Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus De Livres 235
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Book Reviews / Comptes rendus de livres 235 BOOK REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS DE LIVRES Bollywood Sounds: The Cosmopol- need for it. Bollywood Sounds is the first itan Mediations of Hindi Film Song. book to address that need explicitly. It 2015. Jayson Beaster-Jones. New York: surveys a relatively long span of time Oxford University Press. 264 pp. (1943-2013), and the chapters in this book proceed chronologically, each NILANJANA BHATTACHARJYA covering 10 to 15 years. Given that this Arizona State University time period includes thousands of Bol- lywood songs, Beaster-Jones begins Jayson Beaster-Jones ’ s Bollywood Sounds each chapter with an analysis of a repre- argues that Hindi film songs have been sentative song from the period covered, shaped by sources from different regions followed by a more general discussion of South Asia as much, if not more, than of historical developments in the role of distant, international sources. Further- the music director (composer), record- more, he contends that the producers of ing and broadcasting technologies, this music are cosmopolitan insofar as playback singers, and a more focused their music exceeds conventional bor- discussion of one or two music directors ders even while retaining a sense of local and a significant song or two associated rootedness (Beaster-Jones 2015: 11). In with them. Beaster-Jones writes: doing so, he eschews the tiresome binary that characterizes so many discussions One cannot examine the signifi- of Indian popular music that attempt cance of songs in Hindi film songs to categorize music into either “Indian” solely in musical terms. Rather, or “Western” influences. If we acknow- even at the earliest stages of song ledge that the boundaries of the Indian production, musical meaning is nation-state have been porous since its produced by various agents in and independence in 1947, and that there is through the confluence of visual, a diversity of regional cultures within aural, narrative, and economic re- India ’ s borders, this binary (and the sources brought together to pro- scholarly studies that depend on it) loses duce a film. That is to say, songs are its relevance, and Beaster-Jones ’ s argu- written for moments in the narra- ment proves crucial. tive that communicate a complex Given that I have been teaching an of musical and extra-musical infor- undergraduate course that focuses on mation. (35) Hindi films and their music for the last ten years and relied on a syllabus that This confluence demands that a cobbles together articles and book chap- comprehensive analysis of a Hindi film ters with my own notes and translations, song adopts, on one hand, a multivalent I am aware of the difficulty of writing an approach that examines simultaneous accessible survey of the history of Hindi visual, aural, and literary texts as well as film music, but have long recognized the the song ’ s role in the narrative; and on 236 MUSICultures 44/1 the other hand, an examination of each is also S. D. Burman ’ s son, had more song as a distinct entity, always poten- to do with the song than is commonly tially independent of the film. This book acknowledged. Still Beaster-Jones omits focuses more on musical elements in the mentioning the singer Kishore Kumar ’ s aural text than on the visual and liter- hushed, almost conspiratorial but allur- ary texts, causing some discussions to ing timbre that augments the audience ’ s miss the depth and richness that draw sense of imminent physical intimacy. so many audiences to these films and Similarly, although Beaster-Jones men- their music. tions the saxophone, he doesn ’ t draw For example, the chapter on the attention to the memorable extended 1960s ends with an analysis of S.D. Bur- saxophone solo, which would have pro- man ’ s song “Roop Tera Mastana” (“Your vided an opportunity to highlight the Intoxicating Beauty”) in the 1969 film history and role of unnamed musicians Aradhana (Adoration). As Beaster-Jones like the late Manohari Singh, or explain notes, it was one of the most sexually how the saxophone has shaped the charged songs to appear at that time. identity of so many significant songs by After summarizing Aradhana ’ s plot, he adding a timbre simultaneously evoking establishes the song ’ s context: a tense the shehnai (a South Asian double reed confrontation between two lovers who instrument) and the global sounds of hurriedly married without the presence jazz. of their community because the hus- Beaster-Jones describes the dark- band is about to be deployed as an Air ness and role of the camera as it circles Force pilot. Beaster-Jones cites Philip around and around the couple over the Lutgendorf ’ s key observation (2016) course