Milliblog!

1 | Milliblog music review: Rock On : NAACHGAANA

July 8th, 2008 at 10:27 am

[...] Director Farhan Akhtar pulls off his new role as a singer with panache in this soundtrack. But, with minimal direct references to conventional and well known rock idioms, the musical trio are truly the heroes of this lively, innovative and thoroughly enjoyable soundtrack. Despite the cliché, I’ll take this as the most appropriate moment to say, Rock on dudes! Read full review here [...]

2 | rakesh

July 8th, 2008 at 3:31 pm

Is this your first 200 word review for a Shankar Ehsaan Loy soundtrack ?

3 | Karthik

July 8th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

Possibly…I think so!

4 | Das Prakash

July 8th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

Karthik,
More OSTs with long and good reviews from you this year!! I guess you’ll have a tough time choosing the best 10 at the end of the year. [:)]

5 | muktak_k

July 8th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

Really a good soundtrack…..
I totally agree with you that Farhan Akhtar has done a good job singing…. but the credit should go to Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy who made him sing these songs…
though these days with the help of computer anyone can sound good

6 | ravihno

July 9th, 2008 at 10:20 am

Rock on really rocks

7 | Karthik

July 9th, 2008 at 1:42 pm

Interesting alternate opinion, from Rediff’s Raja Sen!
http://www.rediff.com/movies/2008/jul/09rock.htm

8 | Karthik

July 9th, 2008 at 9:14 pm

Following up on my own post, I anticipated such a review from Raja - I suppose he’s looking for a ‘rock’ rock album in a Hindi film. But, this is a Hindi film. About an Indian rock band. I’ve read many complaints about Indian rock bands merely aping western bands and ending up nowhere. Where SEL have scored big time - IMO - in this soundtrack, is bring a slightly more truer rock sound, but within the ambit of Hindi film music. There are rock music fans and there are Hindi film music fans. This, I believe, bridges, or at least tries to bridge both and lands in a sweet spot, much like Pakistani rock bands who have very Indian tunes in a rock base. But, the tunes in Rock On!! are not so sweetly Indian and push the envelope slightly ahead without sacrificing on the catchiness quotient.

9 | tejas

July 9th, 2008 at 10:36 pm

What is a ‘rock’ rock album?

I cannot agree with Raja Sen at all, but I have a different take on the entire ‘criticism’.

Most of the Indian bands we listen to every other day play in English. Basic Rock/metal riffs, same screaming-screeching-howling like the firang bands. It is often hard to tell if you are listening to a Desi band or an American high-school band.

I am member of Orkut’s Great Indian Rock community. Some organizer recently asked the bands to sing two songs in Hindi for a concert. Bam!! 90% of active community members went berserk! They cannot expect rock in Hindi at all. They would listen to Greek, Finnish metal bands sing in their language, but want desi bands to sing in English. To an extent that singing in Hindi is sacrilegious.

On the other hand, look at the bands who Indianized it, and are successful. Agnee - my favorite example - is successful even with larger audience than college rock-fests. Nirvikalpa, Rudra (Singaporean Vedic Metal band)!! There is a Keralian band who sing in Malayali - absolutely bliss if you understand the language (which I don’t).

I see what the OST of Rock On!! is doing. Taking the base of rock songs, and adding Hindi lyrics which carry the same meaning that their English counterparts do. After all, ‘Smoke on the waters’ wasn’t an example of poetic genius. But the riffs?! F’in best in the world!! True rock song? Hell yeah!

I am in complete awe of the composers, the lyricist and the singers for this one. This is what I call Rock! I only wish they could pick some Indian theme for lyrics, but well, it would not have fit in the storyline somewhere.

By the way, the FIRST Indian Rock soundtrack still remains Paanch.

10 | siddi

July 9th, 2008 at 11:13 pm

“Socha hai” is the 2nd “existential banter” song I’ve heard recently.

