The Evolution of the Song and Dance Culture in Indian Cinema

7/22/2019 The Evolution of the Song and Dance Culture in Indian Cinema.

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Sindhuja.S.I

yer

20

12

ANANALYSISOF

THEEVOLUTIO

NOF

SONGANDDA

NCETAMILCIN

EMA.

Cinema has been a prominent source of entertainment for the past

few decades and has a strong influence on the lives of the people and

society. The current paper tries to examine the evolution and growth

of Tamil cinema over the years in general and the role of songs and

dance in these movies in specific.


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SINDHUJA.S.IYER Page 2

INTRODUCTION: Songs, music and drama, have been important elements of

entertainment for people over the world for many years across the world in general and in

India in specific. We have multitude of examples from history that emphasizes the

importance of songs and dance in the Indian mode of entertainment. There is innumerable

literature that provides information of kings rewarding the singers, dancers and dramatists

in the court for the entertainment that they provide.

The coming in of cinema or the motion pictures with the invention of the Kinetoscope, by

Thomas Edison and cinmatographe, by the Lumiere brothers changed forever the world of

entertainment and the drama began to find a new platform from the stages and streets to

the large screen. This is more so in the case of the Indian cinema where film industry

emerged from the theater culture unlike in other countries where both the forms of art still

co-exist.

Birth of silent film in Tamil Nadu: R.Nataraja Mudaliar(featured on the

right) was the first producer, director and cinematographer in Tamil

Cinema and the forerunner for the Tamil cinema that we know of today.

He changed the way of entertainment in south India by his profound

interest in filmmaking. He was Trained in London, in filmmaking and on

his return made Keechaka Vadham in 1916, the first Silent feature film in Tamil and the


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year marked the birth of the Silent Film in Tamil Nadu. The next few years saw several

other silent films being made and most of these themes were based on the mythologies and

texts that were the themes for the theater until then. These films had songs, dances and

dialogues just like in the case of a theater. However, these being silent films the dialogues

were written on slides that appeared in between the scenes just as was the practice in the

foreign films. As our country has a huge population of illiterates, there was a person

standing beside the screen and reading aloud the cards (Baskaran, 2010).These films were

transported and screened across the country and mainly in other southern states, as there

were no language barriers.

This marks the beginning of Madras as a major hub for south Indian cinema and cinema as

a major form of entertainment. This can also be seen as the fall of theater as the drama and

its form were now transported to the big screens.

Why Indian cinema is more an adaption of the theater than of western cinema?

A number of elements invest Indian popular cinema with a clear identity but they can rarely

be considered authentic images of Indian society or reality. However, they do reflect Indian

society, seen as it were, through a distorted or broken mirror. Among the distinctive

features are the following:

-Indian popular films are, in most cases, not realistic and not rooted in any specific

culture within India as they aspire to reach out to all-India audiences. In fact, often a

great effort is made to make sure that it cannot be identified with any particular

region of India.

-Acting is exaggerated as it is derived from the traditional Indian folk forms.


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-Melodrama has an abiding presence in terms of plot, character and use of

background music.

-The use of the camera is often flashy, drawing attention to itself. The editing too is

obtrusive which sometimes stand in contrast to Western concepts of continuity.

-Characters are rarely unique individuals; they are often social stereotypes or

archetypes.

-Songs and dances are crucial components of a film's appeal. They intervene into

the narrative flow, often without much justification. Thus, films are not always

'organic' in the Western sense but neither is there much need to make it so. This

may be the reason why Western audiences resist this form of cinema, i.e. for its lack

of organicity.

-Films rarely fall into genres as it is understood in case of American cinema. Rather,

every film is typically a combination of different genres. Hence the concept of the

masala mix or the thali meal.

Indian popular films never pretend to be wholly realistic. They are governed by conventions

commonly shared between filmmakers and audiences. These conventions have evolved

historically and have reached a measure of stability. Indian popular films cannot be judged

by the realistic yardstick applied to Western films.(Talreja, 2009)

This apart the major reason why the indian film can be seen as different from its

counterparts is due to the basis of its inspiration for the various themes, which have their

source from elements close to people like the When we examine the evolution of popular

Indian cinema, there are certain forces that merit closer analysis. These are: The two Hindu

epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata,along with the Classical Indian theatre ,The folk


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theatre and The Parsi theatre. This explains the prominance of song and dance in Indian

films.

Song and Dance, over the years in Tamil Films:

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

Indian cinema, from its inception to its presentday incarnations.

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

are some of the elements that make the Tamil cinema 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.


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Songs as a crucial element of Film text:

The use of sound helps to enhance the narrative,which might otherwise lose its charm

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

significance in Tamil cinema is very high as Music is considered to be the heart of the

Indian cinema and entertainment, and it is almost impossible to imagine a tamil 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 films there has

been 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 the film industry ever since sound arrived in films with Kalidasa (1931).

Over the years, Tamil film songs have been nurtured & garnered until evolution it has

achieved today. After all, our directors have also realized the connection between good

music & box office success.

