KAHAANI Music Review: Kolkata, You Sexy!

 

In recent days, the only full recent soundtrack running on my computer is Vishal-Shekhar's powerful and quirky Kahaani, with which I have been very pleasantly surprised, feeling that the duo have just delivered one of their best soundtracks to date, expanding their scope of musical expression and delighting us with a titillating new sound.

Bengali, English and Hindi greet the listener with Aami Shotti Bolchi, in which cold-jazz transforms into metal rock and back, hitting a home run with Usha Uthup's and Shekhar Ravjiani's oodles and bundles of attitude. People hailing from Kolkata have a new and ferociously catchy urban song to impress with!  The track has been paired to a promotional video that is currently making my cinematic "mouth" water.

Hard rock only calms down for a few seconds before joining a Bengali musical background and the great qawaali singer and Mekaal Hasan Band lead vocalist, Javed Bashir, in a fierce 'alaap' that conveys the tone of the story's turmoil. Piya Tu Kaahe Rootha Re boasts highly effective lyrics written by Sandeep Shrivastava and we also cannot congratulate the duo of musical directors enough for their excellent choice of vocalist in this particular song.

Several of my preferred Vishal and Shekhar hits are romantic ballads. Their soft melodies are usually extremely well crafted and Kahaani, the film's title song, follows in such a tradition, taking the best of Vishal-Shekhar's melodic romantic style and gifting it to the extremely well-cast voices of KK in its male version and Shreya Ghoshal in its female and acoustic counterpart. Shreya's voice here is just the way I fancy it the most. I believe minimalistic musical arrangements truly showcase her talent and the song's chorus deftly pulls the listener into Vidya's (the film's lead) disarray and sensibility with its combination of melancholy inducing chords.

Vidya Balan attends the audio launch of Kahaani

Sukhwinder Singh mixes powerful and mellow vocals in Tore Bina, which starts as a fresh folk song and ultimately slides towards gentle pop. The track is easy to listen to and has vast potential but tends to run in too many style and instrumental directions, which is saddening given its sound melodic base and Singh's compelling vocals. It would have possibly been more effective to keep the arrangements simpler in order to bring out Singh's rendition of the song's lyrics. This said, the track still manages to please.

Vishal Dadlani and Shekhan Ravjiani

The Vishal-Shekhar duo keep a pleasant surprise up their sleeve as their closing track, Ekla Cholo Re, featuring an English chorus sung by Clinton Cerejo, welcoming the sincere and moving voice of Amitabh Bachchan and the words of one of my all-time favorite writers, Bengali legend: Rabindranath Tagore. I would have personally preferred a traditional Bengali background melody but I imagine that the uplifting pop feel has been chosen aiming to be in line with the picturization of Tagore's ode (translation in English here - thank you Dunkdaft and Wikipedia).

Cracking the shell of the stereotype they had been cornered into, Vishal and Shekhar showcase their inventiveness and versatility outside of commercial cinema in this album, which we predict will survive well after the film has received its reviews and accolades. A set of six songs could have limited itself to appear pure and sober. However, the experimental verve the musical pair is displaying has resulted in an exhilarating new sound. Thumbs up!

Our favorite picks: Aami Shotti Bolchi, Piya tu Kaahe Rootha Re and both versions of the Kahaani title song.

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KAHAANI
Singers: Usha Uthup, Javed Bashir, Sukhwinder Singh, Clinton Cerejo, Amitabh Bachchan, Krishnakumar Kunnath (KK), Shreya Ghoshal, Vishal Dadlani, Shekhar Ravjiani
Music Directors: Vishal-Shekhar
Music Label: T-Series
Movie Release Date: March 9, 2012

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BOLLYWOOD 2011 MUSIC HITS: 12 songs to welcome 2012

Image by: Manbiz - Spicytec

Establishing a list of the greatest songs of an entire year is always a difficult task BUT the Hindi Cinema Blog is one to love a challenge, so fasten your seat belts for the 2011 musical ride! We are recommending 12 tunes to start the millenium's 12th year! Check out our recommendations for the best Catchy Dance Tunes, Starry-Eyed Love Tunes and Alternative Tunes of 2011!

