Amodini's Book Reviews

Book Reviews and Recommendations

Hindi Music Downloads

Written By: amodini - Jul• 22•05
Anyone downloading good quality Hindi music from the net ? Why do I ask ? Because I’d like to – but just can’t find the latest songs. Tried Emusic, and although they do have quite a few Hindi albums, and their service is quite good, ie; easy downloads and good search/browse capability, all music seems to be of the 80s and 90s, i.e.; no Rakht, no Dhoom, nothing even moderately of this era. Next tried Napster, but the same problem again, plus their search capability isn’t as good. Also these 2 services seem to have songs only from Saregama – what’s the deal with that ? Where art thou – O Tips, Venus, T-Series, Magnasound, Universal etc. ?

OK, then I traipse over to CrimsonBay, which is a wholly Hindi music site, and honestly thought their collection is quite large, they seem to be stuck in the 90’s too. Which means that they too don’t have the latest tracks online. The price seems pretty reasonable though – .69c/per song. Now, I have heard of Soundbuzz, but haven’t been able to load it up on my browser; browser hangs, and then after I while I give up. There is also this site called MegaCinema, which I haven’t checked out yet – site design seems to crowded and full.

Smashits does have the latest songs (all the songs from what I can see), but you can only stream music, and not download it, although the download thing is apparently in the works. Neat service though, you know if you’re working on the PC, and want to listen to stuff; can stream the entire album, or just repeat one song over and over again. Anyone tried Rhapsody, MusicMatch etc. ? As far as P2P services go, have been warned off Kazaa, since it downloads spyware on your machine and messes it up. Apparently there is a
KazaaLite, a version of Kazaa without all the nasty spyware – anyone tried that ?

Some sites do have songs to download, but a lot of them are in .ram format, which you have to convert to .rm to burn to a CD. And I haven’t tried it, but apparently the quality really deteriorates during conversion. Did manage to download .mp3 but the quality is bad – its like listening to a static-y radio station.

OK, end of (information-filled ?) tirade. So, if you have any suggestions on Hindi music websites, or any good/bad experiences trying to download music, for thegreater good of (Hindi music loving) mankind and self, please post a comment and let us lesser mortals know.

Posted in bollywood, books | 3 Comments »

A vacation is what you…..

Written By: amodini - Jul• 15•05
….need, when you come back from that 3-week whirlwind trip to India. Last summer, or atleast part of it was spent in Delhi. And needless to say, its hot, with swirling gusts of dusty winds, which manage to dump thin layer of dust inside the home, right after it has been swept and mopped. We don’t venture outside the home in the afternoon, and now that everyone has inverters, the load shedding isn’t that unbearable either. I did manage to shop though, heat or no heat. Of course, Delhi is a shopper’s paradise. Everytime I buy fabric, I am amazed at the variety, the weave, and the different and beautiful prints and techniques used. There’s a fabric for every mood, moment and occassion. Some so stunningly beautiful, that you have to just stop, look and feel, and buy possibly.

Everywhere I shop though, the newly sprung malls are hard to miss. Cool and air-conditioned, this is a welcome break from Delhi’s heat. And crowded, oh so crowded, especially during the weekends. Its like everyone’s favorite way to avoid the heat. Most people are just lounging around, not even browsing the stores. Or they are sipping coffees in the newly trendy Barista. Some make it to the attached movie theaters. In Delhi, you find well-dressed crowds, women often heavily-jewelleried, and wearing dressy suits. The younger pack mostly sporting jeans and other “in” apparel (are we hip, or what ?).

You walk into a restaurant or a service-oriented store, and the staff is pretty young. Like 20-somethings or just-out-of-college folk handling the cash register or showing jewellery, or just plain cleaning up. One thing is for sure, this is not the regular Haldiram kind of service counter – no old fogies here. Opportunity, you say ? Knocking very loudly.

I leave the malls, and browse through the popular markets of Delhi, where people abound and parking doesn’t. Nevertheless, such pleasure, browsing ! Little shops, cheek-by-jowl, walk-in-peruse, walkout. Of course, in some cases, some needy shop proprietor gets hold of you and you need to indulge in a little off-the-cuff Q & A about your intents and purposes on perusing/buying stuff.

