While urbanites headed to various places around town to celebrate Valentine's Day, we remain convinced that this weekend's very best event was taking place at Mumbai's Blue Frog.
Multi-talented Mathias Duplessy, who has the music of numerous films in India and abroad to his credit, together with mesmerizing singer Mukhtiyar Ali, took an audience of connoisseurs through a touching musical journey this last Sunday. The duo are otherwise known for the beautiful music of Homi Adjania's Finding Fanny soundtrack but obviously also nurture long and musically inventive careers - read our review of the Finding Fanny soundtrack here.
This weekend one of Bollywood music's most happening stars hit the "city that never sleeps" and plenty of Mumbaikars made a definite point of not missing this lucky rendez-vous.
Attendees received text messages urging them to pick up their tickets in advance at the ticket counter outside the venue, insisting that doors to the venue would be open at 5pm for a concert starting at 5:30pm. Once arrived however, everyone had to queue for their tickets, whether they had paid for them in advance or not, and then stand at the door of the venue (yes sir, even the VIPs) until 6:30pm. The crowd who was originally excited about the event started getting tired and anxious.
Bollywood Hindi hits of 2012 greet the New Year. - Picture by: Thitimon Toyai
At the sound of crackers and cheer, the Hindi Cinema Blog welcomes 2013 with a celebration of the best 2012 Bollywood songs and albums that will continue to move audiences beyond the holiday season. Here is our humble pick for a TOP TEN (plus one!) songs classified into categories as we raise a toast to a very groovy 2013! Happy New Year!
Check our memorable Romantic, Dance and AtypicalTop Ten Hits for 2012:
The novel music series THE DEWARISTS by Only Much Louder Entertainment and Babblefish has made Indians proud by being awarded the Bronze Lion at the Cannes 59th International Festival of Creativity for Best non-fiction program, series or film where a client has successfully created a reality, documentary or light entertainment show around a product(s) or brand(s).
"Dewarists" has become a new term to designate those people who believe in passion and things worth doing. "What better language to convey that passion than music, so some things are worth doing", may have thought the young team behind such a successful programme showcasing the best of Indian contemporary music and featuring some of its finest performers, from the cinema world an outside of it.
Etablishing a list of the greatest songs of an entire year is always a difficult task BUT the Hindi Cinema Blog is one to love a challenge, so fasten your seat belts for the 2011 musical ride! We are recommending 12 tunes to start the millenium's 12th year!
CATCHY DANCE TUNES 2011
And the winners are:
Akon sings for SRK's Ra.One
1.‘Chammak Challo’introduced the longest awaited film this year: Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor's Ra.One, the song in question starring none other than Akon's voice. You may read our review of the film here.
2.‘Jalebi Bai’ (Double Dhamaal - starring Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi) has Shweta Tiwari strutting her item stuff and doing a Ritu Pathak lip-sync throughout the upbeat song.
3.'Character Dheela’ (Ready - starring Salman Khan and Asin) was criticized for its lyrics and Pritam was claimed to be incurring in plagiarism due to the song's extreme resemblance with 'Mohabbat Naam Hai Kiska' from 2001 film Ajnabee. In any case, the reggaeton-like rhythm invaded radio stations and had more than one of us nodding to the beat.
4. 'Singham’ (Singham - starring Ajay Devgan) reminds us a bit of the Dabangg title tune but we loved watching Ajay Devgan doing the macho man dance along with all those drums!
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara cast
dripping RED tomato juice
5. Last but not least, 'Paint it Red’ (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - starring Farhan Akhtar, Katrina Kaif and Hrithik Roshan) had crowds dancing to a feel good, chill-out, catchy tune and we thank Shankar Ehsaan Loy for that one. Read our review of the film here.
STARRY-EYED LOVE TUNES 2011
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
6. ** Drum Roll ** The simply sweet and inspirational 'Khwabon Ke Parindey' from film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara placed Alyssa Mendonsa's deliciously unpretentious vocals in everyone's memory.
8. Pritam gifted the audiences a special soundtrack in Mausam, starring Sonam Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor. Our choice from this soundtrack is 'Rabba Main Toh Mar Gaya Oye', with the beautiful voice of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Read our review of the film here.
Mausam
ALTERNATIVE TUNES IN THE SPOTLIGHT 2011
9. If our dear readers allow us to cheat a teeny weeny bit just this once, we want to recommend the entire Delhi Belly soundtrack, fitting it in as one song... Yes, we know, we know. It counts more songs than should fit in a Top Hits list but we guarantee that the raving is justified. Ram Sampath hit gold with an innovative album to accompany its quirky film, starring Imran Khan, Vir Das and Kunal Roy Kapoor. ‘Ja Chudail’ for example has the greatest heavy metal voice we have ever listened to in Hindi (Suraj Jagan). Other special mentions in the album go to the 'Bedardi Raja' Grind Mix, to the soulful 'Saigal Blues' (in our opinion the best track in the album) and the obvious hit: 'Bhaag DK Bose’. Read our review of the film here.
10. And since you already allowed us to cheat once, we want to repeat the feat for fun's sake and also recommend another full soundtrack in this category: AR Rahman's Rockstar, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri. Special mentions go to the gypsy-like 'Haawa Haawa', to 'Jo Bhi Mein', the instrumental 'Dichotomy of Fame', 'Kun Faya Kun' and 'Sadda Haq'. You can read our review of the film here.
Darrling - 7 Khoon Maaf
11. All right, moving on to more alternative musical pastures... The year opened with us celebrating the return of Vishal Bhardwaj and a smashing ‘Daarling’ for 7 Khoon Maaf.Read our soundtrack review here.
Bhare Naina - Ra.One
12. Our last recommendation is a song that closed this 2011 with a powerful and poignant rendition by Nandini Shrikar,Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani:'Bhare Naina' (Ra.One).
So ends another year filled with music and entertainment. You will now have a song to think about for each of the clock's 12 chimes as the new year sets in. The Hindi Cinema Blog wishes all our readers a fantastic 2012 filled with joyful entertainment shared with loved ones. Happy Filmi and Musical New Year!
Note: To purchase the songs and soundtracks recommended above, click on the corresponding red bold-type link and you will be redirected.
