Reviews - Written by Vidhi Gandhi on Friday, June 27, 2008 - 51 Comments

Shruti Haasan and The Extramentals (Drove us mental) Live at Hardrock Cafe

Shruti Haasan and The Extramentals Live at Hardrock CafeIt was only two days ago that I browsed through Shruti Haasan’s Myspace page. And boy, it was impressive. Her originality and just the entire tone of her music and the way it shaped up sort of took my fancy. But then again, that wasn’t a live performance. It was pre-recorded in a studio with state-of-the-art equipment and I’m guessing, the very best of sound engineers and technicians.

Shruti Haasan – a young, known and pretty face. This 22-year old is South Indian superstar, Kamal Haasan’s daughter. Knowing the skill and talent her father has – not just as an actor exclusively, but as a performer on the whole – I was expecting a LOT from Shruti. But to my disappointment, she turned out to be one of those typical celebrity-children that had a lot of celebrity guests, paparazzi and other media coverage at her gig. Believe me, that’s all she had.

Shruti started off her gig with a song titled ‘Confessions’ which didn’t manage to grab anyone’s attention considering she focussed WAY too much on her attire which comprised black leggings, a black tee and a ballerina skirt that looked like an ostrich’s back-side. Also adding to her wannabe punk-rock-cum-goth look were these wrists bands that she wore by the dozen! Her hair was in her face. She played the keyboard for most of her songs and if you ask me, she’s only average at that too. Haasan also faltered greatly with the vocals showing pitching problems in almost every line she sang. And she has absolutely NO mic technique. My expectations further hit rock-bottom with her lyrics. They were JUVENILE. And juvenile in the sense: Oh-my-god-I’m-13-and-I’m-turning-into-a-goth-woohoo juvenile. Silly. Moving on to that part of the band called ‘Extramentals’, they were hopeless. The lead guitarist, had his face painted half black and white. A BAD imitation of Wesley Borland. Also, their bass guitarist was more of an air bassist if you really think about it. I have nothing to say about the drummer. The guy was on his own ego-trip I’m guessing. The drums were WAY too loud and he didn’t bother doing anything about it or probably didn’t realise (which only implies that he’s musically dyslexic). Roughly after completing two more songs, Disappear and Covers, Her Majesty Shruti decides to take a break. Now, to us, normal music-listening people, what does a break imply? 15 minutes? Okay, 20? But no, she decided to wait a whole 40 minutes and ‘chill’ with the band.

She didn’t manage to hold the audience’s attention before the break and by the time she got back on-stage, the crowd was frustrated and cranky. No one knew what was happening. By the end of it, people were tied up in their own world either leaving the Cafe or shouting out insults. Adding fuel to fire was a song called ‘Weird Little Girl’ that she wrote when she was younger. I mean, who says that about themselves? Weird Little Girl. I’ll put this in the nicest possible manner: Shruti, darling, music is not your cup of tea. Films maybe? Anything but music, honey. You sort of defeat the purpose of being a musician, performer and everything that goes with it.

All I can say is, there’s terrible and then there’s Shruti Haasan.

P.S: We loved the little chicken dance you did on stage. Cute.
P.P.S: We don’t like it when you tell us to get drunk because trust me love, even if we were, you’d still sound the same.

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars
Loading ... Loading ...

Vidhi Gandhi is an arts student who doesn't shy away from showing her artistic side. More than capable of winning any argument hands down, she these days prefers to let her pen do the talking. Whatever is happening in the music world, one can be rest assured that she'll know about it!


51 Comments

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Rooshabh
Jun 27, 2008

Youuuuuuuchhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! BRUTAL , absolutely B —  — R — -U — -T — -A —  — L!!!! i dont have to look for my book of insults the next time i feel like pickin on someone!!!!

Rishi
Jun 27, 2008

Speechless..

Lilydrums
Jun 27, 2008

Sweet! finally a non paid review tht doesn’t involve copious praises simply cos she’s a star daughter and has a well set PR program. Killer shit Vidhi!

Tho, gotta admit, nice legs…

Zoran
Jun 27, 2008

I was there, she was bad

Brownberry
Jun 28, 2008

I have not seen her live, but I saw few you tube videos. Din’t feel like shes a musician but more like a girl who visits night clubs and sings along with the music being played. rofl.

Vidhi
Jun 29, 2008

Brownberry,
She’s exactly that and worse!

vladimir korpen
Jun 29, 2008

love you vidhi..!!!
\m/
rock on…

vladimir korpen
Jun 29, 2008

did i read someone say nice legs???
yah…nice…if you dig two straws sticking out of a scarecrow…top half definitely resembles a scarecrow…
so does the overall posture…
looks like she’s hanging from that wall, for heaven’s sake…

­
Jun 30, 2008

buncha fuckin’ nonsense!

