Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and the state of Pritam's music

A while ago, I had reviewed the marquee career of Pritam. Here are some observations from that post:

"... there is little doubt that behind AR Rahman, he is India's most prodigious hit maker. He is building name recognition - audiences seek out his music by reputation. If he barrels down this path unabated, Pritam will become a brand like RD Burman."

While listening to the music of Pritam's newest set of songs for the Ranbir Kapoor vehicle Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (YJHD), the thought crossed my mind that - rather unfortunately - Pritam might prove me wrong yet.

First things first: what's the music of YJHD like? It's full of energy, soul and very catchy tunes. As he did on (the much better) Badmaash Company, Pritam uses a lot of chorus singers, dhols and whistles on several songs to convey a sense of dhamaal and fun. You'd think YJHD was a wedding album! There's slowdown via some well crafted ballads. All the songs are very listenable. They are what critics like to call "FM-ready". They have such familiar turns and beats that they sound like deja vu.

And in here lies the problem with the path Pritam is barreling down. The weight of putting out ready-made hits is so great that it can stifle creativity. It might not be intentional on the part of the composer - after all everyone has obligations. Pritam, by his own hit-making standards, is now obliged to hit every ball out of the park. Music promos are so integral to a movie's publicity campaign that the people who hire Pritam expect his music to grab the attention of viewers on the first listen. And that expectation is weighing his music down.

Take the horn-heavy, swing track Badmateez Dil where the problems become apparent. I loved that Pritam composed this song as a straight, quick shot of fun. His choice of Benny Dayal on vocals is inspired. But Badtameez Dil has one good hook and a lot of glitzy musical arrangements. It sounds entirely too familiar and it is at least 30 seconds too long. It's like drinking unaged Pinot in a tequila shot glass.

You'll see similar issues on Balam Pichkari and Dilliwaali Girlfriend - both of which are rescued by Pritam's trademark hyper-produced musical arrangements. You can just see those songs being on a DJs list to get a dance party started. Yet if you sang those lyrics over silence, you'd hear catchy but uninspired tunes.

Why does Pritam's music feel like it's bogged down? Do listeners not have the patience to allow a song its space (like for example, the under-appreciated corker Yaaram from Ek Thi Daayan). Does a composer only have a precious few seconds to grab Youngistan listeners by the scruff of their neck and compel them to listen? Is that the reason why Pritam uses familiar themes, tunes and instruments in his songs?

Despite all those early allegations of reconstituting songs, no one can deny that Pritam ignited the world of filmi music with his entry and continued presence. I see emerging Pritams all over the place now (Jeet Ganguly is the best of them). But given the volume of songs Pritam puts out, its not difficult to stagnate. If you think about how many of the same themes run through all movies ("hit dance song", "special promo song", "dukh bharaa song", "Pyaar ka ehsaas song") - just about how original can you get when composing tens of these every year?

But the difference between catchy and memorable is musical ingenuity. Pritam - and his crack production team - are hugely capable and can do more to tweak the music landscape.

Pritamda, thanks for the music of YJHD. Enjoyed listening to it. Forgotten all about it already. Looking forward to your next one.

THE GANESH TALKIES' new video for ITEM SONG is a hoot: Lead singer Suyasha Sengupta introduces the band and the song

There are many things to love about The Ganesh Talkies - a five piece band that takes its name from a now defunct Kolkata cinema and landmark. Their music carries an enormous sense of fun. They embrace their Bollywood influences without feeling obligated to skewer it. Earlier this year, they released a cool four song EP called Three-Tier, non AC (you can buy it from OKListen!) which they promote in elaborate outfits with the same sense of un-ironic verve that is infused in their music.

The Ganesh Talkies primarily creates really accessible pop songs. Their single Item Song has a sparkling, trippy accompanying video that combines art, culture, kitsch, dance and gender politics. It's a lot of fun to watch and listen to. I asked singer Suyasha Sengupta to introduce the band, the song and the video.

Congratulations on the video release - really enjoyed it. What's the concept behind the song and the visuals?

Suyasha: The video has been conceptualized  directed and edited by Ayushman Mitra and shot by Rusha Bose. The idea behind the video was that anybody or anything could be an "item". While the video features women of various age-groups and socio-economic backgrounds, they are not objectified. They are strong, confident and beautiful at the same time.

