Black Friday – the much acclaimed film on the Mumbai bomb blasts is finally set to release in India. Although pirated copies are freely available on the Net, I was waiting to get my hands on a proper copy of the film. Better still, I’ll be able to watch it in cinemas. Finally a break from the Karan Johars and the Nikhil Advanis.

Since much has been said and written about the film, I’d rather talk about one of the songs in the album. The songs have been performed by Indian Ocean. The song I’m talking about is called Bandeh. Here are some extracts from the song which are my favourite.

…are neendein hai jakhmi
are sapne hai bhooke…

are mandir ye chup hai are masjid ye gumsum
ibadat thak padegi ho…

…kise kafir kahega kise kayar kahega
teri kab tak chalegi ho

Full lyrics of the song are available here.

Is it just me or does Bollywood come out every year with a song that manages to grate my nerves and at the same time go on to become a huge hit? Maybe its time for me to adjust my musical tastes. Last year it was Aashiq banaya aapne by the now-lost-in-the-shadows Himesh Reshammiya. And this year, it is Crazy Kiya Re from Dhoom 2. The whole song is filled with nothing but these very words repeated mindlessly. This song literally drives me crazy. I’m scared to even find out who the singer is.

Thanks to my music-loving(?) neighbour, I have to listen to this song every other day. Well, to each his own. But unlike last year, all my exams are over and done with. So instead of plugging up my ears with cotton, I put on Limp Bizkit at full blast and that is enough to drown out the wails. Until that time when my neighbour gets more sense or I get a more sensible neighbour, let me just enjoy the music that I like.

Well well, it seems that Himesh Reshammiya has finally carved his name in history. By becoming the best playback male in the recently concluded Filmfare award. Too bad he wasn’t sure of himself winning the award that he didn’t even attend the function.

It seems that after writing a long rant about the fellow, he has finally proved himself. But in my defence I have to say that I never questioned his popularity. It was clearly evident that this song, like his other songs, was bound to become popular with a part of the audience. What I want to know is the criteria of selecting the winners in each category. If the winners were chosen on the basis of viewer votes, then there is no doubt that he would have won. But if the winners were chosen by a panel of judges I would like to know the criteria used for the selection.

With his new album already making good sales, he shows no sign of stopping. I can only shut my ears in protest and scream out loud.

This is not a review of the movie by the same name. I wouldn’t have the guts to watch such a movie, especially before some important exam. Instead it is a frank criticism of the songs of this movie and the trend of songs with similar ‘properties’ becoming hits with the general population. Personally, I find this song a piece of crap. The reasons? The singer is literally singing through his nose, there’s no rhythm or correspondence of the words with the music. And when this song plays I literally want to scream out loud pleading with whoever is playing it to stop it. My hatred towards this song increased a lot when my ‘helpful’ neighbour gave me enough practice in filtering out background noise when I wrote my mock tests. This song used to play on repeat mode, so just when I think that the noise attack has ended for the day, again the irritating nasal strain of the singer spread throughout the society. The song has since changed and replaced by the song by new kid on the block – Ganesh Hegde. I must admit the latter song is better than the song I’m talking about.

The whole soundtrack of this movie is filled with such stupid out-of-sync music. Another example I can think of is the song that goes something like ‘Aaap ki nazar yuh madhosh hai…’ Aaarghh! Even worse. I don’t ask you to take my word for it. Listen to these two songs carefully and you’ll see how amateurish they both sound. Thankfully I haven’t seen the video of either of these songs which I’m sure must be worse than the song itself. I think this trend of songs with their singers using their nostrils more than their vocal chords started with the famous (or rather notorious) movie Murder. It had two popular songs – Bheege Hont and one more song which I forgot. These two songs were the start of a trend which has spiralled down ever since. After that we had the ‘Yeh lamhe’ song in Zeher. That song too, was good enough and I’m reminded of the nights we used to spend in our office with my colleague playing this song end on till it was time to catch a bus and head home. But after that there hasn’t been any improvement. There comes these two songs. I don’t know what made the director accept these songs. I don’t claim to be a music critic but I can atleast distinguish between good and bad music, and this definitely falls in the latter category.

I think the singer of the title song is the music composer itself. This too seems to be a recent trend in the film industry. Whoever you sign up as music composer has to sing a song himself (I hope no sexism here, I haven’t yet heard of a female composer) This started with AR Rahman, who after a few mishits proved that he could sing. Then came the trio of Shankar Ehsaan Loy out of which only Shankar Mahadevan sang. Oh of course, how can I forget Anu Malik who had his tryst with destiny in films like Judwaa (that movie about non-working lifts and 9-12 shows and a song praising India left and right) and Auzaar. Then comes this fellow. It seems like a packaged deal. Five songs will be composed and one or two will be sung by the composer. But what about the poor public? Agreed that the people who are playing these songs must be enjoying them, but what about the others who do not want to hear such songs? This is kind of like passive smoking. There is still not enough awareness or concern. But as long as the public keeps on buying such songs, the producers and directors will keep on belting out such pseudo-songs. I guess such songs might be quite popular with the college romeos.

I’ve grumbled enough about something which I can’t change. People will play whatever music appeals to them not caring whether it assaults other people’s sensibilities. Oh well, its already time for my mock test and I wonder why hasn’t my neighbour started the background score yet. Anyways, here I go stuffing cotton in my ears and becoming oblivious to the world outside.

Peace. Silence. Heaven.