Aahista Aahista – Swades (2004)

The movie is directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, who also made the movie Lagaan. For Swades he chose the same powerful combination of A.R. Rahman and Javed Akhtar for the music and the lyrics. I believe the song Aahista Aahista has only been released on the album of Swades. I have come across the deleted scene of this song on YouTube recently, which confirmed this for me. I did not come across it in the movie, and while watching I did not immediately miss it, I was too mesmerized by the other songs in the movie. Songs like the impossibly beautiful and enchanting Saanwariya Saanwariya by Alka Yagnik, the catchy Yun Hi Chala Chal with Hariharan, Kailash Kher and Udit Narayan telling about life (go listen to it!!!), the challenging Dekho Na by Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik, which has impossible melodies and a fantastic feel, the calling of the homeland in Yeh Jo Des by the ever haunting voice of A.R. Rahman… And let’s certainly not forget the heartwarming Yeh Tara Wo Tara by Udit Narayan and the beautiful song Pal Pal Hai Bhaari by Madhushree, Vijay Prakash and Ashutosh Gowariker. Of the last, I can only say that I thoroughly enjoy the way Rahman is able to bring to life the feelings and plight of Sita through melody, for which Javed Akhtar gave some impossibly beautiful lyrics, in this small Ram-katha-like song.

How I would love to discuss all these songs, since I find the whole album very powerful and full of emotions, but I will confine myself here only to the song mentioned in the title: Aahista Aahista, sung by Udit Narayan and Sadhana Sargam. It is unknown to so many people since it is only on the audio album and therefore it gives me more reasons to talk about; I would highly recommend anyone to listen to it. It is a ‘lori’ or a lullaby. I myself love the Indian lullabies… :) One other favourite of mine is So Jaa Chanda from the movie Mission Kashmir.

But without further ado, let’s not waste precious space and time, and move to the song itself. Udit’s humming, like a mother rocking the cradle of her newborn child, sets the first moods of the song, and gives it a feeling that rocks it’s way through the song. The mood of the whole song is made by the soft melodies sung, with only very subtle percussion, a harp-like sound, flute, some bells and side rhythm and the arrangements by A.R. Rahman, perhaps on keyboard or by live violins.

‘Oh sleep, come…’ Bells, strings and the harp-like sound start. ‘Slowly, slowly… oh sleep, come to these two eyes… Softy, gently… oh sleep, bring some innocent dreams to these two eyes… All the winds flow sleepily… the atmosphere is sleepy…’
The song, already having some pace, which is difficult to notice since it is so delicately sung and arranged, gains more momentum from here on, when Udit with his sweet voice moves to the upper octave and is joined by a simple drum and very elegant string patterns, creating the platform for Udit’s voice to gain strength in the higher notes.
‘Oh sleep, come to me, and rest yourself on these closing eyes… Slowly, slowly… Oh sleep, come to these two eyes…’

In the music piece that follows, the bells and the harp create the atmosphere to drown in dreams, to find oneself lost in the silence of the night. It’s the easiness with which Rahman creates the stepping stones for the ‘sleep’ to come to us, crossing the melodies, that haunts me.

‘Soft and tender is the dark blue night… many memories tap on this heart… The cradle of memories holds some lost matters… Oh sleep, come and sing a lullaby of bygone days… and show me again my lost dreams… Rock the cradle of my memories…’
The plucking of strings, that so softly starts in the background, almost seems like the footsteps of sleep coming near. ‘Slowly, slowly… Oh sleep, come in these two eyes…’

The instrumental interlude brings even more momentum to the song. The complex way in which different melodies mix, the fullness that is achieved by Rahman, is praiseworthy. Udit hums again. I know for a fact that he loves children. He has as far as I know one son himself, but as I saw him once on TV talk about children and the joy he received from looking at and working with children, I immediately knew how big and warm his heart was. It can be felt through his singing. His humming reminds me of that. But as softly as he starts, the outcome is somewhat surprising... Sadhana Sargam takes over as gently as taking over a baby from the arms of another.

