Best Hindi Songs of 2008

End of another year. Here's the list of songs (mostly Hindi films) that stood out for me (they are in no particular order of liking). Disclaimer: This in no way is an exhaustive, scientific list of all the music released this past year. It is purely based on my personal likes.

Song: Ek Lau
Movie: Aamir
Singers: Shilpa Rao, Amitabh Varma
Lyrics: Amitabh Varma
Music: Amit Trivedi
A soothing yet haunting composition by debutante music director Amit Trivedi in this independent small movie can definetely be called a theme song for a year marked by multiple incidents of terrorist induced violence in India. This one is to all those lives that ended abruptly for no particular fault of their's. Shilpa Rao's voice will be heard more and more in the coming years.

Song: Ha Raham
Movie: Aamir
Singers: Amit Trivedi, Amitabh Varma, Murtuza Qadir
Lyrics: Amitabh Varma
Music: Amit Trivedi
Another winner from Amit Trivedi. This time the lyricist and the music director contrinute towards the vocals. The use of instruments in the tune seems like a mix of Qawaali, street music, and cheap orchestras. The overall effect is spectacular.

Song: Kabhi Kabhi Aditi
Movie: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Singers: Rashid Ali
Lyrics: Abbas Tyrewala
Music: A.R.Rehman
It was clearly another stellar year for ARR - JTYJN, Jodhaa Akbar, Yuvvraj, Ghajini and Slumdog Millionaire. All of the above have distinct sounds (have not heard Ghajini , hence does not feature in this list). I am not a sucker of the Gen Y genre of music but with 'Aditi', 'Pappu can't dance' and 'Nazare milaana' ARR has created anthems for this generation. Abbas Tyrewala's zany lyrics makes this one an instant hit, but not the kind which wears off after multiple listenings. This one has longevity written on it. Another reason to like this particular song is for Aditi. (uhm....yeah...mr. sappy...!)

Song: Kaahin To Hogee Woh
Movie: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Singers: Rashid Ali, Vasundhara Das
Lyrics: Abbas Tyrewala
Music: A.R.Rehman
This one is one of those ARR melodies which grow on you on repeat hearings. The lyrics depict the angst and the confusion of adolescent love. It's sung soulfully by Rasheed Ali and Vasundhara Das (why do we not hear more of this girl's strong vocal chords? Remember - O Ri Chori?)

Song: Sindbad Sailor
Movie: Rock On
Singers: Farhan Akhtar, Raman Mahadevan
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Farhan Akhtar as the lead actor - Maybe!! As a lead singer - NO WAY!!!! But, boy did he prove everyone wrong!! "Rock On!" is a winner as a soundtrack all the way. A lyricist who is 65 years old (and has pretty much written songs centered around LOVE) and a lead singer who is no singer at all. Isn't this what Rock is all about? Defying the norm or as the respected professor of Rock music, Sir Dewey Finn says "Rock is about Sticking It To The Man". Sindbad Sailor takes the cake amongst other songs from this album for it's energy, gusto and inspired lyrics. The transition from Farhan's husky voice to Raman Mahadevan's silky smooth "Tum ho To" is like eating the cream under the cracked top layer of a perfect Crème brûlée.

Song: Yeh Tumhaari Meri Baatein
Movie: Rock On
Singers: Dominique
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Of the all the rock inspired songs from this album sung by male singers, this is one of the two songs with a female voice (the other being Phir Dekhiye by Caralisa). The guitar loop in the background in this song, has an "Indian Ocean"-esque feel to it.

Song: Jashn-e-bahaara
Movie: Jodhaa Akbar
Singer: Javed Ali
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Music: A R Rehman
Only ARR can deliver a Gen Y soundtrack like Jaane Tu and a soundtrack of a period film like Jodhaa Akbar. If I had to rank the songs in this list, Jashn-e-bahaara takes the crown for it's masterful composition, lilting and delicate poetry (Jaaved Akhtar) and silky smooth buttery rendition by Javed Ali. The instrumental version of this melody is to die for. Notable also is the instrumental version of Khwaja Mere Khwaja (how often do Indian composers make use of the Oboe?)

Song: Azeem-O-Shaan Shahenshah
Movie: Jodhaa Akbar
Singer: Mohammed Aslam, Bonnie Chakraborty and Chorus
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Music: A R Rehman
Two words to describe this: Grandeur and Opulence. This is probably one of those composition's where the movie director also is part of the creative process along with the music director. Too bad, the real Akbar never got to hear this - he would have had ARR amongst his Navratnas.

