Music Diaries : Paanch & more
I have been mildly excited about some nice music that I have procured and have been trying to procure off late. 2008 seems to have begun on a melodic note indeed. May be it’s the Rahman effect. May be it’s the wonderful possibilities of the online world that benefits the one field that couldn’t do with all the restrictions – music. Music is truly breathing, mushrooming, sprawling and singing in this dangerously limitless domain.
Through all these voluntary and directed excursions, I have realized one thing – the best music is always out there, and you still haven’t heard it. This fantastic impossibility makes it a high that it is. You look at some news article or some old picture and are reminded of a song, you want to hear it NOW, you google it and in the next 2 minutes, you are transported to that very time period you wished you would be right now at. Thank you, Mr. Wells, but I guess we can very well do without all those trips now.
I happened to be sleep-ducted today as a result of some sleepless days and found myself waking up in a zero hour of darkness with eyes refusing to open. Ankhiyaan chipki…paanch…and here I am.
Paanch, what a brilliant inclusion in the list of some of the better things the world has missed! It is soundtracks and music like this that keeps the livelihood of these shady music streaming and download sites, which again is a lot better than some of the other in your face ghastly things in the world. On a lighter note, even Ghalib seems to agree to listening to songs online…
maine maana ki kuchch nahee ‘Ghalib’
muft haath aaye to bura kya hai ?
(from Dil-e-nadaan tujhe hua kya hai)
You would NOT find this music on the shelves, I gave up on these music stores long back. But if you happen to find the score of Paanch practically, at a throbbing physical music store, send me a CD and you win a personally signed copy of my unreleased, never to be released private album. And oh ya, ya its very different and it will change the course of Indi-Pop.
For the sake of memory, an old Synopsis from musicindiaonline:
This Anurag Kashyap movie tells the story of a five-member band Parasites and their struggle to remain floating in the strong currents of life’s ordeal. This Tutu Sharma production features Tejaswini Kolhapure, younger sibling of yester year actress Padmini Kolhapure, Kay Kay Menon , Aditya and Joy Fernandez. In these male dominated musical scores we have legendary Asha Bhonsle and the younger lot Sunidhi Chauhan sharing one song each. Variety is the buzzword of Vishal Bharadwaj and he offers us a taste of various musical arrangements. Give an ear to these songs ‘Yeh Kaisa Hai Sheher’, ‘Tamas’ and ‘Yeh Jism’.
I have seen Paanch. Its wizardry lies in creating a sense of violence without its explicit depiction. The film gets under your skin, creates the kind of dirty residue that normally remains in the aftermath of a street fight.
-Abbas Tyrewala
The Music
Ankhiyaan Chipki
Gore tanse kare nayan se
Lipti lipti jaaye re lipti
Akhiyaan chipki jaaye re chipki, ankhiyaan chipki
Ang ang kaisa hai karaara, dekho satrangi gharaara
Kaana kaji kajra re, kesu badhi badraare
Nainan kajra kesun badra, baarishon mein chamkaaye re bijri
Love the bass after a rustic desert intro. Fucking amazing! is the feeling and the first reaction. Ustad Sultan Khan comes in that league of singers who if not given the right treatment, is very likely to sound stereotypical. Thankfully I don’t have many examples to quote, he has largely been in good songs mostly. This one was kind of a first. Vishal gave the song his usual unique finesses, that he had earlier done with the richly textured score of Dil pe mat le yaar(featuring gems like lai jaa re badraa, swaagatam), which deserves a separate and insanely lengthy post and jahaan tum le chalo(another underground dynamite, only that this time he was accompanied by Gulzar, which ensures nothing short of the best tracks possible on earth, featuring shauk khwaab ka hai, atthanni si zindagi..
I can go on about Ankhiyaan chipki, it gives me some unreal imaginative flights. And what never ceases to amaze me that it was a song in a film like Paanch. I would shoot it in the evening in a closed room with a window overlooking a port and the walls donning a yesterday look, some old pictures et al. More of an anticlimax, second half, throw-back stuff.
Its heartening to hear Ustad Sultan Khan in a solo number, these days all you hear him do is set the stage for some other lesser ‘lead’ singer, which is also good no doubt, as in the case of a chupke se/snehgidhaane(Saathiya/Alaipayuthe), Albela sajan(I am not too fond of it, Ismail Darbar has this knack of somehow stepping short of a classic song almost always with a shocking consistency), jhin min jheeni(Maqbool) etc.