‘If you wish I can spread you a silken blanket of scented air… From the blue sky I can take the moon to make you a pillow…’ Udit again takes over, with the beauty of their voices mixing with the first word when taking over the lines: ‘I can bring the light of the moon, and spread it over you… and I will hum you a song…’ Sadhana: ‘And at that very moment, very stealthily, sleep will come and rest itself on your eyelashes…’
My God, how full of feeling do they both sing the words ‘will come’ in the last line together. I find it difficult to comprehend; with what genius mind Rahman has made and composed these and the following lines… Of course, Udit and Sadhana deserve at least equal credit for their seemingly endless stream, a garland, of beautifully picked notes and melodies…
They sing together: ‘Sweet sweet sleep comes…’ and then Sadhana alone: ‘Slowly, slowly… oh sleep come to these two eyes…’

They repeat the main theme and lines, alternately, singing themselves one at a time or together… As waves, not with force but as if the waves join each other, they touch and let go of each other’s voices. It almost sounds sad, considering the melody and the haunting way in which they sing the last lines. But the way Rahman pulls it all again to the soft instrumentals at the end really gives you the idea of having pleasant dreams and memories of bygone days… it in a way sounds melancholic, how the song ends. And for me, it brings nostalgia. It’s the beauty of childhood, that innocence, that one can sleep without fear and heavy feelings.

If only my sleep would bring me those pleasant memories…

(The translation has partly been adapted from bollywhat.com. The song can be found both on musicindiaonline.com and raaga.com for online listening. See for instance Raaga.com :: Swades Tracklist. To see the deleted scene of this song in Swades, see for instance YouTube.com :: Swades deleted scene Aahista. I would recommend to listen to the song first though, it gives in my opinion more depth to the music to hear it first without the scenes. The scenes are beautiful, but already give the music quite a twist.)

Yeh Rishta - Meenaxi (2004)

Yeh Rishta from the film “Meenaxi: A Tale of 3 Cities” is a song very close to my heart. Every time I hear it, I am reminded of the beauty of friendship. I cannot say more, since I consider this quite personal, let’s just say, that through a very dear friend of mine I heard the beauty in this song, or maybe through the song I saw the beauty within my friend.
In the same movie you can hear Do Kadam, a very soulful song by Sonu Nigam, the very powerful Chinnamma Chilakkamma by the powerhouse voice of Sukhwinder Singh, Asha Bhosle in a very sensuous but strong Dhuan Dhuan and the colourful voice of Alka Yagnik in the evenly colourful (and melodically difficult to grasp (which makes it even more attractive)) Rang De. Also a soul stirring Noor-Un-Ala-Noor can be found, a power packed qawwali so it seems, to praise the Almighty. Further on the album, I find noteworthy, some percussion tracks by percussionists Shivamani and Hossam Ramzy.

I have unfortunately not yet seen the movie. It is directed by M.F. Husain, music by A.R. Rahman. The lyrics for Yeh Rishta are by Rahat Indori, and are sung by Reena Bhardwaj. This was her first song ever in a Bollywood movie. An extremely sweet voice, and the capability to bring lots of feelings in her songs: she sings awesome. I also know that she has sung tracks on Nitin Sawhney’s albums (Human and Philtre). Simply wow.

The song immediately starts with a mesmerizing humming or sighing of a female voice, in rhythm, over a dreamy pattern of strings and synthesized effects. “Someone showing a true dream, and becomes one with your eyes… this bond (relation)… what is the name of this bond?”
The drums start, are beautifully arranged and mix up to become a simple groove, with a clear pattern, to pave the way of the rest of the song. But as clear and firm as it stands, it holds great strength, and still feels gentle. Reena’s voice seamlessly blends with the rhythm. “When the sun starts to tire, and light grows dim, something unknown clings to my breath… I come closer to my heart and my heart closer to me… What is the name of this bond?”
The rhythm stops in the middle of these lines, to make way for a set of guitar chords together with more room for the bass guitar to play with the melody and some synthesized sounds. It has a wholly different feel than the full drums, and just gives enough contrast to be amazed of the creativity and the easiness with which A.R. Rahman seems to blend the totally different sounds. Also the sound of only Reena’s voice over the strumming of the guitar is a delight. And when the drums return at the end of these lines, a certain fullness is achieved, since the guitar and bass fill up all possible empty spaces that might have remained before.

Halfway the song, a somewhat drastic change makes all of the music stop with the reverb of a big drum. Slowly the sound of water arises, as if a boat is being peddled, or as if one is sitting next to a stream (not having seen the movie makes it difficult what exactly happens). On the sound of the water, slowly the music starts, very gently, flowing with the stream of water. The lyrics also dwell upon these waters: “If in these silent streams one drops a pearl, ripples appear, and the ripples become a storm… (drums start again) What is the name of this bond?”

“I keep on making pictures, on these broken voices… and keep searching for a face, on walls or doors… I am not near myself and someone calls me from far off… what is the name of this bond?” The song after a while ends with the humming of the melody of the main phrase, and the strings fade away.

