07.May.2012 Palash Sen' has alleged that
Ram Sampath lifted the main refrain of the theme song of Aamir Khan's TV show,
Satyamev Jayate, from his 2000 number Satyamev Jayate, from the album Phir Dhoom.
This, in short, is absurd.
Before
reporting this in mainstream media, why didn't the concerned journalists
listen to both songs once and then write about it? Is it because this news will
help sell more print since this is controversy around the most-talks about TV
show in recent times? Add to it, they can combine the Ram Sampath Vs. Rajesh
Roshan and Krazzy 4 copyright war and make a juicy story.
The simple point is that, if one listens to the both the songs, there is no
basis for Palash's claims at all.
There are 2 things worth differentiating here.
One, the use the words 'Satyamev Jayate' as the main chorus, in both songs. This
is not worth debating as a lift. One could argue that the split of the words, 'Satyamev
Satyamev, Satyamev Jayate' is similar in both songs. Is that even a valid claim?
Of course not.
Two, the tune in which the chorus is sung. Just listen to both the choruses.
Ram's song has one tune for this chorus, while Euphoria's has 2 - the starting
chorus is similar only in the way it breaks the words up - 'Satyamev Satyamev,
Satyamev Jayate'. The 2nd chorus just goes, 'Satyamev Jayate...yay yay yayeye'.
The don't sound similar in anyway, as far as the tune goes.
It is shocking that this baseless claim was given weight in media when both the
songs are a click away for listening.
19.March.2012 Considering the last update
on ItwoFS happened on December 24, 2011, I do agree that I have mildly lost
interest in updating this site. I keep reminding myself to do it, but there's
only so much interest I can muster to update older instances of lifts, most of
which don't convince me in the first place. But here I am, back, to do the most
unlikely thing - supporting a composer known for his plagiaristic ways.
Iranian band Barobax had reportedly
sent a legal notice to Pritam and Agent
Vinod team for copyright violation. The bone of contention - one that is being
discussed in YouTube comments and online discussion forums - is the song 'Pungi'.
It is alleged that the song is copied from Barobax's 2010 song, 'Soosan Khanoom'.
Having ripped apart Pritam a LOT, in this site, in the past, I guess it is only
fair that I also come out in support of him when an allegation is widly silly
and false. In my opinion, the ONLY similarity between Barobax's Soosan Khanoom
and Agent Vinod's Pungi is the rythm loop that plays in the background.
Tune-wise (or genre-wise) both the songs are similar to other songs like Hawa
hawa (by Hassan Jehangir, but owes its origins to the 70s Iranian song 'Havar
havar' by Kourosh Yaghmai) and Viju Shah's song from Aar Ya Paar,
Tamma ele.
There is no base for alleging that Pritam copied Barobax's song since the tunes
are completely different and rhythm similarities could be tracked back or
explained to commercial loops. A few instruments and a rhythm loop doesn't make
a song (with lyrics, like film songs - different case for instrumental songs,
anyway) - the tune does.
For once, I believe Pritam is in the clear.
Having read the above, listen to samples of the two songs in question - it is
one thing to listen to them after reading random YouTube allegations of their
similarity, and it's something else to listen to them after reading a
counterpoint. Barobax's Soosan Khanoom:
Agent Vinod's Pungi:
And, here's a bonus! A Tamil song by Vidyasagar, from the 2003 film Madura. The
first 2 lines are almost identical to Barobax's Soosan Khanoom - no rhythm
similarity; good old tune-similarity, albeit only short :)
24.December.2011 @ Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu's new film Businessman
carries a lot of expectations, particularly after his last film, Dookudu's
spectacular success. The music of Businessman is part of that expectation - it's
by composer Thaman, again, after Dookudu. I did not like Businessman's music as
much as I did Dookudu's (as is evident from
my review), but what made sit up is a comment on Milliblog's Facebook page
about Pilla chao's origins. The original is a legendary Italian revolutionary
song named (surprise, surprise!!), Bella Ciao. It looks like Thaman has directly
lifted the Telugu song from a techno version of Bella Ciao. Interestingly, the
original composer of Bella Ciao remains unknown, though recently, Bella Ciao's
roots are traced to a Jewish song titled 'Koilen' that was first recorded by
Mishka Ziganoff in 1919. Though this seems like an adaptation of a folk song
(with unknown credits), it would have been good if Thaman had not passed it off
as his own composition. And yes, the name could have sounded less like the
original - Pilla chao vs. Bella Ciao? Highly unimaginative! Thanks to a
comment on Milliblog's FB page by Praveen Lakkaraju. Listen to
Pilla chao:
Bella Ciao (techno remix):
Bella Ciao (original):
Koilen:
@ Here's
another lift from the same film mentioned above - Mahesh Babu's Businessman.
