SurveykshaN 9: Desert Island Soundtracks of C Ramchandra

The ninth survey in the SurveykshaN series is here and as many of you may already know, this time we are going to track desert island scores composed by C Ramchandra.

To those who are new to SurveykshaNs, the idea of the exercise is to come up with a list of most popular Desert Island Soundtracks of the composer in question. As a participant you have to select scores that you would like to take along on a long trip to some imaginary deserted island. You can think of it as an exercise to select scores that appeal to you for their repeat value and solitary listening pleasure among other things.

I am thankful to downmelodylane.com for the basic list of Hindi film scores composed by C Ramchandra. Generous and quick corrective responses from Mr. Harish Raghuvanshi (through RMIMer Shri), Dhananjay Naniwadekar, and Urzung Sb have also been incorporated in the final list. I have not included co-composed movies that had less than 3 songs by CR. You are free to select CR-composed songs from those movies in the individual songs section.

Quick summary of rules:

* You can choose up to 15 albums.
* There's no lower limit.
* In addition to the albums, you can also select up to 15 songs, from films which are NOT in your selected albums list. Just think of it as a one-cassette/cd compilation of songs from those albums that you wouldn't want in totality, or those that are not in your top 15.
* You can submit your entry more than once. Just use the same name and email ID. Only the last submitted entry will be considered valid.
* Please use your popular name/alias and a valid email ID.

There are no changes in the interface and the format since the last SurveykshaN. If it is your first time, just make sure you read the instructions on the survey page. There's not much to go wrong anyway.

The poll page is self-explanatory. Apart from your selections, you need to provide your name and email address. Also, please provide your overall rating of CR's music. When you submit your entry, you will see a confirmation page with a list of the movies and songs selected by you. Please save the list so that you don't have to ask me for it later.

The survey will be open at least up to Wednesday, April 30th, 2008. It may then be extended further based on responses, requests, and other considerations.

The results of the survey will be posted here soon after its conclusion.

http://survey.giitaayan.com/cr/

2007 RMIM Puraskaars are out!

After a long process of nomination and jury analysis, the wait is over. The RMIM Puraskaar for 2007 are declared. And we go straight to the final list - sorry, no stage shows.

"Taare Zameen Par" wins the "Album of the Year" puraskaar. "maa.N" from the same film is adjudged the "Song of the Year". If you don't want to wait further, you can head to the Puraskaar 2007 site and see other worthy albums, songs, and artists of the year.

Thanks to the voters and everyone else who participated in the process. The jury members - Aditya, Arunabha, Ashok, Chetan, George, Karthik, Manish, Neha, Pavan, Shalini, UVR, and Yunus - did a great job and I thank them for completing a painstaking task in the given time and so wonderfully. I hope the music helped :). I especially thank George for his help with the stats of songs. (See, that's what makes these awards different. Only the organizer gets to deliver the "thanks" note, not the winners.)

Follow the links below to see the results. Feel free to link to them, discuss them, tear them apart, or send me a bouquet.

* Results in English
* परिणाम, हिंदी में

सतीश कालरा सम्मान - Satish Kalra Sammaan

सर्वकालिक श्रेष्ठ एल्बम की मान्यता के रूप में दिए जाने वाले "RMIM सम्मान" को इस वर्ष से स्व. सतीश कालरा की स्मृति और सम्मान में "सतीश कालरा सम्मान" के नाम से जाना जाएगा.

--

Many of you may remember that last year as part of RMIM Puraskaar there was a special award for soundtracks that got the RMIM approval for entry into the virtual RMIM hall-of-fame. In other words, it was a stamp of excellence. The honor was called "RMIM sammaan".

It is a benchmark honor and is to be given only to those albums that are deemed outstanding by the Puraskaar process. This makes it possible that there are more than one albums deserving the award in a year (e.g. last year 'Omkara' and 'Rang De Basanti' both received it). Conversely there may be years when no album gets it.

In honor and memory of Satish ji, we are going to call this sammaan "Satish Kalra Sammaan" from this year onwards.

RMIM Puraskaar 2007 announcement

RMIM Puraskaar 2007 are open for voting. Point your browsers to the Awards home and choose and rank your favorite albums of the year.

This year's Puraskaar are dedicated to our beloved RMIMer who left us recently - Satish Kalra. He was not just part of the jury last year but a motivating force behind the execution of this idea itself. This one is to his memories.