The music is free in this one, it sways from folk to a bassy backtrack to a very ethnic string setup happily making all possible uses of a tabla and harmonium private limited.
Suddenly an electric riff comes roaring in and is shown the door with the same swiftness, and we are back to the comforts of a traditional rhythm. I cant figure out what other Indian percussion is used here but it definitely is blow your mind stuff. This is the kind of rural fusion I would like to see more of. I recently wrote a longer than the constitution post on Rahman, and it evoked all kinds of responses. It made me go back to all the possibilities of a Rahman substitute and I did come up with a few names that make one hopeful in times of doom. I heard that Anurag Kashyap has amassed another blow your mind, hear it to believe it kit in Dev D, and I can’t wait to check it out. Then there is Gulal, which boasts of unheard in a film before veer-rasa (Heroic poetry) Poetry embedded in the narrative schemes. I think the film uses some of the works of the Chhayavaad era of Jaishankar Prasad, Sumitranandan Pant, Mahadevi Verma & Suryakant Tripathi “Nirala”. Makes me happy. We have had few people talk about the possibilities of us going back to our culture to discover creative inspirations, and I am happy that this discussion started. It might manifest in the comic books of early nineties, or folk music, or classical singing seeping into the hopeless indi-pop, or the criminally neglected Hindi writers of prose and verse, the dehati singers who were born with a raag and a harmonium, and more. Thanks to ‘ankhiyaa chipki’ for invoking these thoughts.
I recently heard a semi-classical number from the film Babul, sung by Sonu Nigam, and I thought it was the perfect example of how to lay an expert singer’s effort to trash. The composer probably finished the number in his sleep. What a waste. If that’s what we are doing with our films, we should stop recording them studio songs and go with a recorder to any rural mela, we will get better sounds rest assured. At least someone like Sonu Nigam won’t have to strain his vocal chords for a badly executed song. I fail to understand why would someone try so hard to back up an Indian string or harmonium with a jazz drum, that too with absolutely no sense how to blend the too. One should undergo a crash course in the music of Rahman or Vishal to understand fusion. You simply CANNOT kill the soul of the song. It is criminal.
In my view, Khan Sahab could be a great recipe for a contemporary hindi-rock album.
Coming back to my Paanch nostalgia, it was some 6 years back that I saw the promos and was like “who the fuck are these guys?”.
Kya din kya raat hai yahaan par, ki saala dono baraabar
Na raaste kabhi ho khaali, na band hoti hai gaali
Maa behan ki yaad sab ko aati har paher
Halla gulla shor gul ye kaisa hai shaher
Saanson mein laakhon karodo ki saansein khuli
(Ghut raha hai dum ghutansi ho rahi hai)
Phir bhi savere akeli hain ankhein khuli
Koi aaj, mil hi jaayega, chehera jaane pehne kaunsa
Dar se, nikle dhhundhhe ghar hai kahaan
Kya din, kya raat
Kiske liye raah chalte ye jhoothhi hansi
(Chhod na kissi ko kuch nahin padi)
Kaise sahe telephone ki khaamoshi
Sune, bistaron par so rahe, bhooli khushboon ko ro rahe
Neeche, sadakein, kehti hai aa kood ja
If one could put words to a celebration of depressing monotony, this would be it. Dominique is a screeching delight, she almost smiles her way through an otherwise meant to be a dark song. It’s a rare genre by Vishal, blending jazz with some street lyrics, a wonderfully pronounced female voice backed by an almost religious choir. It’s the kind of stuff the rewind button was made for. It’s the kind of song I would love to have in a film that I make, when I make one. Wonder what Anuag has done with it, have never seen the film except for some video clips featuring the rudely addictive Tejaswini.
Paanch Theme echoes, elevates and gives a form to the grungy feel. I like the sparse use of guitars before the main lead kicks off. There is even a softer string towards the end, for the faint hearted ones.