Vidhi
Jun 30, 2008

What was ?

Riley
Jul 8, 2008

So brutal. But better to speak harshly then dishonestly.

Jamshed
Jul 8, 2008

Sweet.

Nived
Jul 9, 2008

You spoke my heart. you delivered every bit of emotion that i wanted to ink on a piece of paper and more. Hats off to you mate. Really appreciate your article, which accurately delivered the message without making the content junk. YOU ROCK !!!
She should consider other options like a BPO or supermarket cashier. BUT a big ” No ” to music. Acting aint her cup of tea either. Well she could use it as a escape route. but !!! Believe me, i’ve personally seen her at her Theatre and Acting classes. At the age of 22, shez a living disgrace to her family which holds the banner of Excellent Stars. Shez even worse in acting than singing. So i guess you get the big picture.

biju
Jul 9, 2008

shez a retard. Common i used to compose such songs back in my 8th grade. ( i guess they were far betta). After reading all that shit in the newspapers.. For a moment i thought i had some issues. Finally i get some real responses about how people feel. You bet shez a juvenile. But she seems to be really convinced that shez good. RETARD.

neda
Jul 9, 2008

full of crap .. i feel ashamed to live in state of tn jus cz she lives here… honestly i tried to like the song.. but everytime i listen i get nausea. .. plzz haasan
plz dont kill rock.. try other profession.. go get a life. music aint your bread and butter princes… i feel sorry for you.. you really need help!

abel
Jul 9, 2008

pathetic would be a polite word to describe this so called talented Musician. Amazing article. let truth prevail vidhi.. JAI GANDHI

joey
Jul 9, 2008

shruti is a living joke.! I guess one word to describe her would be Cartoon.

lisa
Jul 9, 2008

I’ aint familiar with rock music. Yet, i guess its pretty basic to understand that whatever she was singing … wasnt anywhere close to rock. I guess that describes it all. thanx Gandhi for this honest article.

praveen.issac
Jul 9, 2008

bad trip.. Shruti you owe me a bottle of beer for the evening you ruined.

sheela v
Jul 9, 2008

SHRUTI ……..you “numb nut”. This aint music..Its torture. its only bliss to your parents

rajeev c
Jul 9, 2008

i dont blame you shruti. I blame the people who encouraged your involvement. People who gave you hope for your shit hole talent. chill alrite.

mahesh
Jul 9, 2008

The only reason i was there to watch your music was to hang out with other galz… and hit on few.. But then listening to your music, even they moove to other places. i wished i had enuf words to curse you.

nima
Jul 9, 2008

please dont make any more albumz alrite. thank you. thanx gandhi for the article

shalini reddy
Jul 9, 2008

finallyyyyyyy.@@@ got an article which gives the right message across.. mwaaaah.. shruti. Grow up kid… All she does is go out with her band guys. Wherever you see her, shez with them. PATHETIC. No one else would bother hanging out with this superficially stupid junk .

parthiv
Jul 9, 2008

……lolz ..none of the band guys got any taste for music. Half of them moved their hand unncessarily over the guitar without any music actually being played. PATHETIC.. Specially the lead guitarist.. And they really got a bad dressing sense…

Sonali
Jul 10, 2008

Come on she wasnt that bad. I guess she’s getting it tough coz she’s a celeb, a princess and all that but I see a sincerity in her work. Keep it up Shruti.

roy
Jul 10, 2008

shruti, shes better than this come on guys.. vidhi check out her upcoming gig shes really good

Somalia
Jul 10, 2008

I agree with Sonali & Roy in that Shruti may have it tougher than others,but i really loved this article vidhii

Vidhi
Jul 10, 2008

@ Sonali and Roy : You’ll seem to be her friends or PR people ?Funny that.She’s THIS bad and worse.Period.Also,it’s all about perspective and let’s see..Maybe HRC was a bad day..I’ll review her once again at Blue Frog.And it’s not because she’s a celeb.Because honestly she is NOT one.She’s a celebs daughter and my opinion is completely unbiased.I like star-kids.They’re fun.But she’s just a bunch of bullshit ! I’m sure you’d agree if you were there.

Peace.

Sonali
Jul 10, 2008

more love sister less hate..peace..love u…

Vidhi
Jul 10, 2008

My love back hun!
PERSPECTIVE.Read up on that.

http://www.dictionary.com

Luke I'm your Father
Jul 10, 2008

So Somalia, Roy and Sonali how much did Shruti pay you’ll to write this??? This is whats the matter with spoilt celebrity daughters these days, all pampered and shit !!!!! Cant take constructive criticism!!! Vidhi i dont know you, but i’m with you on this one…. these poser wannabe half-actor half-musicians need to be put into place… Shruti should be packed in a lil box and be sent on a rocket to Mars cause i think all this music is ‘alien’ to us!!!

