One sad news :-(

There's a bit sad news -- actor-director Feroz Khan passed away today. And Bollywood has lost one of the best actors of all-time. I wrote only one post about him - the Welcome review. And it's so irritating that we will not see him in any film now.

May God grant peace to the departed soul!

Mere Baap Pehle Aap: Watched it because of Genelia!

One of the *most* underrated movies of the last year. And the only reason I watched it was Genelia D'Souza, I just loved her expressive acting. The film is produced-directed by Akshaye Khanna and it stars some great comedians like Paresh Rawal, Om Puri and Rajpal Yadav. Nowadays, the work-load is heavy so watching a comedy film is better than watching a serious one, right?

The story starts with a father-son relationship. The son, Gaurav, takes care about everything of his father (like his father is his child!). And the father (called Baapu), is always in some controversy because of his dear friend Mathur, who is single and is finding someone to marry.

Now an old classmate of Gaurav, Shikha Kapoor, calls him and asks him to recognise her. But he couldn't.

Then Shikha meets Gaurav face-to-face and Gaurav remembers that he had cut her hair in the Engineering College. Now the both become good friends and their friendship gets deeper day by day, which ends into love. Shikha's music teacher was a friend of Gaurav's Baapu since childhood. When the teacher and Baapu meet, the identify each-other and all the old memories of their childhood come into the mind of the both.

Now when Gaurav realizes the love of his father with the teacher, he says him to marry her. After that, he would marry Shikha. And that's how the title is justified, Mere Baap Pehle Aap (My Father, You First).

I liked the film and it's worth at least one-watch. The film was not publicised that much and that's perhaps why it did not have a great response from the box-office.

Movie Rating: 3.5/5 (Good).

Music Rating: 3.3/5 (Above Average). The only song I liked was Maine Hawa Ke.

Finally, what do you like the most about the film (I like Genelia!) out of the following:

Paresh and Rajpal:

The father-son:

Mr Unmarried:

Genelia:

Now tell what did you like (oh, please don't say you didn't like anything!)?

Welcome: Stop being only commercial, Akshay!

Welcome (2007) is the first Akshay Kumar movie I saw (yeah, really)! And after watching it, I watched some other movies of Akshay like Namastey London and Singh Is Kinng. But the thing is he just selects commercial movies to be done. He never selects a better or different scrypt. That's why I will call him 'commercial hero' from now on!

The movie starrs Feroz Khan, Nana Pathekar, Anil Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Paresh Rawal and Mallika Sherawat. It's a story of a gangster who has a beatiful sister, Sanjana. The Dons of the gangster are Uday Shetty and Majnu. Rajiv (the 'commercial hero') falls in love with Sanjana but Rajiv's family doesn't want to marry Rajiv in a gangster's family. At this, both Rajiv and Sanjana become sad.

Then Rajiv promises to change both Uday Shetty and Majnu. Uday had love for films, and he always wanted to act in some film. Rajiv makes a fake film-set and starts shooting there. Rajiv wanted to keep Uday busy in films so that he don't get time for murders. But Majnu used to interupt between the shooting and took Uday back to his old business. So then Rajiv sends a beautiful lady, Ishika (Mallika Sherawat) to Majnu and Majnu becomes busy with her.

At the end, when both the bhais are changed, Rajiv and Sanjana marry and live a happy life!

Well, it's, of course, not a great story. And the commercial hero never did a serious film after this one. I wish Akshay chooses better films; he's always involved in such stories.

Overall, the movie is good and promises entertainment at least for one-watch. But having watched it five times, I now find nothing extra-ordinary stuff in this movie. The music is a way better than the movies itself. Ek Ucha Lamba Kad, Tera Sarafa and Hoonth Rasiley are great songs which have been ignored these days.

Movie Rating - 3.3/5 (Very Good). Here's a good comedy masala scene:

Music Rating - 4/5 (Excellent).

Here's a picture from the sets:

The Sonu Niigaam section

This blog's author loves the singer Sonu Niigaam. This is a section of this blog dedicated to everything related to Sonu. Whenever the author wants to discuss about Sonu, he'll do an addendum in this post instead of writing a separate one.

-June 18, 2009 (8:09 PM IST)
Sonu Niigaam's Bijuriya live-

While surfing through the net today, I found a cool video of Sonu Niigaam singing his most famous number Bijuriya (Album: Mausam). Here is the video, and I think it's worth at least one-watch.

It is really a great song. You can search the term 'Bijuriya' on YouTube and you'll find thousands of results. And that is why Sonu Niigaam is called the king of Indipop!

-May 17, 2009 (9:50 PM IST)
Great singing by Sonu in an interview-

Here are some great songs of Sonu sung by himelf in an interview. Please note that these are very popular no's. and they should not be ignored, unless you are not a Sonu Niigaam fan!

His humming in Hai Guzarish (Ghajini).
Kal Ho Na Ho.
Nagada Baja (Jab We Met).
Ae Dil Matt Ro (Classically Mild).
Phir Milenge Chalte-Chalte (Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi).
Suhani Raat Dhal Chuki.

Aren't these songs simply superb?!

-May 13, 2009 (6:50 PM IST)
A new song of Sonu Niigaam-

Here is the latest song of Sonu Niigaam which he has done with the Globle One team. The song has just released and I found its official video while browsing through YouTube today. Here is it.

On the other hand, here's a video the song Kal Ho Na Ho sung by Sonu live on stage.

