Dhoop Kinare

So I first watched this series through pirated video cassettes (remember them?) that had been recorded in Pakistan and pirated across to India all the way back in 1987!!

It was in 5 cassettes and the video library guy would charge Rs.10 for each and we had to see and return them in 1 day! And the whole family (minus my dad) would sit glued!

And it was worth it! Have watched the complete series at least 4 times!!!

The level of story and acting was wonderful.

The casting was wonderful too.  Each and every actor was good and appropriate for the role!

So apparently that time in Pakistan they had a group of actors directors etc who would make shows with very tight budget much like NSD plays in Delhi, India now.

So let me fill you in with some stories behind the show and also what happened to some of the people after.

So let me start with who else - Ahmer Ansari!! Urf- Rahat Kazmi

So in real life Rahat Kazmi was quite an intellectual and had actually gotten through to the Pakistan IAS - which he gave up for his love of acting- which is unheard of - then and now!!!

He has done quite a lot in this field and actually in education too- is a principal at a college now! 

He was married to Fellow thespian Sahira Kazmi- quite gorgeous

She was actually the director of Dhoop Kinare!!!! And apparently seriously scary! If you want to see them together see -  Parchaiyan - based on "A portrait of a lady". Well done though I don't like the plot - but that's just me.

So apparently she was so scary that - Dr Irfan (Sajid Hassan ) was seriously scared of her. 

A funny incident was - if you have seen the show Ahmer Ansari's hair suddenly changed tremendously half way through. It looked really bad!!! The Story behind  that is that Rahat Kazmi and Sajid Hassan were bored and hanging out and they decided to give him a katora cut - put a bowl on his head and cut around it.

As you can imagine his wife the director had a heart attack!

The next person to talk about of course has to be Dr Zoya Ali Khan (Marina Khan).

So she had a British mom and was a Pakistan air force brat who actually couldn't even really speak Urdu 

The real life Anji, (Kehkishan Awan) was a close friend of hers and she was visiting her at a shoot and got offered a role. The breakthrough role for her was Tanhaiyyan.

She even had a her own talk show for a while. Even did a DK reunion on it- quite interesting! 
This is the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGSqWGn5sEo

She moved to Canada sat some point.

Dr. Irfan was injured badly in a bombing incident but is still a TV personality.

So back to Dhoop Kinare- first the title song- which I LOVE!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puWzVnEGdpI

 Then this song when they go on the field trip - a favorite.  So click the link- it has the actual video- I am not being able to embed it though. The thing with DK is that is a sooooo subtle!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aosms-3qxQQ

I have JUST found out this was written by one of my favorite poets- Faiz!!!!!

Given I'm on a roll for songs- this has nothing to do with the show- but a ghazal I love by Nayyara Noor with a similar name. Yeh Dhoop Kinara

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjuR3cSC4kM

Anyway- back!

One of the things I appreciated most about Dhoop Kinare, was that while being a romance (am a sucker for a good one) it was not at all hysterical but well thought out. Well plotted and well executed. 

Another interesting thing is, you know the maid/surrogate mom Fazeelat Bibi (Azra Sherwani) - she was actually quite sophisticated in real life- very often wore a sari!

So while in India it was traditional to wear a sari and considered modern to wear a salwar kutra it was the opposite in Pakistan and only the most modern women wore saris!

But if you think about it - saris are pretty sexy. You have a huge strip of waist and back showing!

So apparently in ancient India they didn't even have blouses! Seems to me it's trending that way again!

The whole culture used to be extremely "open" till the advent of the Muslim culture. 

I find the whole concept of shame (interms of clothes/clothing) is also very interesting.

Man was obviously born naked. Then they started Covering up and covering up. And now in so many different cultures and religions, in fact in almost all of them, it's bad or shameful to show skin!

I mean - Why? What's so good about not showing skin and what's so bad about showing it?

The whole thing about inciting inappropriate thoughts - the ones who think it - does the abundance or lack of clothing really make a difference to them?

I sometimes think it's just another thing people use to define themselves and judge others.

I personally believe- to each his own- though of course if I see someone scantily clad it does unfortunately still shock me! Alas the conditioning of society!

The Kreutzer Sonata

So my introduction to this Sonata ( Beethoven's Violin Sonata No.9) was through a  book called "An Equal Music" by Vikram Seth.

In it, the main character, who is a violinist,  is challenged to perfect this. Given my current fascination with the Violin music- I of course immediately looked it up.

