by Sujoy on August 4, 2010
in Music
EUPHORIA !!! The word itself fills my thoughts with splashes of colours and happiness. And that’s how Euphoria’s music is - vibrant, melodic, beautiful and very Indian, and not in a dumbed-down way. And along with the upbeat songs of the folk genre, they have also some really heartwarming love ballads and even Qawwalis. Euphoria’s spectrum of music genre is spread wide and can be defined only as what Palash calls it – Hind Rock! And each of their videos has a story to tell, a proper story, like a mini-movie of sorts.
For the uninitiated, the band line-up as of now is :
Back row: Palash Sen (lead vocalist, standing)
Front row L to R: Ashwini(drums), Benny (Keyboard), Irshad(dholak and percussions), DJ Bhaduri (Bass Guitar),
Reshu (dholak and percussions), Hitesh (Guitars).
I, personally, have seen them perform live once at my college campus (NIT Silchar), and there is only one thing which I want to say bout it. Man, they performed for almost 3 hours straight. And what a flawless set. They sing their favorites from the albums released so far, and apart from that do covers as well such as – Another One Bites the Dust, Every Breath You Take and Smoke on the Water. It has been almost 4 years now since that concert, and I can still vividly remember the wild fun that I had. And so, in memory of that awesome one wild night, here I list down 10 of my favourite Euphoria songs.
10. Raja Rani
This begins with a high pitched Palash belting out a Rajasthani folksy lyrical syllable. The instruments used are also reminiscent of Rajasthani folk. And so is the video, which is filled with beautiful deserts, puppets, colorful turbans and a cutesy love story. And the lyrics has elements of national integration – Multani, Bangaali, Dogra. How can you not love this?
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by Sujoy on July 23, 2010
in Bolly
Haven’t done this for a while. So I have put on my observation glasses which see in a different dimension than your normal bi-focals. After all, I am not your regular mango people (aam-aadmi, ok, I ruined the joke).
Now, I did come up with this a long time back, but having seen one of the ladies recently in a very beautiful avatar, I couldn’t help but just spill the beans.
Hint 1: Marion Cotillard. Oh! I was supposed to give a hint. Eh! Ever since I saw her first in La Vie En Rose ( her Oscar winning role as Edith Piaf), I haven’t stopped loving her. And now that I have seen her play the menacing subconscious (oh noes spoiler?) of Mr.Cobb in Inception, I cannot stop thinking about her (and the movie). So, in the Red corner, here’s Marion Cotillard.
Hint 2: Now who could look like Miss Cotillard possibly. C’mon think! I don’t think this is going to be tough. C’mon, I know you must have thought the same too. A Bollywood connection? Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for Miss Universe 1994, and one of the most elegant beauties of Bollywood – Sushmita Sen. WHOA!
Didn’t you figure it out? Have a look below.
Do you guys agree with my observation? Shout it out in the comments.
Also, please visit my Separated at Birth posts for more lookalike fun 
Now we have had the Guitar as a symbol of uber-coolness and what Anu Malik would point out as “The X-Factor” in a dude, or even in a dudette. Bollywood has always tried to incorporate this instrument of uber-coolness into the character of our main protagonists on whose responsible shoulders, lies the responsibility of carrying the ‘cool’ load. But more often than not, these shoulders tend to slip and the rather than looking like a confident weight lifter, they often tend to look like a malnutrition patient in an Atlas position [really horrible analogy I know]. Well, after all, our Bollywood heroes are not really good guitarists- not until Saif Ali Khan came into the scene and showed how it’s done [ just have a look at Piyu Bole for example, and you'll know what I mean ]. Neither can they mimic as passable mock rockers.
Now I am a Guitar Hero addict, and cannot play a single song on the Guitar except for a few bass riffs. And whenever I see these Bollywood ‘Guitar Heroes’ scoring with the chicks as they strum their fingers on the strings in a fashionable way which is miles away from the actual tune being played [ or sometimes they even don't bother to strum ], my blood boils [ a literal translation of a Hindi proverb : Khoon Khaulta Hai Mera ]. So, to take my revenge, here I list down 10 of those big criminals who have tormented me in many a nightmares in their horrible avatars.
Behold for the Guitar Villains of Bollywood
10. Bharat Bhushan – Tum Bin Jaau Kaha ( Pyar Ka Mausam ).
The confidence with which Bharat Bhushan jee strums that little Ukelele-ish instrument with his right pinky sticking out deserves a thousand claps. And he completely melts his wife with his music. Now, it’s a different argument that his wife is none other than Nirupa Roy. I love this song, and Kishore da’s falsetto is impeccable. But Bharat jee’s guitar skills are .. let’s not really go deep into it. [Video Link: Tum Bin Jaau Kaha ]Shall we move on to the next one
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How do you define ‘fluff’ ? Quite a random question to begin a post with, isn’t it? Exactly! I Hate Luv Storys or #IHLS is just that – both fluff and random. Fluff, by definition means any light downy material. It also means something which is of little value or significance. And IHLS qualifies on both those categories. It is just fluff; no pulp, no substance and definitely no juice. The only thing it has is Sonam Kapoor’s electric smile trying to charge up this otherwise charge-less movie, which suffers from a desperately-trying-hard-2b-cool-syndrome.
The biggest thing that irritates me to allergic levels about this movie, is its unashamed and narcissistic self-promotion of supposed Hindi ‘romantic cult favourites’. If you think I am wrong, then how on earth will you explain, plugging in KANK and K3G tribute scenes into the movie narrative, as not being narcissistic? Yes, this is a Karan Johar movie, and this is his way of taking a piss at his own movies, kinda like being the cool guy who doesn’t shy away from laughing at himself. Oh please grow up. Spoofs are made by B-grade directors and geeky nods to movie classics do not mean flashing out family poster frames and pink teddy bears from Archies galleries. And if you think making the director in the movie – Veer [Samir Soni ] be an onscreen version of KJo would be a good idea, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Oh, I really don’t know where this movie review is going. Pretty much like the movie. It is just pointless and worthless as well. So I’ll rather write some bullet points about this movie.
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