The song too, is a take on the quintessential chauvinist mindset of Bollywood.  Instead of the man wooing the woman, we see that the woman is the one in charge here.

I've known people who try to put videos together and struggle so much the video never gets made. How was it like for you putting this video together? Was it fun, was it painful, was it painful but worth the fun?

Suyasha: Ayushman is not just a director but also an artist and it was his artistic sensibilities that helped shape the video. We wanted to create a video that was visually stimulating, while being fun and colorful.

Also we pretty much roped in all our friends and family to be a part of the video. We used our domestic help, security guards and kids from the neighborhood (they are playing football in the video). The dogs too weren't spared and can be seen making cameos! Actor Rii Sen, who is seen in the video was a BIG help for us. She came to the set and nailed all her shots in no time like the rock star that she is. The video also features model Sneha Ghosh, Kheya Chattopadhyay, Ryan Peterson, and Sankalita Chakroborty among others - who all came down despite the last minute notice because they are friends of the band.

Honestly, the video-making process was not painful at all because it was very do-it-yourself. We were anticipating a lot of hurdles but thankfully, we didn't have to face any because everyone was extremely cooperative and more importantly, everyone was having a lot of fun on set (which was the director's terrace, hah!) The video is a collective effort by everyone to showcase the indie scene in Kolkata which is booming at the moment.

All those bright paintings in the video - where did those come from?

Suyasha: All the artwork is by Ayushman Mitra for Ganesh Talkies.

In the song, the words "you're my item bomb" are used to compliment a sublime woman. Do you think I should try that line in a club. Or, like in the movies, this won't work in real life?

Suyasha: "Oh baby you're my item bomb" might just work, but you really have to FEEL that way. If a man or a woman makes you go weak in the knees and at the same time makes you want to break into Mithun-esque pelvic thrusts, then he or she might just be your item bomb!

But yes, don't use this as a pick-up line (which is rather insincere) or you might get punched in the face.

I hear you wear kitschy, colorful clothes at your gigs. Do you really just throw on what's in your closet when you come out to perform or are the clothes saying something about the band?

Suyasha: All our gigs have a theme (disco, mujra, space men, chor-police etc). A GT gig is an audio-visual thing much like a movie. You hear, you see and thus you feel. We take our costumes very seriously because at the end of the day, it it our job to ensure that everybody who turns up for the gig has a good time and goes back home with a smile on their face.

So Ganesh Talkies - who all is in the band and what is each person like?

Suyasha: The band comprises of me who writes the songs, sings and plays guitar. I'm the youngest of the lot and my taste in music is rather bipolar - ranging from Nirvana to Sajid Wajid.

Ronodeep Bose plays guitar for the band. The interesting thing about him is that he is also an actor. He is the only sane one in the band who does not make Hindi film references at the drop of a hat while making songs for Ganesh Talkies.

Nabarun Bose plays keyboard and harmonium for the band. He is also a freelance arranger and programmer for Tollywood movies.

Roheet Mukherjee plays bass and like all bassists, he is the big brother of the band who finds solutions to never-ending problems, musical or otherwise. He is also a part of the Kolkata indie-act Neel and The Lightbulbs.

Arka Das plays drums. Being the senior-most, his experience helps fine-tuning the glitches.

Ganesh Talkies is essentially five people who like to have fun and want you to as well! The current line-up has been together since November last year although individually, we've been playing music here and there prior to that.

Your EP is called Three-Tier, Non AC. What an awesome name! It made me shudder and smile at the same time. How did you come up with that name?

Suyasha: Non-AC trains are exclusive only to India, nowhere else will you find one. We wanted the name of the EP to be something that us folks - Indians - could relate to. Hence Roheet's brainchild- 'Three Tier, Non AC'. Our EP consists of three songs plus one bonus track.

Ok enough about you, let's talk about Bollywood. What is YOUR favorite item song?

Suyasha: Collectively, we prefer Bollywood music that was made in the 80s and the 90s - the period we grew up in. There were no item songs back then, there were romantic songs with coordinated clothes and dance steps to match. We love any song picturized on Govinda or Akshay Kumar and they are our favorites. Tu cheez badi hai mast mast comes to my mind at the moment!


If you had to pick a Bollywood movie that most closely resembles the spirit of Ganesh Talkies, which one would that be?

