Archive for the ‘indiania’ Category

Visited a concert of Asha Bhosle the other night in the Heineken Music Hall. We were like two out of let’s say ten non-Indians, yet very included in a good concert. Personally I had hoped to hear more “Oldies”, but we were treated to a wide range of contemporary popular Indian music. Thank you Asha.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnAvqmQn_1U&feature=channel[/youtube]

I am happy to report that someone has posted episodes of Shaktimaan on youtube. Actually, the leader is the best part, but the series caused a lot of media attention when children set themselves on fire or jumped off buildings, hoping that Shaktimaan would save them.

Dil Ki Girah Khol Do door waferthin

It took me a while to figure out what makes Lata’s Dil Ki Girah Khol Do so mezmerizing, but the clue is fairly simple. It’s a waltz!

On one of the youtube postings of the song I read a great comment by a Ukrainian commenter. “Some 2 days back we had snow fall here in Kyiv Ukraine , I was alone driving my car back to home, suddenly this Song came in my mind. I sang it with whole of my Heart.”

As a kid I memorized the lyrics of Victor Jara’s songs. Half a lifetime down the road, having picked up some Spanish on the way, I’ve come to realize that the contents are not as I had expected. I guess the lore of exotism is the curiousness of things incomprehensibly foreign, which accounts for the fact that once it has been interpreted, translated or explained it may lose its attractiveness. Not so with Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam, a song that has been haunting me for decades and now turns out to be even more of a gem after translation.

Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam
Tum rahe na tum ham rahe na ham
Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam
Beqaraar dil is tarha mile
jis tarha kabhi ham juda na the
Tum bhi kho gaye, ham bhi kho gaye
Ek raah par chalke do qadam
Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam
Jaayenge kaha sujhta nahi
chal pade magar raasta nahi
Kya talaash hai kuchh pata nahi
Bun rahe hain dil khaab dam-ba-dam
Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam

The translation reads:
Ah, the beautiful cruelties time has shown,
You did not remain you, I did not remain me.
Ah, the beautiful cruelties time has shown.
Anxious hearts met this way,
as if we were never separated.
You got lost, I got lost,
On the same path, two footprints.

Ah, the beautiful cruelties time has shown.
Where do we go, we don’t know,
we started walking, but there is no trail.

What we seek, we don’t know,
our hearts are knitting new dreams everytime.
Ah, the beautiful cruelties time has shown
The lyrics of the song were written by Kaifi Azmi, the famous urdu poet.

Well, we’ve got used to Indian film music being inspired by Cuban music and American music, but I never suspected this gem (interpreted by Mukesh and Geeta Dutt) having originated in the Polish folk tune Sz?a dzieweczka. Maybe plagiarists don’t end up in the ninth circle of hell after all.

The Hemophilia Society Varanasi Chapter shows the brutal reality of life without factor 8. Thank you hamsters, Dutch health insurance, recombinant technology, novoseven and cyclocapron.

As I came across this clip of Babuji Dheere Chalna, I realized that it has been a year now since O.P. Nayyar passed away. Reading on the origin of the song, so brilliantly performed by Geeta Dutt, I read on http://www.itwofs.com/ that the song is ‘inspired’ by “Quizás, Quizás, Quizás”, composed by Cuban songwriter Osvaldo Farrés and since interpreted by Doris Day, Nat King Cole, Celia Cruz, Sara Montiel and relatively recently by Omara Portundo and Ibrahim Ferrer. Obviously Farrés created a song that wanted to travel the world.

twice.

OP Nayyar classic “Yeh hai reshmi zulfonka andhera” interpreted by Asha Bhosle for Mere Sanam (1965). The original recording has no reverb effect. Asha Parekh is the star in this clip. The movie also features a duet with ASha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi.

“Chun chun ghunghroo bole” is the OP Nayyar song from Phagun (1958) in which Madhubala portrays a gypsie girl. Asha Bhosle’s voice is enchanting. Ghungroos are the small bells tied to the legs of Indian dancers.

As a little boy, on our family´s holidays to Spain, I would lie in my tent in the middle of the day tuning in to Moroccan or Algerian radio stations to listen to the strange and exotic music from across the Mediterranean. This knack for what is now called `world music´ (I guess as opposed to unworldly music, by Ligeti, Berio, Penderecki and the likes)has taken me from the Mahreb (Cheb Khaled) and Egypt (Um Khalsum) accross the Levant (Wadi al-Safi) and Pakistan (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) to India. It started with a compilation of Raj Kapoor’s early work and it fanned out from there. By now the whole family can sing along tunes like “Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo” without knowing what the songs are all about. Much to my amazement, Youtube has recently seen a bunch of clips from Bollywood oldies. After decades, I finally get to see the faces that go with the music. Well, not actually, because the songs were performed by Mohammed Rafi, Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle.