S&D: Bollywood sndtrks/comps.

But at the same time I think the flood of successful Indian films and tv shows cannot be under-estimated in terms of raising the general Western consciousness of subcontinental culture.

Because I just spent an hour in an Indian music shop amidst 100s of cassette soundtracks and compilations and as always felt a bit lost.

I don't want to hear about those hipster Bollywood compilations anymore. I want to know what movies have the best tunes! So far my favorite is Waris which among other things has a weird Peggy Lee pastiche. Generally though I go in for the lovely ballads and ghazals not the kitschy stuff. Like "Sawan Ka Mahina" by Lata and Mukesh, from Milan.

Today I bought a tape of '40s hits and when I popped it in the stereo, to my initial horror there were contemporary synth overdubs. But actually they're fairly well-done and unobtrusive, except in the transitions between songs. Not the best way to hear this stuff I'm sure but I'm not really complaining.

...Also the same store has a ton of Hindi films on DVD so please recommend some to me and please tell me why you're recommending them!

films - will start a separate thread to pick out some for ya

i picked up:
Zameen Aasman (heh, assman). Music by RD Burman from 83.
Teri Kasam (music also by Burman, from 82)
Yudh (music by Kalyanji Anandji from 84)
Janbaaz (music also by Kalyanji Anandji from 86)

Zameen Aasman has a track that sounds like it could easily be on a David Axelrod album. distand reverbed flutes, harpsichord, rhodes keyboard, Dr Who analog synth noises, plucked bass, stereolab "doo doo bada bada"s, and Lata's wonderful voice. get this. there's an electric guitar that's trying to sound like a sitar. east copying west trying to copy east. weird. all of the songs on the album are briefly interupted by an old analog drum machine turned up to 400bpm just making noise.

Yudh has a song that completely steals the chord progression and riff from Yaz's "Don't Go".

Most of the albums that i like are mixtures of eastern and western. but it goes way beyond appropriating sounds and styles, it's the way the songs are arranged. they're like a mike patton or john zorn project. so many styles lumped on top of each other. they also kind of remind me of all the old great lounge arrangers like Esquivel, Denny and Lyman

the only cd i bought of this stuff is the Luaka Bop Vijaya Anand "Dance Raja Dance" album. wacky stuff, but get's a little too cheesy 80s for me.

About watching the movies: i used to watch this saturday morning program where they'd just show the musical sections. it was so fun, but either i'm not awake in time to see it anymore or it's not on. the only full movie i've seen is Kutch Kutch Hota Hai. pretty modern i think and pretty popular. pretty silly movie.

Bose, the Forgotten Hero and Kisna are pretty great this year, A.R. Rahman might be god

Any more? Priti?

Hell, I'd settle for seeing Lagaan again.

If you have recently started exploring hindi film music, can I just go ahead and rattle off the names of a few of my favorite soundtracks?

- Devdas (I refer to the newer film version here, not the black-and-white original, though that is good too....layered songs with classical influences and younger singers who lack that reedy vocal style that some people dislike in hindi music)
- Dilwale Dulhania Laajange (a classic from 1995...this has the great lata mangeshkar though, so expect reedy thin vocals)
- hum dil de chuke sanam (two great standouts, the rhythmic garba-style "dholi taro dhol bhaje" and "nimbooda")
- umrao jaan (from the 70s, asha bhosle sings, sparse and poetic)
- pyaasa (from the 1950s, but fantastic! my favorite movie and soundtrack ever....mohammed rafi and geeta dutt sing)
- khabhi kushi kabhie gham (traditional bollywood stuff but done very well, lata sings)
- recent good ones: kal ho naa ho, chalte chalte, veer zaara; monsoon wedding has a few good classic songs on there

by the way, most of these i think you can listen to on www.raaga.com - go to their movie index

i don't know anything at all about compilations, though, and i'm not as well informed about non-"filmi" hindi music

And I wholeheartedly admit that my Bollywood tastes, as represented above, seem rather mainstream if you know Hindi film. Would love if someone could recommend older stuff, or things that are more obscure

this site has some really good songs but i can't get the mp3s to download

(btw, how does one italicize on ILM?!)

this site has some really good songs but i can't get the mp3s to download

no worries. i skipped past more than half the songs. i guess it's a good overview, and maybe if you speak hindi or know the movies, these songs would mean more to you, but i wasn't feeling them. they were all very vanilla. the bollywood stuff i like is the stuff that apes american music from the 50s, 60s, 70s & 80s. i love it when they get all Zorn & Esquivel on us and paste tons of genres onto each other and each bar is a different style or tempo or lead instrument. of those 19 songs, i probably liked about 5.

here's bappi in dubbed out electro mode from 1983's wanted s/track. asha bhosle sings.

http://s35.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=27Z6FP88KALQJ2RH8CIO978ZCT

The "Radio India: Eternal Dream of Sound" album on Sublime Frequencies is awesome; full of classics from the Bollywood of yore.

