Saturday, June 18, 2005

The K-bar experience

A friend and I decided to go sing at a Karaoke bar today, something we'd been wanting to do for a long time. Now Singapore's full of K-bars, but I had two conditions -- it should be a non-sleazy one, and should have a good collection of Hindi songs. She called up a few K-bars, and we chose the one that sounded not only non-sleazy but also promised a large selection of Hindi songs.

Well, turns out, their so-called "large selection of Hindi songs" made me want to tear the place apart brick by brick. The songs were pathetic imitations of the originals, sung by people who do not even know Hindi, and the videos were really seedy ones with secondary school students dressed up in saris and kurtas, and behaving funny. The boys were looking at the girls in a really shady manner, and the girls were acting all coy in a creepy sorta way. Yikes. (Wonder if their parents know they're in such videos!) What's more, the lyrics were not only horrendously incorrect but badly spelt too!

Here's how I sounded like as I tried to sing using the lyrics off the screen:

"Arre re arre ye kya hua, koi na bey... huh?? What?? Bey? Errrm... Arre re arre banda... huh?? Banda?? Ban ja apsana... what?? Apsana??"

By the time the four hours in the torture chamber were up, I had made up my mind to buy my own Karaoke system asap.

I hate it when Hindi songs are mutilated like this. As if the senseless remixes are not enough already.

Hate it hate it hate it. Aaarghhh!



20 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes. buy one asap.

i just watched parineeta - great movie. Except the scene at the end when everyone is cheering him on to break down the wall. That scene was such a total let down. They really rushed through the end. But great movie otherwise.

That's another "new-age" classic song - Arre re arre.

Haath mera thaam lo
saath jabh tak ho
Baat kuch hoti rahe
Baat jabh tak ho
Samne behte raho tum
raat jabh tak ho

naam kya de kya kahe
dil ke mausam ko
aag jaise lag gaye
aaj shabhnam ko
tum kaho to maang lo mein
aaj kuch rabh se

tum chale jao zara
hum sambhal jaaye
dhadkhane dil ki kahin
na machaljaaye
waqt se aage kahin na
hum nikal jaaye

hum mein tum mein kuch to hain
kuch nahin hai kya
aur kuch ho jaaye to
kuch yakeein hain kya
dekhlo yeh dil jaha tha
yeh vahin hain kya

saamne hain raaste
hum guzar jaaye
ya kisi ke vaaste
hum thaher jaaye
abh yaha tak aa gaye hum
abh kidhar jaaye

...sorry for the long post - its just a great song - though im sure ive made a couple of mistakes, so dont mind - off the top of me head.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you Sahil. That was the only scene in Parineeta that felt fake... Otherwise it was a really good movie.

Interestingly enough, I was thinking about that very scene this afternoon and smiling at the thought of Saif's mom and the accountant shouting "Hamaari maangein poori karo!" :D Seems like we're all connected in one big global wavelength!

By the way, Sayesha, I was walking around a video shop today and saw Karaoke DVDs! I looked for hindi ones but no sign of them! :o

anubhav said...

Tell you what guys back home everybody loves happy endings and thats what chopra tried at the end, may be he could have been better.

But for me what stood out in the movie was its screeplay,innovativeness(hardly found these days) and great use of indian locations...

Well as of remixes most of the them are disasters but some DJ's are good.There are some old songs which go well with fast beats. But yeah these guys do not give due respect to the original singers.

Avyakt said...

The antakshari sessions in NTU were a lot more enjoyable than this.

Sayesha... long time no see. How have you been?

Anonymous said...

DTPH - the story of princesse

Sayesha said...

Hey wavelength-mates Sahil & Viv,
Yes, I agree too. The 'tod de, Shekhar' scene was kinda dumb. He should have used the little time he had, to run around the wall and stop Lolita. But then, I always try and justify the bad parts of good movies, so here goes: Maybe he was so mad with rage, confusion and guilt, that sense took leave and the only thing he could think of was to break the wall! :)

Anubhav,
A lot of people tell me that some remixes are good, but I hate each one of them. Maybe it's a mental block because I just find remixes so insulting to the original composer that I find it intolerable. It's like someone coming up with a proposal to colour the Taj Mahal. It may (just may) look more beautiful than the original, but would we allow it? Wouldn't you be appalled??

Avyakt,
Hey, I sure miss the NTU Antakshari sessions :(
And yes, I'm doing good! Hope you are too :)

Anish said...

funny :-) :-)

virdi said...

this is what happens when you see sad movies like Hum Tum and go to sad K-Bars. Hey u could have had fun if you could integrate your TV and music system and Computer. You can play songs from your computer with music system speakers and woofer and the picture coming on TV. sorry yaar, i hate when people screw up a language. Stupid bengalis try to talk Punjabi with Rosogulla in their mouth and say SHORDARJI SHORDARJI IF BHEE CANNOT SHIT INSIDE BHEE CAN SHIT OUTSIDE!!! mera dimag kharab ho jata hai. sayesha, tu bongi toh nahi hai na??
V...

Anonymous said...

HAHAHA! That was damn funny V! :)

Sayesha said...

I know exactly what you mean, Virdi! Hindi is the most beautiful language in the world, and when someone messes it up, mera khoon khaul jata hai! :@

Anonymous said...

If you could integrate a computer, TV and music system, you should get a nobel prize in applied mathematics! ;)

The only thing I've figured out so far is that the derivative of TV is -t (wasted time!) :)

Anonymous said...

The last comment was mine (if you found it funny)... Dunno why the browser chose to tag it anon...

Anonymous said...

//Hindi is the most beautiful language in the world

I wonder what the French have to say about that... I think any language in which even a gaali sounds nice to hear must be good... (Merovingian in Matrix 2)

Anonymous said...

the song has been on loop for the whole freaking day.

...and nope it is still not out of my head.

....as as a bonus, listening to it has put me in such a quiet, contemplative, glum mood. Mujhko akele hone ka ehsaas diladiya...

Thanks Sayesha.

No - thats unfair of me. Can't make you feel guilty for whats my fault.

sigh.

btw - Sayesha ka matlab kya hain?

Sayesha said...

You needn't worry, Viv. I would have known it was you. That kinda statement (the one with -t) could only come from you! :D

Sayesha said...

//I wonder what the French have to say about that... I think any language in which even a gaali sounds nice to hear must be good.

Viv, I beg to disagree... in style :)

Ahem... arz kiya hai...

Irshad irshad!

Woh zindagi bhi kya zindagi hai
Jo akele hi jee jaaye

Woh gaali bhi kya gaali hai
Jo tabiyat se na dee jaaye!

Sayesha said...

Sahil,
A quick search on google takes me to this site for baby names that says 'Sayesha' means 'attained with great desire'. But one of my friends in India says it's an urdu word for 'princess of hearts'. Am happy with either :)

Kroopa Shah (Kr00pz) said...

Yikes!! That sounds real bad!! No wonder you wanted to tear the place apart!!

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