I had first read this book 16 years ago- but hadn't understood a word or identified with or even tried to identify any of the music.

Now - when it makes a little more sense I have realized- this piece is wonderful- I found a rendition by Nathan Milstein- have a listen. I could only find the 1st and 3rd movement by him. Have included a 2nd movement by another artist- here you can see the difference in the quality of playing and the differences of how it makes you feel while listening!

First Movement ( By Nathan Milstein):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mixnMzHUYxA

Second Movement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlCRw6XW0fw

Third Movement ( By Nathan Milstein):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sklCKCE7zLc

Other than the music what is particularly interesting is the story behind the name and also some events inspired by it!

So apparently Beethoven was emotionally impressionable- kept falling in love with many women ( he apparently fell in love with and wrote some music for almost every female student!) Unfortunately, as for many musicians of that time- even though they were sometimes geniuses, the women they met normally belonged to a higher class so they weren't too successful with their romances. This was made worse by the vagaries in their income as a lot of that was dependent on the patronage of wealthy people. ( on a side note- artists almost always had that burden to bear in the past- how horrible! Am so glad it is better now- or at least I would like to think so!)

Anyway, Beethoven had written this Violin Sonata- No 9. He had dedicated it to the Violinist George Bridgewater. They even performed it together but after the performance apparently Bridgewater insulted the morals of Beethoven's latest fancy. Beethoven promptly changed the dedication to the most famous violinist of that time , Rodolphe Kreutzer, despite the fact that he didn't really care for Beethoven's music ( yes- people like that existed)

This was just a back drop- what I find interesting about this sonata-  it is obviously extremely passionate- so much so- it inspired Leo Tolstoy ( yes- THE Leo Tolstoy) to write a passionate Novella about it!

The story revolves around the music and feelings that develop between a married woman and a violinist based on this music. And the husband's jealousy. I haven't read it but it's supposed to be extremely misogynistic. And full of censorable scenes. So much so that it was censored not only in Russia but America too!!!!!

You can click here for a copy to read it if you want (not copyrighted!!)

http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/tolstoy/kreutzer.pdf

There is also this gorgeous painting done by René François Xavier Prinet- have included it here too- it's quite fabulous!

Also made into a movie  The Kreutzer Sonata - pretty bad reviews!

It's just so interesting to me that Music written in 1803, inspired a Book in 1889, which inspired a painting in 1901 and a movie in 2008!!!

I also wanted to talk a bit about Vikram Seth. I think he is soooo talented!

I read him first at nineteen- "The Golden Gate"- I LOVED it!

So this is a novel written in verse, based (kind of obviously- given its name) in San Francisco.

It was not only written in verse but had something called 590 Onegin stanzas (sonnets written in iambic tetrameter, with the rhyme scheme following the unusual ababccddeffegg pattern of Eugene Onegin). Frankly I can't figure out what all this means but if you read the book each stanza has  the same number of sound breaks in every line. And that changes between lines.

Have put in a few stanzas to give you the flavor- from the beginning- so maybe not the best

To make a start more swift and weighty,

Hail Muse. Dear Reader, once upon
A time, say, circa 1980,
There lived a man. His name was John.
Successful in his field though only
Twenty-six, respected, lonely,
One evening as he walked across
Golden Gate Park, the ill-judged toss
Of a red frisbee almost brained him.
He thought, "Who'd gloat? Who would be glad? 
Would anybody? " As it pained him,
He turned from this dispiriting theme
To ruminations less extreme.

He tuned his thoughts to electronic
Circuitry. This soothed his mind.
He left irregular (moronic) 
Sentimentality behind.
He thought of or-gates and of and-gates,
Of ROMs, of nor-gates, and of nand-gates,
Of nanoseconds, megabytes,
And bits and nibbles… but as flights
Of silhouetted birds move cawing
Across the pine-serrated sky,
Dragged from his cove, not knowing why,
He feels an urgent riptide drawing
Him far out, where, caught in the kelp
Of loneliness, he cries for help.

So writing  the story in this form had had to have been seriously tough.

Does the author concentrate on the plot, or making sure the word count, sound break etc are as they should be?

What got to me what despite all the mastery of the English language that went into it- when I read it ( and I remember this well) a quarter way into it- the story was so interesting I forgot it was in verse!

This also was a big deal for me as, as soon as I read it- I realized I could rhyme too!!! Extremely badly but this got me started on writing and I have been trying since!

