PRAT THE BRAT

“Wonder, this time where’s she’s gone,
Wonder, if she’s gone to stay”…

Blues, as a music genre, was not one of the favorites till I came to Bangalore. It all started with the ‘Best of Eric Clapton’ CD that my friend Mrinal gave me as a parting gift. And in no time I was addicted to ‘Layla’, ‘Cocaine’, ‘Nikita’ and many more. I got interested in the genre and started listening to the likes of Stevie ray Vaughan, B.B. King, and most importantly Bill Withers. When I speak about Bill Withers, the first song which comes to everybody’s mind is ‘Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone’. And that is the song which reminds me of one of the most talented actresses I’ve seen among my friend circle. I liked her acting so much that I had casted her in all the student films I had directed. And in every role she proved that she is a powerhouse of talent. Be it Sanjana Saigal or Anusha Banerjee, she has done every role with perfection. A good newspaper editor, superb actress, excellent dancer, and more than anything, a very good friend… Pratiba Raman

“I ought to leave the young thing alone, but ain't no sunshine when she's gone, ain't no sunshine when she's gone, only darkness every day.”

After completing my first film in the first year of college itself, I planned my next film very soon. And I was very sure that I would cast Pratiba as the protagonist. My films generally dealt with the dark side of women [The Femme Fatale], and somehow Prat has that look in her, combined with her classical Bharatnatyam expressions. Often I used to tell her that she will make a superb Komolika. So when we were preparing for my second film, I just had to frame a story around her. Kavita and Sherry wrote a wonderful story called ‘Reflection’. The story was about an actress’s journey through guilt, and Pratiba was brilliant as usual. Be it as the horrified actress, or the jealous friend, Pratiba was outstanding. But the part which I love the most was when she confessed her crime to the psychologist, and she’s trying to get back to the normal life. She washes her face and looks up in the mirror and has a smirk on her face [ Before that scene every time she was looking at the mirror she could only see a reflection of her distorted face].

While editing I had many soundtracks in mind for the film; disturbing soundtracks like the OST of Max Payne, Apocolyptica version of Fade to black, enter sandman, nothing else matters clubbed with heart beats and water flow. But for that part I couldn’t find a proper soundtrack, I went through my music collection over and over again but the right track was not there. I needed some track which could provide a refreshing feel. A song to start everything from the beginning, a song which helps to forget the past and inspire the future, a song which is like a new sun starting a new day. That’s it… I got the song… sun, sunrise, sunshine… Ain’t no sunshine, when she’s gone…

The song was depicting every mood that Pratiba had onscreen. Her smile, relief, reprieve from the guilt was so evident with the song that we all just loved that bit. This song is not a song for me anymore, it’s an inspiration, motivation, encouragement, hope for a new sunrise. From that day whenever I listen to Ain’t no sunshine, I don’t see Bill Withers in a orange pullover, sitting with a guitar and singing. I see Pratiba Raman as Anusha Banerjee, getting a new lease of life, trying to break through, trying to feel alive again. Haven’t met Prat after college, but thanks to facebook, we are in touch. This post is for you Prat… trust me whenever I make my own movie, you will be the first person whom I will offer a role, will you be game for it?


Ain't no sunshine when she's gone.
It's not warm when she's away.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
and she's always gone too long
anytime she goes away.

Simply Samir

Antabiheen ei andha rater sesh
Kotha je tomari chokher alloy dekha
sonali sadher desh
[ Atl the end of the endless night, where is the land of the golden wish, which you have visualized]

I guess this is more or less the transliteration of this song. This song was composed by Bengali music director Salil Chowdhury and if I am not wrong, he has sung this himself. It is considered to be one of the most popular Bengali songs. Personally I don’t like the song much; neither I’m a big fan of Salil Chowdhury. My knowledge of Bengali music is not quite up to the mark, actually I don’t know much about Bengali music before 1990. In the 90s, with the emergence of the Trio [Nachiketa, Suman, Anjan], I got into the habit of listening to Bengali Songs, and the evolution of the Bengali bands in early 2000 was the icing on the cake. I have heard almost all songs till 2005, after that so many bands started forming that it became like Band-emonium, and I lost interest in Bengali songs again. Before getting into the main part let me answer an obvious question. Why am I writing about this song if I don’t like it? Because the incident attached to the song was so funny that every now I then I remember the song. This song reminds me of Samirda… one of the biggest nutcases I’ve ever seen in my life… And I like him for whatever he is…

