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An excellent write up from Karthik on his “milliblog”.
Ever since I remember, I’ve always been fascinated by film music. Having lived in many Indian states (my Dad was a banker; meaning, a transfer every 4/5 years!), I’ve acquired a taste for listening to film songs in any Indian language – regardless of whether I understand the lyrics or not.
My interest in Western music (the pop/ rock/ reggae/ metal kinds) started rather late, while in college. And, it started with what many consider an embarrassment now – the George Michael/ Richard Marx variety. So, while I do appreciate legendary bands like U2 or Queen, I may not have the complete historical perspective to add to, say, a particular song, since very frankly, I haven’t grown up with them.
I used to be thoroughly conscious and ashamed of this fact; that I cannot participate in a discussion on say, Floyd or CCR. Thankfully, when the internet arrived, I used that opportunity to brush up on long-overdue backgrounders on iconic bands and their music. But after a point, the effort seemed pointless. I was trying hard to impress my peer group and was actually hiding my real passion – Indian film music.
The result…is this blog. Milliblog’s sole intention is to celebrate and opine on Indian film music, across languages. Beyond my own rants about plagiarism (via ItwoFS) and sub-standard (a personal opinion) music that occasionally seeps into our films, I simply love the fact that we have an almost endless source of music that showcases such a wide variety of genres. We have a tremendous history of film music, across Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi…you name the language – we have tons of music.
These are by composers, legends in their own right, given the output they have generated over the years. Forget the inspirations – just think about a normal western artist. How many albums do they produce in their life time? How many tracks in each album? I recall seeing a Michael Jackson discography recently – it had less than 100 songs. Agreed – each song may have gained far more popularity than any other Indian song, but that is solely due to the limited reach of Indian films. Our marketing has largely focused on our own people and we had truck load of languages to deal with too.
Thanks to recent successes like Rahman’s Oscar, there is increased focus on Indian film music as a genre and I love this trend. We’re finally gaining legitimacy for an often ridiculed musical genre. I have nothing but total respect for our composers. You may have noticed my steadfast love to credit composers even for Indipop albums – I strongly believe that the music composer is the soul of music. O P Nayyar did have a different opinion and had given 50% of a song’s credit to the lyricist – he was one of my favorites too, but I beg to differ. My take is that a composer is the soul of a song – that is why I personally refer to a song as a Pancham song or a Rajesh Roshan song – not as a Rafi song or a Sonu song.
I’m never enamored by singers since I believe their role is only a small, albeit a very external part of the song. The unsung heroes are the composers who do not have an external face – the singers, through their voices and the actors, through their actions, take most of the credit for film songs. That is quite an unfortunate situation for composers.
The composers – good or bad – slog with the directors to come up with tunes, either out of thin air or a Middle Eastern/ Korean CD, and that process of building on arrangements and vocals fascinates me endlessly. When I listen to the works of Pancham or Ilayaraja, the first thing that strikes me is the background with which they conceptualized a tune! I mean, what would the director’s brief be…how did the lyricist adhere to the situation…how did the composer get his tune?
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Agree with the above estimations (considering the movie works).
But Kudos to those Reliance guys who talked about expected 175-200 crores ...
Easy Recovery Plan,
India = 125 cr, 65 cr Share.(as its a Class and Mass movie and Hrithik works well everywhere)
Overseas ...
here are earlier reports
Reliance Big Pictures acquires distribution rights of biggest blockbusters
BIG Pictures to distribute Hrithik Roshan starrer Kites 
Those who understood meaning of "tumhe pyaar kab tak na karein bhala" will get the meaning of my last comment ...
Also I am the biggest fan of Nadeem-Shravan's music and I like his music more than some of ARR's songs! 
Plagiarism aside - as every famous music director has copied some song at some time
Rajesh Roshan has given some great ...
From music to cricket- I remember telling Rikky that on consistency Pathan junior is a much better batsmen ...
