Music Review : COCKTAIL 2012

Saif Ali Khan presents COCKTAIL, his home production in association with Eros intl and his banner Illuminati Films. It stars Saif Ali Khan along with Deepika Padukone and the model Diana Penty.
MUSIC : PRITAM      LYRICS : IRSHAD KAMIL

The duo of Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal come together once again to produce the best album of the year so far. Best album that leaves Shanghai by Vishal Shekhar behind just because it is a complete album.

In short Cocktail music rocks.... Pritam is in top form in this album...


Lets start with the wonderful friendship song Daaru Desi
Daaru Desi with its unique tempo and execution is wonderful... Benny Dayal and Shalmali are in wonderful nick for the song. The song`s unique soothing tune works wonders. Definitely on my repeat list, and yes the starting guitar intro is nice..

Next is song from across the border, Jugni.
Jugni is an original composition from Arif Lohar who performed it in the Coke Studio Pakistan episode. Pritam has rearranged the song and yet has managed to capture the original`s soul in his version.

Next comes Luttna which in both versions pumps you up...the singers  and the music arrangement is wonderful...


Tumhi ho bandhu is Kavita seth all the way with neeraj shridhar chippin in wid the punch verse....

My favourite and the best song of the album is Yaariyaan...an ode to friendship and it is wonderful in both versions... Mohan Kannan of 'AGNEE' rocks the original version...while Sunidhi Chauhan is wonderful in the reprise and unplugged version...

nice work from Pritam... MUST LISTEN

Some Random Thoughts....

Hi again.....
                   hope you people have been fine. I am back to share some random thoughts with you all, I don`t have much topics to right on and that is why I am going to write things that I have on top of my mind.

1. IPL
     The biggest and hottest topic right now on the circuit. IPL has been amidst controversies since its inception.
Money involved in the league, Taking the league to South Africa instead of postponing it due to elections in India, franchisees fighting due to one sided rule changing.

The latest being the molestation case filed against the RCB player Luke Pomersbach. Well if you have parties with booze and girls in them, what do you expect.

View image | gettyimages.com

2.Babasaheb Ambedkar
The second hottest topic, the 1949 cartoon of Ambedkar and Nehru during the forming of our country`s constitution.
Issue is that some politicians are opposing the said cartoon saying that this cartoon can have negative effects about Ambedkar and Dalit community altogether in today`s students minds.

A counter view on the cartoon row

3.SATYAMEV JAYATE


Aamir Khan`s new effort and entry onto the TV.  A show whose premiere episode I saw, and found it to be quite nice.
But the connection of the host to the topic seems to be non existent.I saw that Aamir trying to keep the focus on the matter at hand instead of the spotlight on him, which is wonderful and absolutely necessary.
But if he could also put his views instead of summarizing what was talked by the panel and people, involving himself would have been a better way.
Don`t let it be just another show which people see just because Aamir Khan`s name is attached to it.

Hats off to the people who are preparing the content and researching on it. Their work need to be appreciated more.

The songs in the end give a nice emotional touch to the show, Facebook statuses show girls crying over the songs on the show.

Btw please suggest me more topics or subjects...

till next time... I leave you with a wonderful song 'MUKHTASAR' from upcoming  'TERI MERI KAHAANI'.

India cricket,Rushdie controversy...

India`s drubbing at the hands of Australia:
Well India is on its way to a successive whitewash in 6 months...
First England made India surrender its no.1 tag in test matches while handing them a 4-0 drubbing in test matches and then 4-0 beating in Odis...

Now Australia is making India surrender its remaining pride with first 3 test ending in 4 days and this last one just made it to the final day.

It makes one thing for sure, atleast 3 of the 4 greats of Indian batting have played in their last tests. Dravid who did so well in England, had a miserable tour in Australia with making just 104 runs in 8 innings and getting out bowled 6 times out of 8 innings.Laxman also failed in all the 8 tests against England and Australia, with not a single century to boast of.

Whereas Sachin Tendulkar missed a golden opportunity to make his 100th 100 against WI in one days and coming to Australia with a free mind. But he chose to skip the ODIs and now his inability to make that hundred. While the Indian media has not done any good with pressuring him to get his hundred.

M.S.Dhoni has kinda lost his interest in test matches, which is seen in his batting and even in his captaincy. Lets see whether he continues to play in tests or not.

As future plans, BCCI should bring in Gambhir as test captain and if Dhoni decides to retire from tests, bring in Dinesh Kartik for him. Bring in Raina,Rohit, Virat and Pujara,Tiwary as youngsters in place of the famed trio.


Now for the Rushdie Row :
It has now become a fad to criticize people on basis of something they had done in the past. Salman Rushdie is paying for his controversial book "The satanic verses".
He has been a permanent visitor to India,but this time the muslim sect has managed to oppose his coming to India for the Jaipur Lit.fest.

Ra.One... Something good....A lot bad....

Hello all of you put there....

Happy belated Diwali and New year to all of you.

