Sadda Haq

The first time I walked into a movie hall in Bombay (mid September), I was totally floored by the trailer. Every movie I saw after that, I used to wish for the trailer to come back again.

Every musical note in this movie was magical and that is the only reason why no one other than AR Rahman could have done this. ROCKSTAR is all credit to ARR. If there is one thing that someone should talk about after seeing this movie is the power of Rahman's music. Music maketh the movie. Rahman got Orianthi Panagaris to play the lead guitar (she used to play for Michael Jackson). Orianthi breaks all barriers and strikes gold right from the first minute. Rockstar is character driven and guitar is the predominant portion of the whole movie. The smashing hit song "Sadda Haq is only proof to that. Not just this one, but every other song represents the mood the character moulds into; be it a fun song in Prague or the qawwali inside Hazra Nizamuddin.

Janardhan Jakhar aka Jordan, dreams of making it big in music while his family wants him to join their business. He idolises Jim Morrison and when we look at the posters and the graphics we get the same feeling as well. He is surprised that fans were so thrilled when JM walked into the crowd and showed a middle finger while he was being slapped by a police officer for making sensible music at the bus stop. His closest aide tells him that the power of music relies in feeling the pain of love, loneliness, betrayal and the journey begins there; but Jordan is simple, clueless and is always confused all the way.

 Ranbir Kapoor has proved himself all through the film. Right fron blending into the costumes, showing the serious attitude and making us feel that the voice lent by Mohit Chauhan (Dooba Dooba fame) is almost his; Ranbir pulls it off quite well. Of course, there are some problems with the guitar and serious guitarists would laugh at that, but we can forget it.

Nargis Fakhri as the Kashmiri lass Heer brings more beauty to the script. Frame after frame, she brings a ravishing touch to the screenplay. Although a lot of things that she does reminds us of Katrina Kaif in a good number of movies in the past, Nargis steals the show being happy-go-lucky. Performance needs a lot of boost and I hope she can do better in forthcoming films, if any. Bollywood is quite open to debuting women beyond 30, which is a really good sign.

Visuals are a treat - streets of Delhi, snow clad mountains and roads, lakes, locales of Prague, Rome, Hazrat Nizamuddin; the choices seem perfect. The film starts off with a concert in Rome - flashes back to Jordan's story and keeps coming back when required. Imtiaz Ali weaves the story aptly to make it interesting till the end.

Overall: Rockstar is a must watch. If not for the script, definitely for the music.

The Guru

The word GURU is split as GU and RU. GU means darkness and RU means removal. A GURU is someone who removes the darkness that is present in our minds.

The song "Guruleka Etuvanti Guniki" composed by Saint Tyagaraja is an excellent piece on the importance of the GURU.

There is a definite difference between a GURU and the ACHARYA. The GURU is supposed to give us Diksha and prepare the disciple for mukthi. An Acharya is for Siksha and that is why we have Vijayadasami. Acharya gives us vidya to be successful.

Purandaradasa says that without Guru, you cannot have anything in life. Whatever you do, even if you read the Shastras on your own, you will still need a Guru. Kabirdas also says that given a choice he will always choose the Guru over God. This is because the Guru is the only person who will accept you as you are and try to change you into being a better person.

A person needs Guru for three reasons - Samithpani, Shrothriyam and Brahmanishtam. The Guru needs to have Anubhavam and Aanmeekam and should be able to follow both. If the disciple does something wrong, then the sin comes to the Guru.

The disciple needs to look at the Guru in 5 forms - Father, Matropadesha, Vidyopadesha, Annadaata and Bhayadrata.

"Guruguhaya Bhaktanu" composed by Muthuswamy Dhikshithar is a great composition where he says that my guru is the one who is the supremo and knows everything.

There were two main Gurus, one for the Devas - Brihaspati and one for the Asuras - Sukracharya. When Lord Vishnu came to ask Mahabali the whole world and in turn wanted to send him to the bottom of the earth, Sukracharya asked Mahabali not to give anything. This brings us to another point. The Guru should never teach the disciple two things - To not believe in God and Be dishonest.

The vedas state that there are instances where the sishya has surpassed the Guru in knowledge. Prahalada learnt in less than 10 years what Sage Narada has learnt in 3 lives.

This is what I learnt about the Guru in today's concert by Dr.Vijay Siva.

Bhavan's Music Festival

Today, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan at Mylapore kick started their series of Carnatic Music Concerts.

Andrew Simkin, the Consul General for the United States was the Chief Guest. Other know people were Nalli Kuppuswamy, and Leela Samson (Kalakshetra).

Nithyasree Mahadevan's concert marked the beginning of this wonderful journey for the Bhavan for the year 2009.

The concert was delayed by almost 30 minutes. Nithyasree began with a salutation to Lord Ganesha singing Sri Vignarajam in the raagam GambheeraNaattai. This was followed by Shambho Mahadeva in the raagam Bowli. The next one was Smarane Sukamu in the raagam Janaranjani. Entha Naerchinaa was the next rendition set in the raagam Suddha-Dhanyasi. Ayyane Nadanamadiya set in the raagam Nadai-Bhairavi followed next.

