Morphed in a flash,
Simplified, trimmed down and concised;
As an abridged pocket-sized chef d'oeuvre,
Dimensions lost
Comprehension gained.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Thank you for the music!
That's what I would like to say to the Kannada film industry! Now, that would appal anyone who's even remotely familiar with the kind of music that's being generated in Sandalwood (that's what the Kannada film industry is called)! But something that happened today helped me see things differently.
This evening, after dinner, I picked up a tape at random and played it. It happened to be a collection of songs I had recorded from the radio in Bangalore that I hadn't listened to for a long time now. One particular song in the tape changed my mood entirely. The song is called " Car Car" and is all about these marvellous locomotives that have changed our lives. The video alternatively features highways of the USA and the humble roads of namma Bengalooru(and this was shot when the fly-overs were being constructed- not a pretty sight at all!) during rush hour traffic. The chorus goes "Car car car car yelnodi car (2)"! The absolute meaninglessness of this song is what makes it endearing. Added to that is the fact that it is sung by some talented play-back singers. I enjoyed it so much that I actually felt refreshed after listening to it!
Every now and then, Bollywood tries hard to come up with crass, meaningless numbers- but on this one count, Sandalwood outsmarts its big brother in Mumbai. It is only in Kannada movies that we have songs like "Colour colour" and this other song, the chorus of which goes something like:
"Danger, 16 to 20 danger
20 to 30 hunter
30 to 40 soldier........"
No prizes for guessing what this song is all about. And I swear these are all real songs in real movies!
I do not know if these songs are written by lyricists (if they actually hire lyricists to write them) who have little kids at that crucial stage of childhood when their rate of absorption of new words into their vocabulary is at its peak. Perhaps, these songs are innovative tools devised by the smart lyricist-parents for feeding some important words of every Kannadiga's favourite language (viz.,angrezi) into their kids' long-term memory.
Regardless of the actual reasons behind the songs, I thank the persons behind them for making them. If these songs did not exist there would have been an implacable void in the universe!
This evening, after dinner, I picked up a tape at random and played it. It happened to be a collection of songs I had recorded from the radio in Bangalore that I hadn't listened to for a long time now. One particular song in the tape changed my mood entirely. The song is called " Car Car" and is all about these marvellous locomotives that have changed our lives. The video alternatively features highways of the USA and the humble roads of namma Bengalooru(and this was shot when the fly-overs were being constructed- not a pretty sight at all!) during rush hour traffic. The chorus goes "Car car car car yelnodi car (2)"! The absolute meaninglessness of this song is what makes it endearing. Added to that is the fact that it is sung by some talented play-back singers. I enjoyed it so much that I actually felt refreshed after listening to it!
Every now and then, Bollywood tries hard to come up with crass, meaningless numbers- but on this one count, Sandalwood outsmarts its big brother in Mumbai. It is only in Kannada movies that we have songs like "Colour colour" and this other song, the chorus of which goes something like:
"Danger, 16 to 20 danger
20 to 30 hunter
30 to 40 soldier........"
No prizes for guessing what this song is all about. And I swear these are all real songs in real movies!
I do not know if these songs are written by lyricists (if they actually hire lyricists to write them) who have little kids at that crucial stage of childhood when their rate of absorption of new words into their vocabulary is at its peak. Perhaps, these songs are innovative tools devised by the smart lyricist-parents for feeding some important words of every Kannadiga's favourite language (viz.,angrezi) into their kids' long-term memory.
Regardless of the actual reasons behind the songs, I thank the persons behind them for making them. If these songs did not exist there would have been an implacable void in the universe!
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