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Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology Issn No : 1006-7930

Scrutiny of Socio-Political Issues and Trends in Songs: An Analytical Study

Mohd Aleem Khan1 PhD Scholar, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur (303007), Rajasthan, Email- [email protected] Dr. Subhash Kumar2 Associate Professor, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur (303007), Rajasthan, India Email: [email protected]

Abstract- cinema have socio-political elements in their song content. These dramatic and aesthetic themes often contain religious, political, social, economic issues in a form of metaphor, or symbolism. In this study, we seek some answers by analysing the issues raised by lyricist in different ages, do featured songs truly objectified issues of India or not; was it written on behalf of the public’s mood and perceptions. The study also deals with Marxist media theory which argues media is used to show and support the views of ruling class and limit the views on issues that are important to be discussed in society. The methodology used in this study is analytical in nature and selection of film is limited to songs of social issues by purposeful sampling using IMDB rating list.

Keywords: Bollywood, Music, Lyrics, Social-Issues, Trends.

I. INTRODUCTION Cinema reflects the society by expressing and showing the various ideas, opinions & trends. Communication researchers and academicians commonly define its broader spectrum which covers its purpose of surveillance, information and entertainment. Societal discourse is an important aspect of cinema, it has potential to inform, enlighten, awaking people and also makes a deep impact on viewers in conscious and sub-conscious state of mind. We see many political movements globally which have been influenced by socio-political ideas and thoughts of the films and poetry [1]. Song writer Tori Amos[2] believes “the dangerous thing about listening [to music] is that you ’t really know the effect it’s going to have”. Listening and watching songs is an essential part of everyday life and considered as a powerful tool for cultural memories particularly in India. Lyrical activism has a long journey that holds possibilities to influence listener’s belief, perceptions, choices by offering messages and reflected the mood of the society about the issues[3]. The issues of social concern are not being covered in contemporary society profusely Now most of the songs are produced by ’s commercial film industry known as Bollywood and we heard these hindi songs in our everyday life form public transport to hospital. Some lyrics can also be considered as a form of social commentary. Hence, the purpose of the study is to analyse the socio- political content in Hindi songs during 2009-2018.

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The time framework for the study is the tenure of both UPA and NDA governments. Both political parties had used songs such as ‘Jai ho from film ’ and ‘Aarambh ho Prachand ‘ from film Gulaal’ in their election campaign[4] [5]. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The study deals with Marxist Media theory [6] which argues that media is used to show and support the views of ruling class and limit the views and ideas that are important to be discussed in society. Marxists believe that the media simply provides benefit to those who control it and are not mirroring or reflecting the conflicts or problems of common civil society. They found that it is highly apparent in advertising and film content, where products and ideology placement are shown to bring and sell dreams, fantasies about life fulfilment. They also notice ‘agenda setting’ in society through the media by ruling class.

II. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 1. To understand the reflection of socio-political Issues in Bollywood songs during 2009- 2018. 2. To examine Trends by Hindi songs. 3. To analyse the dominant values of society in Bollywood lyrical discourse.

III. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1. What type of issues has been raised by Bollywood songs between 2009-2019? 2. Have Hindi songs reflected societal trends?

IV. METHODOLOGY Rhetorical and Quantitative Content Analysis method has been applied for the scrutiny of societal trends through Hindi Songs. Sample of song on social issues is complicated because it has different perspectives and definitions. Hence, specific category of songs had been selected. Sampling method for collecting data has been chosen purposefully. Samples have been collected in two segments of last ten years: Lyrics written between 2009-2013 and 2014-2018 of each year. Selection of movies was based on best movies of each year by using IMDB rating list. The necessary data for study is already available and accessible. All the information is collected from Films, Songs, Albums, Interviews, News, Books and Journals. (Table 1)

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V. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETRAION Distribution of Attributes out of 100 Movies (2009-2018), see (Figure-1, Table-1) Source IMDB1

