Listed here are what I
think are strictly coincidences with reasons for why I think so. I felt
it would be wrong to add them under inspiration or lifts! So the benefit
of doubt goes to the composer in these cases
1
Rasta dekhe tera [Film:
Humshakal]
Composer: R D Burman
The song
which inspired this number is the Beatles song 'In my life' from their
album Rubber Soul (1965). The Hindi film was released in the year
1974.
Interesting. The Hindi tune is pretty much
carnatic in pattern and the similarity ends after the first 4 - 5 words!
3
Tara
Rum Pum [Film: Doli Sajake Rakhna]
The Champs number 'too much tequila' is used somewhere deep inside
this song by Rahman! The song is 'tara rum pum' from A R Rahman's Doli
sajake rakhna. For ease of listening I've edited the song to its
relevant portion and so on, so that you get to listen to the part which
resembles our tequila song, first! Now, I personally find it unlikely
that Rahman sits down and decides to use the tequila song in the second
line of para 2...which is why I felt it was a coincidence!
There is this
rather old song by Ilayaraja in the movie Vaazhkai (1984), the song, 'mella
mella'. Its a trademark masterpiece from Ilayaraja with fabulous violin
preludes et all, a mesmerizing number, in short. It sounds rather
similar to a song 'Celestial soda pop' by new-age/ synth artist Ray Lynch. The
album of Ray Lynch in which you'd
find this song (Deep Breakfast) came out in 1984 too!
Inspired or mere coincidence? Another point to note is that
the tune of Mella mella was first used as a background theme
in the 1983 Kannada film, Pallavi Anupallavi by Ilayaraja (Maniratnam's
feature film debut). Considering this usage predates
Celestial pop soda, the inspiration angle is clearly ruled
out!
Aashiqui's (1990)
'Mera dil tere liye' has a
recurring 'O o o...' kind of phrase that comes just after '...dhadaktha
hai...' that sounds amazingly close to a similar phrase in Australian
singer John Farnham's 'You're the voice' (1986)! But thats it! There's
nothing common between both the songs otherwise! I got to give the benefit
of doubt to Nadeem Shravan regardless of their shady track record.
Let me make it clear at the outset that I'm still not very sure
about this one!! I happened to listen to this Latin classic, 'El choclo' (called 'Kiss of fire' in its English version, has been sung by
many people including Connie Francis and Helmut Lotti) after a really
long time and I was instantly reminded of Bobby's 'Mein shayar to nahin'!
Though I should add that the kind of inspiration (if at all) is mighty
impressive.
Let me know what you think!
Another coincidence - the reason why I call
it a coincidence, is simple. The credibility factor of the composing
trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and the fact that the similarity is minimal. But
makes for interesting listening as well! Dil Chahta Hai's 'Kaisi hai yeh
rut' (Sung by Srinivas) sounds (at least the beginning!) like 2 songs -
The Beatles' number 'Two of us' (from the album 'Let it be' - the latest
cover version of this number is in the OST of the movie, 'Iam Sam'
starring and sung by Sean Penn) and Cindy Lauper's 1983 number 'Time
after time' which has, on last count, about 50+ cover versions! Don't
expect any alarming instances of similarity...as I mentioned earlier,
its merely a coincidence!
Another WHAM - A R Rahman
connection? A R Rahman's number, 'Madrasa
suthi pakka poren' from the 1994 movie May Madham, seemingly sounds a
bit like WHAM's 'Club Tropicana' (1983)! Does it? Let
me know!
Karan Thapar talks about A R Rahman's 'Bombay Dreams' in his column
in Hindustan Times..."One of the songs - Love’s Never Easy - reminds me of something I’ve heard before. During the performance I can’t figure it out. But afterwards a taxi driver does. Rahman’s tune is uncannily similar to Don
McClean’s Starry Starry Night". 'Love's never easy' is the English
version of Rahman's song in Taal, 'Ishq Bina'. Wonder why Karan didn't
notice the similarity when Taal was released...well, that's besides the
point. Don McClean's 'Starry starry night' was from his 1971 album,
'American Pie' was also called 'Vincent' since it was a tribute to
Vincent Van Gogh's 1889 painting, 'Starry nights'.
