Bollywood Sounds
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Bollywood Sounds Bollywood Sounds The Cosmopolitan Mediations of Hindi Film Song Jayson Beaster-Jones 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Beaster-Jones, Jayson. Bollywood sounds : the cosmopolitan mediations of Hindi film song / Jayson Beaster-Jones. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–19–986254–2 (pbk. : alk. paper)—ISBN 978–0–19–999346–8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Motion picture music—India—History and criticism. I. Title. ML2075.B39 2014 781.5′420954—dc23 2014006919 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper CONTENTS List of Figures vii List of Videos ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xix About the Companion Website xxi 1. Bollywood Sounds 1 2. Film Songs at the End of the Colonial Era and the Emergence of Filmi Style 25 3. “But My Heart Is Still Indian”: Film Songs of the Early Post-Colonial Era 49 4. The Language and Lyrics of Hindi Films 74 5. Songs in the Key of the Angry Young Man and the Cabaret Woman 96 6. Liberalization, Family Films, and the Rise of Bollywood 121 7. Film Songs in the Era of the Multiplex and YouTube 144 8. Concluding Thoughts on the Art and Commerce of Hindi Film Songs 167 Appendix A: Timelines of Key Figures 173 Appendix B: Recommended Listening and Viewing 175 Notes 191 Glossary 197 Bibliography 201 Index 217 LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Aishwarya Rai beckons to Amitabh Bachchan in “Kajra re” (Bunty Aur Babli [2005]) 3 2.1 Shekhar (Ashok Kumar) sings in the window after placing the sto- len necklace on the sleeping Rani (Mumtaz) in the song “Dheere dheere” (Kismet [1943]) 26 2.2 Themukh ṛā-antarā song form of “Awaz de kahan hai” 35 2.3 Noorjehan singing “Awaz de kahan” (Anmol Ghadi [1946]) as she looks at the night sky 45 3.1 The iconic moment of Radha (Nargis) pulling the plow in “Duniya mein hum aayen hain” (Mother India [1957]) 63 3.2 Raj Kapoor’s dream sequence (Awara [1951]) 66 3.3 Raj Kapoor in “Mera joota hai Japani” (Shree 420 [1955]) 72 4.1 Vijay (Guru Dutt) stands at the heavenly gates in “Hum aapki aankon mein” (Pyaasa [1957]) 75 4.2 Miss Nalini (Waheeda Rehman) performs India’s high classical arts in “Piya tose naina lage re” (Guide [1965]) 91 4.3 Fires burn bright between Vandana (Sharmila Tagore) and Arun (Rajesh Khanna) in “Roop tera mastana” (Aradhana [1969]) 94 5.1 Monika (Helen) performs her cabaret number in “Piya tu ab to aaja” (Caravan [1971]) 97 5.2 Kishore Kumar as the singing mechanic in “Ek ladki bheegi bhaagi si” (Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi [1958]) 103 5.3 Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra) consider a coin toss in “Yeh dosti” (Sholay [1975]) 112 5.4 Akbar (Rishi Kapoor) prepares to toss a rose to a beautiful woman in “Pardah hai pardah” (Amar Akbar Anthony [1977]) 117 6.1 Shaila Bano (Manisha Koirala) wonders what to say to a stranger in “Kehna hi kya” (Bombay [1995]) 122 6.2 Nisha (Madhuri Dixit) next to her pregnant sister Pooja (Renuka Shahane) in the song “Didi tera devar deewana” (Hum Aapke Hain Koun . ! [1994]) 133 6.3 Simrin (Kajol) and Raj (Shah Rukh Khan) reunited in the mustard fields of Punjab in “Tujhe dekha to yeh pyar hai sanam” Dilwale( Dulhaniya Le Jayenge [1995]) 135 6.4 Amar (Shah Rukh Khan) rises from the shadows in “Chal chaiyya chaiyya” (Dil Se [1998]) 142 7.1 Sameer (Saif Ali Khan) and Pooja (Sonali Kulkarni) dance in a Raj Kapoor-esque dreamscape in “Woh ladki hai kahan” (Dil Chahta Hai [2001]) 145 7.2 Colorful bhangra dancers in “Rang de basanti” (Rang De Basanti [2006]) 157 [ viii ] List of Figures LIST OF VIDEOS 1.1 “Kajra re” 3 2.1 “Dheere dheere aa re badal” 26 2.2 “Door hatao duniyawalo ko” 28 2.3 “Awaz de kahan hai” 45 2.4 “Jab dil hi toot gaya” 47 3.1 “Aana meri jaan . Sunday ke Sunday” 50 3.2 “Duniya mein hum aayen hain” 63 3.3 “Ghar aaya mera pardesi” 66 3.4 “Awaara hoon” 70 3.5 “Mera joota hai Japani” 72 4.1 “Hum aapki aankhon mein” 75 4.2 “Koi sagar dil na bahlata hai” 85 4.3 “Piya tose naina lage re” 91 4.4 “Roop tera mastana” 94 5.1 “Piya tu ab to aaja” 97 5.2 “Yeh dosti hum nahin todenge” 112 5.3 “Pardah hai pardah” 117 5.4 “Ek do teen” 119 6.1 “Kehna hi kya” 122 6.2 “Didi tera devar deewana” 133 6.3 “Tujhe dekha to yeh pyar hai sanam” 135 6.4 “Chal chaiyya chaiyya” 142 7.1 “Woh ladki hai kahan” 145 7.2 “Rang de basanti” 157 7.3 Songs from Bhaag Milkha Bhaag 165 [ x ] List of Videos PREFACE Indian films have generated a lot of attention in the last 10 years. Yet few authors engage in any depth with what is perhaps the most distinctive fea- ture of any Indian film: its songs.1 More often than not, songs are discussed almost entirely in terms of filmic “text” (i.e., in their visual or narrative contexts), with minimal, if any, discussion of musical sounds or the people who create these sounds. There has been a similar efflorescence of fan biog- raphies of particular music directors and singers, but these too frequently elide discussions of musical sound and the cosmopolitan orientations of this sound.2 These hagiographic texts tend to be based on the assumption that their readers are already fans of particular artists and their reper- toires, which makes these accounts largely inaccessible to neophytes who are interested in the history and conventions of film song. There are some notable exceptions, however. In addition to several essays and book chapters that introduce and frame the conventions of particular eras of film song,3 a number of important book-length analyses have helped fill this lacuna. Among these works are Alison Arnold’s (1991) Ph.D. dis- sertation, which examines production practices of the 1950s through the ’70s; Ashok Ranade’s (2006) discussion of the biographical and musical fea- tures of historic music directors and singers; Anna Morcom’s (2007) broad exploration of the production, business, and narrative strategies of songs up to late 1990s Hindi films; and Gregory Booth’s (2008) groundbreaking collection of oral histories of the musicians and arrangers working “behind the curtain” (i.e., the people whose role in song production is usually over- looked). While each of these studies is an important contribution to under- standing the forms, conventions, and practices of film song production, they tend to focus on particular periods of film song production, rather than situating them within the long-term historical and film narratives that songs help to produce. Moreover, these accounts do not discuss the songs themselves in much detail beyond an occasional transcription of the melody. Accordingly, one of my primary goals in writing this book is to create a balanced discussion of musical sound in its social, historical, eco- nomic, and filmic contexts that will be accessible to lay readers, yet retain a scholarly perspective. Like the composers of Hindi film songs, I have oriented Bollywood Sounds with several kinds of audiences in mind. The first are the readers who have a general interest in film song and need an entrée into its music-makers, con- ventions, and aesthetics. I make no assumption that these readers will have a background in either Indian history or Indian film. For this reason, I have included historical and biographical vignettes to provide an introduction to Indian history as it relates to the conventions of Indian music and film. For readers who are already familiar with India and/or the conventions of Indian film, this book provides a way to help expand their knowledge of musical practices in film song production. In addition, song analyses offer new ways to listen to songs, as well as insights into their formal and musi- cal dimensions and the people involved in their production. For music scholars, this book adapts a theoretical paradigm of musical cosmopoli- tanism and mediation that can be usefully applied to expressive culture more generally. I show how cosmopolitan music-makers mediate manifold musical styles, instruments, and practices to create and maintain a popu- lar music genre that is oriented to heterogeneous audiences.