Another one bites the dust

Ghayal (Wounded) released in 1990 is undoubtedly one of the best action movies to have ever come out of Bollywood. Raj Kumar Santoshi's directorial debut was also arguably his biggest commercial success and delivered a national award for actor Sunny Deol.

Santoshi and Deol have always been very candid about the fact that the film drew some inspiration from Stallone's First Blood. If fact, they have been reported to admit that when Santoshi took the script to Sunny Deol, he said he'd focus on how to make it different from the said Stallone movie. That said, I have to admit that the end product is very different from the inspiration.

What has been less widely reported is blatant plagiarism in the music department. The happy-go-lucky family song Sochna Kya Jo Bhi Hoga Dekha Jayega (Don't worry about tomorrow, We'll meet it when it comes) is clearly a lift-off from the French group Kaoma's 1989 megahit Lambada, which spawned the Lambada dancing craze of the 90s.

Things like this can shake up your entire belief system. You see, in my earlier, "ignorance is bliss" days, I would have classified "Sochna Kya" as a typical "Indian sound". Oh, well! You live, you learn.

If you, like me, have been living under a rock for all these years, you can listen to Lambada right here:

3 mts 22 secs


Click on the image above, and then click on play button once it becomes available.

Ironic

Just came across the song "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette (yes, I am a dinosaur). I have to say that I think the song is aptly titled.

And here's the irony: This song about ironies and titled "Ironic" has been written by a woman who has not the faintest idea of what irony means.

"An old man turned ninety-eight. He won the lottery and died the next day"
What's ironic about that? Well, it could be ironic if the guy died of chronic emphysema caused by inhaling all the rubber scratched off thousands of lottery tickets over decades.

"It's like rain on your wedding day"
Hmm....only ironic if you are marrying Surya bhagwan, the Sun God.

"Mr. Play-it-Safe was afraid to fly. He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye. He waited his whole damn life to take that flight. And as the plane crashed down..."
That could be ironic if he were flying to an aviophobics conference.

"It's meeting the man of my dreams, And then meeting his beautiful wife"
Really, Alanis, there is no irony in that. Well, okay, a little bit of irony if the wife is your "relationship advisor" you hired to improve your "luck", and one who had vowed never to marry at that.

"It's a traffic jam when you're already late"
That's not ironic - that's just an annoyance. Unless, of course, you are the town planner of your city and are late for receiving an award for reducing congestion on the city roads.

I could rant on and on, but you get the idea. Somebody please strengthen English language education in schools of native English speakers!

Click here to read the lyrics of the song

Oye oye in the airport

So, my Air Canada flight was scheduled for departure at 6.20 a.m., and deciding to follow the "for international flights reach the airport at least 3 hours before flight time" rule for a change, I arrived at the airport at 3 a.m. only to find it almost completely deserted. Airline staff arrive only at 5.30, whispered another early-bird.

"Lovely", I thought as I sank into the apparently only chair in the whole ticketing/ check-in area.

Imagine my joyous surprise then, when as I was waiting for the airline staff to arrive, the music being piped into the airport changed to "Oye oye", probably the most insanely popular song in 1989's India.

In fact, I remember that singing this song in public was banned in several districts of the nation for quite a while as it had become the weapon of choice for eveteasers.

Within a few seconds, however, it became clear that it wasn't Tridev's Tirchhee topee waley (Guy with the tilted hat) that they were piping.

Turns out that like numerous Bollywood favorites, "Oye oye"/ "Tirchhee topee waley" also borrows heavily from a foreign song, specifically "Rhythm is gonna get you" from the 1987 album "Let it Loose" by Cuban-American Latin-pop rage Gloria Estefan of the Miami Sound Machine band.

Now, I have appreciated Estefan's songs like "Don't wanna loose you now", but I must admit that I was not familiar with her earlier work. It took some effort to figure out that it was her song that was being played. That Pitbull and Beyoncé have "Oye", Santana and Tito Puente have "Oye como va", and Estefan herself has "Oye" and "Oye mi canto" didn't help.

All plagiarism aside, the overture of "Rhythm's gonna get you" flows better as the signature and essence of "Tirchhee topee waley", in my biased opinion.

Anyways, I do feel a bit disappointed about the rip-off even though I know fully well what Bollywood music is: mostly a mishmash of popular music from around the world.