Bow down to the music albums of Lootera and Raanjhana. They have it all !

The year 2013 was a year of many multi-starrer, heavily budgeted movies; a year of hundred crore collections and some really great “out-of–the-box” creations. Also there were many unsuccessful attempts at sequels, comedies and action. But one thing that will make this year a memorable one was some beautifully written and composed music albums.

Amidst them were two very special albums. They were miraculous combination of flawless music, enchanting vocals, use of multi-instruments and above all spell-binding lyrics.

• My first pick is the soul-soothing album by Amit Trivedi- Lootera wherein each song had its own aura. Each one dipped in jar of delightful music and wrapped with blissful lyrics. The album is a relaxed compilation of songs which are high on imagination and have a story to tell. Amitabh Bhattacharya had done a great job penning down the songs and it can be seen in each of the song.  
  The album has everything right from simplicity of words in the beautifully sung "Sawaar Loon"

 “ बरामदे पुराने हैं नयी सी धूप है | जो पलके खटखटा रहा है किसका रूप है “

        to depth of insightfulness in "Zinda hu yaar kaafi hai" .

  हवाओं से जो मांगा हिस्सा मेरा

तो बदले में हवा ने सांस दी

अकेलेपन से छेड़ी जब गुफ्तगू

मेरे दिल ने आवाज दी

         There is indeed a great sagacity of creation which can be seen in the every line of “Ankahee”

                                          

                                                                 " बारिशें नाराज़गी भी जता जाती है कभी कभी अम्बर की"

        and equally vivacious and playful are the words of “Manmarziyaan"

 "ज़िद की मारी ,भोली भाली मनमर्ज़ियाँ "|

       There are tracks that can blow your mind when it comes to perfectness of lyrics. “Shikayatein”is one such compilation. Every time I listen to it I am totally taken aback by the intelligence of writer and I can never praise it enough. However long it may make the post, I cannot refrain myself from posting the wonderful lyrics here.

~~ शिकायतें मिटाने लगी
सुबह बेदाग़ है... सुबह बेदाग़ है
जो बर्फ को गलाने लगी
कहीं वो आग है... कहीं वो आग है

 ना उड़ने की इस दफा ठानी ,परिंदों ने भी वफ़ा जानी

अंधेरों को बाहों में लेके 

उजाले ने घर बसाया है
चुराया था जो चुकाया है  ~~

• And the second wonderful magic was the creation of A R Rehman sir's Raanjhana. This album glorified love in its own way. Shot in the holy city of Benaras, the music has its own touch of regional charm and the obvious magic of “Rehmanian” effect; perfect to put on loop songs. Like almost every Rehman album there were some beautiful romantic tracks like ‘nazar laaye na’ and ’tum tak’ along with the expected sufiana andaaz in ‘piya milenge’ and ‘benarasiyaa’ and high energy track ‘raanjhana hua main tera’. It is being said that Rahman's voice has never sounded more lovable than what it is in ‘aise na dekho’. 

Coming to my favorite part, the lyrics of every track weaves a melodious story in itself. It is simple , sober yet heart melting. The wordings take you to a romantic tour nevertheless the tracks do not become a love cliche. It's a delight to listen to something like:

·         ~~  मैंने हारा मैं तेरा सारा मैं

   मीठा मीठा तू खारा खारा मैं

       तेरा सारा मैं.. सारा मैं ~~ 

or

·         ~~ मेरे दिल की बात जाने कायनात

तेरे दिल की खबर बस मुझको ~~

  or

तुम तक तुम तक अर्ज़ी मेरी, फिर चाहे जो मर्ज़ी तेरी 

Very deserving and critically acclaimed, both these albums have a freshness of their own. Like I said. they have it all !

 

I heart HIMYM !