The world needs more writers like Vidhi!!!!!!

kk
Jul 12, 2008

sod the f**k off…u bunch of snobs!!!!

whatever
Jul 16, 2008

take your journalist crap and shove it. if you cant handle another chick who can do much more than you ever dreamt, then i think you should go to an ashram and cleanse yourself. if you need assistance in finding an ashram, let me know..i can speak to the OSHO people and get you in. cos i think the frustration of not being anywhere in journalism other than sitting online and writing senseless shit.. some people say that ” jealousy and baldness have no cure”!. peace gidhi vandhi.

P.S : go and get some…trust me its stress relief..

Bam-Bam
Jul 16, 2008

Funny that. Considering her Blue Frog gig was another debacle and a half with the only audience being her friends namely IMRAN KHAN (who’s friggin’ gay) and his lame girlfriend,she shouldn’t be allowed to play !

Shruti is nasal!!!
Jul 17, 2008

@ whatever - what are you ?? some sort of b*stard love child of Shruti Hassan’s??? cause trust me, only family n friends will see any talent in her…. you f**kin loser… its easy to f***in comment sitting behind a computer screen at a cybercafe(cause you’re prolly too poor to afford one at home) and make lame ass comments like that!!!!

You fkin pussy, you have no taste whatseover in music if you think she’s good, so you can shove your opiniated piece of shit mouth up your ass cause it needs some ‘cleansing’ ….. i somehow landed up at bluefrog the otehr night to watch her play , dont ask how and she was terrible, nasal and full of shit(jus like you) which kinda brings me back to the pt. about you guys being related…. I’m a singer myself and a musician so i can tell… You seem like quite a hopeless fuk-tard btw …. i hope shruti atleast loves you for defending her, cause i’m sure noone else does…..

PS- dont head for the window….. i’m sure there’s someone out there who loves you other than your imaginary ‘osho’ friends!!!! BURN!!!

Bam-Bam
Jul 17, 2008

@Shruti is nasa!!!

What’s your name again ?Haha.Every word of what you said is true !

whatever
Jul 17, 2008

well..this seems strange to me..that enough people know and respect shruti haasan and the extramentals…and whats your name again?who are you and what have you done with your singing?
cause people are just lining up to listen you…oh yes im wrong hahaha
this is infact a joke oh and you’ll be happy to know you are right!I feel mildly stupid for posting comments here appreciating a band when clearly people who comment here are certain that they have good taste and im certain they have some very basic issues…for example mediocrity
And well…all the best to you!;)

Stuart
Jul 17, 2008

Well personally i only caught the last couple of songs… and i know that the music wasn’t tight… but there was a lot of potential in the musical direction, a tonne more practice and some spit shine and she’d probably have a lot of young boys drooling and head banging to her stuff ( no pun intended ).
Personally i was extremely disappointed in the disparity between the myspace recordings and the live show…maybe shruti you should put up some live recordings up on myspace so we know what to expect.

Sam
Jul 18, 2008

Hmmpff…ok let me first say here that I don’t know Shruti apart from meeting her briefly at Blue Frog. She came across as an intelligent young woman with a clear direction of what she wanted.

Vidhi you seem to be more worried about what the band wore than the actual music. Eg, your criticism of the guitarist was that he painted his face??? C’mon, I don’t think you quite understand first what kind of music they are intending to play. Most of your comments apart from attrire point to lyrics and singing quality which for you seem to be coming from one set preference. As for me, I don’t care for lyrics at all.

I’ve been a musician for more than 20 years and have played more gigs than you’ve probably been to.
I find it such a typical attitude in these parts to pull down something that YOU can’t appreciate. OK, the lyrics may not be that great and structurally the songs need to evolve, but at least give them that they are up there doing their thing, whereas you’re down there writing crap about it.

There are people who do stuff and others who just crib…..it’s clear who is who!!! …and no one is paying me to write this….please.

Based on your article and profile, it sounds like you’re a self proclaimed critic. I’d like to remind you that a good critic writes sensibly and also does justice to her article without getting personal. And since when did rock and jazz give importance to lyrics? Back to basics for you…..

tHeOuTSiDer
Jul 18, 2008

@ Luke I’m your Father: Constructive criticism? where? i dont see any. All i

see is an arrogant, biased, self proclaimed critic with appalling journalistic

ethics who just doesnt get it. Sure the world needs more vidhi gandhis.Right

after a couple more hitlers, and a few more osamas thrown in for good measure.

And the music is alien to you? really? which planet are you from? oh, i’m

sorry. you must have just arrived here fresh off your little death star right?

my bad.

@bam bam: rule of thumb - Gay guys dont have girlfriends. so if you want to

come off as slightly more intelligent than the average earthworm, please stop

contradicting yourself. No one takes a moron seriously.

