Rock On!

The music for Rock On! has been out for some time now, and everybody and his mother have an opinion. I personally like it, with some reservations. Shankar Ehsaan and Loy have delivered (as they seem to do with some regularity these days), the lyrics are good (and have a nice college band feel), and Farhan Akhtar’s voice comes as a pleasant surprise. The sound is decidedly “rock”-y, featuring anthemic songs with a ballad tossed in (Phir Dekhiye) for good measure. The pick of the songs are the title track and Pichle Saat Dino Mein, especially the live version. Phir Dekhiye is beautiful, and uses an acoustic guitar to great effect. The only weak songs are Zehreeley and Ye Tumhari. One has a made by the numbers hard rock feel and the other is just plain schmaltzy. One can hear the producer clamoring for a Bollywood-y song somewhere in the lineup.

It’s not all plain sailing, however. The trio were clearly aiming for a raw anthemic sound, but the songs sound overproduced, with the bass barely making an appearance. The drums are muted too, with the focus mostly on the vocals. This is fine by Bollywood standards, but sounds odd in a rock focused album, where vocals generally get drowned out by the guitar. On the whole, however, it’s nice to see the Indian film industry taking a risk on a completely rock based album to support a major release. I like it. Rock on!

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Movie Shooting 101

So this friend of mine wanted to shoot this movie, and she thought that it would be a good idea if I played the part of a sneak thief in it. Now I don’t consider myself to be fit for the pages of Vogue or anything like that that, but it is a bit unflattering to be considered ideal for such a role. However, one aims to please (and get acting credits), so I readily agreed.

So it was that I landed up in this shady by lane in TNagar, at 11AM in the morning. The sun was wiling me to get roasted, but I thought my naturally dusky complexion would fool it. (I am sorry, it was very hot). I was wearing a weird monkey cap thingie, with old jeans and a tee which did not match, looking very much in character. The shot sequence involved me running up to this lady in the road, dispossess her of her bag, make faces at her and run. Which I did. Quite well I thought. And that’s when the trouble started.

I was happily running down the road, bag in hand, congratulating myself on a job well done, when I noticed this car coming in my direction. Whatever its initial intentions, the car suddenly swerved towards me, at around 120kmph (it felt like 120kmph, though I am told nobody has ever touched such speeds on that road. Lets say 100). It came rushing up to me, brakes screeching at the last moment, and I had to do a flashy pirouetting movement to get out of the way, which ended with me falling on my ass in the middle of the road. I was about to do my impression of a bear  which has just been poked in the fleshy parts, while having a nap, when the driver came out of the car and snatched the bag out of my hand, and gave the same to the aforementioned lady. And there I was, lying down on the road, wondering at the injustice of it all, when my friend said we had to to a retake. She wanted my face to be seen on camera. Or something like that. Oh well.

So here’s my advice to anyone considering acting in a movie/short film/serial. Act badly. There maybe unforeseen complications otherwise. Cheers!

Two weeks to go…

Two  weeks to go. There’s still an insane amount of work to do. My Gtalk status says “Very very busy”. What started as a (not so funny) joke, has suddenly become grim reality. The world feels like its closing in on me. I need a smoke.

Aah, well, first lets get over the awkard why I am writing a blog part. Its not new to me. I’ve done this before, thinking I will confine myself to writing articles which can change the face of humanity. That idea resulted in four blog articles in two years. Not bad, really (no Really!) but this time I’ve decided to shoot from the hip. Let’s how that goes.

So, as I said, two weeks to go. I am almost dreading getting into the flight now, thinking about the various possibilities of missing sambar podis or leaking hair gels. I don’t particularly want to smell like a Bvlgari initiate the moment I enter the US of A, so here’s hoping. But a part of me still is’nt particularly bothered. That’s the part which is writing the blog. It’ll all be ok, it says. Chill out. Thoughts of that sort. I bless that part of me every day. I think I will be needing more of that in the near future. That’s the part which is writing this blog. Heh…