Music I'm listening to in 2025

With good Hindi and Tamil music in short supply these days. I have shifted to listening to more Punjabi music in the last couple of years. Really enjoying the works of Sharry mann, Amrit Mann, Prabh Singh, and Zehr Vibe apart from the usual suspects.

Here's my playlist:

Patterns in a Bollywood musical

This year I've been watching a lot more older Hindi movies, early 2000s, late 90s cinema; back when songs used to be a big part of every Hindi movie, regardless of the genre. Something I've discovered during the process is that each film has ~5-6 songs that fit a pattern. The pattern being:

Song 1: Introducing the male lead
Song 2: Introducing the female lead
(Optional) Song 3: Introducing any other main character, who plays a significant part
Song 4: Pre-Intermission act change : This is an up-beat song where; in love stories this is just before the conflict is introduced
Song 5: Post-Intermission song : The only purpose of the song is to act as a loo break for people who weren't able to go to one during the break
Song 6: Pre-Climax song : Raising the beat of the film before the final act. Usually happens 30-40 minutes before the end of the film.
Song 7 - 9 : If the filmmakers are feeling particularly generous, they'll add different songs at the beginning and credits too and maybe add another song post-intermission if the film is longer and needs a change of acts.

Some examples:
Movie: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
1: Opening Credits : Tu Bole Main Bolun
2: Introducing the Male and Female Leads Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi
3: Pre-Intermission, change of act: Pappu Can't Dance
4: Post Intermission song Nazrein Milana
5: Additional Conflict Song: : Jaane tu Mera Kya Hai
6: Pre-Climax: Kahin Toh


Movie: Kal Ho Naa Ho
1: Introducing the Male and Female Leads Pretty Woman
3: Pre-Intermission, change of act: It's the time to Disco
4: Post Intermission song Kuch toh Hua Hai
5: Additional Conflict Song: : Kal Ho Na Ho
6: Pre-Climax: Maahi Ve

Music Locker

Vidit Bhargava

How many of you own a cloud? Well, as far as I know, many of you own a cloud or two, without even knowing about it! Cloud Computing is the buzz-word these days. Everyone wants to jump into the cloud business. The People are also willing to put their documents on the cloud, rather than carrying them in a pen-drive or a CD. Well Naturally People also want their Music Collection to go everywhere with them and not with an extra-burden of carrying a CD Case or an external hard-disk everywhere. Music Lockers they are called. And Currently two large companies are giving them this facility for free.:

1. Amazon CloudPlayer

Launched in March 2011, Amazon CloudPlayer is one of the few online music lockers, which one can 'use' outside USA. The Amazon Cloud Player, to its U.S. users offers a service to download the tracks from their online store to their cloud Drive and an option to use their Cloud Drive to upload their own songs. So you can listen to the tracks you've already downloaded. You can use your Amazon CloudPlayer ID to play the tracks anywhere in the world.

The Option to Buy the tracks and store directly to the cloud drive, eliminates the computer hard-disk in the process of listening the music. This is a really good thing because it saves the user from the hassle of downloading a song and uploading it back again.

Connectivity: The cloudplayer can be opened from any Web Enabled Device. You just need a good browser and a decent screen size to peacefully play tracks. However you'll find a dedicated application for Android Mobiles (Only in US) also.

2. Google Music Beta

Google Music Beta was announced at the Google I/O held this month. While Google's Music is very much 'similar' to Amazon's cloudPlayer it is not exactly the same. Google Music provides the users with an online storage for their songs, A Dedicated application for the management and uploading of music, An Android App and a Website that allows you to listen music anywhere. Also Google Music has a feature to work offline on all devices, so if you are out of internet coverage it can play the recently played tracks.

While Amazon does provide users with an option to download the music straight from an online MP3 store. Google has no such option. So basically what you'll have to do is this: Download a song from the internet and then put it back up. And that is a tiresome job.

Connectivity: Google Music is currently in Beta Stages and available by invitation only and the service is only for the US Residents while it is still in the beta stages. As far as Mobile Devices are concerned, Android users are getting an app and others can use the website to play music, which innocently touts a flash interface, blocking the iOS Users from using it.

We just saw two different cloud music lockers. Both of them work on your input. You need to download a song first, and then you need to upload it to the cloud again, just for the sake of using it everywhere. And you are doing this for every song you download, and if this service at all gets popular, the same process will be done by millions of people making millions of duplicates of a single song on the internet, contributing to a lot of Digital Garbage. This is different when you use your iDisks and Dropboxes to put files on the internet, those are unique files you won't find elsewhere. And it is wise to store it on a single location rather than making multiple-copies of the same file on every computer.

Let the Music be on one Single Cloud And let users take the music from there. This way, more and more people can listen to music through one source. Also The Music Locker should directly be connected to the Music Application we currently have on our computers, and Mobile Devices. And if possible we can make it available to everyone in the world and not just the United States (Where every cloudplayer seems confined today).

Wrap Up: Currently Cloud Music is Very Amateurishly implemented. Companies want a lot of input from their users, who are unwilling to take the pains. Cloud-Services need to be tackled differently for every different utility. While the current approach may be good for Text and Picture content, it is naive to think it will be the same for Music and Movies. However, if you are too despirate to use Cloud Music Players, I'd suggest the Amazon Cloud Player, which requires the least effort from your side.

Raavan - Music Review

Vidit Bhargava

A.R. Rahman comes back after the music of Blue - hmm.. many don't know that however its true! Raavan, the name itself gives a mythological feel to the whole atmosphere before the release, I mean you expected Blue's songs to have that rock feeling and we expected Raavan to have that mythological feel, we heard in Jodha Akbar. However, it turns out to be different!

The first track is "Beera" you all might have heard it surely in the trailers. This one has a fresh feel of the African beets and lyrics. Surely this is one of the best tracks I've ever heard and one of A.R. Rahman's awesome composition. It is one gem of a track which will top the charts almost instantly. The only problem is that the track is just 3 minutes long. I wish it would be more! To sum it up it's a perfect album opener!

A.R. Rahman slips into a soothing grey song - Behene De. No doubt the song is even better. Strong musical beats with one of the best lyrics by Gulzar, the track is as good as its predecessor. You can listen this song in infinite loops, and you won't get tired listening it. It is just too soothing!

Returning with a hard beat track - Thok De Killi, this one is a really good track and has a really power full feel. Sung by Sukhwinder Singh, the song is as great as it gets. Brilliant Music, and the lyrics might feel a little badly written in the beginning however they are good in the middle and towards the end. Another track which is just awesome, though not as good as the 1st and the second.

Next comes another slow track - Khili Re, This song for certain is an evergreen track, you can listen it endlessly. It flows through. A peace full track that is certainly needed in an album. Of course it won't be liked by all , However its certainly of my taste! Reene Bharadwaj sings it quite brilliantly. And of course the lyrics are awesome again.

The other two tracks include Ranjha Ranjha, which has good music and good lyrics but it's certainly not a track you'll hum among your friends. Good Track but its just good there are 4 other awesome tracks in the album. and of course there is the last track Kata Kata, it is average, I mean, we've heard quite many similar tracks in the past (those marriage tracks that come every now and then). The music is of course good but overall the track is average.

So All in All, Mani Ratnam has given A.R. Rahman the opportunity to experiment and he doesn't fail. He's in Perfect form after Blue which from his standards was just good and after some time, he's been provided with some really great lyrics by Gulzar and the selection of singers is just perfect.

My Pic: Beera, Behene De, Khili Re [I've uploaded videos at the end]

Rating : ****

Beera

Behene De