Mera Cafe Mahan - Indian Song Lifterz

Allah Duhai [ Film : Race ] - Allah Duhai

2008-05-11T04:38:00.000-07:00

Allah Duhai Of The Film Race IS Very Similiar To The Ararbian Song Chicky Of Artist The Arabian Coalition . This Track Is Included In The Album Club Pasha . I Am Not Sure It's A Complete Lift But When You Will Here This Songs You Will Find It Very Similar To The Chicky Of Arabian Coalition . It Can Be Inspiration .

Listen To : Allah Duhai | Chicky Arabian Coalition

Trivia About Zara Zara Touch Me :

Zara zara is a result of generous inspiration from the Chinese track, 'Deep within the Bamboo grove' (Zhu Lin Shen Chu) by South east Asian singer Lee-Hom Wang (from his 2005 album, Shangri-La)

I Heard Very Similar Track To The Deep Within The Bamboo Groove . Song Is Called ' MVP Feat Stagga Lee - Rock Ya Body . May Be This Can Be Also Inspiration !

Listen To : MVP Feat Stagga Lee - Rock Ya Body

MVP - Rock Ya Body

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Bollywood turns a new leaf!

2008-05-09T22:25:00.001-07:00

Rajkumar Santoshi's latest, Halla Bol's teaser is out. And the teaser's music, along with the style of words depicted on screen seems to be causing a huge problem. Its so uncannily similar to the opening music and video of Van Halen's 'Right now'. The official composer of Halla Bol is Sukhwinder Singh. Wonder if he has anything to do with this teaser!
Watch Halla Bol teaser | Van Halen's Right Now

Bollywood turns a new leaf!

2008-05-09T22:24:00.000-07:00

Bollywood is turning over a new leaf! A recent news item says that Jab we met director Imtiaz Ali had used the track, 'Walking on sunshine' by the 80s group Katrina & The Waves for one of the promos of the film starring Shahid and Kareena Kapoor. Imtiaz had also planned to use the track as part of the background music, but he couldn't track the copyright owners of the song and actually decided to drop its usage altogether than risk a lawsuit later, as Karan Johar realized the hard way! Good going Imtiaz. The film rocks, btw!

Ottmar Liebert and Mera Cafe Mahan

2008-05-09T22:22:00.004-07:00

man, Liebert himself! He stumbled upon the fact that Pritam's Ankahee number 'Aa paas aa' is lifted off his 'Starry night' from this site. He also notes marginal, musical lifts in the remix of Khakee's 'Aisa jadoo'...the guitar in particular is close to his '2 the night'. But the influences are marginal and almost incidental, so I'm not too keen on even a trivia mention.

Aaja Nachle trivia!

2008-05-09T22:22:00.003-07:00

Aaja Nachle's plot seems to be inspired by the 2004 Swedish Academy Award nominated film, 'Så som i himmelen'! Take a look at Aaja Nachle's promo and then read about the Swedish film, in IMDB and Wikipedia! Interesting huh?

The title song seems to have paid homage to a Bengali folk song, 'Dada paye pori re', made popular by Anshuman Roy. Pradipto Das who wrote in with this fab piece of info notes that this folk track was first released in an album during the late 70s.
Listen to Aaja Nachle - Short promo tune | Nachle nachle | Dada paye pori re

Sue me, sue you!

2008-05-09T22:22:00.001-07:00

Here's some fantastic reading material - if you're a keen follower of music plagiarism across the globe. Carl Horowitz, in his recent write-up titled, 'Sue me, sue you' starts with Bruce Springsteen's latest single, 'Radio nowhere' and explains beautifully the dilemma in identifying music plagiarism given the limited sounds we humans work with. Makes for excellent read!

Hum to aise hai bhaiyya (Laaga Chunari mein daag)!