-May 10, 2009 (10:55 AM IST)
Translation to a song-

The translation to Sochta Hoon Main from Classically Mild was done here.

-April 23, 2009 (2:56 PM IST)
Sonu at Desi Hits-

Here's the teaser of Sonu at Desi Hits. In the teaser, he sings the track Soniyo from Raaz 2. Your Thoughts?

I just loved the style of his singing. It's marvellous. And as a music student (busy in Ear Training these days), I would love to get his singing style. That will take some time, perhaps six months from now on, but that I will achieve that!

-April 4, 2009 (8:45 PM IST)
Songs of Kal Kisne Dekha review-

I mentioned about Sonuji's songs (in Kal Kisne Dekha) in the 2nd April update. At that time, I hadn't listened to the songs. But now I've listened to them a few times, and I wanna tell my thoughts on the songs in the film.

Aalam Guzarne Ko is a sweet romantic song. And its madlion part is great, I just love the notation. The song refreshes my mood with its mildness. Sonuji should get an award for this one. Its a fabulous number, and I can sing it easily as it is not on a very high pitch (I am a singing learner, by the way).

Soniye Billori is a Punjabi style song. And Sonu has sung it from nose, in the Himesh Reshammiya style. The song will be played on private weddings (especially in Punjab). I don't like nasal singers much. But because its my favorite vocalist - Sonu Niigaam, who has sung this song, I think I should like nasal singers too!

The two songs are special in their own genre; they shouldn't be compared as it would be an apple vs orange comparison. These are, of course, not the best of Sonu after his track awesome track Soniyo in Raaz The Mystery Continues. But the songs aren't bad either.

All the songs of this album are available for listening here. Enjoy!

-April 2, 2009 (8:30 PM IST)
Videos of Sonuji uploaded by me-

I have uploaded some videos of Sonuji on the site YouTube.com, which I'd like to share with you all.

Here is the first video. In this video, Sonuji shows his dairy (made in the late 80's) to the great actor Aamir Khan. Sonu is a big fan of Aamir and he had been a fan of Aamir since he was in 9th grade. Sonu told that he had always been inspired by Aamir's work. Here is it:

The second one is an interview of Sonu Niigaam with IndiaFM.com. Here is it:


-April 2, 2009 (8:28 PM IST)
Sonuji's songs in Kal Kisney Dekha-

I just read in the newspaper today that Sonu Niigaam has sung a few songs in Vasu Bhagnani's film Kal Kisne Dekha. The music has just released and here's the video of the music release (Sonu's not there at the release!?).

The songs Sonu has sung are Aalam Guzarne Ka and Soniye Billori Meri. The music to the film is given by Sajid-Wajid and it's very youthful. There are romantic songs as well as Punjabi Bhangra type of songs. I wish Sonu-ji's songs become famous and he gets more work!

...and yeah, I'll be updating this section at least twice a week!

Back; with a list of songs!

Lately, I remember I have this blog to be updated. I really enjoyed the holidays. Now, from tomorrow, I have to get back to the earlier life routine. So what was there to keep me busy? Yeah, I wrote the last post on that, but there was something more which kept me busy and I didn't mention it. Imagine what? Imagine...

Songs!

Yup, I had been listening to a whole lot of songs - old and new, and really enjoyed some of them. Here I make a list of songs I enjoyed in the holiday journey:

Yeh Dil Na Hota Bechaara by Kishore Kumar from Jewel Thief. This song has wonderful lyrics and Kishore ji's voice makes it much more fun to listen. And Vibhore Parashar from Delhi sang this song on Li'l champs' stage. Vibhore's version was as good as the original one. Here's the video:

I have listened to Classically Mild also. Especially the song Sochta Hoon Main because a question had been coming to my mind that why am I living this life? What am I gaining by this day and night circle? My thoughts were very deep and after thinking this, it took a while to come out of the ocean of such thoughts.

Then I listened to Guzaarish from Ghajini. And its theme music was even better. The humming or 'aalaap' had a great feeling in it!

I listened/watched the Sonu Niigaam concert mentioned in this post. I discovered lots more concert videos at YouTube, which was my companion these holidays.

There were oldies like Madhuban Mein Radhika, Pardesiyon Se Na, Yeh Chaand Sa Raushan Chehra, Humein Tumse Pyaar Kitna and many (yeah, I said 'many') more! Old songs have that feel which new ones can never have (in my opinion). Old songs were recorded live with an orchestra and Mohd. Rafi or Kishore Kumar used to sing live with the musicians. Today, the songs are recorded with technology. A music track is recorded first, and then the singer sings on it, which makes singing much more easier as compared to those days.

Suraj Hua Madham was another song I listened many times. It has a great 'hask' or feel that makes it a worth-listen. It was one of the greatest hits of Sonu Niigaam.

Ishq Nachaye ghazal by Pankaj Udhass. And Apni Tasveer Ko Aankhon Se, a Ghulam Ali ghazal but I had the version of Mohd. Vakil. Both the ghazals are excellent and I relished them.

Soniyo from Raaz The Mystery Continues is a fabulous track. I translated it here and it is amongst the best tracks of 2009.

Tumse Milke Dil Ka, a song from Main Hoon Na. It's more of a quawalli type song.

Now that's all I listened to (and that's all I can ramble this time). Perhaps, I am too lazy to do a film review or something. But I promise that one day I will be reviewing another film here. I have to justify with the title of this blog 'Relish Bollywood'!