Mausam - Nitin Sawhney (Philtre, 2005)

Use your imagination, your fantasy, and help us out here (see it as a thought-experiment if you like). Just take a minute of your day now and relax. Reflect; take the effort to think, to stop for just a moment and see where you are now. Imagine yourself having walked on the same road for ages. All your life you have filled your time with the usual, the safe, the known, that with which you had certainty. Though there is nothing wrong with that, just imagine, if you would have opened up your mind...

If you had tried to understand that one friend's difficulties, and not held on to your own beliefs, would you still have had those fights with him? If you had tried to free yourself from the safeness of your 'home, sweet home', would you not have seen more of the beauties of the world? If you had walked the other road, would you perhaps not have found new joys, new routes to your goal, new friends and new dreams? Yes, uncertainty brings difficulties. Taking the road of the unknown requires guts. It certainly involves risks and making choices in 'the dark'. You might just run into sorrow, into sadness. You could lose it all, you could lose yourself.

On the other hand, if you have had difficulties all your life, if you feel you have been neglected by that wizard some would call God, if you feel like you will have to live in misery for the rest of your life... (it would almost seem that you have been comforted by and got accustomed to pain)... Have you tried letting the sun in? Stepping out in the open?... Having walked on the same road all that time, have you once thought of abandoning the painful road of the past and just take a new pathway to your dreams?...
I would say, use your discrimination to judge where you came from, where you are now, what you can become and how you can hold an open mind to new beautiful opportunities to enrich your life. We get accustomed to walking the road we have walked all our life.

Nitin Sawhney is a gifted musician. He has the talent to blend different styles, genres, instruments, melodies, sounds and grooves… he might be called a master cook in music, a magician if I may say so. Beautiful tracks come to my mind: Nadia, The Conference, Rainfall, Prophecy... and these are just a few. All his musical pieces have a very distinct character. There is a global feeling by the way he blends everything. Or, perhaps, instead of calling it blending, he just lets the music flow…
His last album, Philtre, is a gem to me. The whole album is filled with a unity I cannot grasp yet. Effortlessly he moves from sound to sound, seemingly crossing the whole world and taking the listener on a journey. Both this, and having Reena Bhardwaj (see Yeh Rishta, an earlier blog) sing some of the most soothing melodies I have ever heard, has made him win my heart and mind with this album. Some of the lyrics are like haunting me ever since I first heard them, just like for example the lyrics of the song Mausam, sung by Reena Bhardwaj and Murtaza Khan.

Mausam, meaning 'weather' or 'season', is a song that to me holds a powerful message. Starting of with the confluence of a bansuri (bamboo flute) and strings, Reena takes over almost immediately with the first two lines.

Ek rang me jeena, jeevan ko
To live your life in one color
Aye jaan-e-tamanna, theek nahi
Oh my beloved, is not right

The smooth rhythms together with the strumming of the guitar seem to set the pace for the journey. Walking on the road we walked all our life. But the melodies and the sargam ('notes') sung by Murtaza Khan already show that there is more at the horizon… a new horizon... things we can acquire, dreams we can achieve, happiness we can make our own... And not having to wait too long, Reena shows new possibilities…

Gham aur khushi do raste hai
Pain and joy are two roads
Ek raah pe chalna theek nahi
To walk only one path is not right

Badal jaaye mausam
The weather changes
Khushi aaye, jaaye gham
And joy comes while pain leaves

Murtaza Khan showers the song with his beautiful sargam variations to the likings of a heavenly sweet shower of rain in mid-summer, only to find the sun shining brightly thereafter with Reena's voice. Their confluence in singing the last lines together is incredible. Having the bansuri adorn the visions of a new horizon, the song keeps on going. The torrents of Murtaza's sargam over the bright 'joy comes while pain leaves' is a delight.

The song, with very simple lyrics but with profound meaning, keeps on reverberating in my head. Just remember, there are two roads, and the beauty of life is captured in the changing weather... pain will leave and joy will come. Rest assured...

(Unfortunately, I could not find a full online version for listening. A sample can be found here: Juno Records :: Nitin Sawhney - Philtre. If someone finds a usefull link, please let me know and I'll add the link.)

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)