Bollywood

In the times when most films are set either as feel good entertainers or revolve around Oh their Rafael of the dear Madonnas, Oh their Dante of the dread Inferno, Wrote one song—and in my brain I sing it; Drew one angel—borne, see, on my bosom!
slice-of-life dramas, choreographer turned director Ganesh Acharya has decided to make a move Be humble, for the worst thing in the world is of the same stuff as you; be confident, for the stars are of the same stuff as you.
against the tide and make Swami. A film that seems to be breaching upon art house cinema, Swami is You’re obstinate, pliant, merry, morose, all at once. For me there’s no living with you, or without you.
quite a shift for Ganesh who has been known for his ‘jhatka’ dance moves for over two decades. Truth-tellers are not always palatable. There is a preference for candy bars.
Roping in Manoj Bajpai and Juhi Chawla in principal roles, Ganesh has sent the message loud and The ruin of the human heart is self-interest, which the American merchant calls self-service. We have become a self-service populace, and all our specious comforts —the automatic elevator, the escalator, the cafeteria —are depriving us of volition and moral and physical energy.
clear that his film is performance oriented more than anything else. One hear at the music and the Men seldom make passes At girls who wear glasses.
fact is further established as composer duo of Nitin Arora and Sony Chandy along with lyricist “I think really Bilbo preferred slipping off quietly in the end,” said Gandalf, “Don’t be too troubled. He’ll be all right now. He left a packet for you. There it is!” Frodo took the envelope from the mantelpiece, and glanced at it, but did not open it. “You’ll find his will and all the other documents in there, I think,” said the wizard. “You are the master of Bag End now. And also, I fancy, you’ll find a golden ring.”
Sameer too have concentrated on class rather than delivering a massy score. Write your own music Love is acceptance. When you love someone . . . you take them into your heart, and that is surely why it hurts so much when we lose someone we love, because we lose a part of ourselves.
review of SwamiThere are as many as 14 tracks in Swami but still the entire duration of the album is Trust him not with your secrets, who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.
just around 30 minutes. Reason? Most of the tracks are used for background score purpose and last Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.
for just about a couple of minutes. ‘Shubharambh’ is an extremely soothing beginning to Swami and Don’t think there are no crocodiles just because the water is calm.
makes you glued to the music system at the very beginning of the album as the track lasts for a When we count on chance in lieu of law and labor, we weaken our healthy attitudes toward work, our fellow men and our God.
couple of minutes. Boasting of western classical arrangements, the theme piece has piano towering FUNERAL, n. A pageant whereby we attest our respect for the dead by enriching the undertaker, and strengthen our grief by an expenditure that deepens our groans and doubles our tears.
over other instruments and creates a classy environment. First song to come in the album is the Whosoever perseveres in the invocation will find that lights come to him constantly and that the veils of invisible things are lifted from him.
title song ‘Swami’ that takes a cool beginning with the sound of an electronic flute. Soon K S The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.
Chitra arrives on the scene as she sings in South Indian classical mode as an elaborate orchestra Patience often gets the credit that belongs to fatigue.
comes into picture to make way for Hariharan to take the center stage. A slow moving track with a The beauty of the world and the orderly arrangement of everything celestial makes us confess that there is an excellent and eternal nature, which ought to be worshiped and admired by all mankind.
classical base to it, this duet between a husband and a wife is about living a content life with It is easy to live for others; everybody does. I call on you to live for yourselves.
whatever resources being available and still be happy about the sheer pleasure of being together. You can’t be a legend in your parent’s basement.
The longest track of the album (around 5 minutes), it would be mainly picked by those who are fond I link dar’s many a slaveholder’ll git to Heaven. Dey don’t know no better. Dey acts up to de light dey hab.
of classical music based songs from South India. There is a heavy A.R. Rahman influence in the way A story is told that Whistler once painted a tiny picture of a spray of roses. The artistry involved in the picture was magnificent. Never before, it seemed, had the art of man been able to execute quite so deftly a reproduction of the art of nature. The picture was the envy of the artists who saw it, the despair of the collectors who yearned to buy it. But Whistler refused steadfastly to sell it. “For,” he said, “whenever I feel that my hand has lost its cunning, whenever I doubt my ability, I look at the little picture of the spray of roses, and say to myself, ‘Whistler, you painted that. Your hand drew it. Your imagination conceived the colors. Your skill put the roses on the canvas.’ Then, said he, “I know that what I have done, I can do again”
‘Naa Tin Dhinna (Child Of Joy)’ begins. After the stage has been set with an assortment of The meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected.
instruments having come together to create a classical mood with a foot tapping effect, both A preacher was operated on for a hernia. As this was about the time of the first world war he was given ether. As he was coming out of the anesthetic a fire broke out in the building next door. As the flames began to show through the hospital windows the nurse pulled the shades down. She didn’t want the preacher to think his operation had been a failure.
