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Wednesday, January 06, 2010

SPB and The Drunkard Raaga by Balarykar


Many singers have successfully sung the drunkard songs. Lets see how they have all fared.Rafis in your face drunkard song "Choo Lena Do Nazuk Hoothon" gives that necessary courage for a drunkard to coerce his wife into drinking. Its another matter that they fail almost always without realising that they are not the late Rajkumar to succeed. Rafi's another song "Koi Saagar Dil Ko Behlata Nahin" truly conveys the message that no amount of alcoholism will ever help to overcome a heart break. Nights are longer than days. Yes, Einstein also confirms the same in "Din Dhal Jaye".Kishore Kumar has his own share of deaddictable songs, especially play backed for the legends Amitabh Bachhan and Rajesh Khanna, though we will not list them here for lack of appropriate e-space. His gem "Peenewalon ka peene ka bahana chahiye" from the movie "Haath Ki Safai" for Randheer Kapoor reflects that the drunkard is like a buffalo. Just like the buffalo continues its walk irrespective of the season, so does the drunkard irrespective the emotive state. A lesser known, but a really good d-song of Kishore Kumar is from the Mithun Chakravarty starrer "Daata" and the song is "Roona dhona chod chod de" in which he urges the damsel to forget all the sadness and raise the drinks towards the heaven. Its questionable though how a drunkard can go to heaven. Oops! Of course, from hell a toast can be raised in the direction of the heaven. Madness is the way out. A simple proof is that the poet says the fire arising of sparks can be extinguished but not the ones thats lighted from the rains. Thats the way its said in "Chingari Koi Bhadke" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpM0jPd6-7w .Talking of the damsels and the drinks brings us the legend Pankaj Udhas. His truly inspiring song (strictly for the drunkaaards only) "Huwi bahut hi mehengi sharaab, ke thodi thodi piya karo, piyo magar rakho hisab, ke thodi thodi piya karo" tells us how to handle the inflation smartly. Yes, inflation DOES affect the drunkards. Why did you ever assume that there is no Drunkonomics in the first place? Going through all the Pankaj Udhas songs one is led to believe that the brothel is truly a good place to hang out and the prostitutes are women of wisdom!Yes, this article is not at all about any of the singers mentioned above. Please forgive me for my drunkard walk. Probabilists have been eternally inspired by the random (drunkard) walk and will swear that a simple application of the Borel-Cantelli lemma shows that the below listed events occur infinitely often with probability one (that is, infinite recurrence is a certainty):(a) a probabilist returning to the drunkard (random) walk;(b) a drunkard returning to the wine shop;(c) the author of this article mentioning SPB.

Yes! I am writing this article about SPB which when expanded gives us infinite letters, viz., Sripathi Panditharudalaya Balasubrahmanyam, and I have always wondered why the name "Balasubrahmanyam" is written in infinite different ways though there is enough empirical evidence that each of those variations have been repeated infinite times. I now swear to stick to SPB only. By now the reader is supposed to have understood that the "Drunkard Raaga" is infinite dimensional. SPB has managed to sing the most variations within Drunkard Raaga. While there have been many singers who use this raaga, most of them commit the cardinal sin of singing the Drunkard Raaga. They just don't realise that one does not sing in this raaga. Its the ultimate truth in this universe that the drunkard raaga gets in your body, soul, and everything within, and then whatever you say/sing/blabber/shut-up, it is the DRUNKARD RAAGA. Lets explain this raaga a bit more.The Drunkard Raaga has two components. First is the signal, which has a format. This format may be simple, complex, or chaotic. Whatever the format, the functionality is always known. To be more specific, its like a computer program which can do whatever its been instructed to do. There is no surprise here, though we all appreciate it. Many singers do this first step with grace. And then comes the cardinal sin. They all stop here only without bothering about the second component. This step is also like the half part of the drunkard walk. The drunkard has to walk and many people tend to do it without ever realising that the direction has no 'left' or 'right' written on it. So after a while they are all doing either a right or a left. This is where the great SPB excels. That damned raaga is in him which enables him to erase the 'left' and 'right' each time he takes a step. Thus the picture is complete and this is really the second component of the drunkard raaga. The ability to erase the names is what is famously known to the probabilists as the 'White Noise'. This white noise effect is truly there in almost all the drunkard songs of SPB. Having done all the theory of the drunkard raaga in SPB, now lets have a sample of some of his drunkard walk.To begin with, let it be made very clear that the focus here is SPB's drunkard walks in hindi. This language has not exactly been a forte of his. Still, we will be satisfied with this "Dariya". So what if its not 'Saagar'.Watch this song on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozyCjgtzUJA& .

