InDepth

Before starting today's blog post, I want to lay down a few beliefs with regards to films and filmmakers. First, films reflect society and cannot essentially change the norms of a society. It can put a mirror to the society and thereby we can see the evils, the darkness, the prejudices, but when it comes to correcting those problems in the society, films fall short. I am not a firm believer of this argument. Second, a film is a portrayal of a filmmaker's own views, ideas and ideologies. The storytelling, the scenarios and dialogues, together with the overall treatment of a film, is very much a projection of his or her way of thinking about life. I partially agree to this, I think a filmmaker might "learn" to say few things differently, but predominantly, he or she stays true to his or her version of how life flows. Third, a film is edited reality. A film cannot depict all, but it can reveal a big deal of what happens in real lives. Not just in the context of the overa...

  I recollect my early days in my English-medium school. Surrounded by brilliant classmates and guided by some of the best teachers, I was lucky to have got enrolled in that school. The only issue was my aptitude in the language, English. If there was one thing in my little world which scared me the most in those days was the feeling of communicating in that language. I was terrified and felt nervous to even place myself in the class, I felt I did not belong there! In my class we had a small desk and a chair, fitting to the size of a 6/7-year-old. “Miss, may I go to the toilet?” – this was the question my classmates would ask to the teacher, but for me, to say this one single sentence was as difficult as getting an injection (I got quite a few of those in my childhood, due to health reasons!), or getting a boil (I do not know why, but I would get one every month when I was little!), or missing my dad (he was away with his job to different cities in India!). I would clutch the s...

To continue from the last part, children learn the most from their parents - good or bad, all things. And when it comes from learning a language, it is mostly from the mother. No wonder why this first-learnt language is called the "Mother Tongue". So, for a kid, it is important to listen, grasp and follow the way the mother speaks. For the mother, it is important to speak softly, calmly, clearly and informatively to her kid. As a primary caregiver, the mother has a role to play to shape the quality of language the child can eventually embrace. Of course, the father too has a role to play.  At home the child learns the most. After home, the other place is of course the school. A good environment is essential there. Today, we are reducing our vocabulary set. We are somewhat diminishing the vernacular local languages at the cost of English. This is not correct - both should exist. When language shrinks at home the tendency will spread to schools and to societies. Words and expre...

A confused boy, early morning wake up calls, he has to go to school. The boy asks his mother, have you put all my books and copies correctly inside the bag? Mom says, yes. The boy goes to school and finds out the books for one of his primary language periods are not there! He comes from a pre-school where this language was not taught. Also he is yet to communicate properly in English - he fails to tell his teacher what happened here. Neither in the mother tongue Bengali, (the reason for which I will state now) and nor in English, which I was just getting to learn.  The above is an incident from my life, it was way back in 1987.  (Back in the age of the dinosaurs - even though I had heard that computers could play chess with humans already back then.) The thing is - language was created as a tool of communication, but it has ended up being a blocker for communication. My struggle with languages started early, from the pre-school. It was a setup where the primary language of com...

[Concluding part]                             So, how can one assess Naushad-Sahab's work and what were the aspects that were his trademarks? Well, to start with, it was his knowledge about the various Indian traditional instruments. His orchestration inevitably contained flavours from these different instruments. While using these, he kept in mind the situational demand as well as the overall musicality of the song. To elaborate more on this, he never composed any song that had a musical instrument that felt out of place with the situation of the song. He never composed any song, the orchestration for which became over-the-top and killed the subtleness of its melody. Next, he had a terrific knowledge and conception on the Indian classical music. The fact that he understood the semantics of various raga- s was beyond any doubt but what strikes me more is the fact that he understood the mood, feel and complexity of the...

The research continues.... 13. Dil mein baji pyar ki (Kohinoor)    A very simple-flowing melody having all the elements of a typical Lata-Naushad combo. On the screen it was the great Meena Kumari with her vivacious presence and charming dance steps. This one, together with " Tere pyar mein dildar " from the movie Mere Mehboob, stands out as two extraordinary tunes by Naushad depicting happiness, charm and frolic. The shehnai interlude, together with nice tabla beats, go very well with the mood and tune of the song. Lata Mangeshkar makes a deliberate attempt to thin her voice so that the rhythm comes to the forefront and the song primarily remains as a dance number. Just listen to the wonderful alaap in the beginning when Rafi lends his voice shortly. Kohinoor is also a nice lighthearted movie, with great acting by Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari. I give you a trivia - like many other Naushad gems, this one too has different tunes for different antara -s!      ...