Pakaa mat(the phrase made famous by HG recently in one of his posts) might be one oddity in the score, or it could be viewed as a tribute in itself to the ‘I could care less’ genre. I like it. Such songs aren’t made much frequently. A close cousin would be chhod na re(kaante) but I am not fond of it for obvious reasons. This song paints up the scene of a band in the times they spend between making all those great tracks. The conversation or rather the finger-fest that ensues amidst the background jam-up in the later parts are not the things that you would normally see in a hindi film OST. Thinking about such times isn’t a great memory trip, and so the equally pointless song rightly captures the mood, or the lack of it.
Khuda Hoon Main
Ek din, bas ek din, apne saare, zakhm gin
Ek raat, bas ek raat, tu soch kya, hua tere saath
Khud se kahaan tak bhaagoge, subaah jaati hai kab jaagoge
Duniya ne kaata kat-te gaye, khud ko kahaan tak kaatoge
Saans lo, dum bharo, chillaakar, sab se kaho
Sar jhuka, khuda hoon main
Aasmaanon pe khadaa hoon main
Main khuda…hoon khuda…
I was happy that finally someone is writing the matter of factness of life in a Bollywood song(talking about 2002 I guess, when we were busy talking Devdas, Company, Saathiya..)), don’t know how much it worked but Main Khuda was definitely more of an upper than a downer.
KK, IMO, did some better work in his early years than what he his doing now. This song is a testimony to that. And its not about how loud you can shout or maintain the high scales, it’s about how well you do it(never mind the Kadar Khan in me).
Too bad that this song came at a time when there were lesser or no hi-fi home theater systems in India. I would have been bloody happy blasting it on the systems that we get now back in those days, when some unassuming guest would come knocking and not leaving.
I have always thought of Paanch as an Indian equivalent to The Dreamers, albeit in different sensibilities.
Khuda would quite easily be the best grunge sound heard in the movies this side of the world. Every song in this genre should have a ‘shut the fuck up’/’shut this shit down’ moment; Khuda Hoon has a couple of them. The post-first stanza jam up is distortion at its best.
The song in its female version is tastefully done by Sunidhi, much like she reinvented jab bhi in No Smoking. Whenever I make a film, I will have a reference to Paanch with this song (female version) playing in a faded study light, for no reason at all, the more incoherent the better. Again, like KK, Sunidhi doesn’t get to do such good stuff either these days except a song or two.
Har sparsh mein, kheenchaav hai, har dosti mein tanaav hai
Duwa bhi mein, bala bhi mein, meri dava, mera ghaav hai
Aadhi roshni, aadhe andhere, aadhi zindagi yun na jalaao
Tum jo sochte hai woh tum ho
Socho jaago sab ko jagaao
Ye sahi hai, ye galat, meri maano, socho mat
Ye na pehno, woh na bolo, ho sake toh munh na kholo
Ye pado mat, woh suno mat, main chununga, tum chuno mat
Kat-te jaao, mit-te jaao, dabna seekho, dabte jaao
Bas ab aur nahin, ab aur nahin, aur nahin, ab aur nahin
Bas aur nahin, ab aur nahin
(Aur nahin, ab aur nahin, bas aur nahin, ab aur nahin
Aur nahin, ab aur nahin, bas aur nahin)
Saans lo, dum bharo, chillaakar, sab se kaho
Sar jhuka! khuda hoon main!
May be it was the rocking salute to the brash anarchy, campus angst, unabashed narcissism, systemic hatred, or a culmination of all these and an ever-throbbing need to disregard every perfect thing in a world full of imperfections, Paanch’s sound was one of the best things to have hit us at that time. Not that the times were bad or depressing, we did have some good things happening on the indie circuit, rock competitions et al. But such a thing surfacing to celluloid was every frustrated with crass filmgoer’s dream trip come true.
Jism hai, sung by Asha Bhosle, doesn’t quite create the rampage a ‘ye kaisa hai shehar’ or ‘main khuda’ did, but its still a good track nonetheless. After a couple of hearings, all that remains is the infectious lead that forms the base of the song and later the chorus. This is more of a jam-up/formative years number chronicling the journeys of a band. Asha Bhosle’s vocals are given another great treatment here that go perfectly well with the rock accompaniments. Somehow it sounds not so rightly noisy as it should.
Raatri ke Yaatri / Tamas
Whoever came up with this mindfucking phrase raatri ke yaatri deserves a vaction in Hawaai. Another brooding track from DevaSen Gupta(ye ashtray, no smoking). A perfect ‘ek chaalis ki last local’ song, it is a more poetic song from the lot.
