Bollywood Songs: Part 1

I've recently developed a Bollywood obsession, and begun rediscovering the classic Indian cinema I grew up with. I speak Punjabi, but like most non-Hindi speaking desis, I still watch the films and get the gist of what's happening anyway. For those of you not in the know, a typical Bollywood film is like a Western musical, with spontaneous interjections of song and dance. For whatever reason, Indian filmgoers will generally not go see a non-musical film or one that's less than two hours long. Anyway, the songs, usually light pop with romantic lyrics, are voiced by playback singers, who are as Cornershop's Tjinder Singh so memorably put it, "The ones who aren't attractive enough to make it as film stars." (or something to that effect) The actors and actresses then lip-synch the lyrics.

• Asha Bhosle, "Dil Cheez Kya Hai ": No discussion of Bollywood, or indeed, 20th century Indian culture can go without discussing Asha-ji. While she comes from a family with a musical background (her dad was a classical singer; her big sister, Lata Mangeshkar, is equally accomplished in filmi music), her achievements are her own. She's recorded upwards of 10 thousand songs in her half-century career, single-handedly introduced the Subcontinent to rock n' roll, psychedelia and disco, worked with Michael Stipe and inspired Cornershop's sole hit single , all while being a single mother . Beyonce, this is a real diva. Anyway, this standout from 1981's lovely, if slightly sentimental, Umrao Jaan is probably her most well-known song for good reason. It merges classical Indian music into a vague pop structure and uses her pure-as-rain voice to stitch it together.
  
• Kishore Kumar, "Pal Bhar Ke Liye ": Westerners might recognise this one from the Simpsons episode 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore,' but it's from a sprawling film called Johny Mera Naam. The singer, Kishore Kumar, is my favourite male playback singer and this song demonstrates why. It has a slight Latin feel, and Kishore uses his powerful voice with commendable subtlety (unlike the bloke at about 4:42 , whose idea of singing seems to be "scream every word as loud as humanly possible," but I digress).


• Ilaiyaraaja, "Kattu Kuyilu": Better known as M.I.A.'s "Bamboo Banga ." Tamil film music is known for having a heavier bass sound than the music from the north, due to the timbre of the area's drums. This, of course, is what made Kala 's melding of electronic programming and southern Indian percussion such a natural fit. I couldn't find any videos of "Kattu Kuyilu" on YouTube, so visit this post at Palms Out Sounds to download the track, along with other songs M.I.A. has sampled.