BOLLYWOOD SONGS: A MUSICAL JOURNEY

No matter six or sixty, a melodious soulful song makes every heart dance in sync with the tune and feel of musical numbers. And much of the credit for creating this magic goes to the Indian film industry and its music maestros, who have come up with tuned expressions for every single occasion dotting human life.

Starting with the first Bollywood sound film Alam Ara in 1931 that featured seven songs, the film music today has come a long way, indeed. Since the days of actors singing live and the musicians playing the instruments from outside the frame to the modern times of hi-tech digital recording studios…it all looks simply incredible.

Inspired by and cashing in on mostly the diverse culture and traditions of India, it grew from strength to strength. However, what apparently contributed most to the making of the Indian cine music as it stands today is probably its capacity to accommodate all forms of dance and music – both Indian and foreign – as well as their manifestations: it threw its doors open to not just the vast and varied Indian classical and folk music, but it also embraced the imported jazz, rock, pop, hip-hop, rap and the likes with a matching zeal.

Nearly a century-old Indian film music, largely referred to as Hindi film music, has passed through various stages of twists, turns and experimentations in the course of its evolution. Broadly divided into decades, the 1930s had an overtone of Rabindra Sangeet from Bengal and Marathi Bhavgeet, while it made room for the best of folk music from the North in the 40s; the Hindustani classical music ruled the cinema songs in the next decade, and the 60s Indianised pop and jazz.

Sachin Dev Burman, Salil Chowdhry, Madan Mohan, Naushad, OP Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishen and C Ramachandra, to name a few of the music maestros of the 50s and 60s, teamed up with their favorite lyricists and singers to create the magic in the ‘golden era’ of Bollywood music.

The advent of 1970s saw an overdose of western music influence, taken forward from the last decade by prolific composer RD Burman, who experimented with synthesizer and other electronic instruments like never before. Incidentally, it was his legendry father SD Burman, who is largely credited for Indianising the western music to suit the taste of local masses.

But after the demise of RD Burman and ‘the voice of youth’ Kishore Kumar, the Bollywood music went on a slope.  It searched for an identity as singers tried to imitate the legendary singers like Mohd Rafi, Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and of course, Kishore Kumar, to get a place in the industry. In that respect, the era of late 1980s and early 1990s was one of the worst. However, on a positive note though, it also proved the stepping stone to the next era of Hindi film music.

It was the dubbed Hindi movie ‘Roja’ of Mani Ratnam, which had refreshingly different score with a strong dose of melody that brought in the much-sough-after renaissance in Hindi film music. The young music director AR Rahman did the wonder when many of big names had already burnt their fingers. It was until the end of this decade that music made or unmade the films at the box office. It was these very years when lyricists like Javed Akhtar bloomed to their full in their Bollywood poesy.

And ever since, there’s been no looking back for the Hindi film music, with experimentations galore in creating tunes of every genre – be it racy numbers or pure melody. Digital recording facilities have come handy for maverick composers of the day, who are busy cashing in on the electronic magic.

From ‘De de khuda ke naam pe pyarey’ of Alam Ara in 1931 to ‘Lungi dance’ of Chennai Express in 2013, the ‘Hindustani Cine Sangeet’, as film critic Raju Bharatan once termed it, has exhibited a continuity and its grit to evolve and improvise with the times through the numerous odds coming its way. One can only hope that the best of the music is still in the making.