“A girl should be two things: Who and what she wants.” Said Coco Chanel. Perhaps the very basic need of any human is its identity and for a woman in the field dominated by men is nothing but her identity. Film Music is also one such domain wherein conventionally there have been mostly men who worked as musicians. Though there were many playback singers right from Amirbai Karnataki, Shamshad Begum …
By the time the decade of 70’s was fading out, the world was changing and so was the films and music. Floral designs have started disappearing from fashion. Slimmer bottom trousers had replaced Bell Bottoms. Pre recorded audio cassettes were released along with vinyl records and Disco music had begun getting its foothold in collection of music lovers. The transition from 70’s to 80’s was a major shift in the …
Kersi Lord (14 February 1935 – 16 October 2016) was an ace musician, music arranger and composer. He learnt music under the tutelage of legendary Anthony Gonsalves. He was also a great enthusiast of electronic music gadgets. Credit of introducing synthesizers in music arrangement in Hindi Films goes to him. This is a curated playlist of the songs wherein either he had played or he arranged the music of the song. …
Along with February comes a brouhaha about Valentine Day. Red hearts are pushed into your face from all corners of this commercial world, hopelessly believing in cliched concepts around this emotion and thus reducing the divine quality of love to mere romantic exchange between two lovers. Love can’t be just this shortest~month~born fad idea which passes away sooner than a blink. I believe the entire life is all about love. …
It was only after I stepped into Mumbai city that I truly understood the poem ‘Awara’ by Majaaz. I used to stay in Hotel Majestic which was located opposite Regal Cinema. And often during those early days in Mumbai I used to step out for long walks in the evenings. And at every step, I remembered Majaaz. Especially, when I strolled from Nariman Point and went along the lights on …
One of the most significant contributions of the Portuguese in India was compulsory music learning in Church Schools. They would not have imagined that this policy will be immensely helpful to composers of Hindi Film Music. How could this happen ? To know the answer, lets go 115 years back. On 29th January 1906, a baby was born in Reis-Megos village in North Goa. His parents named him Sebastian. From …
“It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed.” Said Albert Einstein once and that proved true for maverick composers like O.P.Nayyar too. He never changed his rules for any one nor confirmed to contemporary trends of composing music for any of his producers. Having been stubborn, he did create his niche. Today, the same is considered a genre, a type. His niche …
I remember we used to have four hour shift and then over time but he never used to take more than two and half to three hours for recording. Three hours and song is packed up. One day I asked him, “Nayyar Saab, You never have second take. If you do more takes you can have better song recording” He replied “Yes I can have but the freshness which I …
Sometimes in the taken-for-granted flow, we fail to acknowledge the biggest challenge that our Composers of film music have been facing. This challenge is to compose within boundaries of time, situation and meter of lyrics. This is the reason concert musicians were always reluctant to perform in film studios. Among Composers, those deserve highest respect who could compose in any genre and meter. Naushad Ali was one such one of …
Ever wondered if there won’t be pickle in a meal how it would taste ? or if there won’t be any perfume along with attire, would it be complete ? Perhaps No. Similarly in orchestra too, there are instruments which , though sound insignificant when played alone, perfectly complement the overall sound design when played in harmony. These are percussion instruments — especially melodic one. Melodic Percussion Instruments, technically of …
