Maestro

There are movies I like for their intriguing stories, there are movies I like for the actors in them, there are movies I like for their sheer entertainment factor, there are movies I like for their profoundness and the inspiration they provide. And then, there are a special category of movies I like only for their background score. And one such movie is The Holiday.

I'm a tad bit too late in watching the movie (it was released in 2006), but there's nothing that kept me riveted to the movie than the amazing background score -- perfectly in tune with the mood of the movie -- easy, breezy, feel-good, on-top-of-the-world, want-to-fall-in-love type of music. Simply amazing. (Sigh. If I were a little better with words, I could've made it sound so so much better).

I have the greatest admiration for people who have the gift of music, be it composing, playing an instrument or singing. I consider them the luckiest people in the world. To create such soul-touching music, or to transport people into another world by their voice, I believe, he/she must be just as great at heart, don't you think? I wish I were good at at least one of these things.

It isn't the first time I liked the background score of a movie. I've liked the background scores of Pirates Of The Caribbean, Madagascar, and more recently Despicable Me, but none of them as much as The Holiday. The music in The Holiday was so good it compelled me to know who composed such mesmerizing music. Found out it was Hans Zimmer, who not only composed music for The Holiday, but also for Pirates Of The Caribbean, Madagascar and Despicable Me! Unbelievable or what.

Hans Zimmer. You rock!

Of course, everybody knows he composed that universally popular Mission Impossible tune, but did you know he also composed music for The Lion King, Shark Tale, Batman Begins, The Da Vinci Code, The Simpsons Movie, The Dark Knight, Kung Fu Panda, Angels and Demons and Inception? I didn't. This man is a genius (I mean, really. He is ranked #72 on the list of the "Top 100 Living Geniuses" published by The Daily Telegraph)

Speaking of music composers, I also like John Powell (the movie Happy Feet introduced me to him) and "The" John Williams (ever since Harry Potter happened), but Hans Zimmer is hands-down my favourite. Better than A.R.Rahman? Hell yeah. (A.R.Rahman is still my Indian favourite though. Don't know if we'll have another Rahman in the country. Ever.)

P.S. Did you know Hans Zimmer is composing music for Ra.One?

P.P.S. "Maestro" is the name of that amazing soundtrack from The Holiday, that is the cause for this post.

Fly Little Wing

My favourite band is The Corrs. I was introduced to this band by a video on YouTube. It was a video of a little Korean (I think) girl singing Summer Sunshine so cutely while travelling by car. (Sadly, the video no longer exists) I instantly fell in love with the song and browsed the lyrics and got the song. A few months later, I was looking for some soft music on the internet when I came across a song sung by a woman. The music was the most melodious and harmonious I'd ever heard. It was freely available for download and I did. A few days later when I browsed the lyrics of the song, I found that this song was sung by The Corrs too. The song was "Runaway". The song I had downloaded wasn't the original but by some party singer. Slowly, I listened to all their their songs one after the other, each one just as good as the other. And now, three years later they're my favourite and THE BEST contemporary band I've known. I'd compare them to ABBA, all of whose songs I love.

It was only recently that I watched their interviews on YouTube. And boy was I impressed. Just like every favourite artiste of mine, they're so down-to-earth and humble. They speak of their success and fame as not really a big deal, as if it was a natural thing that happened to everybody every day. They said they made music because they loved it and that they were only fortunate that people loved their music and made them successful. They didn't make music with the aim of becoming huge pop stars one day, and that struck me. I love it when people do things just out of sheer love for it. Of course, people who make such wonderful music must be wonderful at heart as well which makes The Corrs even more endearing.

I recently went through my old files, files created over a year ago. They were mostly artwork, ringtones, recorded songs, attempts at stories and poems, postcards sent and received pictures of drawings in the corners of my class notebooks. I was surprised at all the things I'd done while in the hostel. I wouldn't do half of what I did then, now. And that's only because now, I feel pressured to create artwork to impress people, my teachers, my peers, my classmates. I want them to say it's good. And that has made me extremely conscious and over-critical of myself. That is turning out to be my biggest hindrance in completing animation assignments. It was so much better when I didn't have a deadline, didn't have expectations to cater to, did art because I loved it, when I did it for me, for the love of it, without having to care what somebody else thought of it. It's different now, and I despise it. I'm starting to doubt my ability to survive the animation industry when I have such difficulty in completing assignments. At the risk of sounding cliched, art is an expression of the soul. You can't keep me at gun point and make me do it.

Another reason for the apparent lack of interest in animation, is that I've found a new love interest. World history. And International Affairs. (Ha. What did you think?) I find myself desperately and frantically reading articles on history and international affairs (politics for now, but I want to read up on trade too) (Ironically, this was the part I hated the most during school.) All this reading and documentary watching on YouTube leaves little time for anything else. And by anything else, I mean lunch and dinner too. Yeah. It's that bad. And that's affecting my preparation for CAT too. I can no longer remember the 18s table.

So basically, after all this while, I still have no idea what I want to do in life. What is it that I'm really interested in, love doing, that would fetch me a decent salary? The MBA decision is only because there was no way I would spend the rest of my life coding and thinking about programming languages. I read that MBA is for people looking for a change of field. If there is another option, I'd be glad if you could let me know.

Angel on earth

Who's the angel on earth?

Aww... Thanks! But no, it's not me. It's this little girl from Music Ka Maha Muqabla who was also a participant on Star Voice of India. Anwesha Dutta, like I already mentioned in one of my previous posts, before you truly madly deeply fell in love with my blog. Listen to her sing and I bet you'll experience heaven. Too bad her team didn't win MKMM. Then again, since the winners were Shankar Mahadevan's team I'm not complaining either.

Here... the angel from heaven with an earthly mortal, singing one of my favourite songs... Tere Mere Milan Ki Ye Rainaa..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V4NHyjswXM

This is isn't her best performance or anything, but it's beautifully sung. If you want to watch her best performance, listen to her rendition of Mere Dholna/Ami Je Tomar from Bhool Bhulaiya on Star Voice of India. It'll blow your mind away!

Gurus of Peace

Here's one of my favourite songs. Well.. I kinda felt patriotic today, so here is my favourite patriotic song. Actually, I can't call it patriotic, it's a song on World Peace. It's called Gurus of Peace and is sung by A R Rahman (my favourite music composer), popular Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and a bunch of kids. I think it's a beautiful song..

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Shreya Ghoshal's Khoee Khoee Yaadein

Here is Shreya Ghoshal's (my 2nd favourite singer) video from Sa Re Ga Ma. Khoee Khoee Yaadein.. beautifully sung!

Shreya Ghoshal Videos

Shreya Ghoshal is one of my favorite singers. Here are 2 of her videos as a participant of Sa Re Ga Ma.

Jeeva Laga (Marathi Song)

Sunio Ji (Film: Lekin)