Suyasha: Most definitely Dance Dance [Mithun, Mandakini, Smita Patil] or Mohra [Akshay, Sunil Shetty, Naseer, Raveena Tandon]. Action, comedy, romance, drama, dancing - these two movies have all possible elements in them!

Want more?
Buy Three-Tier, Non AC
The Ganesh Talkies on Facebook, YouTube and SoundCloud
A Rolling Stone India profile
The official Item Song video

Why is OkListen so important to Indian indie music? Founder Vijay Basrur explains

Vijay Basrur was a man who had spent years working in start ups and burgeoning companies like Bazee.com, INOX, Quikr and Synqua and was passionate about music. He was aware of the growing community of musicians in India who regularly put out high quality music that wasn't available in mainstream outlets.

Once he decided to buy some music from Indian rock act Them Clones. Realizing the CD wasn't available anywhere, he sent a tweet to the band who couriered him a copy. Vijay wasn't home and missed the delivery. There has got to be a better way, Vijay thought to himself, and instead of just posting a Facebook status about it, he decided to change the situation by launching a site where artists could put their CDs up for sale and hope to make money. The site Vijay started is called OkListen.com.

There are quite a few sites that sell Indian music digitally (like say Flyte). OkListen is entirely oriented to independent musicians only - artists who create music outside of a studio or corporation (Sony, EMI) that packages production and distribution. This is a great way for artists to reach audiences. Its also an excellent way for popular artists to create artist-owned music that comes straight from the heart (as opposed to say, the trailer of a movie).

When I used OkListen recently to buy an album (Siddharth Basrur's Chasing Rain) I found the experience to be  a really good one. I loved the site's clean design, easy accessibility to key features and the entire checkout experience was awesome. I decided to catch up with Vijay (no relation to Siddharth - he does get asked that question a lot) and ask him about more about how OkListen works.

Vijay, I love the concept behind your site. I really like the singular purpose behind it and the simplicity of intent and execution. Giving indie music in India a platform like this could be a real game changer. But things change all the time. Before we begin this interview, do you promise to do no evil (like Google did early on) no matter how things go?

Vijay: If by evil you mean that we will never let the independent artists down, then yes we promise to do no evil. However if evil means selling only independent music, then we are already criminals since we are actively looking to grow the catalog by signing up (music made with) record labels.

Here is the problem, doing only independent music as of now is not cutting it for us. Makes it very unviable for us to project that this will be a big business. Thankfully there aren't many vibrant digital download stores in India, so we are well poised that way

How do you keep tabs on the artists you'd like to pursue for your site?

Vijay: We keep following the music scene and keep reaching out to artists. Also a good thing for us is that all of the artists who work with us, love us and spread the word about us whenever they get a chance. So the network effect is kicking in and quite a few artists have directly started approaching us

What's the process like of convincing people to sell their music on Ok Listen?

Vijay: Actually its not very difficult since we have a total win win solution for the artist. Its a non exclusive [arrangement], they keep 70% of the net sales and we payout monthly directly into any Indian bank account. All we ask for is pricing parity across all platforms that the musician might explore in India.

Once an artist uploads music to Ok Listen for sale, does it become an exclusive distribution relationship?

Vijay: No, we have a non-exclusive arrangement. However we are increasing our bouquet of services so as to offer much more to the artist in which case he can choose to make it an exclusive arrangement.  A few big acts can make a huge difference in getting this started.

How did you convince a big act like Indian Ocean to sign on?

Vijay: Our advisor, Ranjan [Singh] managed marketing for Indian Ocean and hence it worked in our favor. Having said that, Indian Ocean came out and endorsed us as they really liked what we did. If we had not delivered even after we got the intro it would have been disastrous!  A lot of people make music in India. Sometimes we run into people who think they are [already] a [polished] band, but they really aren't ready yet.

How do you make sure that quality music is sold on your site?

Vijay: We are trying hard to be known for quality music. We listen to all the stuff that comes in. We also check if the artist has promoted their [own] music. We check their Facebook Page. SoundCloud plays are also a good way of estimating the reach of the music.

What if an artist wants to give away their music. Does that mess up your model because you don't make any money?