2008-05-09T22:12:00.003-07:00

Thanks to this track, we have discovered the source of 2 other Bappi Lahiri tracks (Bappi Lahiri page, listing number 20 and 21). The main refrain in this song has a fleeting similarity to the 1946 Calypso hit 'Mary Ann', lifted twice by Bappi da! But, as I mentioned, the similarity is fleeting and that's why I've added this in the Trivia page.
Listen to Hum to aise hain | Mary Ann

Saregama India Vs Timbaland!

2008-05-09T22:12:00.001-07:00

Saregama India was recently in the news over a lawsuit they had initiated against Timbaland and The Game for allegedly sampling one of their tracks in the song, 'Put you on the game' (YouTube Link) from The Game's 2005 album, 'The Documentary'. After the Dr.Dre/ Truth Hurts incident I was curious about the song in question and the amount of alleged lift. The Hindi song sampled is SD Burman's (or RD Burman's, depends on which version you believe!) Aradhana hit, 'Baagon mein bahaar hai'. The strangest thing is the length of the sample! It was the famous 'Na na na' part which is sung as the answer to Rajesh Khanna's cheeky third question! The sample is used more like an afterthought, towards the end of the song. A lawsuit for this seems quite amazing considering the treasure trove of lifted songs Saregama holds in their music bank - plagiarized by composers across the years. Just because our country doesn't care about copyright laws, Saregama seems to be safe. If at all our legal system gets slightly stronger on this front, I'm sure Saregama will in a massive soup!
Listen to Put you on the game (relevant edit) | Baagon mein

Pritam reusing his own tracks!

2008-05-09T22:11:00.003-07:00

CNN IBN ran a story recently, about our friend Pritam copying (?) his own song. I really fail to see the news value here. Pritam has done it so often that it sounds like a lame attempt to either manufacture news or defame Pritam. Further. For the record, Pritam has already lifted from his own soundtracks - not once, but as many as 4 times. 5, if you include this latest CNN IBN 'expose'!

So, Janmabhoomi (and its other variant, Zindagi hai to), from the 2004 Jimmy Shergill starrer, Agnipankh, became Bheega bheega sa in Chocolate (2005). Its quite a different issue that both the tunes were lifted off Abrar-ul-haq's original, 'December'.
Listen to Janmabhoomi | Zindagi hai to | Bheega bheega sa (Chocolate) | December (Abrar-ul-haq)

Again, another re-use from Agnipankh (Seems like Pritam loves this un-heard soundtrack!) is the track, Mera dil fida, that has been remodelled into Aa dil se dil in the recent Naqaab!
Listen to Mera dil fida | Aa dil se dil

Raghu Romeo's Strawberry hoon main (2003) becomes the slightly more popular Sania badnaam in Apna sapna money money (2006).
Listen to Strawberry hoon main | Sania badnaam

Jal jal ke from Ek khiladi ek haseena (2005) becomes Hai ishq, in Bas ek pal (2006). The small hitch here is that both have been lifted off Lebanese singer Yuri Mrakadi's Arabiyom ana (2001).
Listen to Jal jal ke | Hai ishq | Arabyion Ana

And, to round off the list,
Listen to Aye dil (Naqaab) | Bolo (Aria)

Some list, this!

Heyy Babyy teaser and Maroon 5!

2008-05-09T22:11:00.001-07:00

Farah Khan's funny brother, Sajid Khan has been crying hoarse that his directorial debut 'Heyy Babyy' is not inspired by the Tom Selleck - Ted Danson starrer 'Three men and a baby'. Well, the teaser that was released in IndiaFM recently seems to scream otherwise...looks exactly like the 1987 Hollywood film! Sajid could however seek refuge by saying that he got inspired by the 1985 French comedy, '3 hommes et un couffin' ('Three men and a cradle', the source of the English film!), since Sagar Ballary has made uncredited lifting of French farces fashionable and lucrative, depending on whether you talk about the connection or not!

