Freedom

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high"
Few words could describe the incredible Women's peace march that took place in DC with simultaneous marches all over the world. Over 3 million women, and supporters took to the streets peacefully awakening the world to the sorry state of health issues (particularly ones that deny women rights over their own bodies in the name of religion) and environmental issues.

With this backdrop, Rangeen Sapne presents the next song. The very first song in the first episode of the show 'The Dewarists'. In 90s, when Indian rock scene was still nascent, Pentagram was a solid rock band. Vishal Dadlani, one of the founders of this band, was the vocalist. Since then, he moved on to Bollywood film soundtracks collaborating with Shekhar Ravjiani to form the popular Vishal-Shekhar duo. Vishal Dadlani continues to innovate and collaborate with diverse set of artistes.

Imogen Heap has trained in classical instruments such as clarinet, cello and piano. Adding to a wind, a string and a keyboard, she learnt to play guitar and drums, and also experiments with Hang drum. Electronic music is what she is best known for, and she uses ambient sounds within her music.

The song begins with Vishal Dadlani and Imogen Heap with a street band on the streets in Rajasthan. Initially, Vishal provides the chorus and the back vocals, it's really Imogen who sings the first stanza. Blending English and Hindi fairly well, she leads into the 2nd stanza which is a duet.

2:10 minutes into the song, the chorus sings 'Ji ji re, ji ji re ji", a backdrop popular in Marathi 'Povada', very well blended into the rest of the song. The short (~3 minute) song ends with ".. and the story continues.. Mind Without Fears".

The video itself is a free form, walking light steps, almost dancing in the streets. Imogen ends the song with a whirling dervish form symbolizing the freedom where the conscious mind is completely in tune with the body and the rhythm of the music and the unconscious mind tuned to the whirling dance.

Watch the song on youtube and the original poem that inspired this song is reproduced here

Where The Mind Is Without Fear - Rabindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Paree

The year was '93. I had just entered 'junior college' and was suddenly exposed to a world of intercollegiate competitions, rose-days, Tie and Saree days and annual days. And competitive fashion shows, those choreographed, somewhat elaborate dances paraded by budding youth on the college ramps. Each of the fashion show competitions would typically involve three or so different themes, one of which would be Ethnic couture.

It is with this backdrop that I remember a song, a singularly popular song with a haunting melodies singer and a somewhat unusual beat that I forever associate with the fashion shows of my youth.

Leslie Lewis had moved up from composing radio jingles to occasional score in movies. A song or two here and there, collaborating with other bigger names. A young Suneeta Rao, who had established herself in the college scene in St Xaviers productions of plays such as Evita was signed up by HMV for an album Dhuan. Translated  literally, it means smoke, but one that was meant to be the smoke screen between reality and dreams.

First half of the song is shot almost entirely in black and white, the song shows interwoven snippets of Suneeta Rao, and a young girl. The story or the plot of the video, I must confess, I never truly understood. It seems to revolve around a girl coming of age, transitioning from a girl to a young lady, but overall, the theme is subdued, and most of the video is really focused on a pretty Suneeta Rao.

Paree translates literally into a fairy, but a more apt translation here would be an angel or nymph. The song is about this nymph, the pretty girl lost in a dream sequence.

The song is a sensual, fast paced song. The beat is simple, the meter is somewhat long. The cymbals based percussion perhaps is a signature of this song. The riffs towards the end are similar to what Euphoria later used in Maaeri.

The song is short, the melody and the flute is haunting, sensual and almost transcendental. The beats themselves lend to a slow and steady rhythm, what made it such a hit on the ethnic fashion show sequences.

Watch Paree Hoon mein on YouTube (pretty bad clip but the only video I found) or on soundcloud

A good song can inspire covers, some quite wonderfully rendered. Watch an interesting cover of this song played by four girls from earlier this year. Sung very well, but with a video that starts cute but then progresses to ridiculously cheesy visuals.