Satya

As I casually browsed my music collection to listen to something as I went through the mundane stuff that needs to get done, on a Sunday before the week starts after the whole of Saturday was wasted, I chanced upon Satya. I listen to music in different languages and being South Indian that means I might be listening to the soundtrack of the same movie in three different languages, usually Tamil, Telugu and Hindi as many popular movies in these languages get dubbed into the other two. I had downloaded the some of the songs from Satya's Telugu version recently and I started to listen to that and then moved on to the Hindi soundtrack. I have always liked Satya's Hindi soundtrack, even though the tunes are the same. It has a great soundtrack from the moody "badalon se" to the peppy "sapno mein", from the slow "geela geela pani" to the ultimate gangster song "goli maro". The soundtrack perfectly gels with the movie and songs never stand out of the narrative like usual bollywood movie songs.

Last but not least, who can forget the movie. It is one of the best movies made on Mumbai underworld. The thing that I remember most about the movie is the shocking scene where Bhiku Matre gets killed. Manoj Bajpai went places in Bollywood after his superb performance in Satya as Bhiku Matre. I had watched him before in the Doordarshan soap "Swabhimaan" and was pretty sure he was destined for better things. This film revealed another side of Urmila, at least to me. She plays a simple middle class girl aspiring for a better life. Then there is JD (Satya), who pulls of an amazing performance as an intelligent, fearless strategist. The movie has a host of other actors who played their parts to perfection. It is an intelligent movie and does not take sides. It reveals the other side of gangsters, Bhiku Matre's scenes with his family are a perfrect example.

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Listen to the Hindi soundtrack of Satya
An exhaustive review of Satya

Luka chuppi

My wanderings on the internet lead me to some news on Rang de Basanti. After reading some reviews, I became curious about the soundtrack as I had heard the sound track sometime back ater knowing that it had music by AR Rehman and don't remember being interested in it. Just for kicks I listened again this Sunday and I ended up downloading and listening to "Luka chuppi" , actually many times over. The guitar piece in the beginning sounded very familiar, I could not recollect where I heard it before. It is a beautiful song. Towards the end tabla joins in with other instruments and it takes the song to another level. ARR sounds magnificient in the song.

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Listen to songs from Rang de Basanti here
Download Luka Chuppi from here
A technical review of the soundtrack

Two great movies - Munich & Alfie

I had a good time this weekend watching two great movies - Munich and Alfie. Both of them were moving in different ways. I do not remember seeing murders on film that are as gruesome as shown in Munich. It is bit lengthy by hollywood standards but I never realised the passage of time as it kept me engrossed. I have not seen anyone play a hurt human as Eric Bana in Munich. The way his face changes through the movie is an interesting study in emotions. Critics seem to have a mixed opinion on Munich unlike Alfie where the opinion seems to be of disappointment. I have not seen the one with Michael Caine, so in a way I had no prejudice. I think that this is the best movie Jude Law has done. He seems to come push it up a notch with each new role he gets. Jude Law just oozes charm in this one.

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Alfie on rottentomatoes.com
Munich on Yahoo Movies