Varying usage of songs:

The usage of songs and music in a film is of two major categories which can further be

sub-divided for better understanding. It can be said that on an average, a Tamilcinema is

150-180 minutes long and has an average of 5-8 songs in each film. These songs based on

their placement in the plot structure are classified into two categories one is called the

directors songs. These songs contain some plot or story line within them and help in the

continuity of story line. e.g.Oh Eesa song from the film Aayirathil Oruvan. These songs

are also helpful in establishing a character of a protagonist, lead role or a plot area E.g.


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Vinnai Kapan Oruvan song in the film Kaavalan, the song was used to establish the

character of protagonist 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 usually shot in exotic locations, with designed costumes and heavy lighting and

are often followed by some heavy scenes of strong emotion or violence. An example of his

kind of song is the Nenje Nenje song from Ayaan, where the song features after the death

of the heroines brother, which is meant to be a very emotional sequence and the song is

followed by the protagonist plotting to avenge the death of his friend and brother of his

ladylove. These songs are believed to provide a sense of relief to the audience who remain

glued to their seats, as they are lost in the story of the movie.

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

adopted from novels and other non-fiction books like Kalkis Parthiban Kanavu. 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 shift in story


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location, or story time are being effectively narrated through directors songs. E.g. In the film

Suryavamsam in which Sharathkumar plays a lead role, one particular song narrates his

story of success from being an ordinary bus driver to an entrepreneur and the plot

continues after the song.

Music - over the years in Tamil Films:

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

the study of songs and music in Tamil cinema 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.

Coming of the Songs in Movies:

Mythologicals, folklores, pseudo historicals and photographed stage

plays were the themes of Tamil cinema in the thirties. Films had as many as 30 songs. Musicians

like Dandapani Designer, G.N.Balasubramanian, Musiri, M.S.Subhalakshmi and others were cast in


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the Tamil movies of thirties for the sake of music. A.Narayanan's 1934 film Srinivasa Kalyanam was

the first Tamil talkie to be produced in a South Indian studio. In 1935, South India Film Corporation

made Kausalya, the first Tamil film on a contemporary theme. The first female producer and director

of Tamil cinema was T.P Rajalakshmi and the film was Miss Kamala in 1936. Chinthamani(1937)

was the first Tamil film to run for more than a year in a single cinema house.Other notable Tamil

films of the thirties were A.Narayanan's Rajambal, Meerabai and Thenali Raman, Raja

Sandow'sPeyum Pennum, Bhaktavatsala, Chadrakantha and Thiruneelakantar,

K.Subraminiam's Pavalakkodi, Balayogini, Seva Sadan and Thyagabhoomiand

R.Prakash's Lanka Dahanam and Anaadhai Penn

Stardom in Tamil films had its birth in the thirties itself. The first superstar(female) of Tamil

cinema was K.B.Sundarambal. She received Rs.1 Lakh as salary for playing the lead role in

the movie Nandanarthat was produced by Asandas Classical Talkies.

The music industry, which was flourishing, received a new boom with the evolution of

cassette technology in the 70s.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. However, 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.


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Chandralekha- a landmark in the history of song and dance in Tamil films:

Chandralekha can be claimed to be an epic film in the Tamil film industry. It was produced

by S. S. Vasan and the shooting extended for a period of over 5 years. It can be called as

the most expensive film that was made in those days with a budget of around $600,000

($28 million in 2010 prices).Chandralekha crossed all language borders and became the

first all-India blockbuster. It can be considered the first film that represented India in the

forum of global cinema long before Mother India was made in Hindi, which is often referred

to as a benchmark of Indian cinema. The film (Chandralekha) was released in 609 screens

worldwide with subtitles.

Song and Dance in Chandralekha: The film was a spectacular dance drama with an

amazing picturization (indianetzone entertainment). It is considered an epic for

experimenting various skills and competencies that never existed in the Cinema before and

apart from featuring the longest sword fight, it had the dance with highest number of

dancers and drums.

Vasan had Gemini Studios 400 dancers preparing for that single sequence, and they

rehearsed daily for six months. When they finally executed the scene flawlessly, the


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sequence had cost Rs. 5 lakhs. A shorter version of Chandralekha in English was

screened in the U.S. and Europe in the 1950s..

Many years later, Kothamangalam Subbu recalled, During the films making our studio

looked like a small kingdomhorses, elephants, lions, tigers in one corner, palaces here

and there, over there a German lady training nearly a hundred dancers on one studio floor,

a shapely Sinhalese lady teaching another group of dancers on real marble steps adjoining

a palace, a studio worker making weapons, another making period furniture using

expensive rosewood, others set props, headgear, and costumes, Ranjan undergoing

fencing practice with our fight composer Stunt Somu, our music directors composing and

rehearsing songs in a buildingthere were so many activities going on simultaneously

round-the-clock in the same place. (Aditi)

The changing scenario of songs:

The 90s were filled with, as it is 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. However, 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

characters mind are strewn all over Tamil cinema

now.


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

theskin show and dance of the 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, its a fact. While we are discussing the shifts of audience tastes in

popular music, we cannot surely over rule the western influence on them either. The

increasing use of Tanglish songs in movie, or one or two English words here and there

surely gives it a cooler status .Not only English, Telugu, Hindi, French, Latin and Spanish

have gradually found their space in the Tamil soundtracks.


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The Evolution of the Song and Dance Culture in Indian Cinema