Bollywood

Just the other day I wrote a bit about Bollywood music thanks to the upcoming LHF release. Here.

Since then I have been retracing my step in terms of music that I used to hear in all these films.

For the old stuff just type "Mukesh" into youtube.

Not really heard much of the later stuff, most of it is bland and very western pop influenced.

A. R. Rahman is always a safe shout though.

A moment ago I was just watching this.

John Lennon at the start and weird camera movements throughout.

The biggest name in Bollywood is RD Burman I think. Problem is he did literally about a thousand albums so you have to pick the right ones. He was married to (Brimful of) Asha Bhosle who did vocals for something over nine-hundred bollywood films. This is one of his classics, kind of Morricone meets Kraftwerk but, unlike Burman, Morricone never sang the vocals himself (as far as I know)


This is another Asha Bhosle one (not with Burman). I love this tune. One time I played it and someone asked if it was Brian Eno.


If you like Kalyandji Anandji then maybe check out their brother Babla - this one been reissued.


Bappi Lahiri also did loads of disco stuff. This one slightly inspired by a certain Herbie Hancock track, this happened a lot, the point being that no-one in the countries where the original was made was ever gonna listen to a bollywood soundtrack were they?


I've got fair bit more of this stuff but I'll have to dig out the records and then see if I can find the relevant tracks on youtube. Often difficult cos the actual song titles are so often nothing more than "dance music" or "title music".
If I remember rightly the Sound of Wonder comp is actually from Pakistan rather than India, some of that stuff is even more mental.

Yeah, AR Rahman is quality:

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Although after hearing the Dharmatma theme, I'm not sure this is the type of Bollywood music you're looking for. That sounds more funk influenced, which makes sense considering the time it came out, while AR Rahman sounds like he listened to quite a bit of trip-hop. I'm not really familiar with most of the older producers, but I'd recommend RD Burman - his music will probably be more in your wheelhouse.

Edit - Just saw IdleRich's post and also just realized Dum Maro Dum is produced by RD Burman.

There's Bollywood/Indian/Desi Music threads somewhere. But here's one song that I really like. Second Roshman's Mukesh suggestion for older Bollywood tunes.

Lots of bollywood stuff is a huge rip-off of western tunes (compare some of the tracks from Shaan to I Feel Love), I don't know why no-one got sued, I mean Bappi is a BIG star so he would be worth going after.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bappi_Lahiri

Says some stuff about plagiarism there (in both directions).

Maybe copywrite laws are lax in India as in Jamaica which allowed reggae artists to claim all kinds of tracks as their originals. Lots of people still think Clement Dodd wrote You Don't Love Me (No No No) for instance.

This rules my world, such that i've refixed it (twice, over the years lol), bought the DVD, vinyl and CD.

My favourite A.R.Rahman soundtrack.

some more classics
The man in the video above spent much of his movie career in the 80s punching people in the face.

If you like the Sitar Beat stuff then maybe the Sohail Rana album is worth checking out. The original is very rare but Finders Keepers have re-issued it. The famous track is very much along the same lines of Mathar (which is German I guess).

Preferring the more western-influenced, psychedlic/funk/disco numbers to be honest.

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a lot of western listeners seem to like the 70s blaxploitation sounding stuff in the last 15 years after comps like bombay the hard way, which is cool, each to their own and all that, but idk, its a bit like a hip hop fan saying they dont like grime like i luv u, they prefer sirens or something more hip-hop sounding.

anyway, some personal favourites:

one of the all time best hindi disco songs -

this is a classic -

this one is amazing too, esp if you want to hear something more percussive and almost carnivalesque - the video is great also (the film is a really fun 70s pastiche until the half way mark when it goes a bit wrong) -

if you want to hear classic 'golden age' bollywood, check out the afternoon show on bbc asian network. i think its on around 1pm.

(i'm sorry...)

Bangpuss said:

And the Herbie Hancock rip-off is indeed blatant. Can't believe he didn't get sued for this if there was no sample clearance/songwriting credit.

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There are very, very few cases of someone being sued for copyright infringement in Bollywood despite half of the ideas being stolen straight from Hollywood/the west without any clearance. One of the highest grossing indian films of all time is a copy of Memento. Many, many popular songs are identical copies of their western counterparts, only with hindi lyrics slapped on top. I can sort of understand why they could get away with it in the 70s and 80s when Bollywood was still growing and under the radar of the outside world...but now when it's this huge, rich industry, it's a little surprising that there haven't been more cases of them being sued by someone from the outside.

best online resource i know... a real (big) treasure trove.

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remember hearing some Bollywood music on a bus that sounded uncannily like Kate Bush produced by Popol Vuh. Thee is some great stuff out there.

edit: ah sorry, the second one already got posted. still, quality merits two postings i think...

"remember hearing some Bollywood music on a bus that sounded uncannily like Kate Bush produced by Popol Vuhremember hearing some Bollywood music on a bus that sounded uncannily like Kate Bush produced by Popol Vuh."

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Sounds like a reasonable description of Seeta Aur Geeta by RD Burman - one track on that is fucking mental, he starts doing this weird heavy breathing like a dog with all these mad noises over the top. Probably the most far-out one I've got.

Something that needs to be addressed in this thread is the context in which these songs are placed.

As an example, I was scrolling through youtube for songs featured in Guru Dutt films and I came across a track, admittedly un-subtitled that I didn't think much of. Later that evening I ended up watching the film that it featured in and the same song had me weeping in front of my laptop at 2am.

The film in question was Pyaasa and I cannot recommend it enough.

The point I'm trying to make, apart for letting you all know I'm a moist guy is that, while hitting up the youtube for a quick bollywood fix is all well and good I think viewing them in their natural environment is the best way to fully appreciate their impact, and is often the reason why they are so lauded in the first place.

correct. though this is one of the best songs of the 90s even if you havent seen the film (if you only like very western sounding stuff you might not like it that much) -