Bollywood Dancing: Dance in Hindi Films in India
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Bollywood Dancing: Dance in Hindi films in India Arundhathi Subramaniam , poet and critic, reflects on the importance of film dance in Indian popular culture One may wince at its incongruities, less manic, less robotic – always a Western cinematic aesthetic, as scoff at its sense of overblown forgetting antiquity, as Voltaire many do, is, then, to miss the point. fantasy, roll one’s eyes heavenward reminded us long ago, is always full Gradually over the decades the at its bump-and-grind antics. But the of eulogies of another more remote slow-paced languorous solo and duet fact remains that Indian film dance, antiquity. Nostalgia, as always, is a were replaced increasingly by now better known as Bollywood great fictionaliser. adrenaline-infused numbers – usually dance, is an integral part of India’s Thus, dance in Hindi cinema, like large ensemble pieces. Particularly collective consciousness. cinema itself, has had a colourful and with surge of action-oriented cinema And although like popular artforms, variegated history, its journey shaped from the mid-70s onwards, the it is intended to reflect contemporary by capricious markets, serendipitous mandatory lovelorn number was social values – including the vulgar, encounters, idiosyncratic forgeries and increasingly relegated to the the superficial, and the ephemeral – re-appropriations, individual talents background and every second or third it is truly remarkable how many film and tastes. The absence of any song was, and continues to be, dances remain enshrined in the comprehensive documentation on accompanied by fast-paced dances. cultural memories of Indians. the subject does not make the matter Additionally the willing suspension of Who can forget, for example, Hema any easier for anyone who chooses to disbelief – always a vital requisite in Malini’s legendary dance on glass investigate the area. Trends, therefore, Indian cinema – was liberally extended smithereens in the film Sholay? One are difficult to map, and new directions to allow lovers in rural India to carouse suspects that the boneless fluidity of only fuzzily discernible. along the snow-kissed Alps and Prabhudeva in Muqabla, Madhuri Nonetheless, it would be impossible breakdance furiously along the sun- Dixit’s vibrant sensuality in Ek, Do, to discuss even the potential journeys drenched beaches of Mauritius, Teen, Shahrukh Khan’s spirited and embryonic impulses without some before returning to their respective Chhaiyya, Chhaiyya atop a moving sense of the changing context down realities – all in the course of a single train, or Ashwariya Rai’s ethereal decades. song. dandiya number Dhol baaje, could Firstly, it is clear that the song-and- A significant characteristic of Hindi well be counted among the golden dance number is an integral part of film dance is its artistic syncretism – moments of Hindi film dance in the Indian cinema that cannot be wished an ability to appropriate elements of future. away. As film historian Rosie Thomas diverse vocabularies and integrate Strangely, despite its unabashedly elucidates, Western critics and the them into quintessential film dance hybrid identity that revels in cultural Indian middle-class intelligentsia have chutney. The result of such unabashed contaminations of all kinds, the long tended to evaluate Indian cinema borrowing is rarely a heap of rhetoric of purity continues to according to the canons of European quotations, however. Indeed the end pervade popular film criticism. Many and Hollywood filmmaking and product is only deemed successful if commentators continue to speak of filmmaking practices that it has itself it creatively integrates and transforms an age when dance was cleaner, less rejected. To wonder why Indian these elements into something that vulgar, more original, less Westernised, cinema cannot aspire to the realism of works within the parameters of > www.communitydance.org.uk/animated 26 cinematic and box-office acceptability. Closely allied to its hybrid and syncretic nature, however, is its standardisation of the song-and-dance sequence – a long-term feature of Indian cinema. Thus the folk dance in Hindi cinema is, almost by definition, exotic and folksy, because regional features have to be ironed out to make it seem like it could be performed in almost any hamlet in the country. The essentialised 'jhatak matak' style, is now considered to epitomise the sexy gait of the archetypal Indian village damsel and may well have