Banna nanna olavina banna.....(Looted)...for a few dollars more....

I am very disappointed on a particular thing and yet excited at another both of which are related.

As I had penned down long long ago in my blog dedicated to music……street music is a thing of joy for me! I usually go for long walks in London – the streets of which telling tales of its own (more fun if I have company….. but many a times I do it on my own). You can hear it at many places…..in the tube stations, in alley ways, on the bridges… I was walking down Oxford street yesterday evening, hopping in and out of the many retail shops there. While I was in one of them, I heard this band playing various instruments, went out to watch them play…..they had a few instruments I could recognize which were variations of the flute, mouth organ amongst many which I have just seen but don’t know names of….

I went back into the shop and suddenly I heard their next tune…an instrumental of one of my favourite songs in Kannada banna nanna olavina banna from Bandhana…I went back to see if suddenly it was some Indians playing the music .... but no! It was the same band… it was so melodious, amazing music… I don’t have words – felt like the best thing I had listened to in ages….as you have guessed ….I thoroughly enjoyed it! Then it hit me hard…..I was wondering…. well!!!! Our known Kannada song is actually flicked from somewhere!! And I was sooooo frustrated. I found out that it’s a direct pick from the soundtrack of the movie ‘For a few Dollars more’ – the Spanish Intro .

It is in fact one of the superb compositions of the genius in Ennio Morricone… who has given us other soundtracks like ‘The good, bad, ugly’ , ‘A fistful of dollars’, ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ amongst hundreds of masterpieces….

I feel so disappointed by all these copied music…somehow feels ‘do we lack that originality???’, or is it kind of a tribute that these composers pay to perhaps their Idols?? Is it what they call ‘being inspired'???

I was also excited by the fact that they have the ‘creativity (!!)’ in fitting the music to the scenes of our movies.....I was wound up thinking how a background score from a typical western, cowboy movie fitted in so well as a romantic song in a dream sequence of another movie….

The (Not so) Mad world of Ads

Strange as it may seem....I have been remembering something today... the advertisements on Indian radio and television. Sometimes, more than the actual programmes, I used to enjoy the adverts more and many a times was caught humming or singing them by family and friends...

On school days, part of the usual rush with the morning chores was the All India Radio giving us company and a tune to start the day. I don't remember the shows aired, or the news narrated, but do remember the advertisements in between.

We used to watch the serials every evening on TV…. some really nice ones were Udaan,Oshin, Mungeri Lal kay haseen sapnay, Ham panchi ek dhal ke and a few others...No matter what we watched or listened to, whether it was long hours of cricket matches, or the only movie that used to come on Sunday evenings or the 9'o clock News or anything...I very distinctly remember the advertisements aired in between....

A few that I remember very well are Chal meri Luna, Vicco turmeric ….nahi cosmetic, buland bharat ki bhuland tasveer… ..hamara Bajaj (remains one of my favourite tunes), hajmola sir (so funny!), Liril ads-Never wanted to use this soap though....remember my brother and me naming it ajji's soap(grandma's soap), Dabar amla kesh thail, How can I miss out the taste of India..Amul, swaad bare shakti bare…. parle G, washing powder Nirma, kurrum kurrum.. Lijjat papad, Cadburys... love the song, Fevicol ka jod, Natraj pencil- don't remember using anything other than the pencil with red and black vertical lines.

I have always thought that ads are such creative works...they need to get the point across in just about 30 seconds...I think that's amazing! Of late….of course, many of us might avoid watching movies on TV as a 3 hour movie would end up being 4-4.5hours with all the ads...Some ads of the 2000's that I liked were the Airtel ad (with A R Rahman's tune), the Hutch Ad, well…. the ad's with the cricketers.. Rahul Dravid's Pepsi, Aamir khan, Aishwarya Rai, Hrithik Roshan, Shah Rukh Khan in Coke & Pepsi ads....the main difference I find in the ads now a days to the ads before were that the older ads concentrated a lot on family, society and India as a whole...we do have them today... but the feelings don't seem very strong..

If you are someone who enjoyed something similar to what I have written…. just you tube Indian Ads and it will take you back to those days... atleast for a few moments...