of the song, drawing them ever that the couple circles around a fire as closer to an inevitable conclusion in a if they were performing a Hindu mar- breathtakingly virtuosic and claustro- riage. He explains that Anand Bakshi ’ s phobic single shot that builds tension references to intoxication in the lyrics over the entire song sequence. Although draw on a long history of Sufi influences Beaster-Jones mentions that the in Urdu poetry and lyrics in Hindi songs sequence is one long shot, he doesn ’ t that conflate divine love and romantic describe its effect, which is crucial to love. understanding the song ’ s power within Finally, he begins his musical analy- the film as well as its enduring popular- sis, which focuses on the song ’ s tempo ity. and meter, instrumentation, and clave Beaster-Jones integrates a more per- rhythm evoking a jazz rhythm section, as sonal and vivid reading of certain songs well as solo instruments highlighted in and scenes alongside lucid accounts of the accompaniment, such as the accor- historical and social context, and his dion, saxophone, and violin. His focus authorial voice is refreshing. The book on the instruments and the rhythms opens with a visceral account of his establishes the possibility that composer attendance at a commercial screening R. D. Burman, whose songs are associ- of the film Bunty aur Babli (Bunty and ated with Latin, jazz, and rock and who Babli) as part of his fieldwork in South Book Reviews / Comptes rendus de livres 237 Mumbai in 2005. Explaining the com- “Kajra Re” is a wonderful song with mon Bollywood practice of releasing which to open the book because ten the soundtrack and music video “teas- years after the film ’ s release, the song ers” before the film, he describes his is still well known. That said, I was sur- physical experience hearing the songs at prised that Beaster-Jones didn ’ t address full volume with a powerful bass while the more conventional reading of this watching the film amidst a cheering song as a mujra-qawwali – a courtesan audience in the cinema hall. He then song and dance performance (a signifi- segues into a deft analysis of the film ’ s cant genre in Hindi film songs on its popular song, “Kajra Re” (“Your Kohl- own), often accompanied by the stylis- lined Eyes”), a noteworthy song in terms tic markers of the Sufi devotional form, of its visual narrative, as well as its music. qawwali. In most qawwalis, we hear the Introducing the star Aishwarya Rai as a tabla, harmonium, and a male chorus courtesan who dances and lip-syncs to (the qawwali party) amplify and repeat Alisha Chinai ’ s voice, the song serves the hook of the song until the song as a conventional “item number” that is intensifies in speed and urgency, which performed in a kotha (salon). Audiences happens in this instance. The lyrics ’ in the know, however, understand an obsessive references to the kohl-lined extra layer of meaning when they recog- black eyes of her beloved, who has dis- nize that she flirts and dances with her turbed her peace (in Old Delhi, no less), real-life future fiancé and father-in-law evoke the many songs written from while she performs the song. Beaster- the perspective of the mortal woman Jones highlights the decision to use the Radha, who pines away for her dark, 1990s Indipop singer Alisha Chinai ’ s divine lover, the Hindu god Krishna. voice and identifies the lyrics as stem- The superimposition of these lyrics ming from a women ’ s folk tradition in onto a qawwali and its visual and aural Uttar Pradesh, kajali, which is sung in performance as a courtesan ’ s mujra, the rainy season. He observes how the add even more richness to this song harmonium, tabla, santur, and electric and likely contribute to its phenomenal bass accompany a solo female voice and appeal to a wide audience. a male voice that recites later tabla bols My attention to these types of omis- (rhythmic syllables). Later, he astutely sions perhaps relate to my own desire to notes that the sound of women ’ s ankle see more scholarly analyses of film songs bells is added to the mix, along with a that transcend, and more accurately male chorus that repeats the hook of disrupt, the boundaries of any single the chorus and provides sharp whistles. discipline. So much Hindi film music Similar close readings of musical events scholarship from film studies pays little, appear in Beaster-Jones ’ s analysis if any, attention to background music, throughout the book; written at a level songs, and song sequences, but scholars that will engage both neophytes and such as Monika Mehta (2011), Sangita experienced scholars, they comprise Gopal (2011), Lalitha Gopalan (2002), some of the book ’ s most significant Corey Creekmur (2001), Neepa Majum- contributions. dar (2009), Tejaswini Ganti (2012), 238 MUSICultures 44/1 Daisy Rockwell (2003), and Aswin Pun- of Iowa.