Strange that Thaman chose to lift twice in the same soundtrack! The song 'Chandamama'
seems to have been crafted meticulously after South African composer Lebo M's
most famous song, 'He lives in you' that was used in the soundtrack of the
sequel to Lion King. The song was also part of the CD, Rhythm Of The Pride
Lands, produced by Lebo M and Jay Rifkin. Thaman's Telugu version piles on the
background music to glitzy levels, but the base tune seems largely intact,
particularly the catchy 'Oh oh eeyo' humming. Thanks to Aravind Yarram in
Milliblog's Facebook page for the info. Listen to
Chandamama:
He Lives In You:
26.November.2011 @
Composing duo Sharib-Toshi have a fairly unblemished record so far, in their
limited run in Bollywood. So, it comes across as a surprise that their new
catchy song from Ghost, 'Jalwanuma' seems massively influenced from a song by
Amr Diab, that Middle eastern God of Indian film music! Yes, Jalwanuma contains
a lot of references to Diab's 'Khalik Maaya' from his 2007 album 'El Leila De'.
The main hook in Hindi seems to be inspired by the main instrumental hook in the
original while the rest of the tune seems to use a flow similar (but with
Hindi'ish variations) to Diab's song.
Thanks to Rana Singh for the info. Listen to
Jalwanuma:
Khalik Maaya:
Pssst...notice the original and the album
name in the first update on 12th November, below? Diab rules, huh?
@ The second
update this week is a bonus that I got from posting the last update on November
12th. I had posted a song called 'Linda Linda' wondering how many people would
connect its tune to Rockstar's 'Hawa hawa'. Not many people did, understandably.
But an interesting bonus from that post is
this comment, that refers to Linda Linda's direct and blatant lift in
Telugu. Composer Raghu Kunche creates a complete song called 'Bujjikonda' (from
the 2009 film, Bumper Offer) out of the original by cleverly using the mukhda of
the original as the Telugu version's antara and vice versa! And, the whole song
gets a pulsating background too! Interesting lift! Listen to
Bujjikonda:
Linda Linda (Tee Set):
12.November.2011 @
I think I'm adding more Malayalam lifts than ever before. The latest addition is
courtesy MG Sreekumar, the Malayalee singer/composer. His soundtrack for
Priyadarshan's Mohanlal starrer, Arabiyum Ottakavum P Madhavan Nairum (comes
with an alternate title, 'Oru Marubhoomikkatha'!) has a song, 'Madhavettanennum'
that seems to be an unabashedly direct lift of the Amr Diab song, 'Rohy
Mertahalak'. The original was part of Diab's 2007 album, El Leila De and was
used for a Pepsi TVC starring Diab!
Thanks to Mohammed Abdullah and Charles
Robin Thirumala for the info! Listen to
Madhavettanennum:
Rohy Mertahalak:
@ It is a fact
that I don't update this site as often as I used to. These days, after years of
dealing with plagiarism instances, I seem to have become more discerning in
adding a song for plagiarism. Minor lifts in the backgrounds don't really excite
me anymore - I'm looking more for actual similarities in the tune. That's one of
the reason why I thought hard and decided not to catalog Salim-Sulaiman's 'Jazba'
from 'Ladies V/s Ricky Bahl'. It has a repetitive instrumental phrase that seems
to be heavily inspired by Romanian musician Edward Maya's 2010 song 'Desert
Rain'. But the tune of Jazba is completely different, so much that I'm not going
to add it under Salim-Sulaiman's tab. But considering I loved Desert Rain, enjoy
the song and do your own comparisons. Thanks to Mukul Sinha's
comment on my
review of Ladies V/s Ricky Bahl for the info. YouTube videos of, Jazba (Ladies V/s Ricky Bahl) Desert Rain (Edward Maya feat Vika Jigulina)
@ A third
update. I have done something similar earlier with 'My name is
Sheila', where I had posted an alleged-original and asked people to identify if
they can track a Hindi song from it. Here's yet another such alleged-original -
can you find a Hindi song that seems to resemble this song?
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
Real Player to listen to these song files.