But, while I was watching the fairly enjoyable teaser of Heyy Babyy, the one thing that struck me was the music in the background! Sajid was quoted by DNA, on January 16, 2007 as saying, "Do you know why I chose Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy to do the music for Hey Baby? That’s because their name doesn’t figure in the list of copycats on a website devoted to exposing plagiarism in Hindi film music". Thanks Sajid bhai, but I sincerely hope that background music is only a piece in the trailer and not an actual song. Because it sounds exactly like pop/soul-rock band Maroon 5's track, 'This love' from their 2002 debut album, 'Songs about Jane'. The audio clip for the teaser is ripped from the video clip in IndiaFM - try paying closer attention to the music in the background over the funny lines of Akshay Kumar and the multiple slap sounds!

Listen to Heyy Babyy teaser | This love

Ehsaan says in a mail that the trio have nothing to do with either the background music or teaser pieces for the film. Thought as much. Relieved!

Afghans in a reverse plagiarism spree!

2008-05-09T22:10:00.002-07:00

Afghani singers seem to be in a reverse plagiarism spree. Listen to these!

Qader Eshpari's Afghani Kal ho na ho (Mp3)
Rameen Sharif's Afghani Main yahan (Veer Zaara)
Rameen and Omar Sharif's Afghani Subaan allah (Fanaa)

Qader, incidentally, says he's sorry! (Courtesy, Priyanka Dasgupta - Calcutta Times, July 6, 2007)

Rahman's prelude inspired from Maroon 5's track?

2008-05-09T22:10:00.001-07:00

Rahman's 2006 track, 'Machakkaari' from the film 'Sillunnu oru kaadhal' has a racy and very prominent prelude that seems startlingly similar to a prelude from a song, 'Shiver' by the soul-rock band Maroon 5. The hitch? Shiver was part of Maroon 5's 2002 album, 'Songs about Jane'! Now, I do understand that this is not about a tune lift at all, but the reason why its up here is to at least find out if this could possibly be a commercially available loop! Could some of the more knowledgeable/ better connected visitors of ItwoFS throw some light on this?
Listen to Prelude in Machakkaari | in Shiver

Uzbek version of A R Rahman's Saathiya track, 'Aye udi udi'.

2008-05-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

By Uzbek pop star Iroda Dilroz (Youtube link). And it looks like Rahman knows about this!

Jhoom barabar jhoom title song?

2008-05-09T22:08:00.000-07:00

Jhoom barabar jhoom title song lifted? Note-to-note, thump-to-thump and lilt-to-lilt? That too, from a South Indian film? Huh? Does anyone have any clue on what this news item is talking about, in its first para? Do lemme know! Ehsaan Noorani, though denies this outright. And I trust him much more than Cybernoon!

Sania badnaam (Apna sapna money money) Vs Strawberry hoon (Raghu Romeo)

2008-05-09T22:07:00.000-07:00

I'd rather give the benefit of doubt to Pritam than make any assumptions. First came 'Strawberry hoon main' from Raghu Romeo (2003). And then comes the same tune's slightly more popular version, 'Sania badnaam', from Apna Sapna Money Money (2006). Are you aware of an original to both these tunes? Do lemme know!
Listen to Strawberry hoon main | Sania badnaam

Paris Hilton's debut song's producers sued for plagiarism!

