Changing Patterns of Film-Film Music Relationship In Bollywood.

Convenient coincidences and glycerine tears, happy endings, songs and energetic

dances are some of the elements that make the Bollywood industry as unique as it is from

the world cinema. According to Dissanyake, the term melodrama, derived from the Greek

word song, means a romantic and sentimental play that contains songs and music deemed

appropriate for enhancing the situations presented on stage.

“The dominance of music in Indian everyday cultural life has ensured its

dominance in Indian cinema, from its inception to its present” –day incarnations.

The birth of Bollywood cinema dates back to the 1913 when D.G.Phalke-a

painter, photographer made his first movie Raja Harishchandra inspired from an episode

of Mahabharatha. He made several movies during his life time. With the introduction of

sound in movies the typical Indian musical developed and the film industry began

producing over hundred films every year. This early Bollywood cinema is an inherited

tradition that dates back to over two thousand years to Sanskrit theatre and more recently

to that of the urban theatrical traditions of the nineteenth century such as the Parsi theatre,

Marathi theatre and Bengali jataras; where utterance of slokas and dialogues in the form

of songs were more commonly used. Probably this scenario has brought in the music and

song elements in Bollywood cinema developing the unique genre of filmy music. Music

directors, lyricists and play back singers attained equal importance to protagonists and

directors of the films.

Since the very beginning of sound film in India in 1931, virtually all commercial

films have had a musical format, nowadays including six or seven songs per film.

Songs as a crucial element of Film text:

The use of sound helped to enhance the narrative that might lose its charm

without a sound track. Though music has a prominent role to play in world cinema its

significance in Bollywood is very high as Music is considered to be the ‘heart’ of the

Bollywood cinema and it is almost impossible to imagine a bollywood movie without

songs and dances apart from the background score which keeps us hooked to the story

line. Though music has always been considered an integral part of the bollywood films

there has been a considerable change in the use of songs over the years and the songs are

transformed from a catalysing factor to the narration to providing a dramatic relief to the

audience.

The arrival of the trend of item songs further changed the role of music in films

and became a steady stream of revenue generator from the music industry which is being

considered the life-support of Bollywood ever since sound arrived in films with Alam

Ara (1931). Over the years, Bollywood film song has been nurtured & garnered until

evolution is achieved. After all, our directors have also realized the connection between

good music & box office success.

Two main categories:

An Average Bollywood cinema is 150-180 minutes long and with an average of

5-8 songs in each film. These songs based on their placement in the plot structure can be

classified into two categories one is the directors’ songs. These songs contain some plot

or story line within and help in continuity of story line. e.g.: ‘Jane nahin’ song from the

film 3 idiots. These songs are also helpful in establishing a character of a protagonist,

lead role or a plot area E.g. ‘Choti si aasa’ song in the film Roja, this song established the

character of female lead role in the film.

Second category is of mood setting songs. The main aim of these songs is either

to continue the mood of the audience or to make the script elements lighter between two

strong emotional scenes. These songs includes duets, imagination of comedians etc. these

songs are shot in exotic locations, with designed costumes and heavy lighting some times

and are often followed by some heavy scenes of strong emotion or violence.

Songs also came handy in developing new narrative techniques especially in cases

films adopted from novels and other non-fiction books like Husain s. Zaidi’s Black

Friday. Long descriptions of the plot location, establishing the characters of lead roles of

(antagonists sometimes) were effective transformed into visuals and songs. Songs are

also as transitional techniques to replace a chain of events and narrations. Immediate shit

in story location, or story time are being effectively narrated through director’s songs.

E.g.: In the film ‘Narasima’ in which Rajani kanth played a lead role, one particular song

narrates his story from youth to old age and the plot continues after the song.

Music - over the years in Bollywood:

The Talkie Era: The year 1931 has significant importance in the Bollywood film history

and in the study of songs and music in bollywood as this was the beginning of the “talkie era” and

also naturally became the starting point for movie composers and singers. Musical tastes round

the country were still dominated by the Indian motif - one-dimensional melody that drew almost

entirely on classical and folk structures. Playback technology was available, but there was no

implementation handy for scalable reuse. Out in Bengal, New Theatres tried their first playback

experiment as early as 1933. It did not go unnoticed.

Coming of the Songs in Movies: Early Bollywood film songs were known to be

extremely simple. Often, just a harmonium and a tabla would accompany the actors. And

the lyrics too were almost those of a nursery rhyme. By 1935, pre-recorded singing by

Nitin Bose, Mukul Bose and music director R. C. Boral hit the scenes. Here, the song was

first recorded by one artist and then played back and pictured by another artist. This trend

began with the film Dhoop Chaon. This revolutionary method threw the doors open for

Bollywood film playback singing. As most of the music directors had a classical music

background, the instruments were mainly Indian musical instruments. Music in these

films had a large influence of the Bengali music or the Rabindra Sangeeth.

The period after independence is referred to as the golden age of Bollywood as it

was in this period that many films with challenging contents were produced unlike the

kind of films made earlier which was purely entertainment based. The music industry

which was flourishing received a new boom with the evolution of cassette technology in

the 70’s.with the increase in revenue from the music industry the role of songs and music

gained a new magnitude. There was also a tremendous growth in the influence of western

music and dance.

The background score of the films have also undergone a drastic change. During

the earlier days the background score was a combination of various musical instruments

like shehnai, diegetic sounds and some prolonged note to mark climax. But now,

musicians across the country are investing more and more thoughts towards creating that

striking background score that will render a sequence memorable in the screenplay of the

movie.

The changing scenario of songs:

The 90s were filled with, as it’s popularly known, ‘song sequences’, where the

hero & heroine would instantly be transported to an exquisite locale & sometime manage

to arrange a properly choreographed background troupe as well. But since then, our

directors have understood the significance of time & plot …and spent more thought in

integrating the songs in the plot, rather than halting the plot with them. Songs displaying

emotions, establishing the characters, speaking of the character’s mind are strewn all over

Bollywood now.

Going a little away from this sensible music inclusion theory, we are also holding back to

the latkas & jhatkas of masala films with the presence of item numbers. They are hot, and

they make a movie work but have no connection to the progress of the plot,As bizarre as

it may sound, it’s a fact. While we are discussing the shifts of audience tastes in popular

music, we can’t surely over rule the western influence on them either. The increasing use

of ‘Hinglish’ songs in movie, or one or two English words here and there surely gives it a

‘cooler status’ .Not only English, the use of Sufi, Urdu, Punjabi, French, Latin and

Spanish have gradually found their space in the Bollywood soundtracks.

Reference:

Film's musical moments By Ian Conrich, Estella Tincknell;pg 206

Bollywood film songs and the cinema By Anna Morcom; pg1

Bollywood melodies: a history of the Bollywood film song; Ganesh

Anantharaman; Penguin Books

Bollywood film song: music beyond boundaries: Ashok Da. Ranade

Behind the curtain: Making music in Mumbai's film studios - Gregory D. Booth