Shiva 2006 - Redux

Been listening to RGV/Ilaiyaraaja's Shiva 2006 for a week now. 3 out of the 6 tracks are rehashes of Thamizh and Telugu hits of Raaja. I liked 3 songs out of the 6

1) Police Police - (Origial version is "Botany class undu" from Udhayam)
I love the initial build up in this song, especially the percussion and the electric guitar. The bass and backing rhythms (keyoard) are typical vintage Raaja. A tad too loud i the charanams i think...

2) Dheemi Dheemi - The song of the album. Shreya's voice is pure honey. Even if the interludes are very TFM-ish (Raaja domain), one has to be really tasteless not to like this song. Plane la utkarndhu take off aagara madhiri oru 'uplifting' feeling.
Look out for the typical Raaja bass line when Shreya goes "Khil raha yeh ang ang hai"...

3) Saara Yeh Aalam - (Origial version is "Aanandha Raagam" from Panneer Pushpangal). Though nowhere close to the origial [because (i) its to Tamizh-ish for a northern audiece, (ii) i get the feeling as though the orchestration was done by your street-corner 'orchestra'. The percussion sounds pathetic (iii) Roop Kumar Rathod], just the prelude is enough! Must have been a privelege for the Bombay musicians to have played that piece.

IMO, its got some good music but unfortunately it may be too much for the norther listener. All he is used to is a simple tune with simple (and very little) orchestration or a catchy Himesh rythm or that special something from ARR:)
Maybe Ilayaan is like C and ARR is like Java!

Oh Brother! Where art thou?

Listened to Sillunu Oru Kaadhal a few days back. JUNK. CRAP. NOISE. The phrase "blank noise project" came to mind.
Has ARR moved beyond the 'lowly' confines of TFM? Has he lost his roots completely? Can't we hear a thamizh song which doesn't have anything to do with Sufi or Qawwali music?
Can we have tunes and notes which can hold and carry Thamizh words? Can we hear Thamizh words as they are?
After SOK, i listeed to Godfather just hoping that SOK would be an abberation. GF was slightly better but the pattern was evident.

ARR, enna aachu?? Mayiliragai madhiri oru paattu venum.....

Poster Boy

The National Language

Aandavar comes out of the white Merc, wearing his typical black shirt, walking his typical walk with that typical shoulder posture. Check out Aandavar at the World Malayalee Conference here [click on the relevant link to watch the video]
He starts off in Malayalam, a few lines and rounds of appluase later, confesses that his Malayalam's a bit rusty and says "I ask your permission to switch over to our national language......... English"

Are our Northern brethren listening?

sOthu katchi Update

Casa Piccola located at Kader Nawaz Khan road is really impressive. Ambience, location, pricing and food - judged on any of these parameters it does very well. I've got to mention its relatively inexpensive, especially considering the fact that its a famous restaurant based in Bangalore. If you don't mind Italian/Mexican cuisine, its a good bet, even if you are a vegetarian. Also, the alcohol license is on the way :)

The irony is that when overhyped South Indian restaurants are becoming costlier with the quantity/price ratio not improving, restaurant with different cuisines like Eatalica (near Loyola College) and Casa Piccola are welcome havens. Its best to have South Indian food at home or in unpretentious little restaurants, messes and vandi kadais rather than go to Saravana Bhavan's and Murugan Idly Kadai's.

Terror

Mira's letter to 'Sam maama' [Thanks to Alaphia's post]

This video should inform, enlighten and fuck some brains back into empty skulls who drew parallels between Uncle Sam's "War On Terror", Israeli's gross misnomer "Right to defense" and India's own solution to the threat of terrorism. Its long but its definitely a must see.