Is the Dil To Pagal Hai number, 'Le gayi le
gayi' inspired? Well, a friend sent me info on a song by the noted Arabic singer Farid-el-Atrache (also spelt as Farid al
Atrash)...the song was 'Ya Habaybi Ya Ghaybin'. Incidentally there is a cover verison of this song by the
Morrocan-Spanish band, Alabina and was called 'Vengan vengan'. Some
dates...Dil to pagal hai came out in 1997 while Alabina's cover version came out in 1999. Farid's original version was released in the soundtrack of the movie
'Nagham Fi Hayati' in 1974. So if at all there's a lift, Uttam Singh must've sourced it from Farid's original version! Listen to the 3 clips below and check out if you think there's a lift and if so how much!
Lemme know what you think! Thanks to Sreeni for the info on Farid's original!
R D Burman's classic 'Zehreela
Insaan' (1974) track surprisingly
has shades of the theme track from the 1971 movie 'Summer of 42'
(Composed by Michel Legrand). But
yes, I'd not want to classify this as a lift and add it in the
'Coincidences' section since the similarity is restricted to part of the
first line and the another subsequent line where 'O Hansini' is sung
with a slight variation (Listen to the opening and from point 00:31
onwards in the English track). Mail me your opinion! Interestingly, Anu
Malik has used this theme track almost as-is in the prelude to his Phir
Teri Kahani Yaad Aayi (1973) track, 'Tere Dar Par Sanam'...this one
definitely goes into Anu's Copied list!
This Pancham track sounds very
similar to the German track, 'Goodbye eloisa' by the band
'Flippers'. But, even after an exhaustive search I couldn't
trace the year of release of the German track. Some sites
claim it as 80s but then the song might be part of a
compilation album and the date might be wrong in that case.
Also, another listing claims that the tune is traditional and
not scored by Flippers themselves. So, if you are able to find
the year of release, please
do lemme know! Till then, I suppose I gotto give the
benefit of doubt to Mr Burman.
Update: The discography available in Flippers' official website
lists 'Goodbye eloisa' in one of their 1991
album. So, until someone can prove that the Flippers' version is a
cover version of a traditional song, this song remains an original or
even could be termed as a case for reverse plagiarism!
13
Kitni
Hai Pyari [Film: Parinda, 1989]
Sambodh Kaul had mailed me asking me if the German track,
'Jodler
der Berge' sound like a Hindi song. After much listening and help from a
few friends, I zeroed in on Pancham's 'Kitni hai pyari' (Parinda, 1989)
as the Hindi track that sort of resembles the German track. The source
track was, in my knowledge, part of an album called "Most beautiful
mountain yodels" (but could have first been in a different album
much earlier) and was probably made famous by Kastelruther Spatzen. So,
what do you think? The similarity is flimsy? Or do you believe that RDB
might have got the seed for his track from the German track? Lemme
know!
Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo
[Theme song for the Kolkata Knight Riders, composed by
Vishal Shekhar]
The track seems to be inspired (I
use the word inspired, since it is!) by a 1970 Deep Purple
track titled, 'Black Night'. Note the arrangements and a
fairly prominent 'Too hot, too cool' part in the original -
seems like a good source? But, I'd give Vishal Shekhar the
benefit of doubt due to this candid feedback from Vishal
Dadlani. "There's no real
connection apart from the two tunes being 6/8 rhythm
structures, and rock-based. Perhaps, on thinking about it,
the rhythmic structure of our first vocal line and that of
the riff from deep purple's song is somewhat similar, but
certainly not the same, and the notes are totally different.