Vijay: So we don't give away anything for free! But if artists want to give away music for free, on say Bandcamp, we put up the music for sale with a disclaimer that the music is available for free on the Internet but the artist would appreciate your support. For an album by Colaba Point which is available for free download on Bandcamp, we have sold over 50 copies since he got discovered by folks on OKListen

How would your model work when an artist becomes famous and might want to jump to a record label to reap the benefits of their ecosystem?

Vijay: Not much we can do about it. But if the artist becomes big after being available on OKListen, I am sure it will turn out to be great for us.

What is your strategy for leveraging Facebook, Twitter and YouTube?

Vijay: We are quite active on social media. But I guess in India its more of a promotion or brand building since we don't get many sales from Facebook.

Are you working on a mobile component to your site?

Vijay: Our site renders well on mobile devices since we use a responsive design. We should be looking at a mobile app pretty soon

Are you concerned you'll end up selling something pirated or copied? Have you taken any steps to protect yourself?

Vijay: Not really. I am not sure you can fight piracy. But with prices going down and legal music being more accessible, the incentive to pirate will reduce.

Any thoughts on integrating a Wishberry like feature into Ok Listen?

Vijay: Not so soon. But we will probably align with folks like them.

Netflix used to be purely distribution and they realized that to play in the big leagues they needed content of their own. Do you think you would reach a stage where you might fund music?

Vijay: Not sure if I can say that we will not since if it turns out to be a good option, we may be tempted to give it a shot

What are these Album Cards I've heard about? What do they look like and how do they work?

Vijay: What we have done is created the ability to assign unique codes to every music on our site. Using these codes the content owners can easily use music for quick gratification online for any customer feedback or contests. These codes can also be printed on cards and sold at on ground venues. The user who gets the code, comes to OKListen, redeems the code and starts downloading the music

Would you ever sell filmi music for independent movies?

Vijay: Yes we will. We've already released one! The soundtrack to Rise of Zombie.

What's been your biggest success so far and what kind of numbers are we talking about if you don't mind sharing.

Vijay: Our biggest success has been Agam's The Inner Self Awakens. We sold 150 copies in 24 hours.

There are a few things I miss on Ok Listen. One is a radio station of the music on the site that would help me discover new bands and songs. Another is integrating with Facebook and letting me know if my favorite artists have content on Ok Listen. Hey, I love Sunitha Sarathy and you could have told me she had a song for sale. Any plans in this area?

Vijay: We are exploring a deeper integration into Facebook for sure. Not sure about the radio station bit. Maybe we'll have one channel but nothing planned in the near future.

One question about independent ventures in India. You've worked for a number of new ventures - what's the biggest positive change in recent years that an entrepreneur can look forward to?

Vijay: I think it has gotten easier to get things off the ground because the support system has matured and there are quite a few folks who are willing to help as entrepreneurs embark on their journey. So basically help is easier to get. Also with the right set of tools, you can run the business quite lean. I ran OKListen alone for 11 months after which I roped in Bhavin [Badheka] as a Technical Co-Founder.

And what is the most frustrating thing that still hasn't changed?

Vijay: I guess the whole thing about the captive user base (who will shop online) has not really changed that much. Infrastructure (Internet, delivery systems) is also lagging behind, making it that much more difficult to grow the business.

There's no entrepreneurship without dreams! Three years from now, what would be your wildest dream come true for Ok Listen?

Vijay: Be the most preferred global destination to purchase music made in India!

OkListen's portal site
OkListen on Facebook and Twitter

POSTERNAMA March Edition: The secret language of movie posters

In this edition of Posternama, I'll take a closer look at the posters for Bollywood releases in March.
Then just for fun, I grade them. Bollywood, consider this feedback!

I, Me Aur Main - March 1

A smirking John Abraham is sandwiched between two women. Chitrangada, looking dapper, leans on him indicating a romantic relationship. But John seems more interested in Prachi Desai. Prachi is wearing an outfit that looks like she can't decide whether to drop acid or go for a jog. But I think this getup is meant to convey carefree, bindaas girl. Because John is ignoring a certified hottie like Chitrangada and leaning towards Prachi, we could conclude he's plain nuts. But the title of the movie suggests that John is just a really self-absorbed guy who can't think beyond himself. While the title of the movie is nicely reinforced by a recursive image of himself on his T-shirt - juxtaposing him between two women just muddles the message.