60

40

20

0 2009-2013 2014-2018

Movies with Social Issues Total Movies

Figure:1 S.No. Year Name of the Movies which has Social Issues Total Songs Total Songs which in Top Ten has elements of Movies social issues 1 20092 , Kameeney, Gulaal, Paa 55 8 2 20103 Udaan, Rajneeti, , 46 8 3 20114 No one killed Jesica, 52 2 4 20125 Oh My God, , Chakravyuh, Sanghai 57 5 5 20136 Shahid, Satyagrah, Jolly LLB, The Attack of 45 12 26/11, Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola, Sare Jahan se Mehnga, , Ranjhna 6 20147 PK, Haider, Gulaab Gang, Mardani, Children of 46 15 war, City Lights, Lakshmi, 7 20158 Talvar, 51 2 8 20169 Pink, Udta , Madaari, Aligarh, 40 4 9 201710 Jolly LLB 2, Toilet Ek Prem Katha, Newton, Indu 40 3 , Simran, Begum Jaan, Bhoomi, Kadhvi Hawa, 10 201811 Padman, Mulq, , Mukkabaz 45 4 Total 48 Movies out 200, 35 has social-political themes 477 Song out 65 Songs with Social and only 37 Movies has social issues related of 100 Movies Issues content in their Songs. (2009-18) Table 1

1 IMDb (Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television programs, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, fan and critical reviews, and ratings. Source Link- https://www.imdb.com/ 2 IMDB, Best Bollywood Movies, 2009. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/list/ls006282999/. 3 IMDB, Best Bollywood Movies, 2010. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/list/ls006286879/. 4 IMDB, Best Bollywood Movies, 2011. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/list/ls006293485/. 5 IMDB, Best Bollywood Movies, 2012. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/list/ls050776799/. 6 IMDB, Best Bollywood Movies, 2013. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/list/ls050318308/. 7 IMDB, Best Bollywood Movies, 2014. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/list/ls051427653/. 8 IMDB, Best Bollywood Movies, 2015. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/list/ls054810879/. 9 IMDB, Best Bollywood Movies, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/list/ls070941500/. 10 IMDB, Best Bollywood Movies, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/list/ls074368935/. 11 IMDB, Best Bollywood Movies, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/list/ls031038668/

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The above table shows that in last ten years(2009-2020) 48 percent of movies out of top hundreds movies have been crafted with the themes on social issues, see (Figure: ). Between 2009 to 2014 (UPA-II) the narrative about India was that the country was suffering from corruption, poverty, unemployment and captured by corrupt politicians and government was hit by one scandal after another, its lost media support and public confidence as well but it was good year for Hindi film industry. Movies such as 3 idiots, Gulaal, 6, , D diverted audience with its humour and philosophical diction. The year had lyricist teamed up with Vishal Bharadwaj and AR Rehman, teamed with and adding some memorable songs to the world of Hindi film music and was weaving his magic with his sound and melodies[7]. In the same year the congress party bought A.R. Rahman Popular Song ‘Jai Ho’ from film Slumdog Millionaire (2008) and made the theme song for its political campaign in Lok Sabha Election held in 2009, from this song A.R. Rehman and Gulzar both got honour by The Academy Award (Oscar) for their work in Slumdog Millionaire on global platform. In May 2009, results of the general election were declared and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by the won 262 seats for the fifteenth Lok Sabha. (Hindustan Times12). In 2010, Indian political scenario was not so decent in the light of scams and scandals but movies like Udaan, , LSD, Peepli live, Raavan, Ishqia, My name is , etc. had full dose of entertainment for the masses. Meanwhile, UPA government had experienced horrible charge of corruption and scandal one after another; Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) alleged that there had been large irregularities in in allocation of 2G spectrum licensing in 2007-08 by telecom minister A. Raja and DMK MP Kanimojhi [PTI13]. In the same year when UPA-2 was facing 2G scam allegation, another storm was hit in a form of loopholes in various projects related to Commonwealth Games which was held in New Delhi, 2010 [ET14]. In April 2010 Naxalite-Maoist killed seventy six CRPF Soldier’s by attacking on a security convoys in Dante Wada, Chhattisgarh India [The Hindu15]. The government had lost public confidence due to corruption, scandal and internal security in India. In the year 2011, new challenges had arrived in Indian political system when their rivals started gathering and raising their voice under the umbrella of civil organizations against corruption with full public support in the presence of Gandhivadi Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev, Arvind Kejriwal, Sri Sri Ravishankar. All they started protesting and sitting on hunger strike and demanded that the Indian parliament should come up with an Act to create anti-corruption