CATCHY DANCE TUNES 2011

And the winners are:

Akon sings for SRK's Ra.One

1. ‘Chammak Challo’ introduced the longest awaited film this year: Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor's Ra.One, the song in question starring none other than Akon's voice. You may read our review of the film here.

 

2.‘Jalebi Bai’ (Double Dhamaal - starring Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi) has Shweta Tiwari strutting her item stuff and doing a Ritu Pathak lip-sync throughout the upbeat song.

3.'Character Dheela’ (Ready - starring Salman Khan and Asin) was criticized for its lyrics and Pritam was claimed to be incurring in plagiarism due to the song's extreme resemblance with 'Mohabbat Naam Hai  Kiska' from 2001 film Ajnabee. In any case, the reggaeton-like rhythm invaded radio stations and had more than one of us nodding to the beat.

 

4. 'Singham’ (Singham - starring Ajay Devgan) reminds us a bit of the Dabangg title tune but we loved watching Ajay Devgan doing the macho man dance along with all those drums!

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara cast
dripping RED tomato juice

5. Last but not least, 'Paint it Red’ (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - starring Farhan Akhtar, Katrina Kaif and Hrithik Roshan) had crowds dancing to a feel good, chill-out, catchy tune and we thank Shankar Ehsaan Loy for that one. Read our review of the film here.

STARRY-EYED LOVE TUNES 2011

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

6. ** Drum Roll ** The simply sweet and inspirational 'Khwabon Ke Parinday' from film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara placed Alyssa Mendonsa's deliciously unpretentious vocals in everyone's memory. 

7. 'Kaisa Yeh Ishq Hai' (Mere Brother Ki Dulhan starring Imran Khan and Katrina Kaif) was a song that made us say "YESSSS!" for the Sohail Sen we had been waiting for since his highly commendable work in the What's Your Rashee soundtrack. Read our review of Mere Brother Ki Dulhan here.

8. Pritam gifted the audiences a special soundtrack in Mausam, starring Sonam Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor. Our choice from this soundtrack is 'Rabba Main Toh Mar Gaya Oye', with the beautiful voice of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Read our review of the film here.

Mausam

ALTERNATIVE TUNES IN THE SPOTLIGHT 2011

9. If our dear readers allow us to cheat a teeny weeny bit just this once, we want to recommend the entire Delhi Belly soundtrack, fitting it in as one song... Yes, we know, we know. It counts more songs than should fit in a Top Hits list but we guarantee that the raving is justified. Ram Sampath hit gold with an innovative album to accompany its quirky film, starring Imran Khan, Vir Das and Kunal Roy Kapoor. ‘Ja Chudail’ for example has the greatest heavy metal voice we have ever listened to in Hindi (Suraj Jagan). Other special mentions in the album go to the 'Bedardi Raja' Grind Mix, to the soulful 'Saigal Blues' (in our opinion the best track in the album) and the obvious hit: 'Bhaag DK Bose’. Read our review of the film here.

10. And since you already allowed us to cheat once, we want to repeat the feat for fun's sake and also recommend another full soundtrack in this category: AR Rahman's Rockstar, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri. Special mentions go to the gypsy-like 'Haawa Haawa', to 'Jo Bhi Mein', the instrumental 'Dichotomy of Fame', 'Kun Faya Kun' and  'Sadda Haq'. You can read our review of the film here.

Darrling - 7 Khoon Maaf

11. All right, moving on to more alternative musical pastures... The year opened with us celebrating the return of Vishal Bhardwaj and a smashing ‘Daarling’ for 7 Khoon Maaf. Read our soundtrack review here. 

Bhare Naina - Ra.One

12. Our last recommendation is a song that closed this 2011 with a powerful and poignant rendition by Nandini Shrikar,Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani:  'Bhare Naina' (Ra.One).

So ends another year filled with music and entertainment. You will now have a song to think about for each of the clock's 12 chimes as the new year sets in. The Hindi Cinema Blog wishes all our readers a fantastic 2012 filled with joyful entertainment shared with loved ones. Happy Filmi and Musical New Year!

Note: To purchase the songs and soundtracks recommended above, click on the corresponding red bold-type link and you will be redirected.

