Chandrima Pal
If you think this will give you an idea of who I really am, you are mistaken! Read on if you must, but don't say I didn't warn you!
It is NOT okay to steal tunes!
Just for the record, I have NO personal agenda against Pritam. If anything at all, I have an agenda against borrowed ideas, stolen art, that the multi-billion entertainment industry shoves down our throat. If you have ever created even as much as piece of poetry or written a few lines from your imagination, if you have ever sung a new song or created your own painting, you will know what I am talking about.
READ: Kismat Konnection - the article and the reaction
I have been following Pritam and his music for a while now. I have interviewed him on a few occasions at length, sat through one of his studio sessions in Andheri (I have had the privilege of doing the same for Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Louis Banks, Salim-Suleiman, Ranjit Barot among others) and have been in touch the way a journalist and a celebrity can, in a strictly professional and objective manner. I also happen to know some of the very talented musicians Pritam works with. All this, because of my keen interest in music and its wellbeing as an industry. Something I have been doing for over a decade now.
I take considerable pride in Pritam's achievement since we not only hail from the same city, we also happen to share the same college and somewhat similar tastes in music, he of course being years my senior. Pritam creates soundtracks that work. He has a feel for what the masses want and he delivers. He is successful and I do not deny that. But at what price?
When I had interviewed Pritam about his first controversy surrounding the Na Jaane Koi song from Gangster, he had sounded hurt. "People misunderstand me. I am trying to promote Bangla rock and this is what I get in return."
True, Pritam had picked up an iconic Bangla song that was a part of the Calcutta chromosome, and given it a fresh, contemporary twist. But that would be the leat of Pritam's worries. Over the months and years, Pritam may feel he has done great service not only to Bangla bands but also to sundry other South-Asian bands, whose tunes he may have tried to valiantly promote. But should you not acknowledge the original source if you are trying to 'promote' someone else's music?
What I have found most amusing are the comments from readers about the 'way' I have written the piece, and not the unethical practice. To say that 'everyone does so' is not good enough. The Ram Sampat Vs Rajesh Roshan battle is a case in point. You cannot encourage stolen art, even if you like it. It is morally, ethically, professionally wrong.
I have heard the entire album of Kismat Connection many times. But stumbling across the stolen tune left such a bad taste in my mouth that I felt it irrelevant to talk about the rest of the tracks. As a fan, I felt cheated. Once again.
The album should do well. The title track especially has a lot of promise and what we call in internet parlance, 'stickiness'.
Pritam is doing well for himself. And should continue to do so, as long as he has producers lining up for his 'creations'. Just as we would continue to raise hell whenever we come across stolen ideas being passed off as originals.
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comments
Tunes are obviously not meant for stealing.....There's less originality left these days
I knew the obvious answer coming from you that you don't have any issues or personal grudges with pritam. But when you are talking of stealing, you should also talk parallely of lying. As you are now of not having any issues with pritam. I can't simply beleive on that, though you might hail from the same place & all, but you do have lots of things to settle with pritam, otherwise you won't have been targetting only pritam, as pliagarism is happening everywhere. If you can stop other music directors from doing it by posting articles against them, why only pritam? Why not publish articles similar to it about the bollywood movies that has been pliagarised from abroad sources. Whether its a yash chopra film or karan johar or whomsoever's they do take inspiration from other movies. There is always few things which i found similar in many of indian movies with some of the other language movies that i have watched. In one of the posts earlier to mine, the guy was rightly quoted as if you are this much moral values then you should look at everyone or else keep quite & do your stuff that you have been assigned to(of unbiasedly reviewing music). Well your moral & ethical values seems like there still exists sita in our ages, you really are a wonderful person & infact the best person with highest moral values(more than mahatma gandhi ji) surely. With this article of yours, you surely has shown us what kind of person you are!
i would rather think of you as a person who might feel jealous of the person who used to be a senior in the same college of yours. Seeing him reach such greater heights must have made you feel very envious & thats why pritam has been on the firing line.
request to the onwer(s) of the site to reconsider their decision of employing such envious people.
I don't see why have you isolated pritam. What about others? Anu malik, bappi lahiri?
completely agree with the crux of your argument: encouraging stolen art is plain wrong. You have missed other aspect tough: the pressure the director puts on the music-director to replicate music/tunes he(the former) has liked and thinks can be great for the movie.
the words "encouraging someone/ something", presumes an agency and knowledge on the part of whoever is encouraging. Most indians are not aware that the indians films plagiarize from foreign films, indian reality tv shows plagiarize from south korean shows, indian music plagiarizes from their counterparts abroad. So how fair is it to blame someone who isn't aware of it at all?
plus, what are the options available for hindi music fans aware of this stealing business, if they decide to discourage (read: not buy) the stolen stuff. Himesh? Other than him? I have already got my fingers free just to start the counting.
i buy pirated music, whenever i do, just so that i have the satisfaction of not adding to the undeserved wealth of these choors.
and makes sense to see the big picture too, though i might be digressing a bit: when was the last time our software co.S produced an original, innovative product? When was the last time indian co.S came up with some path-breaking tv show format? Leave aside the exceptional akshardham of delhi, when did indians build a glorious monument?
a cursory glance will tell you that india is dominated by cut-copy-paste artists and cut-copy-paste entrepreneurs who just imitate whatever has worked in the west and other countries, and replicate it in india, with some cosmetic tweaks. All this is done because it's a faster way of making money and producing stuff that the market requires, than risking out with something inventive that's not been tried or tested anywhere. The latter requires some guts and ability to step out of the rat-race and most importantly: preparation to fail!
cheers!
It is definitely not ok to steal tunes and i am glad to see an article on it labeled appropriately and not misleadingly.
now we can actually have a discussions about plagiarism instead of mixing it with a music review. That was the only issue i had, the review was not really a review.
i hope someone takes this whole idea of stealing tunes a bit further, this had been plaguing the bollywood film industry since time immemorable, i can remember bappi lahiri stealing tunes way back in the 80's thats how far my memory stretches and i don't know but won't be surprised if it was happening before that.
as a teen, i used to get extra annoyed with the blatant copying, copying of tunes from popular track "walk like an egyptian" in one of the sunny deol movies(don't remember the name) and just loads and loads of them and anu mallik following suit.
while, i am no big fan of new hindi film music, sadly i have given up on fighting against this plagiarism thing and i frankly don't listen to the film music anymore so after jwm this is the first pritam album i have heard and only because i have suddenly developed a strong liking for shahid kapoor. But beyond that i have no interest in the silly hinglish lyrics or the songs of hindi film industry.
but, it would be good if the journalist like you who strongly believe in this issue take it forward. If nothing, it can make people aware of what's happening and open their eyes a bit more.