Hariharan and Chitra croon the words ‘Naa Tin Dhinna’ for close to 3 minutes before a group of It is only in misery that we recognize the hand of God leading good men to good.
children come on the scene towards the end to make one find the Rahman effect again. Built up of Labour for his pains.
orchestra at the beginning of ‘Mumbai Jaayenge (Dream) ‘ hooks you on before one hears Manoj Bajpai Technological man can’t believe in anything that can’t be measured, taped, or put into a computer.
uttering his apprehensions about leaving the house and moving with his family to Mumbai. These are Truth, when witty, is the wittiest of all things.
the only few words which are heard in this musical piece which comes with a sound of flute that The all-urging Will, raptly magnipotent.
remains even after the track is through. The way ‘Gullak (Treasure) ‘ begins on a dark note, one can I believe we are going to have to prepare ourselves for the difficult and patient task of outgrowing rigid and intransigent nationalism, and work slowly towards a world federation of peaceful nations. How will this be possible? Don’t ask me. I don’t know. But unless we develop a moral, spiritual, and political wisdom that is proportionate to our technological skill, our skill may end us.
make out that it is for a sad situation in the film. 45 seconds into the instrumental and an One’s age should be tranquil, as childhood should be playful. Hard work at either extremity of life seems out of place. At midday the sun may burn, and men labor under it; but the morning and evening should be alike calm and cheerful.
elaborate orchestra is on work again as a male chorus too arrives on the scene to create a haunting The flower of kindness will grow. Maybe not now, but it will some day. And in kind that kindness will flow, For kindness grows in this way.
impact. Things settle down in a matter of few seconds and mood turns pensive once again to take the It is well to respect the leader. Learn from him. Observe him. Study him. But don’t worship him. Believe you can surpass. Believe you can go beyond. Those who harbor the second-best attitude are invariably second-best doers.
track to its closure. The feeling of sadness continues with ‘Aa Ri Ra Ru (Sorry) ‘ which moves on Ever notice how irons have a setting for ‘permanent’ press? I don’t get it . . .
in a routine manner before Juhi Chawla utters a couple of dialogues from the film. Chitra’s voice is Making money is a hobby that will complement any other hobbies you have, beautifully.
heard at the very end as she croons ‘Aa Ri Ra Ru’ with the sound of piano concluding the track. If you don’t make waves, you’re not under way.
Those who have watched the promos of the film would not have missed out one of the short teasers Few things are more bitter than to feel bitter.
that focuses on a chair. A theme track around this chair, aptly titled ‘Kursi (Chair) ‘ is also “The scientific method,” Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, “is nothing but the normal working of the human mind.” That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry—is not even a “subject”—but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.
present in the album and is an easy on ears 80 seconds piece. There is some more pain to arrive on I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
scene as Hariharan sings ‘De Jab Duaayen (The Loss) ‘. With just a couple of instruments in the Hatreds not vowed and concealed are to be feared more than those openly declared.
background for the first one minute of the track’s duration, it is almost an unplugged version for There are no watertight compartments in our inmost nature.
Hariharan before Chitra comes into picture with her crooning of ‘Swami’. Ending is just right as the I request that they may be considered in confidence, until the members of Congress are fully possessed of their contents, and shall have had opportunity to deliberate on the consequences of their publication; after which time, I submit them to your wisdom.
theme sound of flute makes an impression yet again. It’s back to piano and flute with ‘Talaash If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.
(Search) ‘ which is yet another instrumental to arrive on the scene. This time around sitar is also He who transplanted sustains. —Qui transtulit sustinet
used for a short while to bring on the sound of the theme piece before piano is reintroduced into Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.
the proceedings. ‘Aankhon Ki (Memories) ‘ is a track by Chitra which is a sad version of ‘Swami’ Following the way of Jesus Christ and doing all we can for His cause and for our fellow men expresses something of our worship in action. But how to give Him a present to express our love is a bit of a problem. How can you give God anything when He owns everything? But does He? How about that power to choose, that precious free will that He has given to every living personality and which He so greatly respects? That is the only present we can give — our selves, with all our powers of spirit, mind, and body, willingly, freely given because we love Him. That is the best and highest worship that you and I can offer, and I am sure that it is this above all that God most highly appreciates.
and also has Hariharan joining in the latter half of the track. Finally there is some sense of a If I am unaware of love, I live drably. If I become intoxicated with love, I live in dreamland. If I recognize love, and shake his hand then comfort, dreams, and sometimes intoxication become mine to drench in and give away as well.