Grade: B-

The Attacks of 26/11 - March 1

Ram Gopal Varma's recreation of the horrific 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai might be the scariest movie he's ever made (and no, I haven't forgotton about Aag). The poster contains an image of the Mumbai skyline dominated by the Taj Hotel (which was the site of the most carnage wreaked by the terrorists). The skyline is washed in a color that suggests blood. Great so far. The bottom half of the poster shows some guys in a boat headed straight to the Taj. The terrorists arrived by boat into Mumbai under cover of darkness. I'm not questioning Ram Gopal Varma's famed research department, but those guys just look like a bunch of dudes out for white water rafting.

Top half of the poster: A
Bottom half of the poster: C

Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns - March 8

Sequels are so popular now in Bollywood that producers are financing follow ups to movies no one watched the first time around. The Saheb (Jimmy Shergill) and Biwi (Mahie Gill) are still around, but there is a new rapscallion gangster in town. Its Irfan Khan and we know he's up to no good because he's got a shababi-kebabi expression on his face and he's twirling his mustache  There also another Biwi on the poster - Soha Ali, which begs the question: should this movie have been called Saheb, Biwi, Gangster Aur Biwi? Jimmy looks tense, Mahie looks amused, Irfan looks sinister and Soha looks guilty. Yes, you can watch this movie by tuning into any soap on ZeeTV and save yourself a trip to that overpriced multiplex.

Grade: B

Jolly LLB - March 15

This movie has tight closeups of Boman Irani and Arshad Warsi (who is pulling a funny face). This movie is a comedy! Not to mention its clearly relying on its stars. When the biggest  stars in your movie are Boman and Arshad (fine actors both no doubt), you are in deep kimchi. The story appears to be set in the world of lawyers and court-kacheri. This is communicated via the time tested Bollywood image of a blindfolded Plaster of Paris woman with the scales of justice. Plus that horrendous title has the word "LLB" doesn't it? But wait, what's this? The lady has dropped her scales and instead is using her hands to hold Boman and Arshad apart. This indicates a bickering rivalry. While Boman looks serene and gloriously Photoshopped, Arshad looks a little stressed. Plus there's a tiny hammer that's about to drop on him. Arshad probably gets beaten up a bit in this movie. On the top of the poster, the words "in" and "justice" have been colored and juxtaposed to transform their meaning and convey the film's punchline.

Grade: A

Mere Dad Ki Maruti - March 15

This movie stars newcomer Saqib Saleem (Mujse Fraaandship Karoge). But he's so new and the movie has so few stars that the most important thing here is the titular Maruti. Now that has to be a confidence denter for an actor - being upstaged by a tin can masquerading as a car. Anyways, moving on. Saqib is holding up a Missing poster for the car  - a farcical riff on Missing Persons posters. Based on what little of poor Saqib's face is visible, you can tell he's petrified. This means his Dad (who owns the Maruti per the title) doesn't know and when he finds out he'll be pissed. The poster has clean, bright lines - yes, it must be for Youngistan. Now unless this movie has deeper meanings about father-son-car relationships, I'd say its about a missing car no one cares about. Since I don't possess a robust zeal for Marutis, this generic looking poster did nothing for me.

Grade: C

3G - March 15

This rather busy poster has a lot going on. First there's the gigantic phone. A woman's hand shatters the screen and reaches out towards the viewer (Meaning: this could happen to you!). The nails on the hand are painted red (indicating danger!) There is blood all over her thumb (suggesting she might have dug someone's eyes out!) Neil Nitin Mukesh is in the top left corner of the phone looking rather disturbed. His real-life girlfriend Sonal Chauhan is pictured wearing her expression. No, I really mean it - there is only one expression she does and that's it! The tagline says "A Killer Connection". So murder may or may not be involved. There are a few things to note here. The biggest star in this movie is a mysterious woman's hand - because it has the best placement on the poster. This is a scary movie (note black and grey color theme). This is a remarkably bad movie title (along the lines of RUSH and RUN). But the poster despite its busyness is striking and communicates things really well to the viewer.

Grade: A-

Aatma - March 22

This poster has Bipasha Basu on it. It's already on the right track as far as I am concerned. Bips is a  holding her daughter's hand and walking right in front of an incoming train. She has a dazed expression on her face (Bipasha goes through many scenes like that so it may or may not mean anything) and her daughter seems to be looking at her and saying "Erm, mum, should we be getting off the tracks maybe?" In the back, blended in with the clouds is a headshot of Nawazuddin Siddique looking very menacing. Clearly he is the aatma. The poster clarifies the character, the theme and the story effectively and I loved how it guided the eyes with its placement of objects.

