3 posts tagged “india”

 12/28/2008 00:47:36  ♥ written by vu ()

A.R. Rahman - Jai Ho

A.R. Rahman

I just saw another great Danny Boyle movie called Slumdog Millionaire, the movie I'm sure you have all heard about. It basically about a story of Jamal's life, through a series of questions from his appearance on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". Although I won't go too much into the plot, without giving away too much, it's ultimate a destiny love story between Jamal and Latika.

I will point out some things I didn't like was that most of the movie was in English, which seems kind of weird, being in India. The small parts that did feature subtitles, well the subtitles was done in a way that I haven't seen before. Also, I didn't feel like there was any sense of real danger. I know there are a few realistic horrible scenes (the children league of beggars scene for instance, you'll know what I'm talking about if you see the film), but I was never at any point in fear of what will happen to the characters. It's not grim or gritty and the directing doesn't come off as comedic or cheesy, but it's not "real life", if you know what I mean.

Either way, I did enjoy the film, but not love it. I don't hate it, but considering his earlier enjoyable works such as Sunshine (his sci-fi movie), 28 Days Later... (his fast zombie movie), The Beach (his "I'm not working with Ewan McGregor" movie), Trainspotting (the Britpop druggie movie), or Shallow Grave (the first of the money-bag trilogy movies)... Slumdog doesn't quite have it as a Bollywood movie. And I reckon it's not what he intended the film to be compared to either.

M.I.A.-Paper Planes

7 comments

Anyway, like Boyle's Britpop-soundtrack of Trainspotting, the soundtrack to Slumdog fits the film quite nicely between modern and traditional Indian music of A.R. Rahman and the urban world hip-hop style of M.I.A. Although I think Rahman's compositions works well as background music, I felt sometime M.I.A.'s in-your-face music overwhelm her scene. Still, it's hard to ignore the catchy sound of "bang bang bang ka-ching" sound effects in her "Paper Plane" hit song.

Sonu Nigam featuring Alisha Chinai - Aaj Ki Raat

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My two favorite songs from the soundtrack is Alisha Chinai's vocals on the Sonu Nigam song "Aaj Ki Raat". Chinai is quite famous in India, often called The Indian Madonna. Anyway, the song is actually originally from another Bollywood picture called Don - The Chase Begins Again, but I suppose Boyle love the song so much, he snuck it onto his own film.

Also, of course, the big bollywood dance number, "Jai Ho", was also pretty memorable. Incidentally, if you were wondering the vocals on that track is by Sukhwinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, and Mahalakshmi Iyer.

So I highly recommend you checking out Slumdog Millionaire, if it's still showing at your local movie theaters.

Links: foxsearchlight.com/slumdogmillionaire

DJ Aqeel - Tu Tu Hai Wohi

DJ Aqeel

1 comment

Sorry, I've been missing in action lately. While Randy is on his Swedish Rampage, I'm going to focus more of music outside of the USA this week. This is partly because looking at the W♥M Directory, it tells me that the majority of music I cover is US-based.

So, this is an incredibly popular song right now called "Tu Tu Hai Wohi" by DJ Aqeel. Most DJs that I'm familiar with, they normally do not sing but stay in the background dubbing in dance beats and music to the vocals.

I've included the video to "Tu Tu Hai Wohi", perhaps anyone can recognize the women singer?

As a special bonus, I've included "Ek Haseena Thi". When I say "bonus", it's more of a mistake, I had meant to upload "Tu Tu Hai Wohi" and instead mistakenly added this song instead.

Here is a translation of it courtesy of Cactina:

DJ Aqeel - Ek Haseena Thi

1 comment

"There was once a beauty
And there also was her lover, nearly mad in her love

Who knew this would happen Who knew this was their fate

How young they were What a time it was What beauty and fantasy

You make me feel so good You make me feel so much love You light up my life with your love (oh yeah) For you I will give my whole night long

Mon Amour...."

This is followed by something that sounds like French :-D

PS The flash on DJ Aqeel's official website crashes my FireFox, so I don't recommend visiting his website unless you want to take a chance.

 August 22, 2007 8:24 AM  vu cactina my♥posts vu@weheartmusic.com www.djaqeel.com

Asha Bhosle - Mohabbat Hoon Haqiqat Hoon

Asha Bhosle

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This is a Bollywood movie called Karmayogi, directed by Ram Maheshwari and released in 1978. The music is by Kalyanji Anandji and lyrics were written by Varma Malik.  The credit to the singer falls on Asha Bhosle, who I'm assuming provides all the women-singing part since Asha is not the actress in this movie.

Reading the plot summary of the movie, it seems to revolve around Shanker who had one son, Mohan, and expecting another. He left his pregnant wife in the small village for the city.

Shanker and Mohan became crime lords in the new city and pretty soon ran into Ajay (unbeknownist to everyone was the missing son and brother). Ajay published a newspaper called "Karmayogi", exposing criminals, and made enemies with Shanker & Mohan.

Shanker was murdered and Mohan believed that Ajay was responsible for his death and pretty soon it's brother against brother.

Since I can't understand Hindi, I can only imagine that this song was sung by the grieving wife (although the tone doesn't seem to be too sad). The title translate to: "King Yes Fact Yes" "I Am the Love, I Am the Truth". If you speak Hindi, please help :)

 August 4, 2007 1:48 AM  vu my♥posts vu@weheartmusic.com imdb.com/title/tt0367927

Cactina wrote: Aug 6, 2007 10:05 AM

[this is good] [this is good] Hey, I'm sorry I saw your comment so late. I think the song means something like: "i am the love, i am the real (thing), i am the youth, i can be your downfall- if you'd like to have me- raise your hand!"

Yeah, its corny :-D

Asha Bhonsle has an amazing voice. I love her! Her range spans the very indian in aankhon ki masti mein to the very hippie dum maro dum.

Kaz wrote: Aug 6, 2007 1:32 AM

hey vu... i saw the movie long long time ago so i dont remember any of it .. but the title of the song when translated is (i think) " i am the love, i am the truth".. and ur correct it is certainly not a sad song