Archive for the ‘Post by Ava Suri’ Category
This article is written by Ava Suri, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Sometimes you chance upon a song which is not too well known; but is so sweet and captivating, is so well picturised, dance sequence so well executed, that you can’t but help but be utterly charmed by it.
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Dekho na dekho na
Posted on: January 6, 2013
This article is written by Ava Suri, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
The purists among music lovers often like to keep a cut-off for their listening habits. ‘I don’t listen to songs later than this year,’ they often say. I don’t disagree with those cut-offs. There are times when we just don’t want to listen to the cacophony that our music often descends to. But then, like a proverbial ‘keechad me kamal’ a beautiful song pops up among all this noise. The sufiana songs from the present times are meaningful and pleasing to the ear. The songs written by Gulzar and Javed Akhtar, set to tunes by AR Rahman are beautiful and worth listening to again and again.
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This article is written by Ava Suri, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
By the time 1990s came along Hindi movies were getting loud, the heros were mannerless, ill-bred uncouth fellows. Sadak Chhap Romeos with a heart of gold, diamonds in the rough who start out rather badly, but by the end, redeem themselves by doing the right thing.
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Chura liyaa hai tumne jo dil ko
Posted on: September 8, 2012
This article is written by Ava Suri, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Sometimes I find it hard to remember when I saw a particular movie. Was I in college or in school? A quick look at the year in which the movie released is the best way to find out.
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Phoole ban bagiyaa
Posted on: August 18, 2012
This article is written by Ava Suri, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
I came across this beautiful unknown song just today. It is from the movie Sautela Bhai starring Guru Dutt and Raaj Kumar. The beautiful song is set to music by Anil Biswas and the peppy lyrics are by Shailendra. There is almost a mathematical precision to the way the song is arranged, the singers and the chorus sing in a set pattern, after listening to one paragraph you know exactly who is going to sing the refrain, and when the chorus is going to repeat lines. Such patterns are usual in good poetry, and it enhances the rhythm of this song too. A special word for fantastic singing by Manna Dey and Meena Kapoor. Meena’s voice sounds so rich and full, like Geeta Dutt’s. She complements Manna Dey’s amazing voice perfectly.
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Tere sang ek simple si coffee
Posted on: June 23, 2012
This article is written by Ava Suri, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.
Browsing through this blog today, my eye fell upon a song category which was “chai song”. The word chai makes me think immediately of one of my best friends ever, lets call her V. We worked in the same office, but it took another common friend who worked elsewhere to introduce us. My friend H got to know her and upon finding out where she worked immediately called me up and said “You must go and talk to this girl called V, she is truly bindaas, you will like her.”
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Kateya karoon
Posted on: May 25, 2012
This article is written by Ava Suri, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.
I heard this song often when the promos of Rockstar played on TV, I liked the tune but did not really listen closely. One time a friend asked me who Indira Billi was, and to educate him, I looked for some videos of her on You Tube. I came across a fetching song ‘Katiya Karoon’ sung by Shamshad Begum and performed by Indira Billi. I posted that song for my friend and remembered this composition of AR Rahman’s. In comparing the two songs I realized that the earlier Shamshad Begum one was sung like a folk song while this later song was sung like a sufi song. Some more research yielded that this song was based on a kafi by Bulleh Shah, the supreme sufi writer who lived in the later part of the 17th and early part of the 18th century in Punjab.
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Khet ki mooli baag ke aam
Posted on: April 13, 2012
This article is written by Ava Suri, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular conributor to this blog.
Here is another song from Achhoot Kanya. This has to be one of the first bullock cart songs. In the early years of the past century, the hero and heroine did not, or could not get physical during romantic numbers. Despite that constraint, Ashok Kumar and Devika Rani share a lovely chemistry during this song. They sit close together, lean into each other and smile often.
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Choodi main laaya anmol re
Posted on: April 12, 2012
This article is written by Ava Suri, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
A few days back I found myself translating a song from Achhut Kanya for Raja who is subtitling the movie for the famous DVD restorer Tom Daniel.
The movie is one of the most celebrated ones of Hindi Cinema, an early classic, and an Indo-German collaboration that starred Devika Rani and Ashok Kumar. However, what I didn’t know was that it contained a dance by Mumtaz Ali, the father of Mehmood and Minoo Mumtaz. I found Mumtaz Ali so captivating, his dancing and singing so natural and so impromptu that I went off on a google fired discovery of facts about him. As is often the case, any information on artists of this era is not easy to come by. After a day of looking high and low, I managed to unearth only one thing, that he was a scion of the royal family of Arcot.
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Mujhe kuchch kehna hai
Posted on: March 30, 2012
This article is written by Ava Suri, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a new contributor to this blog.
In the early 70s Bangalore was heaven on earth. It was a city you could walk around in, full of gardens and broad sidewalks. If you were a movie lover, this was the place to be. My best friend Aruna lived a few houses away from me, we were constant companions to each other. A short distance from our house was Kempegowda Circle, or KG Circle, that was like a jungle of cinema houses. There were times when we found an empty ticket window, bought a couple of tickets, got into the hall and asked people in seats next to us about the movie that was playing. Some of the halls were so close together, it was hard to figure out where we were.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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