The movie is "Ek Hi Bhool" and the walk begins at "Bekhudi Ka Bada Sahara Hai". See how uncertainly he goes around it and feel the noise at "Kitne halki hai, kitni boojhal hai, koi aurat nahin ye botal hain,band isme jahan saara hai", and then back to "Bekhudi Ka Bada Sahara Hai". Listen how well, noisily in truth, he reverts to "Beekhudi kaa". I am sure that Anand Bakshi must have been wondering who wrote those lines. Spot on the bang SPB, bang on the spot, SPB. The song was cast on Jeetendra. In this entire song, the feel is of having drunk whiskey. Don?t ask me how.There has been this flop of a movie called "Santaan". This movie was completed in a record time and again Jeetendra comes to do that walk. The situation is that the son ditches parents, and the father realises that Tulsi and Ved Vyas wrote simple encyclopedic facts on Ramayan and Mahabharat. The perennial challenge was to write something about the parents struggle. And thus goes the song "Tulsi ne Ramayan Likhi, Ved Vyas ne mahabharat. Kyun kisine kabhi naa likhi, maa baap ki kahani". The music by Anand-Milind had probably been a decade late. Nevertheless, it powers into the drunkard performance of SPB. Upset with the iconic saints, this has a shade of DesiDaru. After all, the character is not rich guy. I know you are missing that there is no youtube link.Lets be done away with Anand-Milind. If they had Sameers company in the previous song, the great Majrooh Sultanpuri wrote the truly noisy words "Banke bigad gaya kaam, very sorry, I am so sorry, ulte huwe badnam, very sorry, I am so sorry". I am not too sure if it was picturised on Salman Khan or Amjad Khan, or both. It had its roots in the telugu movie "Prema" where SPB did the honors earlier. Both are good and intoxicating. Some songs are lost and not yet captured at youtube.A mother is singing rhymes to put the baby in the world of dreams. And a bastard listens to it. How does he feel? The torment, that anguish, justified frustrations, etc, all in the company of a huge quantitative arrack of daru is capture here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC3Qzwuqg4g . The movie is Benaam Badshaah and Laxmikant-Pyarelal are at it again.A lover separated from his rich princess is tormented and is in search of the mirage in the Sahara desert. Unsurprisingly, that mirage for a broken heart is perennially a bar room where Mithun Chakravarty is seeking solace. Though there is no lip-sync here, its undoubtedly a intoxicating songs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dJPrQbJavY . Though the actor is striving and showing the desi version, the song actually reflects the rum(ification) and Alka Yagnik complements like a true princess missing her abode. This pair has given such marvelous duets that I actually feel its one of the most underestimated duet pair in the hindi film world. Trust me, its so underestimated that it puts to shame even the less due that is generally given to SPB in bollywood. Well, thats another article in waiting from the author. I hereby solemnly declare that once the detoxification of this article occurs, this will be certainly evaluated to the ranks it should be. Nadeem-Shravan are among the very few who gave too good songs with SPB.That "jeeye to jiye, kaise bin aapke" is probably the biggest hit drunkard song of SPB does not make it necessary that I should also bore you with it. Its popular, its everywhere. Whats there for me or you? I mean, come on. If anybody starts a random walk in the crowd, they must be kicked. I won't write more except thanks to Nadeem Shravan and of course Salman Khan.Women, especially from the subcontinent, hate the drinks and then the drunkards. It comes as no surprise that on one occassion, the drunkard could not take it any more. He is a mard first, and then a drunkard. So, there he goes. "Naa baaba na baaba, na baaba naa, aurat ka bharosa na baaba naa. haan baaba haan baba, haan baba haan, ye ek na do na teen, ye saari ki saari hai bewafa". Its important to understand here that though I am in the noisy state, its difficult for me to give up something thats rhyming and repetitive. Its really annoying that the reader thinks the noise won't like the signal. Its around the signal (drinks) that we owe our existence. So, jai ho signal ki. Just guess the lyricists state of mind and the torment he under went."Ek, Ek se Bhale Do". I do know that this is a song about unity and not about some stupid mindless walks. But I am blabbering about ek (SPB), and ek se bhale do (SPB with Kishore Kumar). Now add R.D. Burman on the top of it, and tie us to the chairs and keep Dimple Kapadia before us. You are certainly joking if you presume we won?t be intoxicated. Whew! Now, thats truly taking the square of a random walk and destroying sanity. Its fun to be insane. He he he! This 'scotch on the rocks' performance is known as ?Yun hi gaate raho? from the classic "Saagar" movie. Its difficult not to find its video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XV4N-Xu2K8 We now declare that the shop is closed for today. Yes, we know we have to have it one more time. We did not try the "Desi Daru" unlimited version. Did we? Frankly, I don't know, and it does not matter. Its shame to keep the hisab. I introduced drunkonomics, but did not I declare earlier that I am very weak in the "ics" of "academics". So, what will we do. Anupam Kher on street and madness on other side just never ever happens. Uparse bandar ko sharab bhi de di. So what happens is "Saari umar mein, is jeevan ki daud mein bhaga ghoda". LP were certainly bad and knew the word "havoc". Movie goes by the name of "Sansar".To close out, a few pointers. Its likely that SPB is probably the only singer ever in India to have received a National Award for a random song. I mean how damn good was it from the movie "Saagara Sangam".

Its telugu, admitted. This song is "Thakita thadimi". Watch it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs38L1jIQC0 . And all the above songs can be put in one single "Vaa Mancha Vaa". This is a tamil song. Its so notorious that it converted a simple next-door girl name into a volumptous sexy babe. Smitha later became famous as "Silk Smitha". Thats the power there is in the drunkard raaga when it came out of SPB.Thanks for the tolerance and admittedly you need to curse Arghya (he asked me to compose the entire above poetry), SPB Bangalore team (RGN, AR particularly), and SPB Mumbai team (VK and NK). Back to the room. Buyyyyyee.PS: The author is a teetotaler and does not encourage in any way to get into alcohol practices. Also, each of the artists mentioned in this article is respected and no potshots are attempted to put one above other.

All the mistakes are owned by myself. Thanks again...Balarykar
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