ItwoFS is simply Inspirations in Indian Film Songs!

And how does one pronounce the name of this site? Its eye-too-ef-es!

The motive of this site is straight and simple - to provide a comprehensive list of musical inspirations (sometimes subtle and intelligent but mostly downright blatant!) of Indian film music composers. The list is constantly growing and the most important source of additions is the mails from this site's visitors! And yes, this site focuses more on inspirations from international sources, rather than from inter-language inspirations in India. So I save considerable web space by not including Anand Milind's inspirations from Ilayaraja and A R Rahman! :-)

Another key aspect is the difference between getting inspired to create the tune itself and using bass/ beats/ rhythm loops from foreign sources. Those songs listed which have their basic tunes inspired would have a prominent <TC>  mark adjacent to them to denote a tune copy. Those without the <TC> mark signify use of rhythm loops, beats/ bass and so on. One cannot judge the intentions of the composer in both cases but yes, when a composer copies a tune, its generally assumed that his imagination is dry! This, notwithstanding the kind of excuses they give - "the producer came to me with the CD and said use this" and so on!

More on music plagiarism

Ever wondered how I got the idea to start this site? It was a mention about one of my 'exploits' in India Today. This was way back in 2001. I used to upload edited audio clips of copied and original tracks in a free server called Prohosting and used to post those links as proof in a oft-visited 'Copied songs' thread in TFM page! This included the 2 famous lifts in Nadeem Shravan's Dhadkan, both lifted from the Middle East. Apparently the news spread fast and India Today did a piece on it in their back page in the issue dated September 3, 2001, with a mention of the link where I had uploaded it! Its a different story that they had printed the URL incomplete! But that was the beginning. I decided to catalog the whole thing instead of having it in a free server and posting it in a message board. Used to hang around in a free geocities server, then iespana and now my own server! Long way huh? Click on the thumbnail for a larger view...opens in a new window/ tab!

Do I see a Kaavya-styled internalized lift here? Sample these!

Mine: “As a soundtrack, Emdan Magan disappoints…”
Rediff: “Vidyasagar’s score for Emden Magan is not great; in fact, it is disappointing…”

Mine: “Varaaru is marginally catchy, which will need significant help from its picturization to impress better”
Rediff: “Vaararu Varaaru is marginally catchy, but will need significant help from its accompanying visuals to impress.”

Mine: “Kalloori is a routine youngster’s track in the usual Vidyasagar mode.”
Rediff: “Kalloori is a routine youth track in the usual Vidyasagar style.”

Mine: “The composer returns to his Thambi-styled melodies in Koligundu kannu and Mannmeedhu - both are beautifully tuned and very well sung.”
Rediff: “He comes up with his Thambi-style melodies in Koligundu Kannu and Mannmeedhu, both of which are tastefully tuned and very well sung.”

What do you think…do I have a case? Plagiarism of a different kind, huh?

@ Update 1: Well, its the darndest thing! Rediff has removed the review in question! Here's the back-up version, just in case! In PDF (194 KB) | Zipped PDF (182 KB)

@ Update 2: End of the issue. Rediff removes the review thanks to Prem Panicker, who got notified about this by another blogger, Amit of India Uncut! Thanks folks.