Crush.... LOVE...... :)

"Are you over with your crush? " Arun asked me, as we were on our way to our respective departments on Valentine's Day.

"Ya man!!! Crushes come and go. I am now in LOVE. " , getting down from my cycle, I replied.

"How is it ? ", he asked.

"Can't get it out of my head ", was all I could mumble.

"Is it that good ?"

"Yeah!!!!,Bye, See ya later" , I parked my cycle and went off.

Urban dictionary describes :

CRUSH :

1. the act of falling hard for someone even though it isn't love yet
2. a precursor to love
3. an amazing thing that gives you feelings of nerves and excitement whenever you see them


LOVE :
A pleasant thought in a world filled with terrible ideals.

The "CRUSH" that Arun was referring to was a song "Zombie".
Zombie is a song by the Irish band Cranberries about the conflicts in north ireland.The video contains the band's lead singer (Dolores O'Riordan) covered with golden paint and surrounded by children with bow and arrow in hand.

I lost count of number of times i heard that song. The song kept haunting me. It "got-stuck-in-mah-head" . I was unable to forget it,no matter what i did. Even in loo i kept humming "In your heeeaad ... Zombie.. zombie... yeah ..yeah.."

And the guy in the adjacent loo would shout "Ae..Be-suure... Band kar re."

Fits in perfectly with the meaning given above for CRUSH. A friend of mine got so obsessed with the song that he kept it as his caller tune. And we used to call his number from my phone and sing along(much to the dismay of the inmates of our hostel) as the tune played... It stayed in my head for quite some time.

But the moment i heard this wonderful piece of music everything else i have ever heard till now vanished into oblivion.

The LOVE that I was referring to were the songs from the movie "Morning Raga".
The ultimate hero in the movie is its music. I have no knowledge of carnatic music, but the movie made me a fan.

There are no new songs composed for the movie. All the songs are traditional songs well known in telugu(samaja Vara Gamana) and Kannada(Jagado Dharana).Set to music by Mani Sharma and Amit Heri, the traditional melodies are given a contemporary Western touch and twist, with liberal usage of the guitar,violin, drums and the keyboard.

There are 3 main songs that i LOVE in the movie..

Mahaganapatim : This song appears twice in the album, and guitars and drums aid the traditional accompaniments of mridingam and violin. In the movie, at the end of the song Shabana Azmi stops the drummer and she sings some svaras(apologies for the word,but i don't know what its actually called) and then looks at him, as though challenging him to play what she just finished singing. The drummer looks dazed.

Jagado Dharana: Sung by Bombay Jayshree and nandini sarkar.Halfway thru there is a wonderful piece of music,just featuring the violin. .Towards the end, the songis replete with Chittaiswarams (rapid fire surs) and very fluid movements of the words.

Thaye Yashoda : The climax of the film revolves around this song, and it is a sort of jugalbandhi between Shabana Azmi and Perizaad Zorabian. Beautifully sung by Sudha Raghunathan, her voice is amazing, being high pitched and booming at the same time. The violin has been put to an astonishing effect, using short and harsh strokes, in the beginning, and throughout the song. The violin is played like a guitar..

There are other songs like The Charminar which is a composition consisting only of Veena played by Rajesh Vaidya.

For the first time in my life i lamented the fact that i could neither sing nor play any musical instrument....


"Wait !! Why do you say these songs are so good?" Arun challenged me, as i was leaving.

"Tell you what!! Do one thing. Search for Morning Raga in the LAN. Download the songs "Jagado Dharana and Thaye Yashoda AND THEN get back to me. " I replied...