Earlier it was Sonu Nigam singing “Sochta Hoon Main” in Classically Mild questioning the purpose of existense of everything.

Shankar Mahadevan in “Pyaar Ke Liye” was also wondering why we like the waves and rain, but the answer was really simple - “for/because of love”.

11 | Rishi

July 10th, 2008 at 2:22 am

Raja Sen has some strong opinions, but I’m not one-hundred percent convinced that those are, in fact, his true opinions. It seems he writes overly negative reviews to rile up the audience and sound as if he’s more intelligent, more well-cultured, and simply just above the average audience member. Anyone who has read his movie reviews as well understands what I’m speaking of. Frankly, it’s sickening.

12 | arun_verma

July 10th, 2008 at 8:20 pm

Not trying to defend Raja sen (I agree with Rishi’s comments) but for me this album didn’t work at all. Zero creativity, bad tunes and bad singing. SEL come on .. VS are going miles ahead of you given their recent de taali and bachna ae haseeno…

I am craving SEL of jhoom barabar jhoom and dil jo bhi kahey and phir milenge!!

13 | rmalur

July 10th, 2008 at 10:09 pm

For me Rock means three things :
1. Loads of Attitude
2. Electric metal sounds and guitar riffs
3. Good vocals.

Rock On does provide some of all the above…but it just a little and therefore doesn’t work in totality.

Songs are by far decent but nothing innovative. I agree with Raja Sen that Farhan Akhtar is nothing more than a bathroom singer. He sounds Ok in the songs probably using the modern technology as in the case of other non-singers like Atif Aslam ( I heard him live in one of the concerts quite a while back and he was quite bad… But he sounds so good in the songs he sing… All because of the modern technology http://youtube.com/watch?v=QC6h65G5Ymg )

14 | prawal

July 10th, 2008 at 10:49 pm

I didn’t like the album.
Only two songs rock on!! and pichle saat dino me are impressive.
I was quite unimpressed with the quality of the lyrics.

15 | rmalur

July 11th, 2008 at 8:27 am

Contradicting my previous comment above I am actually hooked to the following three songs from Rock ON….

Socha Hai
Pichle Saat Dinon mein
Rock On

But I still maintain that a seasoned singer would have lifted the songs to another level alltogether…

16 | jaydeep

July 11th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

Raja seemed too upset about the way the music sounded in the mall (album launch event), actually there was no reason for that. Having attended a few concerts, most of the tracks and artists sound half as good on CD (and sometimes sound just awful). One has to be used to such experiences to appreciate it. And I can imagine how these tracks could’ve sounded being performed in a public place.
About the album, I believe Farhan singing all the songs really works in favor of the songs, apart from being fresh and very rock’ish, there is certain vulnerabiltiy in his voice/singing which makes songs more real and more believable (may be that was requirement of the script).
About SEL, I agree with Kartik, where the trio has excelled in general is that they have always managed to bring in innovations without missing on catchiness, the single most imp requirement of bollywood or hindi music fans. They hit bulls eye yet again with this one.
Overall a very fresh and very innovative album. I love all the tracks. Full points to the entire team for daring to bring in true rock in mainstream bollywood and a smiley face to go along with the points, for doing it in such a terrific way.

17 | jaydeep

July 11th, 2008 at 10:37 pm

When I wrote tracks/artists sound half as good in live concerts as on CD, I didn’t mean to take away from the live performing artists, it is so not fair to any artist.
So I wanted to clarify, I just meant, live concerts are never the same as listening to a CD, thats a given for any artist and performance. Even two live acts by the same artists are never same. One has to keep that in mind to enjoy and appreciate it.

18 | Rishi

July 12th, 2008 at 1:59 am

rmalur: I’m not sure if the Atif Aslam clip is to show that he sounds good on cds only because of technology, but I’ve seen him live in concert, singing Kuch Is Tarah, and he sounded phenomenal.

Live performances are going to be less polished than the actual product all the time. It’s just how it works.

