TOP 10 SHREYA GHOSAL SONGS

Recently I came across a post which listed the best 10 songs of Sadhna Sargam. Well, my Bollywood favourite is Shreya Ghosal. A highly talented singer with 4 Filmfare and 4 National awards in the 8 years of her career, she has a golden voice, and excels equally in classical as well as routine songs of the bollywood films (though there can be no songs without classical base in it...). In fact, of the 36 songs in my mobile tracklist, 15 are shreya ghosal songs, 17 Lata Mangeshkar ones, and 3 Geeta dutt ones. Here's listing top 10 of her best songs I have heard.(not listed according to rank)

1. Piyu Bole Piya bole (Parineeta): It was one of a kind with an old charm. With sweet vocals of Ghosal, along with Sonu Nigam, it is perhaps the best romantic song I have heard this decade.

2. Barso re Megha Megha (Guru): The rendition of this song by shreya ghosal was awesome, and revealed a different dimension to her genre. When I hear this song, I can really feel the rain beat, qudos to ARR's tunes and beats, and Ghosal's singing (wont comment on the picturization, though).

3. Ami je Tomar/Mere Dholna Sun (Bhoolbhulaiya), and Main Chali (Black and white): Awsome example of her classical singing. while the first one, atched with Vidya Balan's superb expressions, is a phenomenal in today's age of peppy numbers. The second one has a seer innocence to it, and its classical notes by Sukhwinder Singh, have been superbly rendered by Ghosal.

4.Kaise Mujhe Tum Mil Gayi (Ghajini).: The last 6 lines she sang were highly melancholic , and only a hearing of it can make you realise the pathos behind the song.

5. Noor e Khuda (My Name is Khan): The whole composition is so touching. All of the singers- Shankar Mahadevan, Adnan Sami, and Shreya Ghosal rendered the melancholy that the song demanded...a desperate prayer in times of need.

6. Chalo tumko lekar Chale (Jism), and Be Panah Pyaar hai Aaja (Krishna Cottage): while one was sensuous to the core, the other was a highly eerie song, sung to the right mood by the versatile Ghosal.

7. Qaatil Aada (Blue) and Tu Hi Mera Dost (Yuvraaj): Two very westernized tracks...while Qatil ada is a killer track in terms of signing of both Shreya Ghosal and Sonu Nigam beautifully blended..( dont know How many heard this song), Tu hi Mera dost is unique in its tune (set by ARRahman)..and the sugar coated vocals of Ghosal, with Benny Dayal

8. Thore badmaash Ho tum, and Sawar Gayi Saawariya (Sawariya): The songs of sawariya are perhaps some of the toughest and sweetest songs she had sung. In fact I had expected her to win a National award for Thode Badmaash (she won it for Yeh Ishq Hai that year). The songs were highly blissful, beautifully composed by Monty Sharma and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and sweetly sung by Ghosal

9. Thirak Thirak (Khoya Khoya Chand): again a wonderful duet by Ghosal and Sonu Nigam, this is one of those songs Il never delete out of my tracklist...the classical composition of Shantanu Moitra has been aptly complemented by both the singers.

10. You me aur Hum ( You me aur Hum) and O saathi re (Omkara): The first one is a lesser heard song...but if you hear it, youl know why I put it in the list. The song's simple, but the expressions, are awesome. Ghosal has used somewhat hushed tones in certain areas, and the overall effect of this Vishal Bhardwaj Composition will bowl you over! Listen to the last stanza " ek din to woh lamha hi aana hai, dono milke saathe me chale jaana hai", and its surely to bring tears in your eyes. The second one is another Vishal Bhardwaj romantic composition, which is simple, and yet one of the best romantic numbers iv heard in recent times...


Amongst the regional albums in Bengali, the songs of Antoheen are undoubtedly the best, though she has sung some very good compositions by Jeet Ganguli. Ihave heard 1-2 of her Tamil numbers, and like them, but those are too few to name and rank.

Wish she'l bring more National Awards home!

2 years with the 14 environmentalists...