If you have never read any Vikram Seth- Try this or even his collection of poems "All Ye who sleep tonight". Frankly I couldn't get through "A Suitable boy"- it was super boring for me- dropped it after reading 600 pages (it was 1000 pages looooooong)

Here's a small poem by Vikram Seth

Interpretation: Vikram Seth

Somewhere within your loving look I sense,
Without the least intention to deceive,
Without suspicion, without evidence,
Somewhere within your heart the heart to leave. 

And with this as your host

I will end this super long post!

( I told you I rhymed badly!)

J'en Connais (Carla Bruni)

What a song by what a woman!

So hear the song first.

When I hear it I visualize the scene for this I imagine it in the 1940's (in black and white) in a lounge with this sultry sexy brunette in a strapless gown crooning into the microphone.

This is just such a sassy, shameless song- I LOVE IT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Z33PS0ZM4

Lyrics

J'en Connais		I Know Some
French		English
J'en Connais		I Know Some
J'en connais des qui charment,		I know some who charm,
Des qui me laissent femme,		Some who let me woman,
J'en connais qui me pâment...		I know some who make me swoon...
J'en connais des jolis,		I know some cute ones,
Des qui roule comme des filles,		Some who drive like girls,
Des qui me piquent mes bodys...		Some who steal my bodies...
J'en connais tant tellement ça me prend tout mon temps,		I know so many that it takes all my time,
Et même ma maman qui m'adore tendrement,		And even my mom who loves me dearly,
Elle me dit : "C'est pas bien, ce n'est pas bon tout ce rien,		She tells me: "It isn't right, it isn't good all this nothingness,
Reprends ton droit chemin..."		Go back on the straight and narrow..."
J'en connais des superbes,		I know some beautiful,
Des bien-mûrs, des acerbes,		Some mature, some acerbic,
Des velus, des imberbes,		Some hairy, some beardless,
J'en connais des sublimes,		I know some sublime,
Des mendiants, des richissimes,		Some beggar, some very rich,
Des que la vie abîme...		Some that life damage...
J'en connais même tellement ça me prend trop de temps,		I know so many it even takes too much of my time
Et ma pauvre maman se dit en soupirant,		And my poor mom tells herself with a sigh,
"Qu'ais-je fait pour cela ? Est-ce de ma faute à moi,		"What did I do to deserve this? Is it my own fault,
Si ma fille est comme ça ?"		If my daughter acts like this?"
J'en connais dans chaque port,		I know some in every port,
Dans chaque Sud, dans chaque Nord,		In every South, in every North,
J'en connais sans efforts,		I know some without efforts,
J'en connais qui vont dire,		I know some who will say,
Que je suis bonne à maudire,		That I‘ve got to be damned,
Et moi ça me fait sourire...		And it just makes me smile...

This song is so-"I know and I don't care how it looks and I still love it!" I think it actually is her attitude to life!

So I liked this song even before I read the lyrics translated. I think I have started appreciating not understanding the words in music because so often if we like or dislike the meaning that affects our feelings about the music.

Much like a good looking person. Who suddenly becomes not so when they start talking!

Or someone not so. Who becomes! (definitely prefer experiencing the latter!!)

Of course Ms. Bruni doesn't need to deal with anything here. Gorgeous, talented in voice and lyrics!

When you hear her name , if you have heard her name and can recall it goes straight to Nikolas Sarkozy's Girlfriend/Wife  = Model  = naked photo controversy!

But she has sooooooo much more to her!

So she is one of those people who came from a very wealthy family- legal father and the real father! (much like Mick Jagger and Liv Tyler. What is particularly ironic here is that she actually had an affair with Mick Jagger!!! Eric Clapton too but then who's name dropping?) Her personal life does not seem the nicest. I have no issues with multiple partners but Father-Son - that’s just icky! I don't want to focus on that but on her talent.

Anyway- at 20 she was one of the top 20 models worldwide. She has acted ( got nominated for awards for her role in "Midnight in Paris") and of course her music.

I heard the full album this song is from (Quelqu'un m'a dit: Someone told me). I do like it. I was on the lookout for more French music that had a gentle flow to it after the Edith Piaf "la Vie en rose" Hadn't found anything. This is very different but it appeals. I will be hearing her other stuff too. The second album is poems by Good authors set to music (No Promises)

Au Revoir till next time. (Though you will be doing the seeing- I don't get to see you!)