Appreciating Gulzar – Masoom

As I continue to listen to Gulzar’s songs, old and new, every time one hears a song, there is a new meaning that one discovers. Today I was listening to songs from Masoom, Shekhar Kapur’s first Hindi film as a director.

Each one of the songs is a delightful piece by itself, besides the music of the LoRD. Let’s have a few sample lines from the different songs.

One of my favourite songs, not just of this movie, but of all time is the one sung by Arati Mukherjee – Do Naina Aur Ek Kahani.  This song in the film is picturised as a lullaby sung by the mother Shabana Azmi for her two daughters. The lines are ostensibly a story for the kids. But there is something deeper in it. Have a look. There is antara which goes like this

chhotee see do jheelon mein wo
bahatee rahatee hai
o chhotee see do jheelon mein wo
bahatee rahatee hai
ko_ii sune yaa naa sune
kahatee rahatee hai
kuchh likh ke aur kuchh zubaani

Between two lakes (jheelon – tear drops? remember the song starts Do Naina aur Ek Kahani) flows the story (story of life?). Whether any one listens to it or not, the story goes on and on, sometimes in letters sometimes in voice.

The rest of the song you will see borders on distress and sadness.

Another favourite song, also with explicit nonsense lyrics, reminiscent of Sukumar Ray’s Aabol Taabol is Lakdi Ki Kathi. Song sung by kids having fun. Gulzar has done this many times. Earlier was one in Kitaab – remember VIP underwear banian?

ghodaa thaa ghamandee
pahunchaa sabjii mandee
sabjee mandee baraf padii thi
baraf mein lag gai thandee

The arrogant horse reaches the market, the market is covered with snow, in the snow the horse catches a cold. To what end was the arrogance? Only to catch a cold? Nice.

Finally I will end with Huzur Is Kadar.

koi manachalaa gar pakad legaa aanchal
zaraa sochiye aap kyaa kiijiyegaa
lagaa dein agar badhake zulfon mein kaliyaan
to kyaa apanii zulfein jhatak diijiyegaa

This song was one of those drinking songs when one is a little elevated from the ground.

(All lyrics taken from www.smriti.com and due credit to all respective contributors)

Prasoon Joshi – Hey Kaala Bandar

There were days when one didn’t know which way to turn – there was Shailendra, Majrooh, Shakeel Badayuni, Hasrat Jaipuri, Sahir, Gulshan Bawra, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, Rajinder Krishan, Anand Bakshi – legendary poets writing for the masters of music – Salil Chowdhury, SJ, Naushad, SD Burman, RD Burman et al. From that age, today we have only Gulzar and Javed Akhtar holding the fort.

Personally, I prefer Gulzar’s metaphors “zariwale neele aasman” to Javed Akhtar’s verbosity “albele albele tan, lachchkile lachchkile tan”.

One person who seems to be proving to be a strong contender is Prasoon Joshi. His usage of the metaphor is quite impressive.  I am have been listening to the soundtrack of Delhi-6, especially Hey Kaala Bandar. I present my observations of the lyrics (the melody part, not the English rap lyrics).

Here’s one snip

Ghoonghat Ki Gehrai Mein
Tan Failaye Kaun Hai
Jab Safed LibaaS mein
Kaala Sa Sach Moll Hai

Another snip from the song

Kasme To Moongfali Hai
Jab Jee Chhahe Hum Khaate
Upar Se Na Na Na Karte
Par Thaali Aage Sarkate

“Moongfali” – peanuts, eh? In the Mumbai local trains and bus stops, the peanut fellow comes in small 1 rupee / 2 rupees rolled packets. They are sold as “timepass”. So in effect what Prasoon is saying that we make promises as timepass, whenever we want – it’s just another trivial part of our lives.

“Thaali Aage Sarkate” – holding up the plate while saying no. A typical trait in everyone – saying no, I have eaten and yet not resisting when more helpings are given.

Going down to the end of the song

Saare Reeti Rivaaz Hatakar
Dekho Apne Ghar Ke Andar
Shaayad Kahin Kissiko Kone Mein
Ghoom Raha Hai Kaala Bandar

It is my conjecture that “Kaala Bandar” refers to the monkey man scare in Delhi. I would like to be corrected. Assuming this conjecture, the above snip has some insightful words – “Saare Reeti Rivaaz Hatakar” meaning jettisoning rules and customs; by extension throwing away one’s dogma; and even more, opening up one’s eyes.

He is saying, you open up your eyes and you will see the monkey inside you – all the hoaxes, the fears, the inhibitions, the dread.