My all time favorite sitcom "How I met your Mother" is advancing towards its finale and it kind of makes me feel nostalgic and sad. I was introduced to this amazing series five years ago by a friend and after that there was no looking back. Over the years as the story developed and as we got to know more and more about our beloved characters, a connection was developed with each one of them. The love struck Lily-Marshall, the hopeful Ted Mosby, the beautiful Robin and obviously the awesome Barney Stinson.  Each episode unfolds a new reason to love it. It may have been labeled as a comedy series but it’s a perfect blend of every spice. It raises a toast to love and celebrates friendship. It gives you directions in life; it makes you never give up on hoping. In words of Ted Mosby “For the most part if you’re really honest with yourself about what you want out of life, life gives it to you.” It talks of mistakes, of destiny and of how everything turns out to have happened in your favor at the end.
 Apart from this, HIMYM has given us some really fun theories like “ the hot crazy scale”, “the bro code”, “ the cheerleader effect”, “the ohh moment”, “the glass shattering realization”, “the NRS or the new relationship smugness, “the theory of reacher and setller in every relationship” and it turns out that we’ve loved all of them. Oh how religiously have I believed in the concept of “The Jinx”.
These little things. They are priceless, ask a HIMYM fan. Be it the various high fives of Barney  or Marshall’s patented phrase Lawyered or Lily’s “you are dead to me look” or  the “But ummm” by Robin or my favorite “Ohh honey”.
 Not only the comedy is spot on, the acting is top-notch. We have amazing actors who have really brought life to the characters. One more thing that makes the show special is the background score. The right song for every moment. I proudly own a separate playlist of those awesome songs that have perfected the show. Some episodes have become our favorite and it’s refreshing every time you watch them. The thing about HIMYM is that its greatest flaw has also always managed to be an asset. Even a not so good episode does not make us loose our interest and enthusiasm to watch the season (and I talk of the real himym lovers like me) and it is because there are million other reasons that still fuel the show and just like Barney, I gots to know what happens in the end.
Lately, the last season was going on a little slow and a little less delightful than the previous seasons but like Ted, we have been eternally optimistic that something better is around the corner, that something great is about to happen, that we're about to turn a corner. We’ve traveled along this journey with many ups and down. We’ve watched them behave completely senseless at times and we’ve had the wisest things come out of their mouths. We’ve witnessed Barney turn from a Bimbo guy to someone who made Robin agree to marry. We’ve seen Ted watch his hope lessen a little every day and still never lose it completely.
The latest buzz in the show is the entry of 'The Mother'. Sadly it had disappointed most of us. Actually with the development of story over years, we were sure that anyone who'll finally be selected to play the role would be someone who will instantly make us fall in love with her but sadly 'Christin Milloti' failed to make that right first impression. She maybe a great actor but was a disappointment because we'll have to 'make us' like her. The immediate connection which was expected, the magic, was missing. The character was awesome enough to already make anyone like her, all we needed was a girl who could carry that yellow umbrella perfectly. Anyways eventually we will accept her as Ted's dream girl. It happens. For instance most of us didn’t like "Alysen" as Lily in beginning of show but lets admit with every episode we’ve watched, we’ve fallen for the quirky little Lily Aldrin. Also the episode 16 has allowed Christin to make justice to the character like we had expected. It was a beautiful episode and it has again raised the bar of our show.
Well, we are really looking forward for more great episodes ahead and a wonderfully spinned story. The journey has been wonderful and the thought of "The End" is really sad. 

As it turns out, How I Met Your Mother is one big beautiful "wait for it ...," journey.

Two shades of childhood !

To watch a kid is always a pleasure. They have this super power that can turn your gloomy day into a bright and shiny one, at least for a few moments. This is what I believed till a day when while shopping in the markets of Kamla nagar, I witnessed an incident. Two kids, both in their single digit age. Both of these kids did not seem very happy at that moment. One had "Mommy is not buying me stickers" issues while other had "No one here is buying my stickers" issues. There in the busy streets of the market was the most unpleasant sight anyone would ever want to see. Two shades of childhood. The solace of a protected childhood and the anguish of an abandoned childhood. The yellow and the grey.

They seemed to be completely two different worlds, one that was fulfilled by demands while other that was hollow with pleadings. One that was a boulevard of blossoms while another a dragway of withered dreams. One which never had enough while other that never could attain the enough.

It is very common to find such children in every nook and corner of our country. Little hands working hard to earn themselves a meal. And this is definitely not the pleasant sight I was talking about earlier. We resent it. We dissent it. We do nothing about it. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like for them to watch other kids of their own age having a better life. Correction: A luxurious life. A happy carefree childhood which they could not get. Their childhood lies in the dark and dingy corners where under every basket of sorrow they hide their weeping dreams. Such a condition of an early age undermines any possibility of a happy future.

Still lost in my own thoughts I was disheartened to see what happened next. The dream of a childhood walked towards the childhood of dreams. Both shades came face to face and after a simple give and take process there was a smile of satisfaction on both sides, the meanings of which were obviously diverging.

“Now I can brag about this batman sticker before my friends today"

“Now I won’t get beaten up today, at least I’ve earned ten rupees”

~~ उस चौराहे पे दो चेहरे थे बचपन के

एक जिसकी मुस्कान खिलखिलाना जानती हैं

एक जिसकी आँखें जवाब मांगती हैं ~~

picture credits :
https://www.facebook.com/varun.photoholic

https://www.facebook.com/puneet.vivid

Questions and more questions !

Life seems to be a question every now and then. There is a question mark at end of each road. We have traveled this journey with a big baggage of questions and for the most of times we have looked around everywhere in search of the answers, everywhere possible and every time possible. We kept looking for transparency for a major part of our life because we thought life would get a little easier and shinier but on occasions we learned that ignorance was better than the truth. Every why and how may not necessarily give us what we are looking for so once in a while we all have avoided knowing the truth. 

There are questions with answers that confuse us, other that provide lucidity. We run behind some questions while there are other questions that we run away from, we do not want them answered because we know that the answers will haunt us more than the questions. When we thought knowing the answer will set us free, help reduce the entropy of our system it turned out that it was more than we could bear.

We have been sick of this sickness and we have tried to lessen the dilemma those questions have been causing us but maybe when we find out what really was going on, we may never recover. So the question mark remains. It remains there and asks us “Do you really want to know the answer”.