Rock On!! – Movie review

This is one of the most pleasant movies I have seen this year. Even though Rock On!! (directed by Abhishek Kapoor) is almost three hours long, I didn’t get bored at all. But I guess it helps if one is a rock music fan like I am. Music is what this movie is about.
The story [...]

Bollywood moving away from plagiarism?

We all love to bash Bollywood because the industry is in the habit of plagiarizing. In fact the very name ‘Bollywood’ is so insulting that I wonder why those who work in Bollywood don’t feel ashamed that they are working in an industry with a name that implies that it is a Hollywood clone. Could [...]

Tarpa Dance Videos

Tarpa Dance is a tribal dance which I saw during our visit to the town of Vikramgadh in western Maharashtra, about 80 kms northeast from Mumbai. We were at the Divekarwadi resort where this dance was performed by a group of local boys and girls. What was interesting is that they were not professional dancers [...]

Do Dining and Music mix?

In the west dining and music go together, but this concept hasn’t quite caught on here. Ofcourse, a lot of hotels in India have been doing it for a while. Plenty of bands do play at fancy and not-so-fancy restaurants and live music has acquired a kind of snob value. But this doesn’t mean that [...]

Ban the Crooked Police

Rap music has never really picked up in India. And perhaps that is why Indian rap artists have found it hard to make a big splash even if they have loads of talent. BlaaZe is one of them and I want to play one of his songs here – Ban the Crooked Police. BlaaZe [...]

Army called in to control protests over insult to Indian Idol

An RJ of a FM (Red FM 93.5) radio channel from Delhi apparently referred to Prashant Tamang, this year’s Indian Idol, as a ‘gurkha’ and this news site reports that Prashant’s success was referred to as “Chowkidar to Indian Idol” a day after Prashant was crowned Indian Idol. Fans and supporters have been protesting for [...]

Music shows are bringing Indians together

Trust music to unite Indians from different parts of India and provide opportunities for nation wide fame…something that those living in far flung areas could only have dreamt of. Be it Indian idol or other reality music shows like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, these shows are attracting people in droves. So keen are they [...]

The song Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya from Mughal E Azam

The song from Mughal E Azam – Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya. The closest English translation is: Why be afraid of being in love?

Just a couple of days ago I wrote about how old films showed women with spirit and courage. This song embodies it. Anarkali, played by the actress [...]

Is Sanjaya Malakar as bad a singer as he is said to be?

There’s been so much hype about the Indian American Sanjaya Malakar that I decided to watch the show last night (it is shown here a day later). I have watched bits and parts of this show earlier but this was the first time I sat down seriously to watch it. I wanted to find out [...]

Munnabhai’s pal pal inspired by Cliff Richard song

Listen to it here. The very song – Theme For A Dream – which inspired the music director of Munna Bhai Lage Raho.

Theme for a Dream was a popular song when I was in the teens. A song I used to hum to myself fairly often.
When I saw Munnabhai Lage Raho [...]

Cyrus Oshidar of MTV talks about India and about his work. And about how he gets his ideas.

Cyrus Oshidar needs stimulation. Excitement. Passion. That is why he says, ‘The dreariness of a London existence bored me to death.’ A mechanical, sanitized and stuffy environment was clearly not right for Cyrus. Maybe it was a reaction to the one he grew up in – an environment of orderliness and discipline. His father [...]