Nice stuff. And then Prasoon Joshi closes the piece with these two lines

Jaane Kaunse Rang Mein Range
Hamaam Mein Hum Saare Nange

Touche

Sukhwinder Singh – Chhaiya to Jai

Consider the following list, not exhaustive

1. Kaava Kaava
2. Chaiyya Chaiyya
3. Ramta Jogi
4. Chak De India
5. Dard-e-Disco
6. Fashion Ka Jalwa
7. Jai Ho

They are all Sukhwinder songs, no doubt. And all hit numbers. But there is more – the phrases specifically are so well entrenched into our consciousness. No doubt the lyricist is to be complemented. But a major reason for these phrases to have such enduring resonance in our minds is the voice that sung them originally.

Sukhwinder Singh is one of those apecial singers who gets tunes made for him i.e. music directors do not call him for all and sundry songs. They call him when there is something significant, something challenging, something that only Sukhwinder can do.

Among the others in the current generation, there’s Sonu Nigam, Shaan and KK who invoke the best out of all music directors.

But back to Sukhwinder. (I am not linking you to the wikipedia page as it is very shoddily written. Instead I have linked to the imdb page.) Now, “Jai Ho“, the song from Slumdog which has been nominated for Best Song at the Academy Awards has the full Sukhi (as he is called by his peers) energy and vitality required for the song. As I have written about Jai Ho in the previous post, the song opens up the undying spirit of the young street smart slum boy. And the singer had to bring it out and it was done.

So next time there is a phrase that becomes a war cry, it would most probably be a Sukhwinder song

Jai Ho!!

Australia – The Movie and some history

Baz Lurhman’s Australia was a long film. Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge had us all tuned into some really good entertaining treatment of two love stories. Here in Australia, the length of the film gets multiplied by the sheer lack of entertaining features (as I was wont to expect from a Baz Luhrman film). Instead, it was a three hour long saga that had various plot elements that seemed to be a recreation of Gone With The Wind. It was all there - 

1. Large property in the outback
2. Lady of the house comes into ownership due to sudden events (death of her husband)
3. Racism
4. War
5. Love between two strangers
6. Brave rescues
7. Redemption
8. Reunion (This wasn’t there in Gone With The Wind)

There were a few things about the film that seemed to be truly good – the Aborigine kid actor Brandon Walters who acts as Nullah; the cinematography by Australian Mandy Walker and a couple of neat scenes. 

As a history buff, there were two points of interest in this film – The Stolen Generation and The Japanese Raids on Darwin during the Second World War.

The Stolen Generation

The Stolen Generation has been a cause of much repentence amongst most Australians over the last many years. Between 1869 and 1969, Aboriginal (or Indigenous Australians or Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Island Peoples) children were forcibly taken away from their parents and raised in missionaries or charities or as foster-children in white families. They were kept here till the age of 18 after which they were returned to their original families. There was three main rationale behind these programmes (mandated by laws passed by the Australian Federal and State parliaments)

1. Child Protection – it was believed that children would be best taken care off by the state in order to protect them from disease
2. Preventing extinction of the race – with population of the indigenous Australians declining, it was felt that by raising the children by the state, they would be more healthy and hence more capable of development
3. Protecting white race purity – this was a third view point which had a minority support group.

Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic torch at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Cathy, an Aboriginal Australian, was the grandchild of one such Stolen child. Midnight Oil, the cult Aussie band, demonstrated the national regret when they performed at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games wearing black sweatshirts with the word “Sorry”. 

There was of course a national apology by the Australian PM Kevin Rudd and an unanimous resolution by the Federal Parliament.

Japanese raids on Darwin

The next big point of interest is the advent of Second World War in Australia. This was the raid on Darwin by Japanese bombers on February 19, 1942. Called the Pearl Harbour of Australia, this raid in two waves attacked Australia at its weakest and most vulnerable point – completely underprepared and underequipped.

It remains the biggest attack on Australian soil though Japan never really occupied any Australian territory (in the main continent). The raids were executed by a combination of the Kate torpedo bombers and the Val dive bombers escorted by Zero fighters. The second wave was executed by Nell and Betty land-based bombers.

Naval commander Mitsui Fuchida who led the first wave later in his memoirs writes that it was a significant waste of time as there was nothing of any value at Darwin – a small port installation, an even smaller airfield with minimal facilities. 

Closing up on the movie – well, a movie buff is a movie buff – so one can watch it. And the movie will definitely do well in the awards marquees across the world. The only issue – its a big too heavy on the sugar and teary stuff.

Revolutionary Road – Review of a Review of a Trailer

I came across this review by Anna Pickard of the Guardian of the movie trailer of Revolutionary Road. It stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet and is directed by Sam Mendes.

A few excerpts which I found interesting.