At last during the Diwali season, the long awaited and hyped RA.ONE released. Produced by Shahrukh Khan`s RED CHILLIES ENTERTAINMENT and EROS INTERNATIONAL, it is billed as the most expensive Indian movie ever made, it is directed by Anubhav Sinha

It stars :
Shahrukh Khan as Shekhar Subramanium/G.ONE
Kareena Kapoor as Sonia
Arjun Rampal as RA.ONE
Armaan Verman as Prateek Subramanium a.k.a. Lucifer

It has a host of special appearances by the likes of Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra, Rajnikant and a voice over by Amitabh Bachchan. The music is given by Vishal-Shekhar with lyrics by Vishal,Kumaar, and Atahar Panchi.

The premise of the movie is that Shahrukh Khan is a game developer whose son thinks that villians are super cool. So he designs a game in which the villian (RA.ONE)is extremely difficult to beat and has a very enhanced artificial intelligence. The son then plays the game and comes very near in defeating the villian, which then comes to life and goes after the son killing the father in the process. That`s when, the superhero G.ONE is summoned to help save the family.

The movie is full of VFX effects, wonderful visuals,crisp editing and visual treats. The only thing missing is a better storyline, but most of them are missing in all superhero movies in Hollywood also.

Most of Hollywood superhero movies are made on basis of comic books (X-men, Spiderman, any thing suffixed with man) or TV Series (Transformers, power rangers). RA.ONE on other hand has nothing to fall back on in terms of a background story. But still it manages to entertain in parts.
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People all over the internet and print media are bashing up the movie, but in reality I kinda liked it. Yes, it is silly in some parts, but overall it is entertaining. I read somewhere that it insults the audiences`s intelligence way too much. All movies do, but the same people give 4 stars to movies like Transformers, Transporter etc.

Music of the movie is already a blockbuster with international artist Akon signing 2 songs in the movie.
The first is Chammak Challo with Akon singing in Hindi.



Second is Criminal


And 2 other wonderful songs in Bhare Naina and Dildaara.

The cinematography and sounds both are wonderful and is a treat to watch, special effects are wonderful for Indian movies. Only major flaw is the story and direction. Anubhav Sinha despite trying hard, fails to have any control over the flow of the movie.

Despite everything, the movie is worth a watch.

AAJ-KAL KA MANORANJAN

First of all my sincere tribute to Steve Jobs(1955-2011) and Jagjit Singh (1941-2011)

a tribute to the most wonderful ghazal singers of all time.
One of my fav. Jagjit Singh ghazal





Seriously what is happening to the Indian movie scene? Ek ke baad ek South movies ke "remakes". Damn Salman Khan for starting this fad. Right from his Wanted to Force. Even the music director of Force didnt tried to create fresh tunes for the remake, he just got the lyricist to write hindi lyrics on his already made tamil tunes and got some Hindi singers to croon out.

Dude take a example from A.R.Rahman, he actually took pains to write some original score for Hindi version of Ghajini.

Aur aage....in filmo ka action bhi english movies se copied hai yaar. Dabangg action in opening sequence is shot to shot copy from Jason Statham`s Transporter, Wanted copied from Ong Bak.
Yaar hadd hoti hai copy karne ki bhi.

Pehle movie tab hit hoti thi jab theatres mein kam se kam 15 hafte chalti thi..... aaj 5 din chal jaye toh hit declare kar dete hai....

It is said ki RA.One has made up 90% of its production cost already, and it will be released on Diwali.
Here is the most viewed song of the movie by Akon. CHAMMAK CHALLO




Anyways, there are only handful of filmmakers making meaningful or watchable cinema right now. Some of them are Vishal Bharadwaj, Raju Hirani, Sudhir Misra etc.

Now to the idiot Box. Yaar yeh toh poora ka poora bigad gaya hai. Iss desh ke culture ke thekedaar vaise toh bahut shor machate hai, par Bigg Boss, emotional Atyachar jaise bakwaas programs ke against koi kuch kyun nahi bolta.

BTW, it also shows the same lack of originality in TV world also. ek baar kisine koi Reality show dekh liye kisi desh ka toh bass, jaldi se uski copy maaro, chahe wo apne logon mein fit baithe na baithe....par copy zaroor karo....

Late night slot mein ek show aata hai Maaryada, jiske plot mein homosexuality, extra marital affair, sab kuch hai jo apna desh accept nahi karta...par chatkare leke log dkehte zarur hain...

Well extramarital affair pe Ekta Kapoor ka Balaji Telefilms ki neev padi hai, Hum Paanch jaise show ke bawjood... Ekta Kapoor ko pehchaan mili Kyunki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi aur Kasuati se...jismein yeh sab masala jam ke tha.

Par apna samaz itna hippocrite hai ki ek taraf din mein uske against bayan baazi hoti hai aur raat mein wahi log ghar jaake serial dekhte hain....

God I miss the old days....Dekh Bhai Dekh...Shriman Shrimati, Khichdi,Nukkad, etc...
Chitrahaar, Potli baba ki, Jungle book, Tom and Jerry, Talespin yeh sab cartoon the.... aaj kal ke jaapanese cartoon...cartoon kam, merchandise bechne ke natak zyada hai....

