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

Lost love

Its been a long time since I blogged, I claim the usual excuse - I was busy. The last time around I wanted to write something about songs on lost love. They tend to be, in my opinion, bittersweet, like the taste of blood. Here are some of the memorable ones that come to my mind.

• Todh diya from Kasak
• En Kadhale from Duet
• Tadap tadap from Hum dil de chuke sanam

I will end by quoting Samuel Butler - It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.

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Lyrics of En Kadhale
Lyrics of Tadap tadap

Grazie, Signore Colombo

Had a nice weekend, thanks to Mr Columbus and his voyage that discovered America. Here's what happened -

• some work (can't just leave my regular life alone)
• getting drenched in rain, twice !
• hear some beautiful songs (can't get enough of Omana thingal kidavo )
• couple of siestas (soooo good)
• a hearty lunch (gracias, Chipotle)
• a night at the movies (Flightplan)
• a bit of cooking
• conversations with friends
• couple of movies at home (Minority report [brilliant !], Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom [hopeless characterization !])
• Gentoo Linux installation (fat chance for a dumb user, I have given up on it for the time being)
• couple of evening walks

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Wikipedia on Columbus
Kasak, Jism

Omana thingal kidavo

One of my endless searches for mp3 songs lead me to this lilting lullaby. I think I have heard about it being studied in primary school in Kerala but not as a song. I was thinking of coming up with a list of Malayalm lullabies and turned to google to find the ones not in my collection. There in one of the webpages I found a mention about this famous lullaby. I found it on coolgoose.com. I am not sure who the singer is, it could be Bombay Jayashree. She released an album of lullabies sometime back called Vatsalyam, which includes this song.

Its a very refreshing song. Listen to it and get cajoled in to leaving your worries behind and enjoy the soothing melody. I did some more googling to find more about it.

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The lullaby and its poet
Lullaby for a king
Classical song, Lyrics in Malayalam and translation in English
MP3 on coolgoose.com
Bombay Jayashree's album

Rain, Aha !

What a way to start a 3 day weekend - I walked home from work in pouring rain. By the time I reached home I was all wet and cleansed for my weekend. I love rain, I am a rain walker. It has been more than 2 years in Washington and many rains later, I still don't have an umbrella.

Work has been pretty hectic over the last two months. So I am falling behind in updates both here and my column on Zine5.com. But this weekend I will get some done. So wait for the news folks.

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Someone else's love for rain
What I had to say on rain