Classical Music, Here I Come!

Last Saturday I went to a concert put up by the Bombay Philharmonic Orchestra. They had a guest music conductor, Christopher O’Reilly and pianist Danny Driver. I love Western classical music, though I honestly cannot make out the difference between Beethoven, Mozart or Chopin! I hope to change that someday.
Anyway, I had to convince my brother, D, to go along, and surprisingly he agreed at once! So off we went to the Tata theatre to enjoy an evening of Western classical music. We were actually late, courtesy me. And D was so mad! He was going on and on lecturing me on how I should have started getting dressed earlier when I knew that I always take so long to get ready. Grans of course had to chime in with her two cents and urge me on to get dressed quicker! It was about 6 o’clock, and we were still at home, when the concert started at 6:30 pm. It takes about 45 minutes to get to the auditorium from our home. Anyway I was really flying when D announced that it was 6:15 already. When I was ready, I turned around and saw that it was actually 6:00 pm, so I went back to the mirror to check my eyeliner, when D walked in and saw me glued to the mirror once more, announced, “that is it! I’m not going! I don’t want to grope my way in the dark to our seats!” Hearing this I quickly turned around and both of us raced off to get a cab.
We arrived exactly at 6:30 pm. And D was still grumbling about being late. When we entered the foyer, the attendant there actually commanded us to run up the stairs! We ran up and were shown to our seats. The auditorium was full, and I was a bit embarrassed to step over people trying to get to our seats.
The orchestra had already arranged itself on the stage and was warming up for the performance. A kindly old Parsi lady offered me the program, which we didn’t get as we were late. The piece selected was from Mendelssohn’s works.
Then O’Reilly walked onto the stage amidst thunderous applause, he introduced the piece and gave a short history of how Mendelssohn created it.
And then the orchestra began its enthralling performance. I was surprised to recognize the first two pieces, which I’d actually heard playing in the background of a Warner Bros. cartoon that I had seen long, long back! I’ve come to realize that most of the cartoons have Western classical music as their background score, especially the “Swan Lake” or something, by Chekovsky (am not sure of the spelling or even if it is by Chekovsky!).
The fourth set also sounded very familiar, and then I realized that it was used in the Tata Indigo advertisement!
I sat spell bound throughout the entire evening, just letting the wonderful sounds of the violins, cellos, trumpets and an assortment of other instruments, wash over all my senses. In fact after a while, I suddenly realized that I had a smile plastered to my face all the while! I was in heaven for sure!
O’Reilly was a true showman! He was highly dramatic and very charismatic too. It didn’t hurt that he was good-looking too! Hehe! J He had dark brown hair and eyes and a ready smile.
After the intermission Danny Driver joined the orchestra. He was dressed in a white tuxedo, as compared to the rest of the orchestra members who were dressed in black. He was balding, and wasn’t as affable as O’Reilly, he looked a bit reserved. He played marvelously! His fingers just flew over the piano keys. He turned out to be quite dramatic himself.
A funny incident occurred during the first half. In a Western classical music performance, there is a certain protocol to be followed while applauding. One should never applaud when there are pauses between pieces. But not many people in the audience knew about it, and so many of them applauded each time there was a pause. After this happened a few times, an irate lady from behind, who sounded very Parsiish, snapped, “Don’t you people know when to clap?!” I just felt like chuckling when she said it! She sounded so annoyed!
But you really can’t blame some of the people for not knowing this rule; they just wanted to show their appreciation for a good performance. I myself hadn’t known about this rule. My aunt, who had given me the tickets to this show, had told me about this; or else even I would have been clapping along with all the ignoramuses, including D! But, even though I knew about this rule, it was not easy making out when exactly to applaud and when not to. So I clapped only when the Parsi lady beside would clap, and I told D to take my lead.
Apart from this little hiccup, the rest of the concert went on smoothly.
And I was just over the moon to be attending a Western classical music concert at last! I’ve always dreamed of living this way, working hard on weekdays, and going to watch plays and concerts on weekends. Ah! This is the life!