Samir Naskar is one of the most famous personalities in our small village. His funda-mental problem was, he was so experi-mental in everything without being judge -mental, people used to think [and still think] that he was mental [Oh!!! I missed senti-mental]. Jokes apart, Samirda is actually a cult figure at our place, there are so many stories about his frenzies, that if I write all, it would be a book and I can easily make a film called ‘Being Samir’. From film I remember, once when all of us friends were discussing about what we all want to be in future, I said I want to make films some day. Samirda’s remark was “When you make films, please give me the role of a fisherman, who is singing folk song in his boat, and rowing towards the sea”. Samirda actually is a good theatre actor, though his face never allowed him to be a hero, but he is really good at performing arts. Be it painting, acting or dancing, Samirda always had his own style of doing it, and those were appreciated also. But he wanted to be a master of a certain category of performing arts, which always used to turn out as a nightmare for others. Singing … is what he wanted to do, and singing… is where he was at his worst…

Let’s time travel to 9 years back, sometimes in the month of October. It was the sixth day of the Durgapuja and there were hints of celebration in the atmosphere. For Bengalis, Puja starts from this date; so at the Puja besides our house every year a small cultural program happens. That year I also sang some Bengali band songs with my band. Ours was the last performance, and Samirda had requested the coordinator to let him sing one song and end the program. Though that dude agreed at that point of time to let Samirda calm down; he had other plans in mind. The moment our program ended, he shut down the lights and blamed it totally on load shedding, and by the time electricity came back, the audiences were gone. Samirda was so depressed, he didn’t speak, didn’t eat , straight went back home. We thought he will forget it after a good night’s sleep….

During Durga Puja, coconuts are required for some rituals. The young club members, instead of buying those coconuts, they used to steal it from different people’s trees after midnight. Since our house was the closest to the Puja pandal, before going to sleep, I made sure that no one is in the garden and I locked the garden door and went to sleep. It was about 11:30 then. Suddenly I woke up at 2 o clock following a loud yell. I could hear my dad shouting “who is this uncouth bastard, who has no sense of civilization? How inhuman this can be?” I asked my dad to calm down and went out to find out what has happened. And what I found out was this…
The coconut thieves had jumped over our fence and made full plan of theft and all, one of them went up to the tree and was throwing the coconuts down. It was the same tree where the loudspeakers of the puja pandal were tied for morning mantra chanting and all. The coconut thief was intriguely busy in his craft, suddenly a screeching noise besides his ears blasted his eardrums as if a bomb had blasted nearby, he lost control and fell down from the tree, straight in the paddy field, which was full with mud. And before the team could go for his help, they heard my dad shouting. They left all the coconuts behind and ran somehow carrying the injured thief [he didn’t sustain much injuries, other than a broken left arm]. I met them outside our house and all of us went to find the source of the sound. And then…

No no, let us go back three hours, we should follow Samirda. After that depressing program, Samirda went home, sat in his courtyard for some time, had a smoke, and the artist inside him started poking him again. So once the coconut thieves left the pandal, he went back to the pandal, bribed the sound guy with a bottle of country liquor, pretended to drink with him, but dint have a single peg, and the moment the sound guy was sloshed and out, he got hold of the amplifier and the microphone. But not necessarily every singer will have the knowledge of sound equipments, Samirda also didn’t have… Instead of connecting the small speakers, he connected the four huge loudspeakers hung at different trees around the village. He opened his music diary, cleared his throat and the moment he sang the first two lines all those things mentioned above happened..[ just to remind you, the loudspeakers blasted, my dad shouted, the thief fell down, broke his hand, the team escaped without taking a single coconut etc.]. And the punishment???