In the movie, Nawazuddin plays an abusive husband who kicks the bucket but comes back to posses his daughter and terrorize his widow. That makes him a bad father. But given that Bipasha is guiding that girl straight to her death, she ain't a basket of roses either. Sorry little girl, you are just shit out of luck on the parent front!

Grade: A+ because its a good poster and I love Bips

Zindagi 50 50 - March 22

This poster was made by someone using Microsoft Paintbrush (yes, it's still around) while sitting on the proverbial throne. Completely devoid of any kind of creativity and clearly meant to titillate those who are VERY bored and horny with ABSOLUTELY nothing to do, this poster has confounding font choices and pretty much communicates nothing. In fact, I'm not even convinced its a real poster! It is included in our March collection to remind starlets (Riya Sen, Veena Malik) of what happens when they don't work hard at acting. Bad things.

Grade: Let's not insult F here

Sona Spa - March 22

Sona could either mean gold or sleep in Hindi. On this poster it clearly means sleep because (1) there are two blindfolded girls with folded arms in a deep sleep and (2) Naseeruddin looks half asleep. Good job, poster! This movie can't even hold the interest of its marquee star. And why would we go see a movie about something we can do at home for free? The poster has no answer to this penetrating question. The movie is apparently a high concept thriller about a person (Naseer) who sells you sleep via sleep workers who sleep on your behalf. Does that make any sense at all? No, it doesn't. Half the title of Sona Spa is in Hindi and the other half is in English. Hopefully that will make sense to you after you finish watching the film. If it doesn't, go home and sleep it off.

Grade: D

Himmatwala - March 29

Himmatwala is a remake of a cheesy 80s hit starring Jeetendra and Sridevi. It tries to sell this concept to you by featuring an iconic pose from the movie reenacted by stars Ajay Devgn and Tamannaah front and center. Devgn looks suspiciously fairer and younger than he is. Tamannaah is wearing some hypnotic pattern on her brause (that's a bra masquerading as a blouse). Drums, dancing girls with matkas and gaudy gulaal in the air adorn the background. The words "The Blockbuster" serve as the tagline. Director Sajid Khan, thanks to a string of hits like Heyy Baby and the Houseful franchise is now a bit of a headliner himself. Should that be enough for us to all go see the movie? Someone in the Poster Design Department seems to think yes. Someone on this blog seems to think no.

Grade: C

The story of Amrit Rao's new, infectious Tamil album - Nirangal

There was a kannadiga called Amrit Rao who lived in Bangalore and plied his trade as a Computer Science major in India's burgeoning technology market. Once Amrit sat eating cold giraffe stew at a cafe when the manager - a guy by the name of Santosh - walked up. Santosh had a few lines in Tamil scribbled on a paper. He handed it to Amrit and asked him to make a song with those words as lyrics. Amrit didn't really speak Tamil but he grew up listening to gobs of Tamil songs and moonlighted on the side with his band bearing the wink,wink name of Live Banned. He took up the challenge, banged out a tune before he finished his stew and made that into a song called Manjal Veyil. And that is how Amrit got started on putting together an entire CD in Tamil.

If that sounds too fantastical to be true - then yes, I'll admit it is. You can't get cold giraffe stew in Bangalore. Everything else, though, did happen.

Now, along with his bandmate (Live Banned drummer) Dheerandra "Dheeru" Doss, Amrit has a terrific new, Tamil album out called Nirangal. It's a heady cocktail of rock, EDM and Hindustani music with commentary on a myriad collection of social issues.

The first single Sappa Matter Da is full of fuzzy, beat heavy Electronica, distorted vocals and a hugely entertaining music video (see below). It's instantly infectious. The album dropped on February 22. Amrit stopped by to tell us more.

Amrit, congratulations on the first single off your new album. It sounds fabulous! How long have you been working on this?

Amrit: Thank you very much! I started working on the album three years ago but got busy with the band and work. I resumed the album work last September and wrote Sappa Matter Da in October. The video was shot on December 2nd.