19 | siddi

July 12th, 2008 at 2:52 am

Actually some artists - perhaps mostly traditional sound better live from what I have heard.

Shafqat Amanat Ali apparently is more lively and delivers moving performances when singing live. Some of it may be the energy they feel performing in front of people compared to being closed in a box and being asked by an engineer sitting on a board to re-sing and re-try again and again. Also, a live performance can be more forgiving but better, but once they go through a pitch correction device, they may end up sounding worse. When singing live, the musicians may also be able to correct you if you are falling behind or going ahead of the rythm.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan perhaps is another example where any live performance of his would beat any studio recording.

20 | jaydeep

July 12th, 2008 at 8:14 pm

Siddi,

This was the exact reason I made correction to my comment. In live concerts, Its the sound quality that gets affected, which depends on many factors like venue(construction & capacity), equipments, sound production, engineer, crowd etc. Artists themselves are largely helpless with this issues. For example, one always gets disappointed when he attends a Rahman concert with expectaion to hear CD quaity tracks in mind. It always sounds half as good coz’ that sound quality can never be achieved outside his studio, perhaps not even in other studios, forget live concert.
But artists with tremendous stage experience can overcome all those factors with their talent. Adnan Sami, Sonu Nigam, Hans Raj Hans, Gurdaas Maan, Sivamani(rahman’s percussionist) and several other seasoned live performers can transcend one and all in crowd to altogether another world with their mind blowing performances.

21 | rmalur

July 13th, 2008 at 8:32 am

I am talking about the voice quality and not the sounds. If you listen to the Atif Aslam song which I shared and there are many more on You Tube that you can check out…. In most of them if you closely observe, Atif’s voice breaks a lot in between. These voice breaks are removed while recording the songs in the recording studio.

@Rishi… Probably you must have listened to Atif lipsynching to his songs in a live concert (it is a very common with most Indian Artists)

Note : In a recent interview, Sunidhi Chauhan herself commented that Atif is not a good singer.

http://www.naachgaana.com/2008/03/08/atif-aslam-cant-sing-sunidhi-chauhan/

22 | jaydeep

July 14th, 2008 at 7:38 pm

Ya, recently singer Abhijeet had worser things to say about Atif’s singing abilities on one of the celebrity reality shows where he is judge with choreographer Ahmed khan.
Technically may be he is not a good singer, but one can’t deny the fact man is blessed with a voice to die for.

23 | jaydeep

July 14th, 2008 at 7:41 pm

By the way, gettin back to Rock on! does anyone know how the album is doing commercially. Just curious.

24 | mhafeez

July 20th, 2008 at 3:47 pm

Kartik, why won’t you agree with Raja of rediff?? If the movie name is Rock on and the Genre is Rock and the movie is about a Rock Band, the sound better be Rock. I have heard so much of these so called “Hindi Rock”!! There isn’t much difference to main stream rock except that Indian Rock is not heavily funded and lack production (Unfortunately). This album by SEL is really cool but still a grade lower than what they can give, more so of the Drums I would say. (than Ehsaans guitaring). The Drums is basic and no real rolls and offs (simple use of hi hats etc, I am sure you know what I mean).
Some of the songs have cool resemblances to International rock songs like “Pichle saat”’s intro riff sounds like Metallica’s Bad Seed Intro and the Sindbad intro is Defintely Deep Purple’s Highway star Intro.

I am Rock guitarist and part of a rock band and a big fan of Rahman and SEL and I think this album is pretty cool in the End.

Also please write 200 words review for Rahman too, I think you are depriving us of your kind reviews

25 | gokulpai

July 31st, 2008 at 4:55 pm

[3/5]

26 | kkhanna2020

August 12th, 2008 at 1:29 pm

Kudos!

That said, I do think that our country needs to reinvent band culture especially rock. And for that to happen music industry must work independently and not guided by bollywood movies. Also, I think Farhan Akhtar’s presence in the movie makes it more exciting. We can expect Dil chahta hai kinda success.