2008-05-09T22:06:00.001-07:00

Besides the news of her checking into a LA County jail, the other big news about Paris Hilton, beleaguered celebrity socialite and one time internet porn superstar (!) is that record producers of her really sorry 2006 single, 'Stars are blind' - V2 Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music and Hilton's songwriter/ producer Fernando Garibay - are being sued by Sparta Florida Music Group, who allege parts of the track are lifted from UB40's 1989 classic track, 'Kingston Town'. According to the news, "the GBP250,000 ($500,000) writ, filed in London's High Court, claims breach of copyright. Sparta Florida intends to draw on evidence from a musicologist and on internet articles to prove their case". So, I was curious about the similarities in the two tracks in question. And guess what, Paris could start her life afresh in India - she could speed and break whatever speed records she has in mind...she could also lift anything (leave alone a song) she wants and get away with it but no dirty stuff, vogay, we already have enough things to protest against (the latest of which is the name - 'sexy' - of a precocious 9 year old in Balki's Cheeni Kum!)! Paris' version does borrow in small quantities (the prelude turns into the opening line - the genre, reggae, is retained too) from Kingston Town, but as someone neck deep in far more blatant cases of plagiarism, this seems like peanuts! US$ 500,000 huh? Imagine the amount of moolah our producers may have to dole out if the copyright laws are a bit more stringent?
Listen to Stars are blind | Kingston Town

Interlude in Saroja samaan nikaalo (Chennai 600028)

2008-05-09T22:03:00.000-07:00

A very interesting case of interlude inspiration that mandates a mid-week update! Anantha of Superstarksa blog has made a fantastic find on how Yuvan Shankar Raja could possibly be a huge Spiderman fanboy! Remember the theme music of the original cartoon Spiderman series? The same one we used to wait desperately on weekend noons on Doordarshan, just before heading to start the cricket match! Ah, who can forget that? Now, how would you react if I say that the same theme tune has been used in Yuvan's latest, 'Chennai 6000028'? Hard to believe, huh? But yes, it has been used - if I may add, very very intelligently, right upto the choice of instrument, as an interlude, in the track, 'Saroja saamaan nikaalo' (more on this song's title - in the trivia!). Very smart, Yuvan. No, I'm not blaming him this time - this is perhaps the real way to pay homage, I guess! Incidentally, many others have done it, with this theme, according to Wikipedia!

Listen to Saroja saamaan nikalo first interlude | Spiderman cartoon theme

Trivia on Spiderman cartoon theme: A spidey fan site helps us with the details of the cartoon theme's credits - Words by Paul Francis Webster and music by Bob Harris, Stu Phillips and D Kapross. Also, the mention of Charlie Mingus' 1959 boogie track, 'Boogie stop shuffle' as the possible inspiration for the cartoon theme seems well grounded too! Listen to Boogie stop shuffle (Charlie Mingus). Watch the Spiderman cartoon opening video here in YouTube!

Trivia on the words 'Saroja saamaan nikaalo'!: I recall reading Chennai 6000028's director Venkat Prabhu talking about where he got these words. Director Shankar's Arjun starrer Mudhalvan (Nayak, in Hindi) had a scene, where, after becoming the 'one-day-CM', one of the chores that Arjun attends to is to weed out subletting on government-allotted quarters for slum dwellers. They had incidentally sublet their quarters since it fetches better returns. One of the doors Arjun knocks with the entire media in tow is a 'Sat(e)' (Chennai parlance for any North Indian businessman/ moneylender - usually a Marwadi!). After the initial resistance the sat(e) agrees to move out and yells out to his wife (Sushma, not Saroja, however! - Source: Triviapettai), 'Sushma saara samaan nikaalo' (In existential terms, it means, "Saroja, get our worldly belongings out!")

Shing nei tobu (Lukochuri)

2008-05-09T22:02:00.002-07:00

Kishore Kumar has often been called the 'Danny Kaye of India' and quite a bit of singing seems to have been inspired by the Hollywood comedian. So, its quite possible that Kishore was instrumental in getting composer Hemanta Mukjerjee to adapt Danny Kaye's 1946 hit, 'Oh by Jingo!' as 'Shing nei tobu nam tar shingo' for the 1958 Bengali comedy hit 'Lukochuri' starring Kishore Kumar and Mala Sinha. The singing and mukhda are quite evidently and blatantly used in the Indian version.Thanks to 'Musique Man' Varma for the info!