About that first song: Sappa Matter Da. For us non-Tamil music lovers: what does that mean? And what is the song about?

Amrit: Sappa Matter Da means 'It's not a big deal man'. The song takes a dig at the materialistic and monotonous world we live in, in a funny way. It is satirical and a lot of fun yet very serious if you dig deeper. It's about consumerism, jealousy and the socioeconomic situation in the country. The song also talks about the importance of marching ahead despite the troubles in our everyday lives.

Sappa Matter Da has been described as Symphonic Industrial rock/metal song. No one reading that would think the song would be so infectious. What was the process like putting it together with your producer Dheeru?

Amrit: No, Sappa Matter Da is a pure house/techno electro song in Tamil. There is a Symphonic Industrial Rock song called 'Vandhaan' on the album though. Dheeru understands the electronic genre and its elements really well, so it was quite easy executing the song. We work very well together.

This is a non-filmi album in Tamil. Did you consider any point that doing this in Hindi or English might have made it more mainstream?

Amrit: There is quite a big market for Tamil music as well, especially after a certain video going viral in 2011. I think language is not a barrier anymore. If the song is catchy with good content then geography or  language don't matter. A Korean song was the biggest hit of 2012. That should answer your question.

Looks like a lot of good people put that first video together. What was the thought process and concept behind it?

Amrit: Yes, it was totally a team effort. We had a brilliant director and cameraman in Satchith Paulose, the choreographer Avril who also goes by the name The Storm Factory, the dancers, Pia, Chandini and Nikitha, Brinda who helped with the costumes and Prashant who also helped in the editing of the video. The video is very contextual and not literal. The idea was to show three different perspectives and alter egos; the protagonist in the outside world and in the Black and White space played by me and the tiger, the protagonist's inner self. The tiger is forced to come out its space and into this crazy world. We wanted to leave it open to the viewers' interpretation.

In the video I see two Amrits. One is wearing an outrageously stylish outfit, chasing what looks like a Turkey and having way too much fun. The other is walking around looking really intense. Who is the real Amrit?

Amrit: Both are real. It's the same guy but with different alter egos. The world does not see his inner-self or even if they do it's not how he is all the time. The flashy Amrit is his thought process. There are different interpretations and depictions. That is what makes the video very different.

What more can we expect from the album?

Amrit: It is a multi-genre album and probably one of the most diverse albums you would have heard in terms of the sound. The album also has songs about social issues like child labor, illiteracy, street dog adoption and equality for the differently-abled. The album was launched on the 22nd of Feb and is available at all leading retail stores and digital media like flipkart, infibeam, flyte and itunes.

• Nirangal is available as a digital download for only Rs. 99 on flipkart
• Follow Nirangal on Facebook
• Nirangal is also on twitter (#SappaMatterDa)
• You can listen to the songs of Live Banned on reverbnation

Sappa Matter Da - translated from Tamil to English

Kaalai traffic-u Traffic in the morning
Maalai no luck-u No luck in the evening
Office-il tension Tension in the office
Friend-ukku promotion Promotion for my friend

Adada enna kodumai Oh what is this torture?
Enakku illa porumai I don’t have patience
Veettula thanni pracchanai Water problem at home
Sollunga unga badhilai Give me your answer

Sappa Matter Da It’s a simple matter/ It’s not a big deal man
Don't put peter da Peter refers to someone with a very put-on, annoying, English accent

+2-il fail-u Failed in 12th standard
Adukkum suicide-u Committing suicide for that also
Kaadal break-up-u Love failure
Kiss and make-up-u So kiss and make up

Velai vaaipu no No job vacancy
Share market full low Share market is totally low
Petrol vilaiyaley Due to fuel hike
Bondi aaneney I became a pauper

Adada enna kodumai Oh what is this torture?
Enakku illa porumai I don’t have patience
Sollunga unga badhilai Tell me your answer
Naanga oozhalukku adimai We are slaves to corruption

Sappa Matter Da
Don’t put peter da

Manushana nesikkama porulgala nesikkira You love things instead of loving people
Because of the economy, you use people You use people because of the economy

Kadaisiyila saavu da In the end there is only death
Appo unakku aappu da You are screwed then
Indha poraamai thevaya? Is this jealousy necessary?
Ellame romba mokka da All these things are very ordinary

Sappa Matter Da
Don’t put peter da