THE BIG Fashion of the month

Anushka Manchanda: Muse with the Beat

Anushka Manchanda - The Sexiest Singer in Town

This year, she was there, where every fashionista aspires to be; on the cover of the Cosmopolitan! The iconic fashion magazine crowned this veejay-singer-dancer-choreographer-actor as “The Sexiest Singer in Town” in its February issue. Four months later, we are still figuring out whether to envy Anushka Manchanda or to adore her for her style sense. But, one thing we can surely do is to take some style tips back to the closet from her.

This diva gives a new meaning to style. And, here at The Big M we try to dissect her style code:

Brighten it up

Anushka Manchanda

This muse of the beat simply “love(s) color”. With Milan to New York to Lakme India Fashion Week declaring bright colors to be the trend of the season, there can be no better time to join the bandwagon. “I am personally a fan of bold colors. Bright colors look good on Indian skin. But it all depends upon how you wear it,” says fashion designer Nachiket Barve. And, nobody wears it better then Manchanda, who wears bright extension in her hair.

Get it for yourself: If you think getting electric highlights will ensure getting kicked out from college, then you must pay a visit to Hill Road,  Bandra. The flea market offers bright hair plug-ins in the hues of pink, green, blue and blah-blah just for Rs. 50 for a pack of five.

Get INKed

They say it’s good to be upfront. The best way to tell who are to a person on the first meet is to say it with a tattoo. We know getting inked is pretty out-there and everybody is going for it. But, then it’s the time to show your creativity and that’s why we love Manchanda for a small headphone tattoo near her ear.

Get the Look: Tattoo’s are for life and you sure can’t afford to have spelling mistakes here. Therefore, we suggest to experiment with design not with the tattoo artist. Thus, we recommend Al’s at Bandra and so do many celebs of the tinsel town.

Have a signature colour

Manchanda has black. She loves painting her nails black and it gives her an edgy gothic look. You can do the same. Pick a color which defines you the best and always wear it as nail-paint or bracelet or belt or maybe as mobile phone and create a brand out of yourself.

Pout it up

“What makes Anoushka stand out is her perfect pout,” says Meghna Nijhawan, media professional. “She doesn’t have fake siliconed Anjolina Jolie wannabe lips. Still even with her thin lips her pout is so picture perfect. Yet, not over done like Blake Lively of Gossip Girl”, she adds.

So ladies what are you waiting for, stand-up in front of the mirror and practice your way to the Anushka Manchanda Pout.

Raavan

Like isn’t this the most obvious choice? No, we aren’t biased, but when u have Rehman and Mani Ratnam thrown together for an adaptation that’s more than just drama, you know your ears are in for a treat. Raavan undoubtedly takes the cake for being one of the most ‘experimental’ albums of the year. Beera, for being so energetic and explosive, a major ‘repeat’ contender; Behene De, for being melodious & striking orchestral compositions & Ranjha Ranjha, for that bewitching voice of Rekha Bhardwaj & the splashes of the pulsating beats all over, this one is so to watch out for. Three more tracks but these seem to be the USP of the album. Gulzar has been better, but the simple lines do help the music to take over. The best buy that music could offer, we only wish this bliss of witnessing traditional folk & rustic modern fusion wasn’t limited to certain releases per year. But boy isn’t the wait worth it. We love!

Alessandro Moreschi

Castrato:  A castrato is a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or one who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.

Castration before puberty (or in its early stages) prevents a boy’s larynx from being transformed by the normal physiological events of puberty. Thus, vocal range of prepubescence is largely retained, and the voice develops into adulthood in a unique way.

As the castrato’s body grows, his lack of testosterone means that his bone-joints do not harden in the normal manner. Unusually long ribs, combined with intensive training, gave them unrivalled lung-power and breath capacity. Operating through small, child-sized vocal cords, their voices were also extraordinarily flexible, and quite different from the equivalent adult female voice, as well as higher vocal ranges of the uncastrated adult male. Listening to a castrato, one can hear that the lower part of the voice sounds like a “super-high” tenor, with a more falsetto-like upper register above that.