As I pass by the fast food section, of the open market, my mouth waters involuntarily. The smell of deep-fried chole-puri, reaches deep into my gut, and causes me to physically stop. I succumb. Amid large crowds of people, in sweltering heat, sweat dripping off my brow in little salty drops, I relish my bites of puri and spicy chole, with red crescents of onion and tiny circles of green peppers. It looks lovely, very color-coordinated, lying steaming hot on my hastily washed plate. It tastes amazing too. The shop-keeper offers me a Coke, and I take the can, returning a much-soiled currency note to him. The ubiquitous coke helps me in keeping the fierceness of the fiery green peppers at bay. And so I eat, and sip ….

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Of film and fancy

Written By: amodini - Jul• 15•05
Bunty Aur BabliJust when you think there aren’t going to be many good Hindi films this year, there’s a flurry of quite a few quality movies. The year turned with Bunty aur Babli. Yes, “B-a-B” did end with a whimper, but hey, it was pretty decent in the first half. Then there was Parineeta, D, Paheli, Sarkar all of which show promise. To get a list of decent Hindi films, i.e.; those you can watch without cringing (a lot), see my list for 2005. There is also the “serious” genre being catered to with stuff like Hazaaron khwaishen aisi, Black, Page 3 etc. So, really take your pick.

I mean, people, there was a time, when Jeetendra dancing in his trademark white shoes, was all we could look forward to. Talk about progress ! Of course, now we have his son Tushar, and daughter Ekta producing abominable films (like Kya kool hai hum), and those atrocious, sindoor-filled TV serials. Really, I preferred the white shoes.

As far as upcoming films are concerned, “Viruddh”, looks good. It is about an older couple’s (Sharmila and Amitabh) fighting for justice in a corruption-embedded-system , after their son’s death. Rumored to be like Saaransh (which was fabulous), Viruddh gears up expectations with a powerful starcast, and a decent enough director -Mahesh Manjrekar. Of course Mahesh Manjrekar is no Mahesh Bhatt, but look how Bhatt has fallen.

CompanyI’ve heard a lot about “Matrubhoomi”, rave reviews, entry into various film festivals etc.; I believe its released in India, but haven’t been able to see it yet. “Mangal Pandey: The Rising”, starring Aamir Khan, is also anticipated. Saif and Preeti’s “Salaam Namaste”, if nothing else, should be entertaining. And “Apaharan” shows promise, although can’t really tell. There is of course, the next Ram Gopal Verma offering “James”, which judging by previous work (D, Sarkar, Company) should do well. And then there is “Yahaan”, which looks flaky storywise and is directed by debutante director Shoojit Sarkar (who is an unknown factor), but am inclined to think positive, on account of the fact that it stars Jimmy Shergill (big fan since Haasil happened).

Filmwise, looks like a good second half of the year.

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Reading my green tea-leaves

Written By: amodini - Mar• 31•05
I am a tea-drinker. Not too much. But when I do, its got to be that simmered, boiled, golden brown, extremely sweet concoction, which will wake the dead (if needed). So, when at home, will actually go to the pains of boiling this stuff on the fire, for my cuppa tea. This doesn’t actually work very well at work, primarily because of absence of kitchen paraphernelia, and the fact that I hate black tea, and creamer. And I’m too lazy/non-fastidious to get milk from the vending machine. Too much work. The other option, besides being tea-less (so to speak) is the vending machine. However, those of who have experienced vending-machine tea, know that vending machine tea is bad, awful, like poison.

Then the other day, went to this Chinese resaturant, where when I asked for tea, they served up this fragrant, delicately flavored green tea. I drank the whole pot. Asked them what it was, but apparently it was this top secret house blend. So, am now sampling various green teas, in the hope that I will find the one. To date the best I’ve had, as far as commercial, store-bought brands are concerned is the “Good Earth Jasmine Green Tea Blend” . Any other suggestions ?

Apparently, its also supposed to pretty healthy.

