hints, allegations and things left unsaid...
Souvenirs from Shanghai
The hotel we were staying at in Shanghai, had this peculiar ritual of leaving a small, painted, Plaster of Paris Beijing opera mask, glued neatly inside a little papier mâchè box, at the edge of our bed. Each evening, we’d arrive in our rooms to find these small colorful souvenirs, along with a playing-card size note wishing us a good night’s sleep in Chinese and English. I had collected five in all and didn’t quite know what to do with them besides putting (a picture of) them on my blog [I’ve already misplaced one of them :-(]:
One of the things I definitely wanted to purchase in Shanghai was the original Chinese score of Warriors of Heaven and Earth. I scoured several music shops but either it was not available with them or, on occasions, I failed miserably to communicate the name of the album that I wanted… Finally a colleague spotted it on way to office, in a mall far away (40 minute drive) from our hotel. I picked it on the penultimate day of our stay in Shanghai. All this for the second track in Chinese, the Hindi and English dubs of which (versions released in India) have not even been a patch on the original.
This is not the first time Sony Music has released versions of an album targeted at different geographies. The North American version of Vande Mataram had two additional tracks (Musafir, Masoom) which haven’t made to India till date – a little ironic for an album commemorating anniversary of Indian Independence. While I can understand the commercial justification for not releasing a Chinese album in India, I fail to comprehend why Indians should be deprived of two Hindi (Masoom is Hinglish) tracks that too in an album which is a celebration of all things India!
The hotel we were staying at in Shanghai, had this peculiar ritual of leaving a small, painted, Plaster of Paris Beijing opera mask, glued neatly inside a little papier mâchè box, at the edge of our bed. Each evening, we’d arrive in our rooms to find these small colorful souvenirs, along with a playing-card size note wishing us a good night’s sleep in Chinese and English. I had collected five in all and didn’t quite know what to do with them besides putting (a picture of) them on my blog [I’ve already misplaced one of them :-(]:
One of the things I definitely wanted to purchase in Shanghai was the original Chinese score of Warriors of Heaven and Earth. I scoured several music shops but either it was not available with them or, on occasions, I failed miserably to communicate the name of the album that I wanted… Finally a colleague spotted it on way to office, in a mall far away (40 minute drive) from our hotel. I picked it on the penultimate day of our stay in Shanghai. All this for the second track in Chinese, the Hindi and English dubs of which (versions released in India) have not even been a patch on the original.
This is not the first time Sony Music has released versions of an album targeted at different geographies. The North American version of Vande Mataram had two additional tracks (Musafir, Masoom) which haven’t made to India till date – a little ironic for an album commemorating anniversary of Indian Independence. While I can understand the commercial justification for not releasing a Chinese album in India, I fail to comprehend why Indians should be deprived of two Hindi (Masoom is Hinglish) tracks that too in an album which is a celebration of all things India!
posted: 29.2.04
0 Comments
Post a Comment
| Archives | Blogroll |
|
May 2003 | June 2003 | July 2003 | August 2003 | September 2003 | October 2003 | November 2003 | December 2003 | January 2004 | February 2004 | March 2004 | April 2004 | May 2004 | June 2004 | July 2004 | August 2004 | September 2004 | October 2004 | November 2004 | December 2004 | January 2005 | February 2005 | March 2005 | April 2005 | May 2005 | June 2005 | July 2005 | August 2005 | September 2005 | October 2005 | November 2005 | December 2005 | January 2006 | February 2006 | March 2006 | Current Posts |
All material posted on this blog is copyrighted and may not be used in any form without the explicit permission of the author.