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Ooh La La: THE DIRTY PICTURE is here!

Rating: ****

SMASHING is the first word I had on my lips upon seeing the first rushes of The Dirty Picture's promos with a delicious Vidya Balan... and yes, I am a girl talking about a girl here, but let me make a bet that the seductiveness this chick exudes in the film does somewhere fit with every guy's fantasy.

At the centre of The Dirty Picture's plot is Silk Smitha (played by Vidya Balan), an actress who was an ultimate sex symbol in 1980s south Indian cinema. The lascivious star was a sizzling element of more than 400 Malayalam and later Hindi Bollywood films, one of which was the famed Sadma, starring opposite Kamal Hassan and Sridevi. Smitha's success was short lived despite the wide array of films she left as her heritage, given that she passed away in 1996 at the young age of 35.

The Dirty Picture portrays her rise to fame and her subsequent fall. When innocent Reshma/Silk leaves Madras to become a star, her oozing sensuality gets her where she needs to be in films and sets the box office ablaze. From men who love her (Tusshar Kapoor as Ramakant), to those who lust after her (Naseeruddin Shah playing Ramakant's brother, Suryakant, the superstar), to those who despise what she represents (a cold but compassionate Abraham, played by Emraan Hashmi)... she leaves no man in the industry indifferent!

Milan Luthria has directed a sensible but fictional biopic of a sex-symbol scripted by Rajat Arora, also providing a snapshot of what Hindi cinema was like in the 1980s, with all its kitsch and distinguishable coarseness. One of The Dirty Picture's most successful departments is indeed the work deployed in recreating the 1980s period and the actress' look, with a Vidya Balan who gained weight in order to look bombastic in curve-flattering costumes designed by Niharika Khan. The soundtrack by Vishal-Shekhar captures the 80s sound as smoothly as both musicians had already succeded to do in retro flick, Om Shanti Om, by penning a catchy and epurated adaptation of 80s hit 'Ui Amma' by Bappi Lahiri, called 'Ooh La la', which has become a hit ever since the soundtrack hit the radio circuit. 

Sexy, sexier, sexiest. Vidya Balan makes the camera fall in love with her sensuality in every frame, throwing the cinema audience tons of come-hither looks, licking her lips and showing off her oomph factor. There are many actresses and aspiring actresses in Bollywood doing item songs but how many would have embraced such a straightforward and full-fledged sensual role? Vidya struts her stuff with class and succeeds in coming across as the innocent villager, the adulated sensual diva and the spurned and lonely star, all within the same film. I know of no other actress at the moment who I would believe able to carry this off. "All my hats off" to Balan!

Accompanying her are the three actors who play the gentlemen who leave a mark in Silk Smitha's biopic. All the performances are commendable but Naseeruddin Shah absolutely steals the show, not only because of the chemistry he enjoys with the lead actress but for the way in which he perfectly portrays a decadent and lustful star. His performance, dialogue delivery and body language set the perfect tone for each of his scenes and I could not help but hang on to every second of him on screen after having read that this is one of his last movies before he takes his retirement from filmdom.

Though the second half of the film, which focuses on Silk Smitha's spiraling fall from stardom may lag at bits and sadly has several tepid scenes with Tusshar Kapoor, the film in all remains highly recommended for its performances, soundtrack and the time-machine experience of revisiting the 1980s.

TRIVIA: In order to depict a sense of discomfort between the film's two lead characters, Vidya Balan and Emraan Hashmi, a "meeting of two completely different worlds", Milan Luthria, the director did not allow them to interact and get comfortable with each other during film workshops ahead of the shoot. He only brought them together right into the shoot, filming an important scene, where they had to insult each other. (Source: Wikipedia)

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THE DIRTY PICTURE

Directed by: Milan Luthria

Writing credits: Rajat Arora

Cast: Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi, Tusshar Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah

Produced by: Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor

Music and lyrics by: Vishal Dadlani, Shekhar Ravjiani, Rajat Arora

Singers: Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal, Kamal Khan, Bappi Lahiri, Rana Muzumdar

Costume Design: Niharika Khan              

Choreographer: Pony Verma

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