in the mouth and above that is a real risky experience. It's high time the authorities wake up in time.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

IronMan is a typical Hollywood superhero movie

From the stable of "Marvel" comics after the stupendous success of Spiderman movies comes another superhero Movie "IronMan". Before stepping into the theatre i had no idea about the superhero nor had heard much about the movie, but despite that planned to take the step forward as that was the only thing which was giving me respite from the scorching Goa heat in May.

IronMan is a story about a rich genius entrepreneur Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) in the business of building ammunitions. One fine day he is kept captive in an Afghan cave to create a weapon for the rebels out there. He builds an iron suit to escape from there and improves on the design to build a superhero out of the same called "Iron Man" to fight against evil. By the end of the movie he is also awakened about the ill-effects of the manufacturing arms and how they could easily go into wrong hands.

Now what works for the movie is the way Tony Stark has played his role. His character has been very well built and the special effects in the movie are also worth mentioning. In addition the movie is also well supported by various other characters in the movie like Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow.

To summarize a nice movie to enjoy this summer and hopefully you would not come out disappointed from the theatre.

Rating 3/5

Friday, May 02, 2008

Off to Goa..

Off to Goa for a week long vacation. Will post a complete travelogue once i am back. Hope you all have a great time out here. See ya..

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Khuda Ke Liye... Don't miss it It's a real Gem

"Just because some American people have been bad to me , I will not stop loving America. Similarly if some muslims have done a wrong thing don't hate all the Muslims of the world ". This one line summarizes the intention of the latest Pakistani movie (the first one to be released in India in twenty five years) and i bet it was sure worth the wait.


This movie has it's heart in the right place and a well intended message and talks about the state of Muslims in US after 9/11 happened. In short the movie is a story about two young brothers who are also budding musicians, and how one brother is transformed to a fundamentalist and the other pursues his interest of music by taking scholarship for music in Chicago.

Undoubtedly this is one movie which all of us should watch and I am very sure it would be an eye opener for us. Without divulging much about the story at this time all i can say now is "Go Watch the movie".

Friday, March 28, 2008

Airtel - Accidentaly Charging Rs 99 to its mobile customers in the name of VAS99 Pack ??? Is it so ?

If the already irritating SPAM alls from Airtel were not enough, all of a sudden yesterday both my wife and father got a message from Airtel No 170 stating "Thanks for subscribing to VAS99 Pack. Rs 99 have been deducted from your account". What is this ?

On inquiring from Airtel further they confirmed from us that whether or not we have subscribed to this service (i don't even know if a service like VAS99 exists from Airtel) . On refusing that they registered the complaint and today i have got the messages on one of the mobiles that Rs 99 would be credited back to my account in 48 hours.

Though the amount did come back this set me thinking

Lets assume a situation for a company X (not the real name) and assume that they charge their customers accidentally. Going by experience (and no scientific basis :-) ) less than 30 % people might have cared to call up the X's CC for a refund , for the rest 70 % assuming the current users of X 4 million and assuming only 1% of those were charged accidentally even that meant an extra revenue of 4 mn * .01 *. 7 *99 = Rs 2.7. mn Rs (if my mathematics is right this is approximately 27 lakhs) for X at almost nil costs... Now that sure looks like a business idea ;-) , but i am sure this definitely is not happening. Right :-) ?