Stepping out of "el broodosphere" this week to mention an incredible find!
All of us know that the great Indian "music directors" of the 80's and 90's have been "inspired" innumerable times to create "original" hit music! The list of these "greats" like Nadeem-Shravan, Anand-Milind, Anu Malik, Pritam are known to one and all!
Did you know that there are others in the foray and that one can't really blame these new generation "maestros"? For all that they are doing is emulating what their predecessors, the eternal greats have done throughout history!
Do the names SD Burman, RD Burman, OP Nayyar, (to mention a few) ring a bell?
Uh-Oh, I have committed sacrilege! I have pointed the finger at some of the greatest composers that Indian cinema has known! How can one even dare to (let alone think of doing so) accuse the greats?
Well, before spamming the hell out of me with brickbats and vitriol, give an ear to the following:
1) SD Burman [Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958)]:
Hum The Woh Thi
Hum The Woh Thi
taken originally from Tennesse Ernie Ford's song from the year 1957:
The Watermelon Song
The Watermelon Song
2) RD Burman [Sholay (1975)]:
taken originally from Demis Roussoss' song from the year 1974:
Say You Love Me
3) OP Nayyar [CID]:
Yeh Hai Bombai Meri Jaan
Say You Love Me
3) OP Nayyar [CID]:
Yeh Hai Bombai Meri Jaan
taken originally from the following track composed in 1863:
My Darling Clementine
My Darling Clementine
Little wonder then, the present generation continues to tread on the footsteps of their elders who pioneered in this art! So is imitation really the sincerest form of flattery?
And there are a whole lot of others, (possibly every name you can think of in the Indian film industry) who have achieved greatness and received immense adulation through their "inspired genius'. And this is not limited to the Hindi filmdom (or the grotesque term associated with it -- "bollywood"), every regional language has its share!
At least the eternal greats of the yesteryears only lifted a few tones; the same cannot be said of the present crop!
Coming to the find: the above material has been painstakingly researched by a dude named S.Karthik, whose website ItwoFS.com, I managed to chance upon as I was webscaping! He lists out most of the composers of the yesteryears and the present from all parts of the Indian film industry with their "inspired tracks" and the original ones with citations!
The guy is so good that, even one of the music reviewers of rediff.com directly copied one of his reviews and credited it as her own! Although rediff has taken down the review, Karthik still hosts the same on his site to prove his point!
Be sure to give this site a thorough read!
Endgame: Now, now, it is never like me to just highlight our vagaries and shy away! The Greeks have copied Indian film music, too! And that too, steadily and verbatim between the years 1954 to 1968. (And you thought that only Communist USSR loved Hindi Movies back then?) Here is the interesting article that should be an eye-opener of sorts:
Hindi Films of the 50s in Greece: The Latest Chapter of a Long Dialogue
And there are a whole lot of others, (possibly every name you can think of in the Indian film industry) who have achieved greatness and received immense adulation through their "inspired genius'. And this is not limited to the Hindi filmdom (or the grotesque term associated with it -- "bollywood"), every regional language has its share!
At least the eternal greats of the yesteryears only lifted a few tones; the same cannot be said of the present crop!
Coming to the find: the above material has been painstakingly researched by a dude named S.Karthik, whose website ItwoFS.com, I managed to chance upon as I was webscaping! He lists out most of the composers of the yesteryears and the present from all parts of the Indian film industry with their "inspired tracks" and the original ones with citations!
The guy is so good that, even one of the music reviewers of rediff.com directly copied one of his reviews and credited it as her own! Although rediff has taken down the review, Karthik still hosts the same on his site to prove his point!
Be sure to give this site a thorough read!
Endgame: Now, now, it is never like me to just highlight our vagaries and shy away! The Greeks have copied Indian film music, too! And that too, steadily and verbatim between the years 1954 to 1968. (And you thought that only Communist USSR loved Hindi Movies back then?) Here is the interesting article that should be an eye-opener of sorts:
Hindi Films of the 50s in Greece: The Latest Chapter of a Long Dialogue
The copy is the original is the copy is the original.........!!
1 comment:
Hehe... There's the popular joke that RD Burman would go abroad and buy a suitcase full of records so that he could find songs to plagiarise from... At the airport a few records would spill out and these were picked up by bappi lahiri who would plagiarise from THEM!!
PS: I didn't realise till now that huckleberry hound's song is that similar to "yeh hai mumbai meri jaan"!
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