Prepubescent castration was made illegal in Italy in 1870.
Some famous castrati
1. Baldassare Ferri
2. Giovanni Carestini
3. Alessandro Moreschi

THE BIG Gigs of the Month

THE BIG Pik of the month

Pik of the Month

Have u been wondering off late about the face behind the warm silky voice in the recent Imran Khan  – Kalki coke ad? The unassuming looking Sridhar of the self christened mix pop band Sridhar/Thayil cites that the rendering of this old Rafi number, ‘tum jo mil gaye ho’, was just a rough trial without any accompanying orchestra; while some days later she heard about the jingle on air through a friend. Well, most brilliant things happen by accident. How we wish to listen to the entire song uninterrupted rather than the teaser version. Nevertheless, the voice has stirred the advertising world and earned The Big M pik of the month! Keep ‘em coming girl!

Dip of the month

Don’t get us wrong. We absolutely loved the title track of LSD with those bizarre lyrics rendered to deserving finésse by Kailash Kher. But what made him sing ‘tu nangi acchi lagti hai’ only makes us wonder about his inhibition centre now. We understand that artists respect creativity in all forms. And we would have probably even not questioned this song had it been some other voice, since it is a befitting number for a script demanding such uncensored lyrics. But why Kailash? From someone whom we have seen crooning heart warming verses like ‘allah ke bande’ and ‘yaa rabba’, this comes as a shocker. Kailash, to the mountains right now.

Pik of the month

THE BIG Pik of the month

Abhay Deol starrer, Dev Benegal’s soon to be released ‘Road, movie’ has included the old hit Johnny Walker song, ‘Tel malish – Sar Jo Tera Chakriye’, which was originally composed by SD Burman & sung by Mohammad Rafi. The director says that the song was chosen to bring a novelty factor and also to appeal to people from all generations. The new anglicised interpretation is sung by New York based vocalist Sylvia Gordon & music given by Michael Brook. We must say, the effort to touch that golden a song is brave & the song itself is breathtakingly fresh, peppy and only a visionary like Benegal could have imagined the old bollywood classic to be so spunky & extraordinary. We love it!

Voice of The Month

THE BIG Voice of the month

Clinton Cerejo is the hot new voice with ‘Hey Ya!’ from Karthik Calling Karthik topping the charts since a month now. His range of work otherwise has included vocal arrangements, musical arrangements & background scores. Just like most singers, he started with ad jingles to more mainstream work like ‘Kya Karoon’ from ‘Wake Up Sid’ which was yet another crooner. Interestingly his wife Dominique Cerejo rendered her voice to ‘Ye Tumhari Meri Baatein’ from ‘Rock On!!’ which became hugely popular. Wah, what a talented jodi.

The Big Mindless Trivia

THE BIG Mindless Trivia

Did you know the ad jingle for Close up’s now very famous ‘Paas Aao na’ was actually a song sung by Sona Mohapatra (of ‘Bolo Na’ fame) for her debut album ‘Sona’ ? The initial few seconds of the song have been licensed by the brand for its advertising campaign across various countries. It made for a very catchy jingle no doubt with its ringtones in demand like hotcakes. This is a first for an independent artist in India. The entire song is still available on Youtube. Yes, we told you first!

Pik Of The Month

THE BIG Pik of the month

Ishqiya : Vishal Bhardwaj & Gulzar come together yet again (post-Kaminey) to create soothing music that u just cant get enough of. We especially love ‘Dil toh baccha hai’ which has a certain old world charm, more mukesh style meets some tango with guitar et al. With heart warming lyrics like ‘darr lagta hai unse kehne mein ji’ and ‘dil sa koi kamina nahi’, we cannot help but put it on repeat and listen to Rahat Fateh Ali Khan tantalizing us with yet another of his alluring renditions.

Dip of the month

THE BIG Dip of the month

Phir mile sur…kyun? : So if u dint know that India is all about good looking people and filums, u will know that once u watch the latest version of Mile Sur, grandly released on 26th Jan ’10. What exactly are all those bollywood bachhas doing there, we fail to understand. Glad to see Abhinav Bindra and Bhaichung Bhutia, but why is Sachin Tendulkar not a part of it! Show us one sportsman as accomplished as him or give us reasons like he wasnt available. Either ways, we just love the older version more with each passing year now.

Jingle of the month

THE BIG Jingle of the month

TATA Docomo : With so much of layering of apparently different syllables but which actually are just a mix of ‘do’, ‘co’ and ‘mo’ in different variations and pitches, this is creativity taken to another level altogether and u cant help but love what music composer Ram Sampath has done with the brand name. What makes it cooler is that he’s also sung it himself, his inspiration for the vibrating rhymes being the cuckoo in a cuckoo-clock and alarm tones. We love it ! Interestingly, he’s also gave music to the famous Nike-cricket ad with that konkani tune playing. Yes, he’s our man!