I have been a late latif throughout my academic record. Be it school, where I entered mid session, Presi, where I entered only after the second counselling, and my present Dept of Environmental Science, where I entered, 3 weeks late, after the 4th counselling. I still remember the day I joined the department...it was not totally unfamiliar to me as my first day in Presi was, largely because, I had been visiting the HOD, AM sir, continuously for the 2 previous weeks, and also because I had been in touch with one of my future classmates, sayantan.(Apart from that I had also heard that there is a beautiful girl called Avisha, who studies in the department). Anyways, Day1, Sayantan had promised to come early so that I could share a bench with him, but he was late. So, as I sat alone in the first bench 1st sem classroom, the first soul who entered the room was a tall,blonde girl. I mistook her to be a non bengali, as most people do, and she proved me wrong, when she started to blabber....she talked on and on for the next 5 mins...and so, from moment 1, priya banerjee became my friend ( and not girlfriend as claimed widely...u see, she has a lot of....ahem...leave it)..gradually the class started filling up...and everybody gaped at the teddy bear who was sitting in the first bench!! Sayantan entered, and within a few minutes, I was thanking god that he was late, or else, sitting beside him would have made me physically vulnerable! The "beautiful lady" that i had heard of , Avisha, entered...and my first reaction was smsing sayan " well, she IS sexy!" .What i felt good about my class is that from day 1 itself, these people befriended me as if they had known me for weeks.
Gradually, I discovered my classmates...priya, as i said, was an unstoppable chatterbox...and we soon became good friends, as both of us could talk nonsense continuously (except..maybe times when she starts babbling about her...ahem....)..there was the ever serious ahana...who would flinch at the slightest indecent utter....and wud enjoy a "love-hate" friendship with sayantan..there was the ever sweet and dramatic twisha, tomz.....and they formed a talketive lot in the second bench! my interaction with sreetama and twisha particularly increased as we walked up the gariahat way back home.( and..well..tomz's psychopona during the xams). there was our model avisha... friendly, and ever helpful with her beautifully written notes. There was our star vineeta, who would sing us her songs, there were sunanda, mrinmoyee, ishita, gopa, madhurima...my interaction with them was frankly not as excellent as the others,but during our games together, we all enjoyed mutual participation. For instance, there was our sweet gopuz...entering the class cheerfully and narrating theatrically how she slapped a guy in the bus, who was eyeing her. there was our rough and tough abhishek, already ready to bunk classes, and yet ready to help anyone anytime at the slightest of the needs. there was our rupam..the genious, who left the college before the first sem. and finally, our sayantan...the genious, and mr serious..always into studies, and when he's not studying, he's into physical sursuris..
During my first and half of second sem,we really used to enjoy a lot...our games of truth and dare, where our voluntary "dare"s ensured us to break into a plethora of melodramas involving the virual family...where I was the head of family, pwi and twi my two wives, gubu, vini, avs my children...etc etc etc. there was also the killer killer game...i really miss sayantan's famous dialogue "gopar chokh mara mane jeno dhop kore 1ta porda porlo". along with classes, we got involved in a host of other activities like Green Booth, seminars, etc. One other enjoyment was our frequenting priya's and twisha's places...and the more uncensored continuation of our classroom games we had there. I also miss those rehearsal days..for rabindrajayanti and for freshers..(though I do not miss the bashings meted out to me during the programs).

The year turned, and so did the environment of the environment department. differences cropped in amongst few, priorities changed, and the class was not so jolly anymore. but even amongst all these , there were a few positive turnouts...vini came closer to us..and so did ahana, forcing herself to be immune to a lot of indecent talks.. Admittedly, I got a bit more reserved in my attitude in the later days as a result of a few not so nice experiences, but I still enjoy class...
I still love passing comments in a few selected classes with twisha, or punching priya on her legs, or hiding the hair clips of the girls. I still enjoy poking gubu about a special someone, or chatting away during off periods. I still enjoy visiting here and there (read: aquatica) with my classmates, though it has reached its minimum. I still enjoy participating in various programs....but somewhere, I feel the vacuum, the lacuna that was once filled by our games together, our constant chatterings, our "masti". I know its impossible, but even a few days back, I dreamed of us,in the second year classroom, after an skc class, playing a game of truth and dare, and breaking into one of those family melodramas. The dream was shattered halfway by my mom's wake up call...but that was one dream I never wanted to end. Coz its really a dream now :(


Shall miss all of you 2 months hence. Till then, Il try and enjoy the compromised entertainment!!! Long Live Envs!

Watching an old film...

When I took the Guru Dutt CD from Aagan, I never knew that I was soon to be bowled over by its contents. I am not an avid viewer of cinema, though I do appreciate a selected few. But those few are never ... what we call "arthouse cinema". I have no qualms in declaring that I find "arthouse cinema", as labelled today, quite boring. But the film I recently watched, Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam, belongs to an era when there was no separate genre of "arthouse films". That is another way of saying, that the film has a staple diet of tragedy, comedy, songs, intense acting, a great storyline, and a social issue, rightly blended. I belong to an age where the so called superhit movies are compromised with overdoses of songs and skin displayals,with the least necessity of acting, definition of characters, where cinematography means capturing foreign locales in digital colors, whereas the art films are fed with 2 hours of dialogues or silence, no comedy, good cinematography, but zero entertainment. Saheb Biwi Ghulam, and most other films of those era, are made of the good points of these two categories.
Everyone knows the story of the film, so no use brooding all over again. What struck me in the film, was the simplicity of its presentation. Nowhere you find half baked characters, and yet, magically, you can always interprete the characters your own way. This is also the case with the Raj Kapoor cinemas of the era, like Anari, Chori Chori, Shri 420. There were entertainers, they were superhits, they had a couple of songs, and yet, they had intense acting roles, and well defined stories. Above all, the audience then, used to appreciate films like these..hence sahib biwi ghulam was a superhit inspite of having a tragic ending.
What struck me most was the contrast between the two leading ladies- Jaba and Choti Bahu. Waheeda Rehman portrayed the role of Jaba with complete naturalness. That was a time when theatrical acting was prominent. As some people say, the advantage of present day cinema is the natural acting, while the actors in old age films were highly melodramatic. I agree to some extent, but I found Jaba different...it never seems in the film that Waheeda Rahman was acting...it was as if she was Haba herself. So was Guru Dutt as bhootnath. their interactions and histrionics never made me feel that I was actually watching an adaptation from a classic...where the normal thumb rule is..treat the script like a drama.