Tam Tam Chhaaya Hai Tamas
Jam Gaya Rakht ka ras
Nazren chhuda chale
Dhoop ko bujha chalein
Raatri Ke Yaatri
Ghoomte pahiyon pe
Ruki si zindagi mein hum chale
Kharch hui kaise
Bachi se zindagi mein hum chale
Kaate ghadi ke chubhe haath mein
Waqt ruka
Waqt ruka hum chale
Sard raaho mein
Gade hue se lamhe jal rahe
Sard raahon mein
Hazaaron sooraj sar pe jal rahe
Haath koi
Bhay sa dil mein hai
Dil kaampta hi rahe…
And here are some titles from the relatively lesser heard category that I have been hooked to off late:
(thanks to HG)
Mekaal Hasan Band – Sampooran
Elizabeth – The Golden Age – OST
Once – OST
Almost Famous – OST
Grindhouse – OST
I’m Not There – OST
American Gangster – OST
There will be blood – OST
The Namesake – OST
The Darjeeling Limited – OST
Different Strokes – Jagjit Singh
Pankaj Awasthi – Nine
Incredible India – compilation
Nur Nur Beats(thanks to t!)
The Project – Rishi Rich
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
Matlab phir sun na padega!! It’s been a while so why not. Aankhen still chipki or has savera happened?
Savera happened last night at eight
not finished yet
just in for half an hour in this one
and i already have three dialogs that i can not stop myself sharing.
‘you need to start asking better questions.’
‘you are out of your mind, you know that’
‘taken a life time of practice’
‘take out the trash dan’
wow,
its zen.
and its in a movie
ha ha
‘peaceful warrior’
starring nick nolte.
^:)^
an experience
few more dialogs
‘death isn’t sad, the sad thing is that most people don’t live at all’
‘a warrior acts, a fool reacts’
‘a warrior is not about perfection,or the victory or invulnerability. its about absolute vernlability, and that’s the only true courage’
these dialog, and kind of these, are not rare or new for hollywood. only everywhere else, they look phoney and wordplay. this movies gives the context which can support this kind of dialoge. and give them the real meaning. mainly because of nick nolte’s character. mind you, its not a sport movie.
climax is good. ‘my whole life is about those 20 seconds in front of those judges, so they can give me. what i want. and than i will be happy.’
the movie has build the enough contrast up till now for you to realize, that this dialog is not there for you to make sentimental.
its there to make you see the foolishness of it.
and that’s why this is not a sport movie.
here and now @};-@};-@};-
‘jonathan livingstone seagull’ by richred bach came to my mind watching this movie.
8-}
you just weaved in-out-and-all-around.. the legend of the drunken critic.. every end is the new beginning.. and it goes in circles.. can’t wait to get to the Cd you burnt..
@Tushar I am very happy that u have appreciation for
Vishal’s Jahan Tum Le Chalo.It is one of my favourite albums ever by Vishal.Not only the haunting Shawk Khwab Ka,there are other gems like Dekkho To Aasman.This is one of albums which never got its due to failure of film or some other factors
Thanks Sharath. I need to find that tape out and do a retro walk down jahaan tum…
also loved the bits by Jackie Vanjari.
I think Paanch music has generated almost cult like following among the people who like it.
It is really unfortunate that most of the people missed what i think one of the most exciting music of that time. And hell it still sounds as fresh!!!
It hell does!
feels good to read about paanch … amazing stuff …thankyou
guess when one does anything with passion it stays on for a long time …..
It’s a pleasure to have you drop by. Never saw the film, but the images and the sounds always stayed with me. It indeed stays for a long time.
dude, u 2 deserve a vacation in hawai. loved it, both the album & the artikle.
Does anyone have all songs of Paanch? I have couple of songs but I sure know that I miss a few.
@Tejas, Tathastu!
bhai…aap jahan bhi ho..mera pranaam sveekar kijiye..jaise hi American Sanyukta Sansthan mein vaapas kadam rakhoonga..aapke charan sparsh karne aa jaoonga
i have all the songs of paanch . i want the movie now
I got the orignal Audio CD yipeeeeee
Not sure if I should pirate it.
Waiting desperately for the movie.