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… :)