12 , “2009 Lok Sabha election: Final results tally”, Retrieved from https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi/2009-lok-sabha-election-final-results-tally/story- eKTqeNHrCnLHBxQ8H4poiI.html, 2009. 13 PTI, “CBI to continue 2G probe on the basis of Central Vigilance report”, Retrieved from https://m.economictimes.com/defaultinterstitial.cms, 2010 14 Kumar Devesh, “CAG to look into DDA's role in CWG corruption”, Retrieved from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/cag-to-look-into-ddas-role-in-cwg- corruption/articleshow/6812072.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst, 2010. 15 , “Maoists massacre 74 CRPF men - The Hindu” Retrieved from https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/Maoists-massacre-74-CRPF-men/article16364513.ece, 2010

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watchdog ‘Lokpal’. The UPA government was not able to cope up with non-stop media coverage, social media campaign against the government. [8].

Figure: 2 In this socio-political phenomenon, new generation filmmakers had given their attention on these trends of the society (see Table: 1). Film directors and movies like Vishal Bhardawaj films ‘Kameeney(2009)’ Matru ki Biji Ka Mandola(2013), Haidar(2014), Parkash Jha’s films ‘Rajneeti(2010), Satyagrah (2013), Imtiyaz Ali film Rokstar (2011), Anurag Kashyap film ‘Gulaal’(2009), Anusha Rizvi film ‘Peepli Live’(2010), ’s ‘Jolly LLB’, Anshul Sharma’s ‘Sare Jahan Se Menhga’ portrayed the issues such as political discrimination, corruption, costliness, unemployment, poverty, injustice by them in their film themes and songs.

Figure 3

The number of songs (Figure. 3) indicates the socio-political content related to corruption, politics, price-rise, farmers issues, injustice, poverty, increased in 2009-2013. These Hindi songs had given a clue, teaser, comment on the socio-political scenario by remembering the

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past incident of fraud and scams such as “Hawala”, “Chaara”, “Taaboot”, “2G Spectrum”, “Commonwealth” from the song content (Table. 1). Film lyricist Piyush Mishra, Gulzar, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Vayu, A.M Turaz, Brij Mandal dares to think about the issues, Mishra's had written song 'Ranaji' for film ‘Gulaal’. This song was about how political conspiracies, cultural infiltration happening around the world. In movie ‘Kameeney’, Gulzar wrote song named ‘Fatak’ related to AIDS and smoking related issue, the Song ‘Thok De Killi’ from Film Raavan (2010), Gulzar reflected the issues related to Maoism, poverty and Naxalite problem by giving such wakeup call in a very sophisticated manner. The song ‘Mehngai Dayan Khaaye jaat hai’ (2010) by Brij Mandal had made mockery by highlighting the life surviving tragedies of farmer’s due to price rising of daily essentials goods and protest India’s policy makers in sarcastic and humours way. Another song “Menhagi Ki Mahamari’ from film Chakravyuh (2012) by A.M. Turaz reveals the inside feeling, aggression of common man against the system and capitalistic powers. The song embedded truth of industrialist who was getting richer day by day from the expense and taxes of the country’s common people. In same year Gulzar shown his anger against those who exploited weaker section of the society. He reflected social, political, Judicial discrimination in India and farmers issues through film Talvar(2015) and songs, ‘Patli Gali’ and ‘Lootnewale’ from Matru ki Bijli ka Mandola (2013). He also reflected the effects and complexities of land seizing from farmers by big corporate for industries and how dirty politics involved in relevant matter in different ways. Before NDA came to power in the year 2014, the country's economy had already indicated on the rise against its unhealthy dependence on finance, corruption and inequality but Media and opposition had succeed in making atmosphere against existing leadership, as well as public not tolerated them anyway. The NDA government was alleged for flailing on nationalism, politics and civil society captured by corporates and fundamentalists from 2014-2018. It was the time when Indian society was surprisingly satisfied by the government steps towards the heated issues like Demonetization, Triple Talaq, GST etc. Beside the truly concerning point, where Indian economy was trapped in a long slow down, despite the fact that government had gained media attention and public confidence as well. While in Bollywood from 2014 to 2018 themes of the film also got changed, some films were based on women centric themes, officially high rate of violation against women was registered during these period [9]. Films such as Massan, Gulaab Gang, Mardani, Lakshmi, Toilet Ek Prem Katha, Talvar, Pink, Neerja, , Simran, Begum Jaan, Bhoomi, Padman, Razi (Table 1, figure, 1). Portrayed the issues related to women like insecurity in society, honour killing, violence, women trafficking, , health and hygiene related issues. Thus, we find that Socio- political discussion of the society has been addressed by the lyricist and film makers in their songs and films, specially it was grown more popular and gained much of attention in 2009-2013 by highlighting the issues such as corruption, injustice, unemployment, poverty. They explicit the problems in a form of social commentary and satire to the masses and suggested that the plight of society was not good, there were lot of political