Song: Tu muskura
Movie: Yuvvraj
Singer: Alka Yagnik, Javed Ali
Lyrics: Gulzar
Music: A R Rehman
What a waste of brilliant music on this awful movie. The movie is worse than an overflowing gutter and the music is the polar opposite of that - a clear stream flowing through a valley amongst snowcapped mountains on a moonlit night. Alka Yagnik sounds like a completely different singer when she sings for ARR. Before Lagaan, her voice did not do a thing for me and then O ri chori and Mitwaa happened. She was outstanding in Taal se taal mila (Taal) and Ay Hairathe (Guru). With Tu Muskura she rightfully deserves her place as a master singer in the Hindi film music world.

Song: Jai Ho
Movie: Slumdog Millionaire
Singer: Sukhwinder Singh, Mahalaxmi Iyer
Lyrics: Gulzar
Music: A R Rehman
This is such a joyous song, you cannot help but smile and join the moves. A perfect composition for a movie that in my opinion is the Best of 2008. If you catch the movie in the cinemas (if you haven't yet....go NOW, it's the best use of your 10 dollars in this economy), the song bursts on the screen with the end credits and the entire audience sits their asses back in the seats or freeze wherever they were to get immersed in this ultimate rocker of a song. I had a gut feeling that the lyrics were Gulzar's - who else can write:
"Aaja aaja jind shaamiyaane ke tale aaja, zariwaale neele aasmaan ke tale aaja". Upon googling it, my gut feeling was confirmed. What a way to end the year!

Slumdog Millionaire

Watching Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire is an experience you will not forget anytime soon. This is the same man who gave us the sticker-shock laden Trainspotting in 1996, a doomsday dystopian world thriller in 28 Days Later and then an about turn with a heartwarming Millions in 2004. With Slumdog he has once again proven himself to be a the unexpected film-maker. What I mean by that is one cannot put him in any "genre-director" bucket. Example: Hitchcock, Scorsese etc.

If I have to categorize Slumdog in some genre then I will call it an escapist-realistic-romantic-thriller-comedy movie. At the core, it's a simple story of the underdog emerging victorious in the end. The story is about a boy from the slums of Mumbai who ends up winning the "Who wants to be a millionaire?". No, I am not giving away the plot to you, believe me , I am not. It's how you arrive at this climax is what makes for a wholesome, satisfying journey. You know the feeling you get after eating a simple, delicious meal after being hungry for hours - watching Slumdog is the cinematic equivalent of that feeling. It's the brilliant screenplay of Simon Beaufoy (adapted from Vikas Swarup's novel Q & A), Anthony Dod Mantle's camerawork and AR Rehman's background score which takes the movie to the "good-just-got-AWESOME" level. They colelctively infuse tremendous energy right from the first frame of the movie which continues till the very last frame. They capture the images, colors and sounds of the underbelly of this city in a manner which has not been seen on the screen before (I can think of Meera Nair and Declan Quinn doing the same for Delhi in Monsoon Wedding). The movie offers a heady mix of sappy melodrama, realism, humor and those silly-courageous acts that you come to expect from the main protagonist.
Go watch Slumdog this winter, you will walk out with a wide smile and a full heart - despite the depiction of the grim lives of thousands of children living in these slums. Ohh, and did I mention the end credits: Spectacularly Groovy!!

Viewer Discretion : The movie is laden with profanities (Hindi and English) and some shockingly violent scenes involving children.

P.S.: To all those cynics who will say "the West only wants to see the ugly India to garner good reviews for movies set in the Indian Subcontinent", six words: Context and Honesty to the Medium.

P.P.S: I watched this movie when Mumbai was under siege by 10 terrorists in the last week of November 2008. The movie further cemented the fact that there is so much life in this city, it will take millions of terrorists with millions of guns and millions of bombs to take it away.

L I F E

Friedman on Mumbai and Pakistan

I have already confessed my love for Friedman's op-ed in NY Times. His recent article on the Mumbai attacks "Calling all Pakistanis" is one of the very few logical viewpoints about the India-Pakistan situation, from the Western media. (For most part, the Western media has very little clue about the Geopolitics of that part of the world and tries to treat it as if it's curable using Advils and Tylenols. Exhibit A: Wolf "the" Blitzer).
Quoting Friedman:
"When Pakistanis and other Muslims are willing to take to the streets, even suffer death, to protest an insulting cartoon published in Denmark, is it fair to ask: Who in the Muslim world, who in Pakistan, is ready to take to the streets to protest the mass murders of real people, not cartoon characters, right next door in Mumbai?"