Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Kalyanji Anandji: Professor Pyarelal (1980)

This one I originally had planned for later, but as it's been requested quite a few times, and I was listening to it anyway the other night, I felt like pushing it forward. So here's Kalyanji Anandji's 'Professor Pyarelal'.Most of it is pretty much as expected, considering the vintage (and a composing duo just past their prime); I don't find any of the songs particularly noteworthy. They're

Monday, September 21, 2009

Laxmikant Pyarelal: Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974)

And while we're on the subject of mixed feelings... The arguably best track on 'Roti Kapada Aur Makaan' [review] has a great musical arrangement; dark, brooding, intensely dramatic; an ominous, booming piano and soaring strings. What spoils 'Aur Nahin Bus Aur Nahin' for me though, is the singing. Not a bad word about Mahendra Kapoor as such, but his voice here is way too predominant, too loud,

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Rahul Dev Burman: Samadhi (1972)

'Samadhi' I'm definitely on the fence about... half the time I listen to it I think it's ace, the other half it does nothing for me. Tracks such as Bangle Ke Peechhe, 'O Yara Yara' and 'Jan-E-Janan' are all probably good songs, very uptempo, which I like, but I keep getting the feeling they're lacking in some respect. Not funky or Western sounding enough maybe? Nah. I'm not that one-tracked, am I

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Helen of Bollywood

Been meaning to blog about this for ages, but it's kept slipping my mind...A while back, some of us were discussing in the comments to some post or other the lack of decent Helen collections on DVD, and how great it would be if someone could compile one. Well now (as I'm sure a lot of you have discovered already), someone has. Over at The Bollywood DVD Restoration Project, the very wonderful

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Shankar Jaikishan: Aashiq (1962/1978)

According to the sleeve, Shankar Jaikishan's brief for this one was that "the music of this film had to be the expressive parallel of the central character's restlessness and hidden yearnings". I don't know if they succeeded or not as I've not seen the film. Unfortunately, there's nothing here that makes me want to.It's mostly traditional/classical sounding, without much in the way of attention

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Rahul Dev Burman: Aandhi (1976)

One killer instrumental... and that, essentially, is all there is of much worth on 'Aandhi'. All the songs here are a bit dull; not really up to standard. Or at least not up to my expectations. They're very high when it comes to RD Burman. 'Music' however, ah, now that's something. Yes, it sounds like it was made a decade earlier (RD tripping in Haight-Ashbury) but it's nevertheless awesome.