Listen to Shing nei tobu | Oh by Jingo

Besides this Danny Kaye connection, there's another that I'm looking for more information. The song from the 1962 Kishore Kumar starrer, Half Ticket, 'Woh ik nagaah kya' is supposedly inspired by a scene from Danny Kaye's 1954 film, 'Knock on wood'. Now, I've not seen both the the films in question, but would like to know from someone who has, if there's a musical/ song lift involved here.

Trivia on Oh by Jingo!: 'Oh by Jingo' was originally composed by Albert Von Tilzer, with lyrics by Lew Brown in the year 1920! Danny's version came much later in 1946. The original was recorded by the Premier Quartet as 'Oh by Jingo! Oh by Gee' and was released on Edison Blue Amberol Cylinder record in August 1920 and on Edison Diamond Disc 50666-L in September 1920. For the original recording in mp3 and a bit more slightly unrelated trivia, head to this page!

RMIM Puraskar 2006

2008-05-09T22:02:00.001-07:00

It was a very proud moment for me when Vinay mailed me that I have been recommended by a few people to be a judge for RMIM Puraskar 2006. So, there I was listening to the nominated tracks and making my choice…it has all been a wonderful experience! The polling and the whole planning was fantastic…kudos to Vinay. And, here are the results! Even though my personal fave was Dor (as you may have seen in my 'Top 10 Hindi songs of 2006' post in Milliblog), Omkara is a deserving choice too.

Take a look at the results here!

For those of you who voted me as a judge….THANKS!

The CNBC Panel discussion on plagiarism in Indian film music!

2008-05-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

My co-panelists were...take a guess! Pritam, Anu Malik, noted copyright lawyer Praveen Anand and UTV head Ronnie Screwvala! I joined them from CNBC's Bangalore studio.

Karan Thapar chaired the discussion and was, for some reason, stuck on Hattrick's 'Wicket Bacha' and its seemingly direct similarity with Harry Belafonte's 1952 chartbuster 'Man smart (woman smarter)'! With all due respect to Karan, I felt that was an example completely off the mark. I'm with Pritam on this instance when he said Wicket bacha is in the calypso genre and not a direct tune lift. Couldn't agree with you more, Pritam!

Listen to Wicket bacha | Man smart (woman smarter) ...and decide for yourself!

Pritam was surprisingly shy and soft spoken, quite contrary to the image I had of him, in my mind. On the other hand Anu Malik was completely the opposite of what I had expected (mostly from his press interviews). He did hammer on his impressive track record, how he has survived many composers and generations through his hard work etc., which was typical of the persona we know from his interviews.

But surprisingly, when Karan asked him pointedly if he thinks itwofs.com is actually discrediting Indian composers, he actually disagreed and said, if anything, it inspires him to do more original work and he's happy that an online watchdog is keeping track. This he felt gave him the impetus to do original tunes! Not bad Anu, way to go! Great attitude!

Praveen made it clear that the whole set up is to blame and every one will be made responsible, right from the producer, director, composer, music publisher etc. if a copyright lawsuit were to happen. Watch the video of this panel discussion...check out the About ItwoFS page for video links!

Djur Djura and Jhoom barabar jhoom!

2008-05-09T22:00:00.001-07:00

While working on a lead from 'Musique Man' Varma - on the possible source of Shankar Jaikishen's cult classic 'Yaad kiya dil' (Patita, 1953, sung by Hemant Kumar), I stumbled upon another song from the same group, alleged to have the Patita original. The group is called Djur Djura and its a all-women group working on Algerian folk music. The song in question is called 'Uni-vers-elles'. This track has generous dollops of 'Jhoom barabar jhoom', with even those three words appearing exactly! Yes, the same Aziz Nazan cult hit in 1971 that was also used as an item song in the film '5 rifles' (1974).