We've never had the dishonor of being on their site, and
would like to keep it that way. Vishal and Shekhar take
great pride in being one of only two or three music
directors to not have a listing there." I respect their stand and appreciate
the honesty. So, off this goes to the coincidences section.
This will NOT be archived under the Hindi - Others page and
the Coincidences section listing will be accompanied by
Vishal's explanation!
The source is British New Wave
musician, Thomas Dolby's 'She blinded me with science'! The
Tamil song that sounds alarmingly similar to this track's
opening - complete with the rhythm (synth hook in the original) and the tune of the
first 2 lines is....'Dosth bada dosth' from Saroja, with
music by Yuvan Shankar Raja! Hmmm...so, what do you think?
Mail me! Listen toDosth bada dosth
| She
blinded me with science
16
Pungi,
from Agent Vinod
Iranian band Barobax had reportedly
sent a legal notice to Pritam and Agent
Vinod team for copyright violation. The bone of contention - one that is being
discussed in YouTube comments and online discussion forums - is the song 'Pungi'.
It is alleged that the song is copied from Barobax's 2010 song, 'Soosan Khanoom'.
Having ripped apart Pritam a LOT, in this site, in the past, I guess it is only
fair that I also come out in support of him when an allegation is widly silly
and false. In my opinion, the ONLY similarity between Barobax's Soosan Khanoom
and Agent Vinod's Pungi is the rythm loop that plays in the background.
Tune-wise (or genre-wise) both the songs are similar to other songs like Hawa
hawa (by Hassan Jehangir, but owes its origins to the 70s Iranian song 'Havar
havar' by Kourosh Yaghmai) and Viju Shah's song from Aar Ya Paar,
Tamma ele.
There is no base for alleging that Pritam copied Barobax's song since the tunes
are completely different and rhythm similarities could be tracked back or
explained to commercial loops. A few instruments and a rhythm loop doesn't make
a song (with lyrics, like film songs - different case for instrumental songs,
anyway) - the tune does.
For once, I believe Pritam is in the clear.
Having read the above, listen to samples of the two songs in question - it is
one thing to listen to them after reading random YouTube allegations of their
similarity, and it's something else to listen to them after reading a
counterpoint. Barobax's Soosan Khanoom:
Agent Vinod's Pungi:
And, here's a bonus! A Tamil song by Vidyasagar, from the 2003 film Madura. The
first 2 lines are almost identical to Barobax's Soosan Khanoom - no rhythm
similarity; good old tune-similarity, albeit only short :)
Palash Sen' has alleged that
Ram Sampath lifted the main refrain of the theme song of Aamir Khan's TV show,
Satyamev Jayate, from his 2000 number Satyamev Jayate, from the album Phir Dhoom.
This, in short, is absurd.
Before
reporting this in mainstream media, why didn't the concerned journalists
listen to both songs once and then write about it? Is it because this news will
help sell more print since this is controversy around the most-talks about TV
show in recent times? Add to it, they can combine the Ram Sampath Vs. Rajesh
Roshan and Krazzy 4 copyright war and make a juicy story.
The simple point is that, if one listens to the both the songs, there is no
basis for Palash's claims at all.
There are 2 things worth differentiating here.
One, the use the words 'Satyamev Jayate' as the main chorus, in both songs. This
is not worth debating as a lift. One could argue that the split of the words, 'Satyamev
Satyamev, Satyamev Jayate' is similar in both songs. Is that even a valid claim?
Of course not.
Two, the tune in which the chorus is sung. Just listen to both the choruses.
Ram's song has one tune for this chorus, while Euphoria's has 2 - the starting
chorus is similar only in the way it breaks the words up - 'Satyamev Satyamev,
Satyamev Jayate'. The 2nd chorus just goes, 'Satyamev Jayate...yay yay yayeye'.
The don't sound similar in anyway, as far as the tune goes.
It is shocking that this baseless claim was given weight in media when both the
songs are a click away for listening.
