Bhendi Bazaar Swing – Sankat in the city
The City.
20 million people, living on a man-made island. The primary thought, occupying the conscious or sub-conscious part of their minds, at one time or another ? Survival ! From the guy on the bicycle peddling over-milky coffee and cigarettes in the deepest hours of the night, to the fellow driving home from work OR play in a BMW at 2 ‘o clock in the night ( living under incredible stress, in order to pay FOR the BMW and his other “goodies” of life ), who might very well stop near the cigarette seller on the bicycle, to pick up one last coffee and a pack of 20 …
The City drives it’s inhabitants on, relentlessly – lives, loves, memories are the sacrifices the inhabitants make to the altar of the city … that’s why quite a few of them hate it – abuse it – are glad to get away from it, even if for only a couple of days. But hate it as they might, most of them, after having lived in it’s folds for some years, could never contemplate leaving it – they might talk about it, threaten to do it – but in the deep recesses of their overwrought brains, they KNOW they never will.
They’re too scared to !! – and here’s the thing – the same fear for the survival of their loved ones and themselves, which is the stick the city uses to drive them on relentlessly, is the same fear that is the carrot they see dangled in front of them, that ties them inexorably to the city –
Because you see, that fear drives them on to great things – each by his own standards of course ! Achievements, antics, schemes, plans, works high and low, legal and moral, illegal and immoral, legal and immoral, illegal and moral !! And soon, your life isn’t ordinary any more – you mean something – your life is an action thriller to rival any Indiana Jones movie – hell, all the creativity and innovativeness you pulled out last month, all the balls you displayed at work, is what paid this month’s rent – I’m pretty sure, this is the way even a clerk at a bank routinely doling out money from behind a counter feels, in the city – although the guy on the other end at the counter would probably think, “ What a boring job ! Thank God that’s not me ! “ – that’s of course if he gave it a thought at all – most likely he was too occupied at the time with present and future “ jhols “ !!
The action becomes addictive – and the city dweller is pretty sure, inside his heart, that were it not for the whip of fear the city has constantly poised over his backside, he would not be doing any of the things he does every day. And without that, he is worthless, and his life means nothing !
Jazz …
Little known – Boring noise for most, misunderstood by many, a status symbol indicating a higher IQ for some ….
A reflection of life itself for a handful.
You see, a lot of life is improvised – spontaneously – then and there – a natural, non thinking, almost zen reaction to the present – the harmonies of life, are most times, complex – not superficial in black and white, but kaleidoscopic – various shades of different combinations of colours, themselves changing moment to moment, and open to different interpretations each time – two people looking at the same life situation, would see it and interpret it differently – and the reaction to that situation, mundane or extraordinary, whether involving crisis or triumph ( or neither ), would again involve some measure of improvisation from them. The melodies and harmonies are not simple nursery rhymes – they are intricate, jagged, fragmented, and more often dissonant, than consonant – especially in the city !
The rhythms of life, in the city, likewise are syncopated in complex ways, rhythms that involve angular and uncommon strokes, on beats which would not be likely to carry those strokes if seen ( or heard at a superficial level ) – but through it all, for those who have the ability to let themselves go, and flow with it, it all SWINGS ! To those who know, Jazz reflects Life –
Lalo Schifrin – Jazz Musician and Composer extraordinaire – His first major gig, his first big break was playing Piano in the band of Dizzy Gillespie one of the Founding Fathers of the Music – Schifrin got his education from the source itself – there’s a picture of him standing with Dizzy Gillespie, at the grave of Charlie Parker – another one of the Founding Fathers of the Music – His achievements in Music, too numerous to detail here – but anyone who has seen some of the most iconic movies of the 20th century like Dirty Harry, Enter the Dragon, Bullit, Mission Impossible, The Amytiville Horror etc. will have felt the power of music – music coming from the universe of Jazz !
Sankat City – A movie about half a dozen or so characters, driven by the City to innovate, create, improvise, act on the spur of the moment, achieve works out of the ordinary ( smart AND stupid, immoral AND moral, legally AND illegally ! ) – no superficial black and white harmonies in their actions, but kaleidoscopic shades of gray, open to interpretation depending on whose watching, jagged and fragmented rhythms in their actions, somehow, miraculously resolving themselves at the right moment, if there be such a thing – characters driven to these things by the FEAR the city holds as a stick over their behinds ! FEAR of survival !
In short – A lot like Jazz ! Including the fear of survival part ! It’s not always fun being on stage playing jazz – you could improvise badly and fall flat on your face, and be held in contempt by the rest of the musicians on the bandstand, even if they’re your friends and/or family – AND the audience – and in all probability you wouldn’t get called back for the next gig – there’s always someone better than you out there for the same money, you see ! In short – A lot like Life !!
The Challenge – How to use the inspiration and direction of the music called Jazz, and musicians like Lalo Schifrin, to echo, describe and translate, in a musical language, the above situations – The City, the people in it, the fear that drives them on to innovate/create/work/scheme/plan/execute, improvising spontaneously all the time, with hardly any time think on most occasions … JUST TO SURVIVE !! – the mystery, danger, darkness, AND humour of it all – which is what the film Sankat City is about –
Hopefully, the music score for the film, managed to bring all of this out, a little bit – Hopefully !! Because it sure wasn’t easy ! Here’s the music for the title sequence of the film – which also contains the central melody theme for the background, reworked and presented in different situations and settings, depending on the story and the emotion.
FROM RANJIT BAROT AND HIS TEAM AT NIRVANA STUDIO.
Tags: Audio, Download, Music, Sankat City
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Mindblowing! and playing the theme on non stop loop since last night!
super post Harmeet! your background score is amazing.
Is the movie releasing in Chicago? Can onyone confirm?
Superb post and super track!!! Hope the movie meets the sky high expectations… Please please do more publicity… so that such genius efforts dont go waste…
Tanul unfortunately the movie is not getting a US/UK release. For business inquiries I would suggest contacting Moser Baer via their site or via PFC’s contact form for the movie
awesome. the music is just magik. all the very best with sankat city. hope it does to you, what dev.d did to amit trivedi.
Cherish, you are so sweet! Honestly.
Disappointed that the movie won’t be released world wide. Mr Advani, do something. Consult the monk, dampen his wings with high spirits, rouse him, make him weave some magik!!
A very genuine post, Harmeet. Very well written and expressed. ‘She’s a bad girl’ is on my lips these days and I croon it like Mr Barot the whole day!!
Awesome write up. Even more awesome track. Ghor SANKAT!
btw when is the music releasing?
Any individual stays (or atleast should stay) in any place which is amenable to his chosen profession. So a Mumbaikar should stay in mumbai if he’s into finance or media (Or providing a service to Mumbaikars). Loads of people have migrated from Mumbai to Pune, Hyd and Bengaluru to work in those IT warehouses. People dont leave their jobs even if they are transferred. They go. Similarly I know a lot of mallus who have worked throughout their life and then moved to their native place for retirement. City is for the young at heart willing to work and excel.
@ Vinay: that was enlightening. was it a suggestion or a command? ROFL.
@11 Vinay…its too abstract..can you elaborate…especially this one… ‘People dont leave their jobs even if they are transferred. They go’
@12 Ram V When people are transferred from Mumbai city to elsewhere, they dont leave their jobs and stay back, they go whereever they are transferred.
Music is released…where’s the review pfc?
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/broadband/video/Parties-and-Events/SRlwNq54/3/Audio-Release-Of-Sankat-City.html