Letters

It's not Lata's fault

I don't think Lata sounds strained in the Zubeidaa numbers. However the music director should have made her sing the So Gaye Hain number at a faster pace. If, as you say, she sounds strained, anyone else singing the song would have been worse.

Although I am not a professional singer, I do try out a few songs in the shower. I tried to sing the two Lata numbers after someone posted them on the newsgroup, but I just couldn't get going. I found them to be quite difficult compared to other popular songs.

No wonder then that only the likes of Lata could sing songs like So gaye hain and Pyara sa gaon. Unfortunately So gayen is just too slow. I would rather hear her duet Dekhen bhi to in the new audio Farz.

Nazir Patel

Read review of Zubeidaa


Rahman's encroaching on
art-film space

There were parts of the review of the score for Zubeida by Ms Suchitra Lata that I found insightful. I was, however, puzzled by the following that appears toward the end of the piece:

"Shyam Benegal's Sardari Begum featured such a score. Not many may be aware that Zakir Hussain, the tabla-playing, highflying wizard who preceded Rahman, came up with a wonderful, warm album for that film".

The composer for Sardari Begum is Vanraj Bhatia, according to the film credits as well as the cassette. The film titles do not indicate any function fulfilled by Zakir Hussain. Does the reviewer know something we are not privy to? Or, is it the case that she may not be aware of what some are aware of!

The reviewer also refrains from commenting on the implications of Rahman encroaching on the very tiny space that talented art-film composers (e.g., Vanraj Bhatia, Ajit Verman) used to survive in. Of course, whether to deprecate this trend, as I do, is a matter of personal perspective.

Ashok Dhareshwar

(You're right. The score is by Vanaraj Bhatia and we've corrected that in the review. Thanks for pointing out the error. -- Ed)

Need my music?

I am 26 years old, a B.E. from Chandigarh, working in a software company in Bangalore. I have no formal training in music but god has given me a good sense of music and I learn through books, friends and the Internet. I know the basic components of a piece of music -- bass, rhythm, harmony, lead and chords. I can develop these components for any piece of music.

I have a Roland XP-10 multitimbral sysnthesiser and a Roland SPD-20 percussion pad. Both these products have a large variety of high quality sounds and are MIDI compatible. I have interfaced with them on my PC. I use Cakewalk software for MIDI sequencing and Sound Forge for manipulating audio data. I also work on sound sampling. I am aware of some more excellent technologies in sound which I will be upgrading slowly.

I have a large repertoire of Hindi films songs from 1930s till date (more than 200 songs in cassttes, CDs, mp3, etc). I try to play all the interludes and pieces in the orchestration.

I want make high quality, well orchestrated songs for private albums or for film music. I am also interested in making background music for serials and films. I also want to do live shows.

Rajneesh Mangla
rajneesh_mangla@yahoo.com

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