29.August.2010 @ If you have noticed me updating this site much less
frequently than earlier, it is also partly because of (besides sheer laziness
and the more pressing onus of managing my 3 other blogs) the fact that I do not
stumble upon that shockingly blatant lifts anymore. I've always considered it
like the job of a guy who does post mortems for a living - after a point, I'm
sure he'll drop all inhibitions and fear of working with such morbid things.
But, here's a lift that got me all excited, after a very long time. Reason
#1...I loved the Hindi song and it was in my car playlist for quite some time.
Reason #2...it has been lifted almost as-is, with uniquely filmy additions. The
song is 'Oh Jaana' from Raaz - The Mystery Continues. The composer? Raju Singh.
And the source? Gipsy Kings' 'El camino', from their 1989 album, Mosaïque (the
European version of the same album had titled the song just 'Camino'). Raju
seems to have fine-tuned and tweaked the pitch to smoothen it out into a
full-fledged filmy number and it works beautifully. Just that...as I love
saying...it is uncredited. Thanks to Rakesh
Das for the info! Listen to
Oh Jaana
El Camino
11.August.2010 @ Here we go again! The first
announcement is to clear poor Sajid Wajid's name - they did not get the credit
for composing the latest national preoccupation - Munni badnaam hui, from
Dabaang, that
even Vidhu Vinod Chopra is humming the song around his house! The song is
credited to Lalit Pandit...half of Jatin-Lalit. And yes, it is lifted. Rather a
folk lift that is not appropriately credited...much like Ismal Darbar's Nimbuda
from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. The source of this chartbuster seems to be a bawdy,
folksy Bhojpuri number titled, 'Launda badnaam hua naseeban tere liye', sung by
Rani Bala. The music of this folk track is credited to Ghulam Dastgeer Khan and
the album titled, 'Balma Bada Bavaali' stars Rampat Harami and Rani Bala, at
least per
this site, where the song is streamed. The same lyrics were used by Bappi
Lahiri in an altered version in Rock Dancer, for the Javed Jaffrey featuring
song, 'Launda badnaam hua laundiya tere liye'. Lalit's Munni is closer to the
source in terms of tune, even though it has been supremely spruced up and very
modern oomph. It'd have been extremely graceful and honest of Lalit to have
credited the folk source for his Munni, but with so many spectacular lifts to
their name (as Jatin Lalit) that is one heck of an impossible ask!
Thanks to leads from
PakhiPakhi and
FilmyShilmy! Listen to
Munni badnaam:
Launda badnaam (Rani Bala):
Bonus: Launda badnaam (Rock Dancer) Not connected, tune-wise.
01.August.2010 @ Mohammed Rafi's death anniversary was yesterday (July
31st) and it is perhaps fitting that I add something related to him, today. My
interest in film music has never been singer-led - it has always been
composer-led, so the blame for this addition in ItwoFS would naturally go to
Kalyanji Anandji. The song is from the 1967 Shashi Kapoor starrer, Aamne Saamne
- Nain milakar chain churana, sung by Rafi. The song seems like a clever and
intelligently converted Hindi remake of the French song that a young, France
Gall sung to win the Eurovision song contest in 1965, just 2 years before the
Hindi film. France Gall was representing Luxembourg with this song that was
composed by renowned French composer Serge Gainsbourg. The tune is largely
similar, though the composers in Hindi have appropriately changed the pitch to
suit Shashi Kapoor...the backing orchestration too is very 60s in a Hindi filmy
way. There are many, many cover versions of the original in many languages (see
this
list in Wikipedia) and this Hindi, filmy one needs to be added under the
unaccredited covers section. Thanks to info
from Madhu Ayyagari and Varun Upadhye! Listen to
Nain milakar:
Poupée de cire:
03.JULY.2010 @
When Apoorva Lakhia lifts, he
lifts lock, stock and barrel, it seems. While he was
unabashedly open about his 2005 film, Ek Ajnabee, being
lifted from Tony Scott's 2004 Denzel Washinton film, Man on
fire, he seemed to have used more than the film's script or
scenes. So, as if those lifts were not enough, he also uses
a song from the film's soundtrack - Cuban singer Carlos
Varela's 'Una Palabra'. He has got composer Amar Mohile to
recreate the song with some Hindi'ish changes, as 'Barf
khushi hai', sung by Kailash Kher. Lovely original song and
reasonably interesting adaptation too - just that, it lacks
proper credit. Thanks to Yaju Arya for pointing out this
lift, listed in Ek Ajnabee's Wikipedia page. Listen to Barf khushi hai:
Una palabra:
13.JUNE.2010 @
One of my favorite composers, Madan
Mohan, thankfully has rather limited entries in ItwoFS. I
feel terrible in adding one to that limited list, but duty
beckons...what to do? The Madan Mohan song in question is
the 1963 number, Thodi der ke liye mere ho jao, from the
film Akeli Mat Jaiyo. The song was sung by Asha Bhosle and
featured killer cabaret type moves from Minoo Mumtaz, who,
incidentally, did you know, was Mehmood's sister? The tune
of the song was highly inspired, to the extent of calling it
a copy, from 'Hernando's Hideaway', a well known show tune
from the musical, The Pajama Game, that was written by
Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. It first came out in 1954, but
one of it's most famous versions was by Archie Bleyer, in
the same year. There are
many other recordings/versions of
this song down the years. This was sent as a lead to me
first by Nishant Shukul, who had Hernando's Hideaway, but
not the Hindi version and wondered to me on mail about the
Asha Bhosle version his dad was sure existed - this was back
in April 2008! Ravi Kumar wrote to me about the both the
songs, with YouTube links more recently (in May, this year)
and also noted that AIR FM Rainbow Delhi RJ, Sunil Varma
made this revelation on radio. Listen to
Thodi der ke liye:
Hernando's Hideaway:
@ I rarely add non-music plagiarism cases on ItwoFS, but have done it in the past.