If you participated last year, the process remains the same except one major change. When selecting your favorite songs in the "Additional songs" list, you have to choose songs from albums other than the ones you have selected in your albums list. Last year you were supposed to list your favorite songs, including the ones in your selected albums.

In any case, that is even if it is your first time, the voting page is self-explanatory. Please read everything carefully (and of course select your albums judiciously) before you hit the submit button. If you have modifications to your entry, simply submit a new one using the same name and email id. Only your last received entry will be considered valid.

You just need a name and a valid email id to cast your vote. Any spam-like or dubious-looking entries will not be considered.

The tentative last date for submission is January 31st, 2008.

Spread the word.

* History (and the reasons) of the Puraskaar
* Last year's puraskRRits/ पिछले साल पुरस्कृत कलाकार

Problem with viewing ISB lyrics

Due to an issue on the server hosting the ISB files, the lyrics for songs are not visible currently. Ashish Thakker, who hosts the files on his server, is away on vacation until Monday (Sep. 9). Please bear with me until then.

Rest of the giitaayan site including lyrics for "Recently posted songs" are working as usual.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

Another RJGK

Another RJGK (68 - on Sahir) is on and the song-body search feature is again out temporarily.

Song body feature temporarily disabled

RJGK 67 (for the uninitiated, R(M)IMJhim Geeton Ki - a quiz on song lyrics) has been posted and on quizmaster's (Abhay) request, the song body search feature of giitaayan has been disabled. It will continue to be disabled for the duration of the quiz. The quiz is supposed to be running for a fortnight or so. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I am sure Abhay's quiz will more than make up for it.

2006 RMIM Puraskaar are out

The wait is over. The RMIMers and the jury have given their verdict. The RMIM Puraskaar for 2006 have been declared.

Omkara wins the "Album of the Year" puraskaar. Visit the Puraskaar 2006 site for other awards and more details.

Thanks to the voters and everyone else who participated in the process. From the beta testers to the jury members everyone played their part wonderfully to make this first effort smooth, successful and satisfying.

Puraskaar deadline extended

The last date for voting for RMIM Puraskaar 2006 has been postponed by 6 days. The final deadline for sending your entry is March 9th, Friday. Just so you don't miss it, the Holi weekend still is the last weekend to vote.

RMIM Puraskaar

For long, we the listeners, the consumers, the connoisseurs, the people have been constantly frustrated by the music awards given by the Filmfares and the Screens of the world. Lack of objectivity, poor selection method, arbitrary shortlisting, lower focus on music awards, and a total failure to balance popular appeal and quality of soundtracks have been some of the regular "features" of these awards.

It's time we had a way to recognize the better efforts, the creativity, the innovation, without being unduly influenced or pressured by market forces or popularity of soundtracks. It's time we had our own awards. Besides, when every Ram, Shyam, and Ghanshyam is handing out awards like rewa.Diis, there's no reason why a die-hard HFM (Hindi Film Music) listening community that spends so much time filling discussion forums on the net with its raves and rants, thoughts and opinions about the music, should not get to honor something that it likes, even if only in pixels (i.e. no real rewa.Diis).

In the past, there have been several discussions and attempts on RMIM (newsgroup rec.music.indian.misc) to introduce such a thing. But for one reason or another, the idea never really left the threads of the newsgroup. This is an attempt to bring it to reality.

Presented, hereby, are RMIM puraskaar for year 2006.

To send your entry, just visit the submission site at the URL given below. All you need to know for submission is supposed to be on the site. Please read every word carefully including the ones that appear on the hover of your mouse, in balloon boxes. If you still have any questions, feel free to ask them here or at RMIM.

The awards are open like RMIM and everyone on the net can vote. You just need a name and a valid email id. It would help if the name you use is the same as the one used at RMIM or another music forum on the net. Any dubious-looking entries will not be considered.

If you have modifications to your entry, simply send it again, using the same name and email id. Only your last entry will be considered valid.

The tentative last date for submission is March 3, 2007.

Finally, thanks to Asif Alvi, Afzal Khan, Ketan Dholakia, Ritu Chandra, Satish Kalra and U V Ravindra for their inputs, encouragement, and beta testing.

Here's the URL:

http://awards.giitaayan.com/

Keep checking this blog for related news. And spread the word.