There are many words in this song that keep haunting me. The words “Yeh Rishta” (this bond) in the first line, and every repeat of that, are so full of meaning and feeling. What is this bond? What is it that we feel, in a relation with someone? It does not matter what kind of relation. It does not matter how far you are from each other or how closely you know each other. The feeling and bond might seem to be as big as a mountain. And in some true friendships, or any other kind of loving relation, we are shown dreams that become realities, or realities that feel like the softness, joy and beauty of a dream… and we certainly find that we come closer to our heart, and our heart comes closer to us…
Sometimes we indeed keep on searching for that one face of the person that is on our mind. How often does it not happen that time passes by while we think of a loved one, minutes seem seconds and hours seem minutes… That we hope to find that person just around the corner of the street…
What does this bond tell us? What does it mean? What do we get from it, and why can’t we grasp it? What is so haunting about it? What is the reason it comes? And what is the name of this bond? :)

(The song can be found both on musicindiaonline.com and raaga.com for online listening. See for instance: Raaga.com :: Meenaxi Tracklist)

Lighting up the Music

A possibility to write things! Starting as a simple experiment to see who reads this and finds my writings worthy of reading. About the content of this blog: I am not intending to tell life-stories here. At this point I also want to try to avoid this blog of becoming a dumping ground for all my random thoughts. I would rather see a structured movement towards an enrichment of my mind and feelings.

At this moment, I intend to talk about music, but will not exclude the possibility of talking about other things in the future (if I am at all persistent enough to keep up this activity of writing). I have a love for many things, different forms of art, nature, science, philosophy, friendship and to a certain extent also literature and poetry, so perhaps I am tempted to write also about other things than music.

The idea I had, was to pick a song from time to time, and analyse it, in various ways. It most likely would be my interpretation of a song, and I do not intend to generalize the feelings I have with the song. I will also always try to take the positive aspects from the song, avoiding my comments to become a review or critique towards the song in any possible way. I am not rating music, I am discussing it, loving it, admiring it, bringing it to the one who is reading, I am worshipping it. Nothing else.

I think that I will pick the more commonly known songs and tracks, or at least accessible, than the quite unfamiliar albums that I have in my collection. This, both because I do not wish to emphasize on songs that no one knows (it would be quite boring to read perhaps) and I want to connect with ideas of others. So I think it will be the more popular music, but still the songs that did not get enough emphasis in my perspective. Do forgive me if I pick songs that are unknown to you... I will try to see to it that the songs I pick are also somewhere to be found on the internet, for online listening.

I welcome all comments on my writings, as long as it is constructive and can help towards a better understanding. Both people who disagree and people who feel the same about the songs are welcome to let me know about this. In fact, I would love the idea of communicating about music with anyone who feels both challenged and attracted to that idea. But I will only engage in these communications, if it holds a respectful mind towards music in general and the musicians involved in the songs.

About me: I am very much into music, love to make music and lose myself in it, but am no professional. All my comments must be seen as if an amateur is talking, since I can hardly call myself an expert on any genre of music.

Something more... I will be tempted to continue this in the future only if people find this interesting to read. Otherwise, it would be more logically for me to keep the analysis to myself...

Also, I wish to mention this. I am writing in English, which is not my mother tongue. Though I love the English language, I do not feel that I have full command over it. If at any times I make mistakes in my writings, please understand this much, that I would have rather written in my own language when it comes to expressing myself, but see it as a useful and exciting challenge to write in English.

That’s it for now… First song to be added soon! Let me again emphasize that this is no review or anything of the song. I simply describe what I hear and the notions I find interesting to mention as well as what I feel when listening to the song. These all are personal interpretations, though I do try to keep it general. I however cannot avoid the text becoming a subjective view on a song. I do wish the reader to understand these notions before commenting or misunderstanding my views and writings.

Ah, forgot to mention something. One might wonder why I called this blog 'Light up the Music'. There were several reasons. All the other cool names that I thought of were already in use. I had the help of a very good friend of mine, a young and talented musician himself, going by the (artist)name of Genesis, who came up with some very good titles; but unfortunately none of those were available. After brainstorming on this matter, we came up with 'Light up the Music', since it would mostly be a blog about music, and shedding a different light upon it. An interesting other interpretation can be given; Deepak also means 'light' in Hindi. I do not claim in any way to be connected with music as if I would be ‘the light’, but I found it an interesting use of the meaning of the words.

I will leave it at this for now. It’s already quite long… :)