Wah Zakir Hussain!

Last Thursday I got the opportunity to got to a Zakir Hussain concert, and I turned it down. Later that evening, I was talking to a friend of mine and she was flabbergasted that I didn’t want to see Zakir Hussain perform live! She convinced me that I should go, so I called up my aunt, H, who’d asked me, and asked her if I could still come. Luckily she still had some extra passes, and I got dressed in record time, fifteen minutes or so! I really surprised myself!
So H, her son A and I went to the concert, which was actually held in the memory of Ustad Amir Khan by his son Shahbaz Khan, who had personally signed the thousand or so passes himself! The show started half an hour late, which didn’t surprise me all that much, used to Idian Standard Time, as I’m. First Shahbaz Khan said a few words about his father, and then he introduced Zakir Hussain, and the other guests of honour, including, Pandit Jasraj and Kishori somebody (I totally forgot her surname, but it starts with “A”). Then a short film compiled on the late Ustad Amir Khan was shown. I was surprised that I’d actually heard a couple of the songs that he had sang for in old Hindi movies.
At this point I was quite bored, and was thoroughly regretting my decision for going, and cursing my friend for encouraging me to go, because it sure didn’t look like Zakir Hussain was ever going to play, as Ustad Sultan Khan, who was to accompany him on the sarangi couldn’t make it as his wife had just passed away.
After an hour or so, the intermission was announced and we trooped out to get some cold coffee and sandwiches.
Anyway, after the intermission we trooped back in to find out that Zakir Hussain was indeed going to play, and that Ustad Sultan Khan’s disciple, Dilshad Khan was going to join him.
Dilshad Khan started off on his sarangi. The sounds made by the sarangi were pristine, but very mournful. In fact, they sounded like the background music in a saas-bahu soap opera! Or maybe I’m just ignorant!
After 15-20 minutes of Dilshad Khan’s solo performance, Hussain joined in at last. And I must say, it was all worth it in the end! He was fabulous! Even though I’m no great Hindustani music aficionado, let alone being able to understand the nuances, I really enjoyed his performance. At some points, he played so fast that his fingers were a blur! As he would end in a crescendo, he would look at the audience with a big grin on his face, as if to say, “wasn’t that brilliant? Now clap for me!” Well, the audience needed no persuasion, all of us burst into spontaneous applause after each crescendo (for lack of a more appropriate word). He is a real showman! He knows exactly how to read his audience. I actually found myself tapping my fingers and feet in rhythm! My cousin, A was actually shaking with enjoyment in his seat, and that’s definitely an odd site, as he is all of 6 feet tall!This was the first Indian classical music concert I’d been to, and little did I know that day later I would be attending my first Western classical music concert!

Romantic Comedies

I’d wanted to watch ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ since, I don’t know, forever! But never got the chance to. I’d asked Ma a countless number of times to borrow the video from the video library she frequents, but her reply always was that she’d already seen it, so she didn’t want to rent it out again. I could have rented it out myself, but somehow, it never occurred to me to do so! I guess that is what happens when you depend on your mother for every little thing, you don’t realize that you can do those things yourself.
After years of wanting to see that movie, I recently saw it 2 ¼ times this month itself. The first time, I saw only the climax, and when I realized that the ‘hero’ and ‘heroine’ hadn’t actually met throughout the movie, I was greatly disappointed. I was like, “What’s this shit? This was supposed to be one of the best romantic comedies ever, and the lead players never actually meet??”
Then later I got a chance to watch the movie again, from the beginning this time, and I loved it! I understood then, why some people swear by this movie. It really was a nice, feel-good kind of movie.
The scene in which little Jonah tells his father that he was beginning to forget his mother broke my heart! And then when Tom Hanks’ character (I forgot his name) tells him that his mother could “peel an apple in one long, curly strip”, that brought a smile to my lips.
Each and every scene was mounted extremely well. There were so many funny scenes, like those between Jonah and the woman his dad starts dating, Victoria. He is so painfully polite to her, it’s hilarious!
Also the scene, in which Rita Wilson’s character talks about the movie, “An Affair to Remember” and gets more and more involved and emotional with her narration, is priceless! I was howling with laughter when I saw it for the first time! And then Hanks and his friend talk about some other movie and mock-cry. That was very funny too.
Then there were the poignant scenes, such as the one in which Jonah calls up the radio station and Hanks ends up talking to the radiotherapist. She asks him what were the things that he loved about his wife, and he says. “How long is your show?” :)
Meg Ryan’s expressions were so bang on in each and every scene; you don’t think of her as Meg Ryan, you only see Annie Reed.

