Did you think we forgot about you? We would never (W̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶t̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶̶).
Ahem, so this blog is different from our usual kind. Unlike the jolly themes and tone our blogs hosted till now, this one will take on a more pessimistic perspective. No, it's not Arijit Singh, it’s something you might not be aware of.
We came up with seven blogs without physically meeting each other. Our eighth blog was the first time we all got together and we were quite preoccupied with dancing to the tunes that time XD
The inspiration for this blog arose from one of our many conversations on Bollywood music. Hope you’ll like it!
Our little group, whenever we converse, basically never reach a consensus in our playful arguments. We never actually agree on a topic (except the demonic nature of college assignments and CIAs). This time, we all shared the disappointment with the knowledge that evergreen hit songs are being remade and marketed as ‘modern’ hits. These dystopian single songs have a nostalgic element trailing behind this melody. These songs evoke bittersweet memories. It is preposterous of these corporate companies to pluck these classics from their evergreen garden and make them into artificial, fragile showpieces!! They think that by just tweaking up the number of beats and EDM, the audience will be totally fine with it. It’s like the fancy, false decoration hiding our evergreen classics. Some disastrous remixes include Jhalak Dikhla Jaa Reloaded and Masakali 2.0. Especially Masakali 2.0 was a big joke as it was publicly made fun of by the original composer, A.R. Rahman. Rahman tweeted the YouTube thumbnail with the caption, “Enjoy the original #Masakali”. You might think that evergreen remixes cannot be made without the original composer’s permission. The copyrights to a song are not held by its composers, singers, or lyricists but by big corporate companies like T-Series.
This absolute savage notice was tweeted by A.R. Rahman.
The conversation didn’t consist of plain dissing though. One of our little friends talked about good covers and remakes that were pleasant to the ear and had the cover singer’s personal touch. It then incited another conversation. We then began listening to the cover, Woh Chali Woh Chali by Bombay Vikings. The song is a prime example of a good remake. Originally sung by Lata Mangeshkar Ji, this remake was so successful and caught the eye of the original singer. Impressed by their skilful singing, Niraj Shridhar (the lead singer of the group) was invited to her birthday party (*Envious* 👉👈)
Another example, from our very own era, is Sanam, a pop widely successful and popular cover band. Sanam’s infamous cover of Gulabi Aankhen from the movie The Train (uploaded on YouTube in 2015) gathered a total of 182 million views on YouTube.
Every conversation has a point where it goes off on a tangent and every tangent has a stimulus. Well...our stimulus was the ringing of a gentleman’s phone. The ringtone, although it is not nice to judge, was one of the many modern pop songs (party or item songs) with misogynistic lyrics today. This is how we breached the ‘start line’ of Bollywood songs with problematic lyrics. This conversation was too scattered and random to start at a particular point. These problems do exist and will continue to exist until the values of our society transform. Let’s start at the very beginning. Item songs have existed in the industry since 1958. Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu was the first such song to grace our silver screens. We cannot just call out on the problematic ideologies conveyed in Item songs. Even hip and energetic songs like Gandi Baat voice the wrong sort of mindset. We are befuddled by entitling this song with an adjective. Let us know how you would crown this song as? An absolute clown or absolute toxic? (Let us know in the comments below). The most troublesome part of this song is its chorus. It talks about the protagonist who is done with his gentlemanly and chivalrous manner to impress a girl and wishes to try ‘coercive’ methods (Now, you know the origin of toxic Indian masculinity).
Every conversation has random snippets. One of our little friends spotted someone smoking a Beedi (a type of Indian self-rolled cigarette or a mini-cigar) and laughed at how the song, Beedi from the movie, Omkara is less problematic (A/N: Shameless redirect to our blog “All the World is a Stage”). Unironically and shamefully, that is correct. Beedi was penned by Gulzar (We’re totally unbiased creatures!) It is a must to play in every house party and small campfires. The song comes under the genre of “item numbers” and is a prime example of how a song can still be an item number and simultaneously maintain poetical quality.
This leads us to the question: Why are there such genres and songs penned with problematic lyrics? Why is mediocrity prevailing in our industry right now?
Bollywood has always been the artistic centre of Northern India and yet it is being pushed back for being problematic (rightfully so). Due to lack of original compositions, old, saturated songs are lined with energetic hip-hop beats and being marketed as the 2.0 versions of our favourite classics. The end of our conversation was marked by a resigned silence. We still hope that our beloved industry will learn from its ways and release songs that we can be proud to play on loudspeakers with an open mind. Higherups in the industry believe that songs that convey a rich lifestyle, sell. A wrong notion, since only the beats are catchy and the soulful vocals are drowned in such songs. One can only listen to these songs once or twice before switching back to the original. The artistic nature of Bollywood songs is on a downward spiral. It is instead replaced by the want to make commercially profitable songs (remakes). This is a plea from our side. Being Bollywood fanatics, we cannot watch the very thing we love on a path of destruction. The lamp of art and poetry is dimly shining in the dark and is on the verge of extinguishing.
If art dies, so does Bollywood.
Content writers: Bilal Khan; Needhi Singh; Shamatmika Rathore.
Editor: Adithi M. Kashyap
Graphic design and Video Editing: Alwin Joe Varghese; Khushi Sharma
Beautifully penned. The blog being written in an informal language really adds colour to the discussion. Nice Work.
Nice
It's true that even poetic writings can be given some groovy beats and a playful singing to make it an item number. But what creates the problem is the meaning director portrays, what we take and how we act upon it. Yes remixes do turn out cringe in most cases and item songs are defamatory to our culture. I totally agree on that and so also appreciate the way you've given your message. Your narrative feels so homely and understanding. You guys are doing a great job, talking on things so effectively and efficiently and then sharing different perspectives. Thank you guys, it's wonderful reading your blogs and grooving a bit at the same time.
Very well written.Completely agree about this disturbing trend of remixing and remaking old classic songs to cash in on their popularity but in turn ruining them with mediocre singers.
Well written!☀️