Monday 7 July 2014

Laxmikant Pyarelal: Karz (1980) / Iqbal Qureshi: Bombay By Nite (1970/1977)


Karz

I wouldn't normally post a soundtrack EP when I've previously posted the long playing counterpart (only the other way around) but this one is special. 'Karz' contains a track that for whatever reason didn't make it onto the LP, and what a track it is. 'Theme Music' is an exquisite instrumental, slow-burning and sexy with a distinct European sound, reminiscent of the themes Ennio Morricone made for Italian (s)exploitation movies in the 1970s. I adore it! Considering the EP also includes the two best songs from the soundtrack, the fantastic 'Om Shanti Om' in a long (if not entirely complete) version even, there's a case to be made for it being the release you primarily need.

Bombay By Nite

It's only been a few months since I posted the original 'Bombay By Nite' EP; this is the subsequent one, released years later, as mentioned in the earlier post. To be honest it's very shabby. I've often bemoaned how they tended to truncate tracks for EP versions of Bollywood soundtracks; here they've taken that practise to a new low. Not content with fading out songs long before they end, they also start them anything from 20-40 seconds in; on 'Kaun Si Manzil Pe' it sounds so amateurishly random I thought it was the record skipping. And while I'm sort of glad to have the joyous 'Yeh Sham Mehkati Sham' on record, I'm gutted it's lacking its brilliant intro. Bah! (The video versions are more complete.)

Maybe I should look for the 78 rpms...

Track listing, 'Karz':
1. Kishore Kumar & Chorus: Om Shanti Om
2. Lata Mangeshkar & Kishore Kumar: Main Solah Baras Ki
3. Theme Music

Track listing, 'Bombay By Nite':
1. Mukesh: Baharon Ne Kiye Sajde
2. Suman Kalyanpur: Kaun Si Manzil Pe
3. Kishore Kumar & Sulakshana Pandit: Dheere Dheere Dhal Na Jaye
4. Krishna Shinde: Yeh Sham Mehkati Sham

8 comments:

  1. http://lix.in/-ef9978
    (no reups)

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  2. Such a rare photo of Sanjeev kumar, Also I Karz was missing from my collection, Thanks.

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  3. As your stack of bollywood records is reaching 300.....I wonder how much it would have cost you to acquire this collection. If a reasonable estimate of $10 per record is applied then the total comes to $3000....a substantial sum of money....at least in indian rupees.

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  4. Can't say I'm keeping track. Admittedly I do spend quite a bit of money on records (of which the Bollywood ones constitute but a fraction), books, films etc., but I measure them by what they mean to me, not some total monetary worth.

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  5. Thanks Pc for Karz Theme Music, i m searching for long time original soundtrack of this one....
    this is superb copy from George Benson - We As Love (Original Karz guitar theme) by Laxmikant-Pyarelal

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  6. I didn't know that, thanks for the info. And wow, look how similar the cover of the George Benson album it's on is to the Karz EP!

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  7. yeah cover looks like similar, may be from his album weekend from L.A.
    George Benson - We As Love (Original Karz guitar theme) youtube link:-
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh9vRq7hVKw
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVUwJUCZbfk

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  8. Thanks PC, specially for Karz theme song though it was released in solo audio CD of Karz & I have the same but get it in a vinyl is great feeling. Keenly waiting for your next move.

    Vikram Singh

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