About Leonardo Di Caprio:

We in the cheap seats wonder if there’s something magic in supermodel spittle that promises to keep Leo looking like he’s in primary school possibly into his 70s.

[...]

I guess I kind of like it,” says Leo, through gritted teeth.
“Won’t you miss the city?” asks a heavily pregnant Kate. 
“Nothing’s permanent … “ replies the 12-year-old in a suit. 

About the trailer and the impact of the trailer:

Leonardo DiCaprio looks tortured. Kate Winslet looks miserable. If Titanic was the flush of first love, this is what happens when it subsequently all goes down the toilet.

[...]

Seriously, I feel like all the joy has been sucked from my soul, and I’ve only been watching this for one minute and 45 seconds. The film is two sodding hours long. I wonder if the cinema staff have to go in at the end of each screening and pick up not only the empty cups and sweetie wrappers but also the shattered dreams of any foolish youthful idealists in the audience and the hollow, desiccated shells of cinemagoers with nothing left to live for.

Prediction about the movie:

So, at the end of the day, is it a trailer that makes us want to rush out and watch the entire film? No, not really. It’s already raining, and we’re feeling a bit flat and fat and January-miserable and … no. It will probably win prizes, though. Armloads of ‘em.

I saw the trailer myself and I tend to agree. Given the general mood of the day, I would be a tad wary of going for it. I saw Australia the other day and it was like watching a Gone With The Wind saga-esque drama with an Aussie accent – complete with racism, war, greed and villainy. Like what Anna Pickard says about Revolutionary Road, armloads of prizes am sure, for Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, the kid who plays Nallah, maybe cinematography. But, not enjoyable watching.

Dubbing vs Subtitles

Over the past few months, there have been many new channels launched bringing in international programming dubbed in Hindi. As a viewer, this is extremely laudable as it gives us a lot of choice. I for one relish watching movies from different countries beyond Hollywood.

Research shows that there is a huge audience for such programming, people sick of the standard saas-bahu and unreal dramatic reality shows. In a way, it is also a slap on Indian content producers for not generating enough variety and scope.

About dubbing:

However, I have an issue with the quality of dubbing. In the mass factory production that demands speed and volume, there seems to be a common consensus on all channels to do away with what may slow down proceedings – quality.

I am referring purely to dubbed movies as that is what I generally try to watch. My observation has been that in the process of dubbing, the entire weight of the dialogs as spoken by the actors on screen is dissipated. The impression I get is one where people are generally reading out Hindi lines which have been written as literal translations interspersed with the mandatory “Ohh!”s and “Kya Kar rahe ho?”s etc.

I would like to understand how films get dubbed. Because, based on the output that I see on screen, I am not sure whether the dubbing production follows any method. According to this news report, there is a great supply of voice artistes and production houses are also reducing the rates. This seems to be impacting the quality of dubbing.

That may be the case, but in my limited understanding of the issue, there are three aspects to dubbing

1. Understanding the basic plot / script of the program / movie and there fore understanding the essence of each scene in terms of converstation

2. Writing dialogs in Hindi (not as a translation) but as part of the script, follows from point 1. There is a huge role for script writers here, especially those with adaptive capabilities. That should not be an issue in India with most of the film industry resorting to plagiarism.

3. Getting voice artistes to emote on the mic, rather than just read out the lines. As a model, one can look at the animation films – Indian and Hollywood, where the voice artistes are people with some acting / emoting ability. Of course, one need not pitch for stars. One example of a catchment area for voice artistes can be from theatre

About Subtitles:

Subtitles are useful in their own right. Of course, one needs to be able to read the subtitles fast. I probably won’t be able to do so if the subtitles were in Hindi. Though I can read Hindi, it’s not as if I read Hindi as much as I read English. So it takes more than the fraction of a second to read.

However, in my case particularly, I use the subtitles (English mostly) to confirm whether I understood the scene correctly. My focus is on the screen and the actors and the tone in which they are delivering the dialogs. This gives me a good idea of how the film is moving. I catch the subtitles, sometimes only a word or so, just to confirm.

Subtitles help retain certain key elements of the film – like Arnold Schwarzneggar’s one-liners delivered in his typical Austrian accent or Will Smith’s one liners delivered in his typical pitch.

Dubbing vs Subtitles

Of course, from a mass viewership point of view, dubbing scores higher than subtitles. And logically, it should be the model. However, the model should be “Hindi remake” rather than “Hindi translation”. It is more expensive, requires more talent but the effect will be more watchable and enjoyable television and movies.

At the end of the day, inspite of the research, if the stuff is distorted because of the Hindi dialogs, then the proposed viewership may anyway find other entertaining and enjoyable stuff to watch.