raymond chandler ‘the big sleep’, ‘the last goodbye’ ‘farewell, my lovely’ - johnny gaddar - bollywood music recap

raymond chandler writes the best crime novels i have read in a long time. he has the noir voice down so damn pat that i can almost hear humphrey bogart rasp out the lines as i read. i read three back to back in a compilations – ‘the big sleep’, ‘the last goodbye’ and ‘farewell, my lovely’. misogynistic, homophobic, racist- they cant get any more politically incorrect than this. still, all is forgiven when the blonde women exhale cigarette smoke standing in a hollywood balcony sunset.

'johnny gaddar' was twisted and a riot of fun. a plot that kept you guessing every two minutes and just when you settled in it hit you with another twisted development. lead man neil nitin mukesh is all right, the bit players being far more effective. a total must see masti. the 70s referencing music is far more inventive than vishal shekhars faithful recreation of bollywood songs in om shanti om whose music irritates me. but i said that of dard e disco earlier and now i cant stop humming it. so, i will just have to wait and let the inevitable happen and grow into the songs once i have some srk images to go with the sound.

on the other hand i fell hard in spite of myself for the annoyingly coy and pretty songs from saawariya. granted its all rather icky cute with ranbir kapoor makes doe eyes at everything, but some of the complex song structures melodies that seem too lounge /ghazal boredom grow on you until you are humming them in spite of yourself. the verses that twist in all kids of directions before the chorus brings them back home have me hooked. the title track and its rising soaring way into the chorus and especially ‘jab se tere naina’ where a dhol and a male chorus sharpen soft background noise into a great song.