The most important piece of the whole concert was Sri Kanthimathim set in Hemavati raagam. By the time this song ended, it was time for me to leave. So, I could not sit and listen to the songs that followed this keerthanai. This segment is usually the best because the artists sing very popular songs.

I was also pretty irritated because of the person next to me. He was coughing like a diesel locomotive from the 70's. And on top of that he was chewing paan I guess. That smell was killing me.

The average age of the people who came to listen was 58. It was so sad to see such a boring crowd. Half the people were hungry by the time the concert started and then started to leave right from half past eight.

And then there are some people who still follow the practice of reserving a seat using their hand-towels. Since they are in the post-retirement stage, you cant even argue with them. you just have to dismiss them and move on.

one other thing i noticed is that there are more medical insurance companies at these concerts than any other business entity. i guess they know their target segment in this time of the year. haha.

more to come by as and when i come out of concerts.

Let the music begin

Thats the tagline for the HINDU FRIDAY REVIEW NOVEMBER FEST. And as it rightly says, the month of music began for me today at the Music Academy.

I was there to witness OS Arun and Sanjeev Abhyankar enchant the audience through their wonderful renditions of the poems by Surdas. Every composition was unique.

Arun and Sanjeev took time to explain to the audience, the underlying theme of every poem and the emotions that Surdas brought out.

Poems were about Lord Krishna's childhood, his friendship and respect to Dharma, Surdas' interpretation of hw the Lord would appear to him. Akhiyan Hari Darshan Ki Pyaasi, Jasumati Man Abhilash are the poems that I remember.

Compositions were rendered in different scales. So the raga was not important. Abhogi, Behag - if i remember right, were some of the ragas.

The Raas Leela at the end was the highlight. OS Arun's aalaap during the Raas Leela was fantastic.

This is just the beginning. The Chennai Music Season is warming up and will be in full swing, roughly about 10 days from now. And I am going to be in as many sabhas as possible. It only gets better and better.

Ebony and Ivory

First of all, I should thank Vedanth Bharadwaj for having sent me a Facebook Invitation for this concert.

Ebony and Ivory - a concert by Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil Gurucharan accompanied by BS Purushottam on the Kanjira.

On a beautiful Friday evening (24th July 2009) in Kalakshetra, Anil and Guru entertained the audience for about 1.5 hours through some amazing raagas.

The concert was dedicated to the great MS Subbulakshmi. MS's piano, which dates back to almost 1947 was gifted to the Kalakshetra by the MS family. The school already had a piano that belonged to Rukmini Devi. Anil Srinivasan, Leela Samson and a few like minded people decided to restore the piano and celebrate the hard work through a concert. This free concert that was conducted on Kalakshetra premises attracted people like Anita Ratnam, Aruna Sairam and Unnikrishnan.

Anil played both pianos. MS's piano had been recently restored and did not have the capacity to stand a whole concert. So Anil just played one song on that one. All other songs were played on the other one.

All through the concert, Anil explained about how the piano was restored and the effort that had gone into the concert. He also talked about every song, gave a bit of background and history when it was required.

The first one was a ragamalika - Sindhu Bhairavi, Kalyanavasantha, Poorvikalyani, Neelambari and Madhayamavathi. It was such a free flowing music from Guru and Anil on the piano. The transitions from one raagam to another was very good and when it came towards Neelambari, it sounded so sweet that there was a feeling of happiness rushing through me.

Gurucharan also sang "Naan Oru Vilayaattu Bommaiyyaa" and the music was played on MS' piano.

There were two Annamacharya Krithis that were also sung. I forgot the songs. I think one was set in Pantuvarali.

There is no Sikkil-Anil concert without one from the albums they have released perviously. So Guru embellished the concert with Poonguyil from his album Maayaa. This Kalki Krishnamurthy song was set in the raagam Kaapi.


The last piece was Hari Tumharo set in Darbari Kanada and this song reminded me of Malare Mounama from the movie Karnaa and Vedant told me that even Poo Maalai Vaangi Vanthaal from Sindhu Bhairavi was quite similar.

Even though the concert seemed to be very quick, it was a great experience to see some stalwarts around me. It was simply wonderful to see the pride that everyone took in associating themselves with the MS Family or Kalakshetra. Whoever came on stage, gave us anecdotes about the piano, MS, musicians of the same era.

The concert was called Ebony and Ivory because the keys on MS' piano were made of ivory and the wood used was Ebony. The piano was bought for a princely amount of Rs.2000 during the pre-independence years and its great to see that it has been restored and will be housed within an institution that is world famous for its carnatic roots.

Kanaa Kaangiren

Kanaa Kaangiren - I am glued to this song. From the movie Anandha Thandavam (Dance of Ecstasy), what an amazing song.

Sung by Nithyasree, Subha Mudgal and Vinitra, this song would go into the history of tamil music as one of THE BEST wedding songs of the 21st century.

The video is set in Belur, Halebid and nearby temples. The one below just has pictures and not the original video.



Following the lines of the wedding songs in Alaipayuthae (Yaaro Yaarodi) and Paarthaale Paravasam (Adhisiya Thirumanam).

This song has amazing lines and the beats are excellent. If you get on to youtube, you can see the lyrics on the side bar.

I am just waiting for the video to arrive on youtube.