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You are what you sing

Written By: amodini - Mar• 27•05
Been listening to Raghav’s debut album “Storyteller”. Out of the 16 tracks, I only actually like and listen to 4 over and over again :

#1 – Let’s work it out
#10 – Can’t get enough
#11 – Angel eyes
#16 – Teri baaton ne

The other 12 tracks are interesting and pretty experimental, but not neccesarily earth shaking stuff. Raghav even attempts a rehash of “Gori tera gaaon bada pyara”. However am truly impressed with the way he mixes hindi music with a very non-traditional groove, and the 4 tracks listed above are very good. I’ve seen some of the song videos, and they aren’t as well done.

Another group, this time Indian, from whom I await good music is “A Band of Boys”. This 5 member group, was formed and groomed with the help of Leslie Lewis, Hariharan and Vinod Nair in 2001. They released a debut album “Yeh bhi woh bhi” a couple of years back, and we haven’t heard anything since (I hope they haven’t dis-banded). The debut album featured seven tracks, and honestly all of them are pretty good. Out of the 5 band members (and each member can sing), only Cherokee shows true mettle while singing, but the compositions are good. “She drives me crazy” is my favorite of the album, with “Tera chehra” a close second. Each song explores a different style of music, some romantic ballads, some hip, and some just plain folksy.

Another CD playing in my car currently, is the music CD of the movie “Boom“. The film was a disaster, but the music is fantastic. Out of the 15 tracks on the CD, Track #2 “Mundian to bach ke” by Panjabi MC is the best, followed by Track #6 “Punjabi 5-0” from the Dum Dum Project. Also very good are Track #3 “Nachna tere naal” by The Rishi Rich Project (featuring Jay Sean and Juggy D), and Track #4 “I see you baby” by Groove Armada.

Categories : _music

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Flesh and blood and all things Indian

Written By: amodini - Mar• 23•05
Cracking India: A NovelJust finished reading Bharati Kirchener’s “Sharmila’s book”, and its OK, just OK. The story is off-beat in that an American born Desi female goes back to India for an arranged marriage, and steps right into our patriarchial Bharat, complete with cliched (although true – you really meet people like that) characters. The main reason I didn’t like it as much as I could have, were the language, and the flow of the book. The story was stilted, and sort of moved from point to point in a very “jerky” manner. Didn’t have pause or presence, or wholesomeness to prose. It reminded me of Bapsi Sidhwa’s “American Brat” which I thought was pretty awful. It was all the more dissapointing because I read “American Brat” after reading “Cracking India”. And “Cracking India” was nothing less than a masterpiece.

The Mango SeasonTalking about “coming home” books, have read one of Amulya Malladi’s novels “The mango season” in which the protagonist Priya has to go back and tell her parents about her live-in American boyfriend. Malladi makes an interesting book of it, and she tells very well the Indian side of the story by comparing Priya’s life with that of her village-bound plain-looking cousin.

And then there is Kavita Daswani’s “For Matrimonial purposes” which is bad, bad, bad. Lack-lustre , shallow sounding prose coupled with lack-of-depth, and badly etched characters made the book-reading seem like an endless, black tunnel. Also Anju (the protagonist) was pretty annoying and seemed to lack a spine (ALL she wants to do is be married). Her character seemed dithering and unable to make up her mind. On one hand she’s this modern, independent woman from New York (dropping designer label names like crazy) and on the other she’s wanting to be oh-so-traditional, and striving toward her goal, which (I’m guessing) is to be barefoot and pregnant.

Read Chitra Divakaruni’s novels a couple of years back. And although I do like her writing, her books are a sure-shot way of getting depressed, because although compassionate, they are oh-so-sad (“Sister of my heart”, “Vine of desire”). So,I’ve sort of laid off them for a while (a very long while) and am busy reading “funny” chick-lit.

Posted in culture and society, india, recommended | Comments Off on Flesh and blood and all things Indian

Two paths diverging in the woods

Written By: amodini - Mar• 21•05
Sliding DoorsAh, the eternal question ! What to watch, you know, filmwise ? I know which movies are on DVD, but I don’t know whether I’ll like them, hence end up seeing some real stinkers. I mean, the premise looks good, but whaddya know, the movie isn’t. So on my random movie-pick up sojourns, I recently got a good one.