Djur Djura was formed in 1977 by its lead singer Djura (as explained in detail in the official website of the world music record label 'Luaka Bop' owned by musician David Byrne, co-founder of the group Talking Heads). Considering the possibility of 2 (one confirmed, another unknown) Indian tracks in her repertoire, I'm on the lookout for any information that can help me place the dates of all the 4 tracks mentioned here.
- Yaad kiya dil ne (Patita, 1953) - Possibly inspired by Algerian folk song - Unconfirmed
- Jhoom barabar jhoom (Aziz Nazan, 1971) - Found in Uni-vers-elles (Djur Djura, 2002)

The dates available as of now clearly points to the fact that the Indian versions are much older. Now, two relevant questions arise here.

01. Does Djur Djura, as a band rework existing Algerian folk music? Or, do they also seek inspiration from across the world and could have possibly lifted Jhoom barabar jhoom?
02. If a tune-equivalent of the Patita exists in their repertoire, does that again point to one of the two possibilities - the band using traditional Algerian folk or seeking inspiration from more diverse world sources, including Indian film music?

Download the mp3 version of Uni-vers-ellese here! Any more info on this topic will be immensely helpful! While I have heard some rare albums of Djur Djura, I found their music to be an interesting mix of genres including Andean folk and the kind of music Hedningarna produces. But, I'm yet to come across this so-called original of Patita's 'Yaad kiya dil'!

A R Rahman's 'Ottagatha Kattikko' (Gentleman, 1993) and La Caution's 'Pilotes Automatqies', 2005.

2008-05-09T21:59:00.003-07:00

This one's a reverse! Or, it possibly could be. Just came across (thanks to messages in the Rahman Yahoo Group and TFM Page) a track 'Pilotes Automatqies' by a French hip-hop group called 'La Caution'. And it samples almost throughout the song, A R Rahman's 1993 chartbuster 'Ottagatha Kattikko' from Gentleman (called 'Roop Suhana lagta hai' in Hindi!). The hip-hop track is part of La Caution's 2005 album, 'Arc En Ciel Pour Dal Toniens'. Now, a few pertinent questions. Does the French album include a credit to Rahman? How did they come to know about a Tamil track...any possible Indian connection somewhere? And most importantly, does Rahman know?
Listen to Pilotes automatiques | Ottagatha Kattikko

Himesh Reshammiya's 'Odhni od ke naachoon' from Tere Naam (2004)

2008-05-09T21:59:00.001-07:00

Is it lifted? Pakistani singer Naseebo Lal's 'Isqhe da wal aagaya' has exactly the same tune. But, despite Himesh's dubious past, I'd rather not jump to the conclusion that he lifted it. Need to ascertain the release year of Naseebo Lal's version. Do lemme know in case you know/ come across the year of release of Naseebo Lal's track!
Listen to Ishqe da wal aagaya

Hassan Jehangir's Hawa Hawa (1990)

2008-05-09T21:58:00.004-07:00

This chartbuster was first released in 1990 in Pakistan, but strangely enough, its Iranian original is as old as the 70s, to the best of my search! Yes, the original is called 'Havar havar' and was by Persian singer Kourosh Yaghmai. Lets not really get into Hawa hawa's Indian version...quite pointless, in my opinion, since we've addressed the source.
Listen to Hawa hawa | Havar havar [Full version, here!]

Laxmikant Pyarelal's only Malayalam score for the film 'Poonila Mazha' - Song, 'Thak thaank' (1997)

2008-05-09T21:58:00.003-07:00

The Mariachi track, 'Cancion del Mariachi' by Antonio Banderas and Los Lobos was part of Robert Rodriguez's 'Desperado' (1995) soundtrack. Daboo Malik has already used up this track for a number in Pran jaaye par shaan na jaaye (2003). Here's Laxmikant Pyarelal's version of the same track, way back in 1997, in their only Malayalam film, Poonilamazha. The song is 'Thak thaank...'! Pretty much direct lift, but sounds quite interesting! Another song from the same film, 'Chilu chilu chira' seems to be inspired by Michael Jackson's 'They don't really care about us'...just those lines, but!
Listen to Thak thaank | Cancion del Mariachi