I just love to watch romantic comedies. They are so much fun! My favourite ones are ‘Notting Hill’, ‘Love Actually’, ‘You’ve Got Mail’ and ‘Chupke Chupke’, ‘Rules – Pyar ka Super hit Formula’… the list goes on! According to me, each of these movies is a gem!
I’ve even bought the ‘Love Actually’ VCD. And I’ve watched it quite a few times already, the last time being two days ago. That movie makes me laugh and cry every time I watch it. Some people think that it’s boring, too confusing and very, very saccharine sweet. But I think it is in a class of its own. How well are the individual stories connected to each other. I love ensemble pieces like this one. It is set around Christmas and so each time it gets a little chilly, I feel like watching it!
My favourite individual love story is the one involving Colin Firth’s character (Jamie) and his Portuguese housekeeper, Aurellia. It was funny, and dare I say, cute! Both cannot understand each other’s language, but they are on the same level. After she dives into a cold lake to save his manuscript, they are drying off inside Jamie’s home, and she’s talking in Portuguese, and he in English, and they are both saying absolutely the same thing! He first says that maybe he can name a character after her in his book, and she repeats the same thing in Portuguese. And then she jokingly says that or maybe he can give her 50% of the profits, and he says, “or maybe I could give you 5% of the profits!” Cheapskate! : D
The scene, in which he proposes to her, is both hilarious and so very romantic! It is set in the restaurant in which Aurellia works, and the entire town of Marseilles descends on it to see what this Englishman is up to. He actually learns Portuguese, and proposes to her in his grammatically poor version. He actually says stuff like, “things seems very transparency” and “I’ve come to you with the view for asking your hands in marriage with me” or some such stuff.
And even Aurellia had learnt a bit of English, “just in case”, as she puts it.
Then there is the love story of Liam Neeson’s character’s 10-year-old stepson, Sam. That was just adorable, and not portrayed in the very unbelievable way in which childhood romances are usually portrayed in Hindi movies. Sam’s mom has just passed away after a long illness, and he’s behaving in a moody manner. So Neeson asks him what is wrong, and Sam replies, “I know I should be thinking of mom and all, and I do, but the truth is, I am in love!” When Neeson asks him, “aren’t you too young to be in love?” The kid turns to him in all seriousness, and states matter of factly, “not at all!” And Neeson says that he is so relieved that it’s not something worse, and Sam replies, “What could be worse than the anguish of love?!” This is said in such a serious tone that is not overly dramatic, that you don’t want to laugh at the little boy, but it is amusing all the same.
Sam actually learns to play the drums to impress Joanna, the girl he is in love with. Joanna and some of the other kids are setting up a band for their school Christmas concert, and she is the lead singer. You don’t know what to expect when they actually show the concert taking place. I just thought that it’d just be some little girl singing in an ‘okay’ voice. She starts off the song without any musical backing, in total darkness, and her voice just rises out of the darkness, crystal clear, and it completely stuns you! You wouldn’t expect a 10-year-old to possess such an incredible singing voice. I’ve goose bumps all over my arms and neck, each time I hear her belt out that song, ‘All I want for Christmas is you’. When this girl is old enough she should compete in American Idol, she would win for sure!
All the other stories are also funny, sad, touching, except I didn’t like the one between Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman much. The one between Laura Linney and her co-worker was sad.
I could just go on and on about ‘Love Actually’. But am just going to end here because all this talk has made me want to see ‘Love Actually’, so I’m going to do just that right now!