@Shruti is nasal!!!:Please dont talk about cleansing. Because based on your

comments, its obvious that your mama needs to wash your mouth out with soap.

You have quite the vocabulary of foul language there, and you seem to be using

it with the expertise of a six year old. and please let me know when you are

singing anywhere other than your bedroom. i’d like to come and watch you put

your money where your mouth is.

Ps: Opiniated is not even a word. i think you mean “opinionated”.Look it up .

Or learn to spell. Whichever comes easier to you.

@vidhi gandhi: i have read tonnes of music reviews, big and small and never

have i come across one like this. I dont think i can consider this a music

review to begin with. Critics have a bad rep as it is, and they really dont

need people like you to make matters worse.

I came here looking for a music review, but i seem to have stumbled upon yours

and a few others personal vendetta with shruti haasan, very thinly disguised as a so

called “music review”. if you really hate her so much, go start a club or

something. dont bring your personal grudges and shove that in the face of those

who want an honest review of the music and not who was wearing what. There are

a lot of reviews on this site and yours seem to be the most biased and

disappointing of them all. Even the comments left here by stuart and sam seem

to be more informative than your post. They should be writing the reviews. Not

you.

Its sad to see the journalistic system brought to its knees because of people

like you who misuse the priveleges given to them as writers. It doesnt surprise

me that you are here writing reviews because no one in their right mind would

hire someone like you as a serious journalist. Please clean up your act before

you write another music review, because, to quote yourself ” Vidhi, Honey, You

sort of defeat the purpose of being a journalist, critic and everything that

goes with it.”

Tanmay
Jul 20, 2008

Good writing! Honest and to the point, without being bitchy and biased. If there are no sensible critics like this, there can be no good music, only bad music.

Tanmay
Jul 20, 2008

Hopefully, Shruti will read this and maybe next times performance wont be so bad.

Anandita
Jul 20, 2008

I was at Blue Frog.The Snare drum was totallllyyyyyyyyyy off !
Shruti sucks! =)
tee hee

shruti is nasal!
Jul 21, 2008

@ the oustider — - oh my!!! have a look at the lil tw@t having a go at my grammar!!!! ok, firstly let me get it into your shrunken head (if you even have one) that this is the internet and noone gives a damn about correct and ‘proper’ grammar so practise before you preach when you say that people shouldn’t be biased and hold grudges cause thats exactly what you’re doin by nit-pickin you lil prick!!!!

your comment seems to be way bigger than the article itself with mindless drivel , jus trying to settle scores with people who have wronged your ‘shrutu’(i’m sure u have a nickname for her by now)… quite honestly , i cant be arsed to bother and reply to lil weeners like you cause there really is no reasoning with stupidity…. so unless you come out with something constructive, jus sod off!!1

Honestly!!! HONESTLY!!! you really think Shruti’s music is good??? i mean i’m all for people being open-minded towards music and having opinions but what part of her music is actually good??? but you probably wont be able to tell me why she’s so good cause you dont know a shiteee bout music!!!!! how you can call her anything above average(which is being kind) is beyond me… i’ve seen a lotta singers in my time but this one really does not and can not make the cut to the top with her nediocre vocals and even worse songwriting abilities….. check out the stuff if you actually understand music!!! watch her live…. the music can be covered by a bunch of 15 yr old novices because its so simple!!!!

shruti is nasal!
Jul 22, 2008

She’s bloody hot though , and those tight black leggings will always have me return for more

Stuart
Jul 22, 2008

This is one crazy getting out of hand comment board

tHeOuTSiDer
Jul 22, 2008

@shruthi is nasal! : The thing about idiots like you is that… I’m sorry, i just cant go on. Just keep reading my old post until you actually decide to start proving it wrong.

P.s: Musically your mind seems to be as open as a mouse’s arsehole.

Rahul
Jul 22, 2008

lol … i think it would be best if the admins could somehow lock comments to this review !!!

n e h a
Jul 30, 2008

Only commenting to see if comments are locked.

:P

CAPS
Sep 2, 2008 (6 days ago)

jUst mesSaging to make sUre that Comments aren’t locKed… (subliminal message, for smart ppl only)

Leave a Reply

Comment


Update Notifications

You can add our RSS feed to your favorite feed reader or receive an email when a new article is published by entering your email address below.

This week's video

write for us

Write for Us

write for us

Most Popular Content

Dispatches - Sep 7, 2008 - 0 Comments

Synchronicity 2008

More In Dispatches


Lists - Sep 6, 2008 - 0 Comments

Ozzy’s Greatest Part III

More In Lists


Reviews - Sep 8, 2008 - 0 Comments

Return To Forever - Romantic Warrior

More In Reviews


Close
Powered by Chordvine