Music Videos to make you Cringe

As I vaguely mentioned in the post "Music Videos to Cherish", here is a post with some of my favorite songs that were brutally murdered on-screen. The short list of credits before each video tells you the artists (singers, music directors, lyricists) whose work was killed, those who are to blame (movie directors, choreographers) and the perhaps innocent and definitely ignorant victims (actors).

By far, the First prize goes to:

saaki saaki, from Musafir (2004)
singers: Sukhwinder Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan
music director & lyricist: Anand Raj Anand
movie director: Sanjay Gupta
choreographer: unnamed, maybe he/she is hiding?
actors: Sanjay Dutt, Koena Mitra and a bunch of minions


Its like Sukhwinder poured out his soul only to have gold-toothed Sanjay Dutt laze about on a swarm of women and play with his pocket-knife while Koena Mitra has a seizure on the floor. Well, to be honest, the atmosphere is there: the set is intriguing and at times Koena does somewhat resemble the temptation of saaki. But while Sunidhi goads and teases Sukhwinder, Koena Mitra has a seizure on the floor. I can go on about this, but I won't of course, there are other videos to criticize yet.
~

The next song is downright painful to watch:

mind blowing mahiya, from Cash (2007)
singer: Sunidhi Chauhan
music director & lyricist: Vishal & Shekhar
movie director: Anubhav Sinha
choreographer: Remo and Rajeev Goswami
actors: Ajay Devgan, Shamita Shetty and a bunch of minions


I understand it must have been hard to get Shamita Shetty to dance, and Ajay Devgan to look good during his unfortunate just-shaved/sideburns phase, but still.. come on. This song could have been so much sexier. Bubbly idiot and intense walk don't go hand-in-hand, you know?
~

The next video won't make you cringe per say, it is actually a good one to watch for time-pass, so think of it like a break from the other Cringe-assured videos. Still, I fail to understand how it relates in any way to the amazing track playing in the background. It irks me, what could have been a heart-wrenching, tragic sequence, brilliantly wasted on this meaning-less walk down the runway:

mar jaawaan, from Fashion (2008)
singers: Shruti Pathak & Salim Merchant
music director: Salim and Sulaiman Merchant
lyricist: Irfan Siddique
movie director: Madhur Bhandarkar
choreographer: unnamed
actors: Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranaut, among others


When compared to the catwalk on the track fashion ka jalwa, this song is ridiculously unsuited for this. I do have some complaints about the other video as well (as that too is one of my favorites, and it had a flare, thanks to Sukhwinder, that the video lacked) but it wasn't bad enough to put on this list. The second part of mar jaawaan is a little better filmed as there is some tragedy and drama involved when Priyanka walks down that ramp despite whatever it was that upset her. But this post is about bad videos, so effectively, the second part wasn't included up there.
~

I know I said that saaki saaki took the prize, at least in this post, but that was only because it is one of my all-time favorite songs; more so because of Sukhwinder Singh, whom I would Hero-worship if I were into that kind of thing. It was actually watching the murder of saaki saaki that first irritated me and turned me into such a crabby critic when it comes to music videos. It also inspired my love for the good videos, and made me first think up a dream career (as a director), even if it just remains a fantasy.

Anyway, the murder of saaki saaki was personal, so it had to take the Cringe-prize. Still, this next one is the rotten cherry on this spoiled cake, and I don't think I need to explain why:

one love, from Rakht (2004)
singers & lyricists: Shaan and Blue
music director : Anand Raj Anand
movie director: Mahesh Manjrekar
choreographer: unnamed
actors: Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu and minions



For those who don't understand why this video should make you cringe (and you know who you are), there is little hope for you. But it's there, the hope, you just need a little help is all. My dear friend, if you are reading this, I am only kidding. It was good to remember this high-school argument, and I couldn't resist but mention you.

Anyway, we've cringed enough for one post, so until next time,
(and until I come up with an uber-cool pen-name)

this is Juhi, signing off.

Upcoming this Fall

It seems that everything good, big and worth waiting for comes out at the worst time possible: end of the Fall semester. But yet we eagerly await these releases, not keeping in mind, or maybe avoiding to consider, the fact that we're going to have to stuff more of this stuff in our already much filled lives.

Among all the activities, friends, school-work, home-work, lab-work, last-minute projects, last-minute studying, fixing that insignificant but still unavoidable technical-problem that will invariantly come up with the new iPhone update, computer software, or another electronic device, we will now be able to look forward to evenings with the following, starting on:

Monday, September 14 at 9pm Gossip Girl season three premiers on The CW and starts off the school term nicely.


Exactly a week later on Monday, September 21 at 8pm Heroes season four premiers on NBC forcing GG fans like me to turn to the internet to watch both shows.


Sunday, September 27 at 9pm on ABC Desperate Housewives season six premiers, that makes three shows per week as midterms approach.

sorry, no teaser to be found :(

Tuesday, November 17 whenever stores open Assassin's Creed 2 is out for all XBox Assassins out there; practically the worst time to start playing a game.


First show at the movies on Friday, November 20 first show New Moon is available for all Twilighters to line up for, even if its for just those first and last moments with Edward.


Ruining my thread of complaints is the release date for Sherlock Holmes, Christmas day, Friday, December 25, perfect for everybody and not just those of us whose Semester was laced beautifully with bad-timed releases.