So, here's another interesting case. The US Consulate in
Chennai recently announced a blogging competition and
earlier this week, made public the names of the finalists
and the winner. The winner was a Bangalore-based student and
was all over local newspapers owing to his achievement. It
turns out that there was no achievement at all - he had
blogged 14 pieces, all of which were lifted in part or full
from assorted sources. To think that he got a visible,
publicity fuelled prize for it is nothing but a sham. And
obviously, a very bad example. Read more about this, here -
Blogging competition by US Consulate, Chennai - Sad day for
Indian bloggers.
30.May.2010 @ Pritam, this week! The man seemed
silent for a few releases, but here he is back, again. But,
I'm tempted to give the benefit of doubt on this one. The
song is Rajneeti's highly infectious, 'Bheegi si bhaagi si'.
The alleged source is our very familiar Indonesian band,
Peterpan, from which Pritam has already 2 tracks, Tak
Bisakah (Kyun aaj kal, Woh Lamhe) and Di Belakangku (Aao
milo chalen, Love Aaj Kal). The interesting fact is that the
alleged source of the Rajneeti song is from the same album
that had the 2 earlier lifts - the soundtrack of a film
called Alexandria (Peterpan's album was called, 'Menunggu
Pagi'). So, here we have, the song titled, 'Jauh Mimpiku',
but here's the deal - the entire Hindi song seems different,
but for 2 prominent portions - the tune for the lines, 'Aah
haa, gulabi si subah, Aah Haa, sharabi si hawa' and the main
hook, 'bheegi si bhaagi si' can be traced in the Indonesian
song, although, the former is direct, the latter is heard in
muted way, if you listen carefully, the background music
holds the key. This is a dicey lift to add, but given these
2 portions and the fact that it is from the same Peterpan
album, I'm adding it in ItwoFS for comparison's sake,
though, personally, given how deeply the line appears in
Hindi (and not in the beginning), I'd give the benefit of
doubt to Pritam. Thanks
to info from Erna Herlina! Listen to
Bheegi si bhaagi si:
Jauh Mimpiku:
Permanent
posts! @I've been trying to trace the
originals of the following songs - any info that you think would
help, please do mail me.
- Chalte Chalte - Chalte Chalte [Bappi Lahiri] - Supposed to be
lifted off a German folk song.
-
Anari - Woh chand khila [Shankar Jaikishen] - A very popular
western classical piece, has also been used as a background
piece by A R Rahman in the movie 'May Madham'.
@Also refer to
this page, which says, "He (Raj Kapoor) never hesitated
to adapt tunes (such as 'Is libe dis, I love you' and 'Dost dost
na raha', both in 'Sangam') which had appealed to him". So what
are the sources of these tracks? If you know,
lemme know! @This is
more of a personal search than about a lift...it could be a
possible lift too, btw! The song from the Maniratnam production,
'Five Star'...titled 'Rayile rayile' has a generous sprinkling
of some world music stuff. For some reason Azerbaijani music
pops in my mind, though its only a wild guess. Could anybody
recognize the style/ country of this music? It can be heard in
the one of the sites below! Raaga
| Smashhits |
Musicindiaonline (5th song)
Please do mail me
in case you have these tracks or know more about these!
Disclaimer and help on audio files:
The site demonstrates similarities in music, usually compared between an
Indian composition with that of a composition from another part of the
world or within India. The final interpretation on what constitutes a
similarity is entirely my assumption. The similarity thus deduced is not
based on a purely scientific basis like note-to-note comparison nor am I
musically knowledgeable enough to do that. The attempt here is to merely
showcase similarities that are obvious to a normal person with no/
limited musical sense, in other words, the lowest common denominator
basis for understanding similarities. This is also the reason why I use
the terms 'lift', 'copied' or 'plagiarized' and not 'infringed' since
this site is not ideally conceived as a legal proof for music plagiarism.
The Audio files included here are for demonstration purposes only and
are merely edited clippings, mostly lasting not more than 30 seconds.
The quality in which they are edited is also ensured to be minimal so
that they may not replace actual, full fledged digital versions. The clips are not meant to infringe any copyright whatsoever.
Please download and install the free
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