You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman's Bollywood

Asha Bhosle | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 23, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nonesuch Records
• ASIN: B0009X1PAM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #148,369 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Kronos Quartet have been luminaries of modern Western classical music for more than thirty years. So despite their previous forays into world music, a headlong dive into the alternative universe of Bollywood (Bombay-plus-Hollywood) soundtracks may seem somewhat incongruous. But Kronos leader David Harrington is a longtime fan of composer R.D. Burman¹s florid pop extravaganzas, which propelled an already saturated palette into day-glo and beyond. To get the project off the ground, he had to convince one of India¹s prolific and versatile "playback" singers to come on board. The legendary Asha Bhosle is a renowned Burman interpreter so securing her services was a major coup. To replicate the reverb-laden "wall of sound" typical of Burman arrangements, Kronos and Ashaji, accompanied by Indian percussionist Zakir Hussain and Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man, overdubbed themselves into a teeming multitude. However, there is nothing soulless or "canned" about the results; indeed, composer and singer emerge refreshed and more vivid than ever before, shaking their stuff amid swirling Technicolor veils of tongue-in-cheek mystery and sensuality. --Christina Roden

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You've Stolen My Kronos, September 20, 2005

By 

Akimon Azuki - See all my reviews

This review is from: You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman's Bollywood (Audio CD)

This is a strange production: the famous string quartet's take on R.D. Burman's music left me rather confused at first. But I do like it more and more as I keep discovering very interesting nuances in the musical fabric.
My introduction to Kronos was through the violent soundtrack to Requiem for a Dream, and I was hoping for something radical here, a jazzy classical Bollywood fusion, but they almost disappear in the mix. The first question may be "Where's Kronos?"
I have been listening to Bollywood soundtracks for years; it's not easy getting these CDs in India, with 100 plus new movies out every month, anything older than a year is hard to find, and they are still relying on tape a lot, but thanks to wonders of technology leapfrogging, you can buy CDs of mp3 tracks, as did on my recent trips. Now my Bollywood playlist has hundreds of songs, from good ol' Kishore Kumar to all the latest flicks, and this Kronos outing would blend in there just fine.
And that's the problem- some tracks on this CD sound just like the originals, especiallly Dum Maro Dum. But there are some enhancements, too subtle to pick up at first: strange sound of the instruments, old fashion keyboards adding surreal touch, dissonances and weird sounds- elephants, occasional laughter, and a wicked James Bond thing in Saiyan Re Saiyan, plus that woozy feel of string quartet gone native.
Asha Bhosle's voice is as good as ever- her and her sister, the great Lata Mangeshkar are like Placido Domingos of the Indian music, and will only retire when they are 120 years old. And I really loved the subdued, instrumental Mehbooba Mehbooba- if you know the raunchy original version, from the Sholay movie soundtrack, it's something new and different.
In essence, Kronos have stripped these compositions, leaving the skeleton and adding their own subtle colors. Nothing radical- but it is a gentle, tickling listening pleasure...
Once you have ingested a whole lot of mainstream Bollywood songs and yearn for something new and interesting, you should get A.R. Rahman's Dil Se soundtrack and start exploring the brave new world of remixes, but if this music is new 4U, Stolen Heart will serve as a great Bollywood appetizer, and a very tasty Kronos dish, all at once.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warning: this CD is addictive, January 11, 2007

By 

Dp Simmonds "Bookoholic" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman's Bollywood (Audio CD)

Now in her early 60s, Asha Bhosle's voice has matured since the heyday of her Bollywood career in the 60s-70s and in these reworkings of some of her greatest hits (written by her late husband R.K.Burman) it's positively honey-like. The collaboration with Kronos Quartet is inspired: substitute electronically enhanced violins for Duane Eddy guitars and you have an inkling of the ideas flying around the disc. The liner notes are informative and there's plenty of information for the Bollywood novice. However, whether you understand Hindi or not, this is a collection of songs - humorous, romantic, tacky, and at times so hilariously naff in the way of Indian homages to western pop it's actually cool! I would be amazed if you don't want to keep going back to it, once heard.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh my!, October 21, 2005

By 

Protobaggins83 "Master Of Middle Earth!" (Woonsocket, Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman's Bollywood (Audio CD)

What a wildly salacious turn of music from the dynamic Kronos Quartet! Just when I thought I had them pigeonholed (lazy thinking on my part) they come up with something like this which radically rearranges my conception of what I previously thought they were capable of. Kudos! 5 stars.