Samirda had to pay for all the coconuts used next day, he had to bear the cost of treatment of the thief, he wasbbanned from the pandal for a day… And when the next day I met Samirda, surprisingly he was humming the same song…
Khuje khuje firi hay re hay [ I go on searching]

The Immortal Banny

“I'm so tired of being here, suppressed by all my childish fears
And if you have to leave, I wish that you would just leave
Your presence still lingers here and it won't leave me alone”

When I was studying in class IX, I was introduced to rock music by one of my cousins. That was quite a big jump for me as then Ricky Martin used to be the god of music for me. Like all others I also used to go to the nearby audio cassette shop and inquire about the release date of Max 6 [the max series by Sony music used to be collection of current hit pop songs, and I had bought Max 5]. But then when I heard Hotel California for the first time, there was no looking back for me. Ricky, Brian Adams, Marc Anthony flew out of the window only to give place to Eagles, Pink Floyd, Deep purple and many more. The cassette shop owner used to get troubled big time, when I used to ask for Scorpions or Dire Straits albums. And my journey with rock music started then…

Surprisingly I never liked any of the female rockers, I tried listening to Alanis, Sheryl, Janice Joplin; but none of them sounded interesting. Then I realized I really don’t like listening to female singers. I actually never liked any Hindi female singers also other than Shubha Mudgal, that too because she has a powerful voice. When I finished graduation, Heavy metal had taken the place of Classic rock and still I was searching for a female voice that I can relate to. And then I got it… I was watching Daredevil at new Empire theatres, Kolkata and the end credit song was sung by this gothic rock band called Evanescence and the lead singer was a girl. By the time I found about the lead singer and more about the band, I had already shifted to Bangalore. And one evening sitting in our college computer lab, I got hold of this song called ‘My Immortal’ by Evanescence and the name of the singer is Amy lee. This song still gives me Goosebumps whenever I listen to it, and also reminds me of my one and only friend from the beautiful city of Shillong… Baniaikynmaw… Banny...

What a coincidence, you guys won’t believe that my ITunes playlist is actually playing this song at the very moment I am writing these lines. Anyway, Banny has been and will always be a very special friend to me. I remember the first conversation I had with her was when I asked her to give some Khasi rock songs to me [ Which I never got, by the way]. While sitting in comp lab Banny always used to hum to the songs I used to play [ Since I had my own speakers and which eventually was the only set there]. Be it Leann Rhymes or Deep Purple, there were very few songs which she didn’t know. And when it comes to John Bon Jovi, Banny used to go mad. Coming back to my immortal, it was two days before teacher’s day in our second year and I was having a hard time getting people to perform and after a full day’s search, when I was sitting tired at comp lab and trying to relax by listening to my immortal, I could hear banny humming to the song. That was it… I convinced her to sing the song for the teacher’s day celebration, and what a voice she has. She was no less than Amy Lee that day and the applause she got after that was minblowing.

After college I didn’t get a chance to meet Banny till this September as I was in Mumbai and she was in Chennai and Bangalore. But trust me whenever I listened to that song, I could see Banny standing at the podium with the white kurta and singing away to glory. I could see her smiling, jumping, singing, and saying in frustration ‘neee’. Miss those college days, love you a lot Banny.. . and these lines are for you...

‘When you cry I’d wipe away all of your tears…
When you'd scream I’d fight away all of your fears”

BY THE POWER OF HE-MANT

“Beqarar karke humhe yun na jaiye,
Aapko humhari kasam laut aaiye”.

The song from ‘Bees Saal Baad’ is one of my favourite songs of all time. From childhood I had an addiction to music. I used to listen to every kind of music, though Bollywood music was the love of the life that time. As late 80’s [the time I grew up] had very few good songs and there was no other TV channel than Doordarshan, my exposure to new music was only limited to ‘Chitralok’ on Vividh Bharti, which use to come at 8:15 every morning. Because of that I got addicted to old songs, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Manna Dey, and especially Hemant Kumar [I never used to like Mohd. Rafi, until I developed a taste for his songs during my college days]. I knew every song of Hemant Kumar at the age of 5. I couldn’t speak Hindi properly then, but I used to sing perfectly in Hindi. And every time I listen to this song, it reminds me of my dad.