OutKast 26 August 2009
11:31:58 am
“The other factor is language. We Indians seem way too preoccupied with our own language and perhaps even ridicule music from other states.”
In complete agreement with that observation/comment. OFC regional language songs will have “regional” flavor.. still there are so many memorable tunes that does not get noticed.
A sampler .. Nenjil Jil Jil
pardesi 26 August 2009
11:55:59 am
Nenjil Jil Jil is simply awesome! But I think this problem goes beyond a lyrics language barrier. The songs I enjoy most are those that have some visual meaning for me, then I go back to them again and again and relive the moments in the film. The Tamil songs I really like are from films I have seen. So what needs to be promoted is a wider viewership of regional language films.
OutKast 26 August 2009
12:19:26 pm
pardesi – “So what needs to be promoted is a wider viewership of regional language films.”
This is a challenge to regional language film makers.. Even Mani could not overcome this, before he started directing BW stars/movies.
Qalandar 26 August 2009
12:23:51 pm
The tragedy is the utter lack of availability of subtitled films in India. In the foreign markets, subtitled films are available, and people (like me) who do not know the languages can nevertheless watch Tamil, Telugu etc. films. In India import of those foreign market DVDs are banned, and the vendors who have the rights for the domestic versions of the same films do not release any subtitled versions. With the odd result that I can watch a subtitled Telugu DVD, but my relatives in Hyderabad cannot! [Only exceptions are a few high-end imported DVDs of films that make a mark on the festival circuit. And of course Satyajit Ray, many many of whose films are available in Indian edition DVDs with subtitles..]
pardesi 26 August 2009
04:01:22 pm
I agree with Qalandar here. I remember going on a hunt for Kandukondein Kandukondein after reading that it was an Austen adaptation and had Tabu, Aishwarya and Mamootty. The only DVD with subtitles I found was from Kino, no Indian DVD outfit had this.
OutKast 26 August 2009
04:27:22 pm
pardesi – Kandukondian Kandukondain DVD
Need to ask right people ?
pardesi 26 August 2009
04:34:42 pm
Oh yes, I did, and it was OUT OF STOCK!
OutKast 26 August 2009
04:39:06 pm
pardesi – Out of stock becomes IN STOCK after some time delay > 0 days. All you need is to check back
rks 26 August 2009
04:42:01 pm
Netflix has it but one of the reviewers has following to say
“The movie is really good, but they did a very bad job with the subtitles. I do not speak Hindi, and English is my second language, so this movie was a new experience for me. The subtitles appeared and disappeared ultra-fast, “
pardesi 26 August 2009
04:43:48 pm
The version on Netflix is Kino? Maybe it is the Ayn one?
OutKast 26 August 2009
04:49:15 pm
hahaha on Netflix.. It says no subtitles for the DVD.. Wonder what the reviewer was reading ?
Ayn is good one.. i have watched it.
Qalandar 26 August 2009
05:24:16 pm
Pardesi: the ayngharan version also has subtitles, although inferior ones. Plus the songs aren’t subtitled; the Kino version is preferable.
Qalandar 26 August 2009
05:25:46 pm
I’m glad you saw the Kino one…
pardesi 26 August 2009
05:32:55 pm
I have no complaints about the Kino version, it was close to perfect and subtitles in the songs meant that when I try to hum Illei Illei Solla at least I know what it is all about! BTW – no one talks much of Illei Illei – I think it is a truly remarkable song.
Aarohi 26 August 2009
09:04:20 pm
What a song; the interludes are to die for. Illai Illai Solla did get wide recognition. Shankar won the national award for this song and it was hugely popular. On that note here’s the video:
pardesi 26 August 2009
09:21:53 pm
Thanks Aarohi! I did not know about the National award. So now we have two of those in this thread – Nenjil Jil Jil, and Illei Illei Solla. I request we post more “regional” language awarded songs here for people like me who were not exposed to these.
PS: Tabu looks divine and Ajith Kumar doing that crazy half step on the train tracks and among the pyramids is very endearing.