“Sliding doors” which didn’t do too well at the box-office. Stars Gwyneth Paltrow, who etches out the role of Helen, who goes to work one day, gets sacked, and tries to make her way home by taking the subway. Nothing special here, except that from here onwards the movie takes a dual path, in the first case she misses the subway, and in the second she doesn’t. Her life takes different turns depending on the path, and the director runs both in parallel. Quite an interesting technique, and made for a nice, romantic drama (not a comedy really – although apparently marketed as such). Went well with the popcorn.

Categories : _films , _film_reviews
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Water, water everywhere …..

Written By: amodini - Mar• 21•05
Open Water (Widescreen Edition)Recently saw the film “Open Water”. Its inspired by a real-life incident, and is about this married diving couple, marooned in open water. And I mean really open water, not a hint of land, or any other creature around (oh, except for the sharks, and other marine life). They don’t have a boat, or supplies, or any means of knowing where they are. The cast was pretty much these two characters, the husband Daniel (Daniel travis) and the wife Susan (Blanchard Ryan), and their activities, and the movie held my interest. Pretty impressive.

Was even more impressed when I realised that the entire movie had been directed, produced, shot, financed etc. by a husband and wife team (Chris Kentis and Laura Lau), shooting on weekends. And they have a kid. That has got to be pure passion for film-making. Amazing. Having said that, take it that this is a good film, this is not a blow-your-mind film, unless you consider its making, and the enormous amount of effort that these two put into it.

My existential philosophy … is keeping away from films like “I Heart Huckabees” in the future. This film is a lot of something made from nothing. Get it ? I did, …well sort of. Or maybe I did. Its about idealistic Albert fighting to save the marshlands, from the cruel invasion of shopping malls, and detouring into the path of two existential detectives, from where the film descends into mindless whackiness. Don’t get me wrong, you will have to excercise the little grey cells to watch this one, but nothing good will come out of it. It is probably satire, but satire which you have to work very hard to get. Honestly, I appreciate a director who doesn’t spoonfeed me, but to expect me to grow the wheat, harvest it and make bread all on my own is a little too much to ask.

The Time Traveler's WifeJust finished reading this fantastic book, “The time traveller’s wife” by Audrey Niffenegger . The photo of Ms. N on the back cover, makes it seem like she would speak in ice-chips. I was pleasantly surprised therefore to find her prose warm and fluid, sashaying back and forth in time. She uses the concept of time-travel in a novel way, to illustrate love, and marriage, and companionship. This is not a scientific book, we don’t know how Henry can time-travel, he just can. The material of the book works on the issues surrounding his time-travel, i.e; where he travels and why, and what repercussions this has on him, and his near and dear ones.

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Straight from the horse’s mouth

Written By: amodini - Mar• 20•05
Or rather mare. Which mare ? The mare that has read the book, seen the film, spent the weekend … doing sundry things, and experienced stuff – some good and some bad, and some which can only be classified as “yuck”. So, what now ? Whither goes this ? Down the random review road … which leads to the review room. I’m going to review (more like casual show and tell, and wildly gesticulate when needed) books, films, and music. Besides that I’m also going to randomly write on the stuff that happens. And doesn’t. And could. Or would. Or should.

Lke quality of life in suburban America. Or my breathing space. Or a description of the duel between self and the creepy crawly which slithered in through a closed (??) window on a rainy night, and my inability to dislodge the thing from my carpet, despite several energetic swipes with a rolled-up magazine.

Back to the pragmatic : stuff I review will probably be items I’ve recently/read/seen/listened to, unless of course the piece was so superb that I remembered it after all this time, or it was so terrible that it deserved to be ripped into shreds. OK, you see. You get my drift. So, why would you read this ? Because : it will warn you off stuff . I mean you don’t even have to rent the movie to know its terrible. Because: it will guide you to stuff that you (will hopefully) like. Because: it will be atleast mildly entertaining.

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