been re-appropriated by various folk dance traditions as well! Since the 1950s choreographers like Uday Shankar, Gopi Krishna and those who trained under him, shaped the approach to dance in films. Dance in films at this time also introduced classically trained dancers, such as Vyjayanthimala, Padmini, Waheeda Rahman and Asha Parekh who gave a fillip to this choreographic strain. In the post-independence era Western movement vocabularies permeated Indian cinema... the impact of the waltz, rumba, samba, jive, rock ‘n roll, twist and cha-cha-cha were apparent. Since 1998 dance in Indian cinema continues to grow slicker, more glamorous and youth-oriented, reflective of an affluent consumerist routines seem to recreate the modern music-and-dance video is now post-liberal Indian life-style. The bourgeois urban aesthetic of the launched well in advance of the film upsurge of bhangra-pop, dandiya-jazz, young and privileged. itself. disco-kathak, even kalari-break Today there are, on an average, Moreover, song-and-dance has dance combinations also reflect six to eight songs in each Hindi film, frequently been an aesthetic device to an ethos of conscious cultural several of which are accompanied by transport film lovers and viewers into hybridisation. The growth of the Indian frenzied dance routines. Hum Aapke dreamspace, undefined by socio- middle class in an era of globalisation, Hain Kaun boasted of 14 songs, all of economic realities of time and space. the boom in international which were accompanied by dance It is possible here for a middle-class communication networks, and the sequences. Many lament the growing small-town heroine to metamorphose growing markets in the diaspora are, disjunction between the song-and- into jiving, disco-savvy, skimpily attired no doubt, responsible for these dance sequence and the film plot. cosmopolitan young woman. It is changes – many of which are evident With the impact of television and MTV equally possible for the young NRI in Yash Chopra’s Dil to Pagal Hai in particular, the relative autonomy of (Non-resident-Indian) heroine to (1997), for instance, where the dance this sequence has increased, and the transform into wide-eyed village lass, performing a folk dance in the idyllic A significant characteristic of Hindi film dance is its artistic mustard fields of Punjab, with the fluid syncretism – an ability to appropriate elements of diverse ease of a seasoned daughter of the soil. vocabularies and integrate them into quintessential film The impact of the MTV dance video dance chutney. on Hindi cinema of the ‘90s has been Saroj Khan, Bollywood’s leading choreographer, demonstrating her inimitable style. Photo: Vipul Sangoi www.raindesign.info Since 1998 dance in Indian cinema continues to grown slicker, revel in defying every definition that more glamorous and youth-oriented, reflective of an affluent one seeks to bestow upon it… consumerist post-liberal Indian life-style. Cultural meteorologists may keep predicting the apocalypse; purists may still dismiss it as mere running and much discussed in the media. School of Dance in New York and dancing around trees. But, dance in Evidence of this is discernible in the now runs hugely popular jazz ballet Hindi cinema continues to cavort on emphasis on sleek and glossy dance classes in Mumbai with branches its own whimsical path, blithely sequences, fast cuts, special effects, in many other metropolitan cities, irreverent of dire predictions, and hip designer apparel, slimmer bodies was invited to choreograph dance in never failing to attract its mobs of in the chorus lines, and of course, the mainstream movies. It only confirmed enthralled viewers, as much today as choreography. Interestingly dance that a new phase in Hindi film ever before. choreographers like Saroj Khan, Farah dance has, indeed, opened. Davar Khan and Shiamak Davar are familiar lays emphasis on precision, contact names to the general audiences in coordination, and above all, fit and [email protected] or India today and have acquired agile bodies. [email protected] celebrity status. Dance in Hindi films today remains, A new chapter in Hindi cinema and therefore, the irrepressibly parodic Abbreviated from an original article the cinema viewed by the Indian movement compound that it always from New Directions In Indian Dance, diaspora opened when Shiamak was. Dynamic, richly diverse, and edited by Dr Sunil Kothari, with Daver, who trained at the Pineapple flagrantly inconsistent, it seems to permission of Marg Publication. www.communitydance.org.uk/animated.