Minor Scale

A group of Rahman fans (face T-shirts & all) got together someplace in Malaysia and played his songs…in a house. While the singing could best have been left to vocal tracks from the original audio, the musicians kick butt. Obviously a lot of programming went into the synthesizer, but still, considering there are only 3 instruments used, the reproduction is quite impressive.

Video Playlist 1
Video Playlist 2

PS: There’s also the usual Polar Bear-Eskimo humor associated with such gatherings. Good fun.

Chocolate is a dumbed down Bollywood version of The Usual Suspects. Well, dumbed down & sexed up with ample Tanushree Dutta cleavage. Assuming you know the premise of the original, the Hindi movie works around the fact that Irfan (orig:Kevin Spacey) is feeding his imagination off the lead stories on the cover of a GQ magazine, which incidentally carries the photo of Anil Kapoor- Britain’s #1 lawyer (his words). At one point in the movie, they zoom in on the cover, as Irfan is in the middle of another one of his yarns. This is what it looked like:

(more…)

Tamizh movies must be getting real expensive. Is it just me or is this a cry for help from the producers of Majaa? A subtle pun where they’d like you to know through the Credits about their shaken credit?

The last 10 days have been hectic; time spent poring over mysterious plots and its associated numbers. And I needed the weekend to recharge. On the couch, taking care of my Netflix backlog. But I also had things to do: the laundry for instance. Cleaning. Phone calls. Pedicures. I could multi-task, but I was wary of getting too involved in the separation of colors & whites that I might miss out on getting all choked up about little Damian or not chewing my fingernails as John Leguizamo tried to track down a serial killer.

So I watched the Bollywood action thriller, James, instead.
(more…)

The University of Madras has found its new spokesman in Ilaya Dalapathy Vijay. These are some of his lines from the Deepavali blockbuster, Sivakasi. I also plan to use them as my wedding vows.

oruthanukku oruthiya vaazhanum-na andha oruthanukku mattum indha maadhiri odambe kaatu, ippidi oorukkellaam kaattunaenu vechukke, appram oorle ulle athane payalgalum un koode vaazhanum-nu nenaippaan.

ponna lakshanama azhaga saelaiye katti izhuthu pOthikkittu vandhen-nu vechukke, aambalainge ellaam unne ponna ille, mahalakshmiya nenachu kai eduthu kumbuduvaainge

aayiram thaan irindhaalum avan aambale, police-aave irindhaalum neenge pombale…modhale pombalaya nadanthukkOnge

And that’s when I stepped outside, spat at the blonde in her bikini, cursed the girl in the low rise jeans and lit up the cigarette I had extracted from the shirt-collar with my teeth.

If you’ve yearned for an Ilaiyaraja composition that even brought back memories of one of his 90s songs, then check out this Malayalam number called Oru Chiri Kandaal from the movie, Ponmudipuzhayorathu. Sung by Manjari & Vijay Yesudas (who is very close to sounding like his Dad here), the song is somewhat of a cross between MaharaajanOdu (Sati Leelavathy) and Kaadhal Kavidhaigal(Gopura Vaasalile). The bass work is sweet, the tune is soothing and Raja has steered clear of his recent obtrusive machinized drumming. Why not such songs in Tamizh, I wonder?!

Lyrics: Oru Chiri Kandaal.

PS1: Please let me know if you happen upon a mp3 of this song anywhere! Coolgoose!
PS2: Alternative video for the same song. That’s right. I was vain enough to look for “Manoj” videos on Google Video and happened upon this one. I’m a dork!

This is not in any way a mp3 blog, but if plugging the music of upcoming bands means I get emails from band-members who send me music samples, and good ones at that, then I’m all for it. :)

The band in question is Soft, who I previously mentioned once here. I’m no music guru, but I think I know an extremely catchy song when I hear one. Their latest single Higher is just that. Don’t go finding a genre to fit the song into, just play it loud enough for the guitars to resonate in your head and the tune to stick to your lips.

Link:
Soft - Higher

View Slideshow on Flickr.
Bonus: My Mike Mohan slideshow.

Anthony Hopkins Is The World’s Fastest Indian

[via] The Movie Blog

Blame it on the hurricane and all that, but my first reaction was that Sir Anthony Hopkins was too old to play Narain Karthikeyan, until I realized what they were talking about. And if you’re wondering if Hopkins is going to be riding a shiny Royal Enfield Bullet, then NO.

Post Script PJ:
Why would ‘Rear Window’ be a bad title choice for a movie on Narain Karthikeyan?
Because no one would be interested in a blank script.