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failures. The songs have been used by political parties in rallies and election campaign by propagating particular reality to the masses in a form of social advocacy. During 2014-2018 film makers shifted their focus on women centric issues, (Figure.1). Many cinematic themes were based on violence, caste prejudices, honour killings, health and hygiene related issues. It is strange to find that, after 2014 there was no such political song composed by the musician, lyricists or filmmakers and the fact is that our society is still suffering with unemployment, banking frauds and poverty related issues.

VI. CONCLUSION Hence, it is clear from the study that the songs of Hindi cinema between 2009-2013 had engaged audiences in more political discourse, whereas the focus got shifted to woman centric themes from 2014-2018. This has happened because films and songs created on fiery and more debated issues of the society, quantity and flow of song content proved that if issues more discussed in the society then it is more reflected in cinema and songs. Meanwhile the issues like injustice, corruption, prejudice, poverty, injustice are still important, but songs have been composed according to demands and consumption from the masses. Thus, Hindi songs have profound potential to influence the society but it has reflected fewer issues in less quantity, few lyrics had hold up a faithful reflection of the societal trends rather than portrayed a reality by reflecting numerous events of social and physical worlds. Basically, songs have revealed the dreams, desire and fantasy of society. According to Marxist media theory, dominating class controls the media and keep important themes in less limelight by suppressing the view on issues. It is rarely found that people or media talking about problem of farmers, poverty, health, violence, , corruption, unemployment rather than the events of elite class in India. Such issues cannot be placed on public discussion without using cinema and songs. Therefore, it would be more appropriate to say that cinema is a metaphorical mirror of society, which majorly shows referential dominating values and issues according to ruling class or controlled commercial media.

REFERENCES

1) Alio and Nur. "Political Pop, Political Fans?", Music and Politics. Volume IV (1), 2010. doi:10.3998/mp.9460447.0004.103, 2) T. Gracyk, “I wanna be me: Rock music and the politics of identity”, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, p. 225. 2001. 3) Melouokouong Oscar et all, “Case Study Of Music As A Tool For Advocacy And Awareness” retrieved by ”.https://web.archive.org/web/20140714161257/http://livingearth.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/CASE-STUDY- OF-MUSIC-AS-A-TOOL-FOR-ADVOCACY-AND-AWARENESS-RAISING.pdf, 2012. 4) Curran et al, “'The study of the media: theoretical approaches”, P.18, 1982 5) Ndtv, “Why is filmmaker Anurag Kashyap upset with the BJP?” Retrieved from https://www.ndtv.com/elections- news/why-is-filmmaker-anurag-kashyap-upset-with-the-bjp-557691, 2014. Viewed on 10/10/2020. 6) Reuters, “Congress buys rights to Slumdog tune "Jai Ho", retrived from https://www.reuters.com/article/idINIndia- 38332020090304, 2009. Viewed on 10/10/2020. 7) Ankur Bhardwaj, S. Chishti, and S. Singh, “Note by Note: The India Story 1947-2017”, Harper Collins India, 2018. 8) SITAPATI VINAY, “What Anna Hazare's Movement and India's New Middle Classes Say about Each Other”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 46, No. 30 pp. 39-44, 2011.

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9) Mallapur Chaitanya, “In 5 Years, 277% Rise In Rape Cases Reported In Delhi; Govt Initiatives Falter, Funds Underutilised”, India spend. Retrieved from https://archive.indiaspend.com/cover-story/in-5-years-277-rise-in-rape- cases-reported-in-delhi-govt-initiatives-falter-funds-underutilised-91626,

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