Meena Kumari as Choti Bahu is the highlight of the film. She gave one of the finest performances in Indian cinema. Her role gave her every chance to be melodramatic, yet she wasnt. Drunk or no drunk, her performance was constraint, and yet, stellar. It is a rare example of a classic beauty, and an excellent actress combined. Whereas she looks simply ethereal in most scenes, like the song "Piya aiso jiya mein", her performance as the drunk bahu is a landmark. for eg, the scene in while she, being drunk, tries to wear a saree, the song "na jaao saiyyan", the last scene in the carriage, which is bound to make you shed tears, where she's optimistic about life even in her death, are bound to remain in your memory long after watching the film. she was not sensuous, she was just trying to be an ideal housewife to a husband who believed that the real gem in being a man is not avoid his own married wife, and spend nights over with other women. and Meena Kumari played it convincingly. I had heard of Meena Kumari as a tragedy queen...but...she's simply the queen!!!

The cinematography is awsome, particularly the parts portraying meena kumari. so are the songs, mainly sung by asha bhonsle and geeta dutt, and composed by our very own hemant kumar.

The just thought that I should share my experiences of watching the film, with my friends through the blog. I wont say its a must watch film...that depends upon your taste, but its rightly a milestone movie.

PHYSIOPALS...

Five glorious years of college life are drawing to an end. As an school student, I would look up to college life as something very alien, something very fascinating, and something very elderly and serious. our backpacks converted to shoulder ones, our formal school uniform of dichromatic shades, converted to informal jeans-t shirt, our tight school routine converted to carefree college bunks, and yet the childishness of school upgraded to a serious image of college life- thats how i had perceived college life.

Hence, when I entered Presidency College (after the second round of counselling), I was proud- not only to be a part of Kolkata's best college, but also to have become a more mature guy...a college guy! The ambiance of Presi- with its large fields and old buildings, with its large LTs and Labs- was a complete contrast to the compact structure of my school, and it felt different somewhere within.

As I first stepped into the long verandah of the Department of Physiology,a few of my future classmates greeted me with open arms ( and protruded ..ahem..). One of my school classmates was already there..and I felt a little at ease, though not completely at home. reason being: I was not sure that I belonged here completely....my apathies for biology, combined with my tensions for JEE never allowed me to enjoy the first year of the college life to its fullest. As the classes started, I found myself enjoying them..not because I liked the subjects or so...but because of my classmates. Most of them (barring 2-3) where from Kolkata and its outskirts. I enjoyed their companionship to the fullest..keeping up to the tradition of CU, classes were scarce, and hence, off periods were not a luxury. My metro journey back home brought me closer to friends like Agnivo, Aparajita, Krishnendu and later, Deboleena. But still, my long bouts of absence .. (I was "studying" at home for JEE).. didnt let me get involved with the general activities of the department ( Reunion for eg). My only link to the Department at that phase was Agnivo, with whom I used to meet regularly at Golpark RKM, to exchange notes, and much more importantly, hog. The rest of the department, was almost alien to me at that time.

What brought us together was me not cracking JEE (expectedly for me, unexpectedly for my father, and I ended up shedding tears in a Meena Kumari pose all afternoon, and then downloading and dancing to KANK tunes that very night), not a lot of people cracking the xam. So, the batch was left with a group of like minded people, and we started to move together everywhere. Hence, (as still classes were rare) we started frequenting each of our houses for get togethers, dancing and hogging away. I started to get more acquainted with the genius to had greeted me on day 1 with protruded ....ahem...Neelanjan Chatterjee, and gradually, became close to Madhurima, Rituparna (who was Agni's soulmate at that time and till today), Deboleena (we both are aquarians), Sakshi (my crush)..and so on. Among the others, Sayan and Sugata would be busy with IC, and I came close to them, ironically, after leaving Presi. Sumitash, Krishnendu, Uttam and Priyanka were always the quieter among the lot, ( though priyanka's songs were not so quiet), and Chadan would always be bullied like anything. Together, we formed what we called the "Physiopals"...our memories embedded in the thousands of fotos and videos, our excursion memories, and our ongoing activities even at MSc....our bonding still goes on, much to the envy of our present classmates. Below, Im documenting what I think of my fellow Physiopals today...after 5 yrs of association.

