Monday, December 08, 2008

Ghajini

The opening of Kaise Mujhe is beautiful, when it opens you think you’re getting a dance number but it turns into this lilting piece with my latest favorite Benny Dayal who does a convincing job. Shreya Ghoshal, as usual, is amazing. Dayal’s high notes could have been a little better, but I honestly think if men didn’t sing so high, then women wouldn’t be forced to shriek. What is it with Indian music and considering women who can hold a high pitch, good singers. I had a friend once say that the only problem with most Indian music is that the women are singing so high that it gave her the same feeling that she gets when she hears nails being run down a blackboard. And I agree with her! Wholeheartedly! If men would sing at a lower pitch women would sound normal. As much as the instrumental version is beautiful, I think ARR should do instrumentals like he did for Bombay(Bombay Theme). I'd rather hear something other than the instrumental of a song from the same movie.

Guzarish, I think someone with a stronger voice would have been better. Sonu Nigam sounds great, doing what he does best, crooning. The song has ARR written all over it! Javed Ali….honestly sounds a little lackluster, like he’s just going through the motions. This song has a strong Enigma feel. I like the laid back feel to the song. I’m not sure I care for the lyrics however. Bas ek haan ki guzarish…Phir honge khushiyon ki baarish….chanda, aasmaan, baadhal, no chein…..very cliche! It feels like he ran out of lyrics and added an extra paas here and there. Very hummable however. Good one.

Talk about experimentation. Behka is all that and more. It starts out innocently enough. Karthik is just A-mazing in this one! I wasn’t so sure about this one when I heard it the first time. It sounded like the cd was skipping at that section where Karthik’s voice skips. I love the way he actually sounds like Aamir Khan in his stress on certain words. The sax interludes and other bits in this song are mind-blowing! This song gives me goose-bumps every time I hear the crescendo between 2:13 and 2:30. Between the drums and the sax at this point I’m in heaven. The sax literally follows the voice, throughout the song. And of course, the little treasures that ARR always hides in his songs keep popping up each time I listen to the song. It’s like listening to a new song each time I play it on different speakers. Love the end. It must be obvious by now that this one is my favorite in this album. The ones that I don’t get when I listen to the first time are the ones that end up being my favorites. It had a Main Aisa Kyun Hoon feel to it. Like the tone of the song was similar.

That’s one step for man and a giant leap for mankind….Houston, the eagle has landed. What the heck?!!!!!!! What on earth does it have to do with being Lattoo on your yaar? Is Aamir supposed to be playing Neil Armstrong? Last I heard he was playing a rich businessman called Sanjay Ramaswamy. Mazari Mazara Zimbabwe? Lyrics! I disagree with the general opinion that Ghoshal should only be singing lilters. I loved her singing in this one. It was different and suited her just fine. I think she should do more of the same. I didn’t care too much for the constant repetition of yaara yaara yaar aaya mera.

Aye Bachoo….nothing really stood out as exceedingly good or bad. Suzanne D’Mello’s same gal who sang for Slumdog Millionaire. Now that’s a movie worth watching. But in my opinion, the music trumps all. I broke out in goosebumps several times during the movie…..but more on that later. D’Mello’s done a good job. Fresh sounding I like the electric guitar work, and as always the ARR layering.

I don’t know if the songs occur in the same sequence and time in this movie as they did in the original Ghajini. When the songs from the original released, they were a big hit, I listened to them fairly often. I think only Oru Maalai and Suttum Vizhi were actually good. Of course that goes with Surya and the red clothes in my head. He was super cute, which may be why they were so popular. Drawing a parallel between the songs is not a very good idea but inevitable. Let’s see how they’re picturized. I just might watch this movie!