Some titbits from Bollywood!

Its been sometime since when I have thought of putting together some interesting trivia from Bollywood specially things relating to Hindi film music...So here they go...
Raj Kapoor, Shankar - Jaikishan (SJ), Shailendra and Hasrat are regarded as the best ever combination of a producer, music director and lyricists in the Hindi film industry. Their association spanned two decades (1948-67) from Barsaat to Mera Naam Joker before Shailendra died after his home production Teesri Kasam bombed. Though they were the best combination,  there was actually no collaboration. Shankar and Jaikishan used to compose separately and in later years Shailendra used to only write for Shankar and Hasrat for Jaikishan. To their credit, they all took these professionally and no album of theirs mentions which song has been penned by whom.
There was a song which SJ had composed for Lekh Tandon's Amrapali which he decided not to use and hence the same tune was given to Raj Kapoor by SJ. Subsequently, Lekh Tandon was advised by others that the song was actually required. But Raj Kapoor refused to part with it. Now Amrapali was a war film set in the times of the Mauryas in India and was under a huge budget. Lekh Tandon was under pressure to complete the film. It was decided that Shailendra would write the song and SJ would compose and Lata Mangeshkar would sing and everything to be completed in a day. To have a peaceful surrounding, Lekh Tandon asked SJ and Lata to wait in the studio while he went to a park with Shailendra. As providence would have, Shailendra could not manage to write a single line. After a few hours, they decided to return to the studio and inform others that the recording had to be postponed. As soon as they reached the studio, Shankar asked Shailendra - could he finish the song? Before Lekh Tandon could say that they could not manage a line Shailendra recited the entire song which he composed on the spot. The song was the superhit "Jao re jogi tum jao re" rendered immortally by Lata Mangeshkar and presented on screen by Vyjantimala.

Similarly Anand Bakshi and RD Burman were asked to create a song in an evening by Dev Anand for his film Hare Rama Hare Krishna. Anand Bakshi could not make a single line. Frustrated, RD said "Aap socho, main ek dum maarke aata hoon" ( You think while I have a smoke and come). Readers can guess, the song was the superhit " Dum maaro dum" finally made superhit by Asha Bhosle's rendition.

For the movie Teesri Manzil, RD Burman was under pressure to perform because he had displaced Shankar Jaikishan as the music director for the Nasser Hussain production house. The terms were if this movie was a hit, next 5 films of Nasser Hussain would have RD. Nasser Hussain was one of the biggest producer-director in the 70s and 80s. RD had composed "Aaja aaja main hoon pyaar tera" as a very tough song and invited Rafi and Asha for rehearsal. As it was expected Rafi got it right immediately but Asha could not get the "aa aa aaja aa aa aaja" phrase which was the clincher for the song. The whole day they tried but Asha could not. She returned with a sullen face and Lata asked her the reason. Asha narrated her incapability to which Lata said there should be nothing in music which the Mangeshkar family cannot achieve so Asha better keep up the name. The entire next day Asha sang only that phrase for about a 1000 times before the rehearsal. All her servants and even the car driver thought she had gone mad. But Asha got it right and we all know what a gem of a duet was by Rafi and Asha with Shammi Kapoor and Asha Parekh dancing to the tunes.

Magnificence munificence and extravagance

Have you ever seen a title of a blog to be so non-correlated? It only seems that the title is chosen purely to enforce a sense of rhyming. Well, to be honest its true to a large extent! However, its also a thought which sparked in me after my day-long tour to Dubai.

This was a full day trip organized by a tour company on an open top bus with defined stops and routes. The best part was you could hop-off and on the bus at any and every stop because every 20 minutes the next bus comes to pick you up. The bus also provided running commentary on various landmarks and areas of Dubai as the bus passed through the broad streets. The amazing part was the commentary was exactly synchronized with the landmark on your right or left.

The day ended with an hour long cruise on the Dubai creek again with a commentary and drinks on board as well.

After a full day in Dubai and covering almost all the major spots in the city (the city has too too many of them) I ended up revising and re-visiting them. (if you have any doubts please read my zodiac sign in my profile!). The conclusion was apart from a single fort and museum and the Gold Souk all I saw was expansive hotels, huge malls with all the biggest brands of the world and hotels and malls again.

The world islands under construction will actually resemble the world map from an aerial view when completed. The Palm Atlantis is a huge resort constructed on man made islands which on an aerial view will resemble a palm with a crescent. This is connected by an undersea tunnel from the mainland. The Burj Dubai is probably the tallest building in the world. The Burj Al Arab is the largest hotel in the world with a helipad on top. Federer and Agassi famously played a tennis match on the top of this hotel! The list goes on and on! Each of these monuments ( I don' t see any other word for them) were the tallest or largest building in the Gulf or in the world when they were built.

The question which naturally comes is how much of this is serving the purpose? Is it being driven by demand from the wealthy all over the world or is it an artificially created pomp and hype intending to attract everyone in the world?

However, the questions remaining aside, for tourists like us it provides simply a magnificent sight to behold. The munificence of the land and the people together with the extravagance in spending as well as thinking (even if you have money to spend how many countries in the world have even thought of creating such structures leave alone actually creating them?) emerges in a magnificent splendor and is a sight to behold specially during a river cruise ride after sunset.

Hence the title magnificence munificence and extravagance!!!