roll 163: Agnivo Niyogi (aka Aagan aka Agni): maybe my closest friend amongst physiopals. we have had our share of differences no doubt...a plethora of not very common experiences..but apart from that, he's the most helpful person I have ever seen. His priorities change more frequently than Mamata Banerjee inaugurates a railway project. he's also a mental genius, with a photographic memory!! Of late, he has been a little impossible with his twitter mania enshrouding him to the fullest, but that doesnt stop him from being a nice guy, a great physiopal, and my closest among them.

roll 177: Uttam Pal (aka Uti) the quietest among the physiopals, he's one of the most hardworking one with multifaceted talent. His discipline in life is something we should all learn from. Though he's stubborn at times, and surprisingly babbling at other rare times, he's someone we all look up to as an ideal student.

roll 180: Madhurima Dhara (aka madhu) she's jolly, she quarrelsome, she's friendly...she's everything one can be. She's my ma.I wonder what I would have done in the 3rd year without her xeroxed notes! She's ulti helpful, and caring...and almost substituted for my mother during the excursions. She's also an intelligent girl, and an enjoyable classmate

roll 185: Suvosree Ray (aka paperweight aka buladi) she can be called as a physiopalloid, much like a metalloid. she wasnt much of a company during Presi days, but whenever she was, she would be friendly and jolly. what I like is that even after presi days, she calls and keeps in contact with some of us...a testimony of the bonding.

Roll 191: Neelanjan Chatterjee (aka Neelu aka Duldul)the most popular amongst the physiopals, he's a genious with his debating prowess and oratory skills. but more importantly, he's a great friend, and an awesome company. where, on one hand, I wont ever forget the help he meted out to me during 2007, I also appreciate the fact that he constantly keeps in touch from Ahmedabad even if not reciprocated. He's one person we got closest to in 3rd year.

roll 193: Krishnendu Sarkar (Krrishh)We know the least about him, as we saw the least of him. When he's there, he's the coolest, and the only one Iv never seen angry.

roll 194:Sumitash Jana (aka Janu) Again a strict disciplinarian, he's what we call mr perfect- someone every mom wants as a son and every mom in law wants as a son in law. a perfect family guy and an intelligent one, (though indecent and spoilsport at times), he's a sweet company.........when he's there)

roll 247: Sayan Mullik Chowdhury I got close to him (not physically) only after college, as he was busy with the union during the college days). He's a cool company and a jolly one, and though he innocently bluffs at times (revealing bluffs, though), he's also one of the most helpful and jolly friends. And handsome too... :) and we all luv his mom's biryani.

roll 251: Sugata Roy (chhoku): Well, he's a little aloof these days, thanks to his luv and studies, but again, he's also one person who constantly keeps in touch , even without reciprocation. and when he's there, no guy is spared of his hand, and its pressing. :)

roll 252: Rituparna Mandal (Ritu): she's a cute classmate, though craving for attention all the time with her RJs. But she's one of them who really keeps in touch, and demands for our presence ( though her demands irritate us at the moment, its really out of her loyalty to the friendship, as we do realise later). Though some of her antics are ..well..anyways...she's a great pal..and a small pal too!

roll 254: Priyanka Kejriwal: without her mood swings, she's cool! though interactions with her has not been much, she traumatises the crowd with her songs when she's there, and we all luv her mom's aam ras!

Roll 260: Chandan Champa Baha Hembram: (aka tommy): she has always been a target of bullies, but a great pal nevertheless. her histrionic sometimes puts us to laugh...but again, we treasure those moments as the most enjoyable ones. she's a great pal...though mostly missing from most get2gethers, and a "loyal" one too

roll 261: Sakshi Arora (aka pinky). she's beautiful, she's sexy, and she's jolly! she has the potential to make a depressed crowd dance ( maybe with her jolly nature..or maybe with her shouts)...she has been a great friend...though aloof in the 3rd yr, and a great help....(deshapriya park)...(and also a great crush :))...and qudos also to her cheating histrionics....though we missed u big time during the excursions, along with pri..



roll 262: Debaleena Basu (Linz): she's a complex mixture practicality and impracticality....though i still resent one of her recent activities..i agree that my rapport with her is one of the bests amongst the physiopals. and that is evident through my movies featuring herself and agni. and above all we are fellow aquarians (and share the same frustrations regarding studies :P :P ). to add, we'v also turned her house into a shooting studio ;P




that...sums up...my physiopals... :)