Even WWE was good in those days... ;-)


Baaki agle time likhuga.....jaane se pehle meri sabse zyada favorite ghazal for you people...
R.I.P Jagjit Sahab...

Happy 65th Independence Day to all of you.

I wish a happy and prosperous 65th Independence Day to all the Indians in the world. Last 3 years have been very testing for our country with the Mumbai terrorist attacks, Bomb Blasts in various parts of the country like Mumbai in Diamond market in 2011.

The rising inflation in the country, rising prices of basic food and other amenities like cooking gas,petrol,diesel etc is making life difficult for the people in India।

सरकार के पास अपने हाथ खड़े कर देने के अलावा कोई और जवाब नहीं दिखता है । वित्य मंत्री प्रणब मुख़र्जी सिर्फ यही कहते दीखते है कि मेहेंगाई धीरे धीरे कम होगी...हमारे पास कोई जादू कि छड़ी नहीं है । जो कि सिर्फ कुछ न कर पाने के बहाने है। कांग्रेस पार्टी कि यह सबसे बकवास सरकार है। एक ऐसा प्रधान मंत्री जो अपने दम पे कोई निर्णय लेने के काबिल नहीं दिख रहा है । सरकार जिससे कोई मसला संभल नहीं रहा , न तो मेहेंगाई, न ही लोकपाल का मसला।

लोकपाल के मसले पे सरकार सिर्फ समय बर्बाद करने के काम कर रही है ताकि कैसे भी २०१२ के आम चुनाव तक मसले को टाला जा सके और यह किसी और सरकार का सरदर्द बने। सोने और चांदी कि कीमतें आसमान के पार जा रही है।
सिर्फ येही मसले नहीं है। एक धर्म निक्ष्पक्ष देश में बढती साम्प्रदायिकता भी सोचने का विषय है। दिल्ली कि मुख्यमंत्री श्रीमती शीला दीक्षित के बेटे द्वारा सैंट स्टेफेन कॉलेज के मसले को उठाया जाना काफी अच्छी बात है.

भारत में आज अल्प्संक्यक जाती के द्वारा देश के सविधान को धता बताना एक बड़ी समस्या है। आरक्षण और अन्य तरीको से इन्हें इतनी ताक़त हासिल हो गयी है कि इन सब के अपने कानून चलते है जो देश के कानून को कुछ नहीं समझते।

जिस कारण से Dr. भीमराव आंबेडकर ने आरक्षण को अनिवार्य बताया था सविधान में, उसका गलत फायदा उठाया जा रहा है। आदिवासी,दलित और अन्य पिछड़ी जातियां आज भी वहीँ है जहाँ पहले थी। इन्हें आरक्षण प्रधान करने के साथ साथ पढाया जाए, इस काबिल बनाया जाये ताकि यह अपने उत्थान के लिए खुद काम करे ना कि किसी और के सहारे के लिए हाथ फैलाएं।

मेरी इस स्वतंत्रता दिवस के मौके पर येही उम्मीद है कि हमारी सरकार सिर्फ कॉर्पोरेट डेवेलोपमेंट को देश के वासियों के बोज कि कीमत पे बढ़ावा न दे।
अगर देश के वासी ही खुश नहीं होंगे तो यह डेवेलोपमेंट किसे दिखायेंगे ?

जय हिंद !!!! जय भारत !!!

I would like to leave you all to the all time patriotic song
Aye mere watan ke logon (Sung by: Lata Mangeshkar written by: Kavi Pradeep Composed by : hridaynath Mangeshkar)

Mausam 2011 music review

Mausam, the new movie starring Shahid Kapoor,Sonam Kapoor,Pankaj Kapoor is the directorial debut of veteran actor Pankaj Kapoor. The music is out now and is available in stores and on internet.
The album has 6 originals and 5 remixes compaosed by Pritam and penned by Irshad Kamil.

The album opens with 'Aag lage uss aag ko' sung by Karsan Sargathia. The song is more of the folk themed composition on the lines of 'Dhol Baaje '.

Next comes 'Ik tu hi tu hi' which comes in three different versions, the original sung by Hans Raj Hans who does an admirably wonderful work of a sad tune with totally Punjabi wordings. The other two versions by Wadali brothers ans Shahid Mallya are also good in their respective styles.

Next is 'Mallo Malli' by Tochi Raina of Ik Tara fame.The song is run of mill pritam composition. nothing much to write about it.

Next song is 'Poore se zara se kam hain' by Rashid Khan who sings the song from heart. A soft ballad which will definitely linger in the minds of listeners.

Next song is the song which in currently on air in promos, 'Rabba main toh mar gaya oye',it also appears on the album in two versions. First is sung by Shahid Mallya and other by the staple Pritam singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. The song is definitely going to be a chartbuster with nice lyrics and a easy, soft tune.

Last song is the usual Punjabi flavor 'Sajh dhaj ke' by Mika, the usual wedding song in a hindi movie.

Overall the album has potential hit songs in Rabba and Ik tu hi tu.