Of coincidences

It might just be me, but I've noticed some similarities between songs that you wouldn't normally think would sound similar. It would not seem plausible, that is, that the composer of the latter song would be inspired by the former song. For instance, there's a great song called 'Badi dheere jali raina' sung by Rekha Bharadwaj (and composed by Vishal Bharadwaj) in Abhishek Chaubey's "Ishqiya." To me, it sounds a bit like an amazing M. RangaRao song sung brilliantly by Dr. Rajkumar in "Hosa beLaku." But that, to quote the Dude, is just, like, my opinion, man. Check it out for yourselves.

See what I mean? I'm not saying the great Vishal Bharadwaj did what Anu Malik and Anand-Milind did. It might just be the two songs being in the same raga that's swayed me. Then again, this might also be a case of Nabokovian cryptomnesia.

I never thought I'd say Nabokovian cryptomnesia. Ever.


Update:- As commenter penguin points out, "Kanneera dhaare" is an 'absolute and complete adaptation' of a Jagjit Singh ghazal from his 1979 album, "Come alive."   "Hosa beLaku" was released in 1982 and 3 years is ample time to rip off a song. So, I feel a little silly for putting that up as the possible inspiration for "BaDi dheere jali."  The brilliant ghazal in question:- Koi paas aaya savere savere.

Another instance that springs to mind, though even more far-fetched than the previous one, is yet another Hosa beLaku song (I was listening to all the songs from that movie. Really good soundtrack). This time, it's Malayalam composer Ravindran who's been caught by my roving, myopic eye. Particularly, his composition from 'His Highness Abdullah' called "Tu badi masha Allah kahe Abdullah":-





Again, I might be seeing similarities just because I want to. By the way, 'His Highness Abdullah' also has a killer soundtrack. Seek out the songs on Youtube if you haven't heard them already. Also, if you can get your hands on the original Malayalam cassette, you will be privileged to hear Mohanlal say "His Highness Abdullah." Believe me, it's a treat. The movie itself is good, despite the visuals of that last song.

Speaking of that movie, 'Pramadavanam veenDum' seems to have begotten Aaptamitra's "KaNa kaNadi Shaarade."


These aren't instances of plagiarism. Maybe coincidences or cases of a part of a song inspiring another, entirely different song; vague resemblances, perhaps. Let's call it 'vagiarism.' It's not how the music director of the Kannada film 'Mona Lisa' (Vallisha Sandeep?) blatantly ripped off the titular bit of "Staying alive" and added that to the film's title song. Check that shit out, it's in the first interlude. Staying alive, of all the songs. That's among the stupidest songs ever sung. It's also not how Pradeep Sarkar borrowed almost the entire plot from K Balachander's 'Arangetram' and made 'Laaga chunari mein daag' or how B R Chopra made minor changes to the plot of B R Panthulu's Kannada classic 'Schoolmaster' and produced 'Baghban.' By the way, it says five people wrote Baghban. "Hey, did you hear the one about how many writers it takes to rip off an old Kannada film...?"

No, these are just vague resemblances that trigger off dormant faultlines in my memory, I guess. I watched "Let the right one in" yesterday, after thinking of watching it for many months. The more amateur (like me) anime watchers among you will recall the amazing 'Elfenlied' series. This movie put me in mind of that anime. Here, Oskar, the normal, hapless young boy finds an incredibly powerful 'special friend' in the vampire girl Eli. In Elfenlied, Kohta is the powerless hero(?) who befriends the powerful Diclonius Nyu/Lucy. (Spoiler alert) At the end of "Let the right one in," Eli, the vampire girl, saves Oskar from the bullies after some messy bloodletting. In Elfenlied, Nyu confronts shitloads of soldiers and saves Kohta after shedding truckloads of blood. (Spoiler ends)

Come to think of it, that's kind of similar to "Akira" as well. Tetsuo goes crazy and becomes some sort of expanding organism. His best friend, Kaneda, 'saves' him from himself and -- maybe I am seeing too much into this stuff.

Iron Man 2 is good fun, though.

Update:- I really must be seeing too much into things. In the following scene, check out Dr. Rajkumar's acting and voice modulation (don't watch the whole scene, it's a bit blade. Just watch for a couple of minutes).

Doesn't it seem that Kamal Haasan does a similar job in 'Indiran Chandiran' as the evil mayor? Similar voice. Kamal might have been inspired by it, you never know.