What makes this perfect is that Aamir's next big movie comes on the same day. 3 Idiots, while failing to come up with a trailer, will probably haul in more watchers than other heavily-advertised movies. It is apparently the first of the top ten most anticipated Bollywood films of the coming year according to a January 2009 Bollywood Hungama survey.



Straying a little from our topic, or perhaps continuing the theme, next semester starts off with Hrithik's 10th anniversary as an actor on Friday, January 15 next year, marked nicely with the release of his latest, and much awaited (by me at least) film Kites.


It seems that October has been forgiven. Yay, midterms might still be saved! :)

The New Age

It's not a new concept that we live in the New Age. But do we ever stop to think about what that actually means? Do we pause at times and wonder how much the world changes with the passing day?

It is an amazing thought, for example, to realize that everything we see around us today--from shacks to skyscrapers, from skateboards to airbuses, from pencils to computers--comes from nature. Every atom we see transformed into giants of technology existed once as a molecule in the ground, the water, or the air. We are, quite literally, a remixed version of history.

While humans are the lords of evolution, do we realize that we have caused the evolution of our species to stop? We have stopped before we can reach the pinnacle. Will we start to evolve again in the face of a new stress? Will we adapt to, say, global warming? What would have happened if we never started food-production and never created medicine? What if only the fittest survived? Would I be here today then? Would you?

The society that is now ruled by institutions--by laws and documents, by science and invention, by education and jobs--is the descendant of a society of hunters and gatherers. I wonder, were they happier then us? Did they have, in the true sense, innocent's bliss? Once our goal was survival, what is our goal now?

Anyway, what started off my pondering on the subject was this amazing Youtube video someone shared on Facebook. Researched by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman, The Progression of Information Technology (2008):

Assassin's Creed 2

For those of us who can hardly wait until the Assassin returns, here is something to make is worse. :)



Lesson of the day: never taunt the Assassin.

Here is a game-play walk-through:


Another lesson of the day: somethings are worth the wait.

Music Videos to Cherish

If I was fearless and had lots of money at my disposal, I'd be a movie-director, just like I've written somewhere on my profile. But what I want more than to make a full-length movie is to create videos for songs that I love, more so Hindi songs than any other.

The moment when Bombay Talkies changed into Bollywood was probably the same moment when Maroon velvet movie direction slowly started to mutate into Pink plastic. Somehow, the music seems to have adapted better. As a person who not only appreciates the beat, but also the lyric, I have a hard time watching music videos that have nothing whatsoever to do with the song. I will refrain from pointing out some of these songs (only to list them off in another post in the probable future), but I would like to share some of the videos that do touch my heart.

I hope this to be the first of many posts to come where I will embed a video that just popped into my head. For this reason, I won't worry too much about the fact that I can't remember more than just a couple of videos right now. Most of these are just my favorite songs with videos that match the quality of the music. If there are any suggestions, just let me know. :)

I'll start with a video that is still fresh in the memories of almost everyone who enjoys Indian cinema, and a composition made by a man who is known to even those who aren't very familiar with Indian music. An emperor who seeks to understand the magnetism of Krishna, for whom his queen sings with such devotion. He is drawn by her voice to the moment when he sees her face for the first time, the same moment perhaps, that he falls in love with her. How can I not love this video?
~
man mohana, from Jodhaa Akbar (2008)
singer: Bela Shinde, music director: AR Rahman, lyricist: Javed Akhtar
actors: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan, movie director: Ashutosh Gowariker


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Next, a song sung by a man whose voice, quite literally, has the power to stop me in my tracks, only to hear it more completely. She listens to a composition made only for her, by a man who is not her husband. He is the object of temptation in the absence of prying eyes. Mmmm... justice was done to this song.
~
chal chal mere sang sang, from Artitva (2000)
singer: Sukhwinder Singh, music director: Sukhwinder Singh, lyricist: Shrirang Godbole
actors: Tabu and Monish Bahl, movie director: Mahesh Manjrekar


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Lastly, a song that is probably forgotten by most of us. A woman consoles her lover when he feels that he has come short. Innocent's bliss, so perfect.
~
sona nahi na sahi, from One 2 Ka 4 (2001)
singers: Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan, music director: AR Rahman, lyricist: Majrooh Sultanpuri
actors: Juhi Chawla and Shah Rukh Khan, movie director: Shashilal Nair



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Mayfair Family Tree

I just finished reading the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, and I couldn't have loved an author more. The thing that most surprised me about Anne Rice was that her attention to detail failed to make me want to drop the book. I am usually a skipper, I hardly read all the words in a book. But if there is a book on the words of which I doted, it was The Witching Hour. Lasher was the least captivating of the trio and took me the most time to get through, but Taltos was finished before I realized that I am getting through the book faster that the last two.

Still, I can only retain so many details. To keep track of the family members would have been a chore if I had not began to make little diagrams of who belonged where on a scrap piece of paper. One thing led to another, and I now have a full-fleshed Mayfair Family Tree documented by the help of MS Publisher.

A JPEG image of it can be found at my DeviantArt gallery. If you are as obsessed about the Mayfairs as I, and note omissions or mistakes in the tree, please let me know. More about the series can be found on our very trusty Wikipedia.