My dad is a decent singer otherwise, but when it comes to singing Hemant Kumar songs, I seriously believe, he sings better than even Shivaji Chatterjee [ The guy who sang ‘yeh safar’ from 1942 a love story]. Because we used to stay in a very small town, a village rather, load shedding used to be a very regular occurrence there. And once electricity is gone, it wouldn’t come back before 3-4 hours. As kids me and my brother used to sit at our verandah and wait for dad to come and sit at his favourite jhula [We had a big one at our verandah]. His first song on the jhula was always ‘A chalke tujhe’ [Kishore Kumar, from the film Door gagan ki chaon mein’]. We used to join him in singing and though we never understood the lyrics, the words were always right. Once we are tired, dad used to start singing Hemant Songs[ That’s the time when my mom used to come and join us, she loved to listen my dad singing Hemant]. From ‘apna dil toh awara to ‘zindagi pyar ki do char ghadi’, dad taught me the A to Z of Hemant, sitting on that jhula.

But ‘Beqarar karke’ was actually the song which was his patent song. He made the song famous among the huge Bengali music listening audience in our village. As everyone used to know about dad’s talent; whenever a cultural programme used to happen, my dad used to be the guest artist who will end the programme with five Hemant Kumar songs, ‘Beqarar karke’ being the last. And you can’t even imagine the amount of claps he used to get. Whenever my friend kalla used to come to my house he used to ask my dad to sing the song for him. But surprisingly he never used to get the lyrics right. Sometimes back when I went home for a vacation, I recorded him singing the song, and as expected, he mispronounced some words, but then I noticed that he gets so much engrossed in the song, that he doesn’t realize his mistake. I have never corrected him, and I won’t ever.

Much later when I saw Bees Saal Baad on Doordarshan, I saw Biswajeet singing this song, but in my head I couldn’t accept Biswajeet there, I could visualize my dad there, singing this song to Waheeda Rehman. It’d always be my dad’s song….It’d always be him singing…

“Yun kadam akele na yun badhaiye,
Aapko humhari kasam, laut aaiye”

THERE'S A SONG FOR EVERYONE

I had stopped blogging completely. didn't know what to write,as daily updates can be given through facebook, twitter and photos through hundred image sites. So what should I write about, this thought was in my mind for quite a long time. I had gone through several topics, like comics, sports, metal, work, reviews, but nothing seemed to be that interesting which can get meback to blogging after two years. Last night i got the idea...[and it's not walk while you talk]

Last night i was at Enigma, the disco at JW Mariott , Mumbai. It's been exactly one year, since i went to one, the last one being 'Blue Waters' in Manipal, on 31st October 2008. Nevertheless, since last night was halloween eve, there were people dressed as devils, vampires and all kind of spooky stuff. Though everybody were grooving to the wonderful mix played by DJ Niraj, there's was this fat chick who was just not dancing. She was standing at a corner alone and drinking away to glory, her friends tried several times to get her to the dance floor, but she was not interested at all. As I have this uncanny knack of observing people, I couldn't help watching the poor soul throughout.

Surprisingly when the title track of Tum Mile [the new fil starring Emran hashmi & Soha Ali Khan] started playing, the girl jumped out of nowhere and started dancing like there is no end. And she danced really well. I was surprised to watch her dance like that. As soon as the song ended, dhan te nan [kaminey] started, so my whole attention went to my dancing rather than observing her; and when i stopped dancing, she was gone by then.

While coming back home, in the radio, I again heard Tum Mile. And surprisingly instead of visualising Soha and Emraan dancing, i could only visualise that chick dancing her guts out. And then I realised, that ,most of the person I meet or i know, have some kind of music attached to their memories. Whenever i listen to those songs, I think about them, I remember them. And that's my blog topic. Every post will consist off one song, the person attached to it and my memories with them. Wot say guys, is it interesting enough???