happy mood in the album with the arrival of ‘Ta Ra Ri Ra (Innocence) ‘. Piano and violins come Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare. Let all who prate of Beauty hold their peace, And lay them prone upon the earth and cease To ponder on themselves, the while they stare At nothing, intricately drawn nowhere In shapes of shifting lineage; let geese Gabble and hiss, but heroes seek release From dusty bondage into luminous air. O blinding hour, O holy, terrible day, When first the shaft into his vision shone Of light anatomized! Euclid alone Has looked on Beauty bare. Fortunate they Who, though once only and then but far away, Have heard her massive sandal set on stone.
together to create a feel good tune on the lines of the music of 60s while children come together to If we put a limit on the things we will do, we put a limit on the things we can do.
croon ‘Ta Ra Ri Ra’ to further give the track a push. The mood reverses soon with ‘Vyakul (Agony) ‘ Probability is a kind of penance, which God made, suitable, I presume to that state of mediocrity and probationership he has been pleased to place us in here; wherein, to check our over-confidence and presumption, we might, by every day’s experience, be made sensible of our short-sightedness, and liableness to error.
which, as apparent from the title itself, is a slow moving musical piece with large pauses in But where only a free play of our presentational powers is to be sustained as in the case of pleasure gardens, room decoration, all sorts of useful utensils, and so on, any regularity that has an air of constraint is to be avoided as much as possible. That is why the English taste in gardens, or the baroque taste in furniture, carries the imagination’s freedom very far, even to the verge of the grotesque, because it is precisely this divorce from any constraint of a rule that the case is posited where taste can show its greatest perfection in designs made by the imagination.
between. Longest musical piece in the album (3 minutes), it seems befitted for a situation during All your life, you have heard yourself denounced; not for your faults, but for your greatest virtues. You have been hated, not for your mistakes, but for your achievements. You have been scorned for all those qualities of character which are your highest pride. You have been called selfish for the courage of acting on your own judgment and bearing sole responsibility for your own life. You have been called arrogant for your independent mind. You have been called cruel for your unyielding integrity. You have been called anti-social for the vision that made you venture upon undiscovered roads. You have been called ruthless for the strength and self-discipline of your drive to your purpose. You have been called greedy for the magnificence of your power to create wealth. You, who’ve expended an inconceivable flow of energy, have been called a parasite. You, who’ve created abundance where there had been nothing but wastelands and helpless, starving men before you, have been called a robber. You, who’ve kept them all alive, have been called an exploiter. You, the purest and most moral man among them, have been sneered at as a ‘vulgar materialist.’ Have you stopped to ask them: by what right? — by what code? — by what standard?
the film’s climax. Hariharan is heard after a gap with ‘Radhe (Missing) ‘ where all he is required Out from the heart of Nature rolled The burdens of the Bible old.
to croon is ‘Radhe Radhe’ with a feeling of sadness being imparted to the surroundings. The album We’re all in this alone.
ends with ‘Dhyaan (Awakening) ‘ that has the soothing sound of a flute dominating the proceedings I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.
with violins joining in after a minute. Yet again, Chitra joins in to croon in a manner similar to It may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma . . . which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve.
‘Shubharambh’ to give the track a classical touch. Soundtrack of Swami proves yet again that Ganesh We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our environment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is extracted.
Acharya has looked for creative satisfaction than thinking much about the commercial aspects of When I start the book, I’m The Writer. The writer bitches for a week about how he never has any fun, he’s tired of being funny all the time, and nobody cares about him anyhow. This is followed by a period of deep intense silence, much staring at walls, punctuated by cheery optimism on the order of: ‘That’s it! I’m Dead! I can’t think of an ending!’ or ‘I’m just going to have to scrap the first ten pages — they’re lousy.’ Often it is less coherent than that — reduced to the more succinct, ‘Garbage! It’s all GARBAGE!’”
making this film. The soundtrack carries a classical touch to it throughout and though it is easy on Remember this,— that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.
ears, it is a kind of album that has a miniscule audience for itself. An album which is mainly made When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn’t for you. It’s for the Presidency.
of background theme pieces; it is a decent effort but mainly for the purpose of being heard during With his continual doctrine [Bishop Hooper] adjoined due and discreet correction, not so much severe to any as to them which for abundance of riches and wealthy state thought they might do what they listed. And doubtless he spared no kind of people, but was indifferent to all men, as well rich as poor, to the great shame of no small number of men nowadays. Whereas many we see so addicted to the pleasing of great and rich men, that in the meantime they have no regard to the meaner sort of poor people, whom Christ hath bought as dearly as the other.
the film’s screening.

Original post by sonia