Especially recommend the collage entitled: "Deep Disco Drama Diva" where a (no doubt moustachioed) Indiam lothario cum DJ whispers "Kabhi Kabhi" in his best Barry White over (what sounds like a dub/house revamp of) the song "Kabhi Kabhi"

Been listening to it all day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLddIH7U6eE

everybody else: get this song going through your head too, ok?

i wouldnt recommend the beginners guide to bollywood comps (theres 2 volumes) on nascente. you can get them v cheap and they do have some good songs but theyre compiled by john lewis from time out who only seems to like/choose the stuff that sounds like western pop the most (and puts them only into categories of western genres like disco, rock n roll etc). this ones better imo - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-Guide-Bollywood-Various-Artists/dp/B000MR9DLS/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1252928231&sr=1-32

i met a nice indian girl last nye and wound up borrowing her ipod and ripping her bollywood playlists off of it. so here's 3 top 10 playlists of what one hip london girl of indian descent was listening to as of nye 2008/9:

fast stuff:

Move Your Body - Johnny Gaddar
Lucky Boy - Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008)
Aahista Aahista - Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008)
Sexy Lady (Khwab Dekhe)
Maari Teetri - De Taali
Bakhuda Tumhi Ho - Atif Aslam & Alka Yagnik (Kismat Konnection)
Dil Dance Maare - Vishal - Sekhar
Chhaliya - Vishal - Sekhar
Milo Na Milo Main Milane - Shaan (Love Story 2050)
Sach Kehna - Kunal Ganjawala (Love Story 2050)

slow stuff:

Khuda Jaane - Bachna Ae Haseeno
Kabhi Kabhi - jaane tu ya jaane na (A R Rahman)
Jogi Mahi - Sukhvinder Singh, Shekhar Ravjiani & Himani Kapoor
Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na- Nazrein Milaana Nazrein Churaana
Kahin To Hogi Ho - Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (2008)
Tere Bina - AR Rahman, Chinmayee (from the love guru?!?!?)
Zara Gungunale Chalo
Yeh Rishta
Ya Rabba
Yeh Honsla

oldies:

Lata Mangeshkar & Moha Rafi - Aadmi musafir hai aata hai jata hai
Chana Jor Garam
Chalte Chalte
Baharo Phool Barsao
Chalo Dildar Chalo - Lata Mangeshkar with Mohd. Rafi - Lata Mangeshkar (Pakeezah)
Bachpan Ki Mohabbat - Lata ji (Lata Mangeshkar Live)
Bagon Mein Bahar Hai - Lata Mangeshkar & Mohammad Rafi (Hit Duets of)
Aye-Dil-E-Nadan - Lata Mangeshkar (Pakeezah / Razia Sultan)
Babuji Dheere Chalna - Geeta Dutt ? (Aar Paar)
AWAARA HOON - Mukesh

i don't know if this is really what you guys are after (i suspect it's no more or less than a representation of the most popular mainstream bollywood stuff circa 2008) but it's all pretty listenable actually.

actually it's better than just listenable - i'm playing this stuff for a first time in a while and it's really not bad at all. obvious western influences on the new stuff, and it's clearly quite MOR in a tecnho-influenced kind of way, but a lot of these cats have REALLY nice voices

Fave soundtrack of the year: Dev.D, probably shortlisted for my favorite album of 2009 -- amazing genre-confusion, B-wood with techno and rock squiggles, hardest metal sequence ever in "Emotional Attachyar"'s rock version (the other one is brass band version and it's hot too). Other good ones from this year: Billu Barber, Chandni Chowk to China, Kambakkht Ishq, Dilli 6. There are a few more that are supposed to be amazing but I haven't heard them yet.

The Om Shanti Om soundtrack was my favorite album of 2007. Beautiful and audacious, amazing singing and chart work, banjo solos mixed over surf rock and big band jazz, recurring motifs, remixes, everything you'd ever need from a record.

i just saw the movie (om shanti om)... first time i've seen a bollywood film in ages, and quite watchable. i like how many bollywood films are comdies, romances, tragedies, and musicals all rolled into one. the dvd i watched translated the lyrics as well as the dialogue, and some of them were hilarious, ie. dard-e-disco (= "the sorrow of disco", an upbeat disco number sung and danced by a blind, deaf, handless, wheelchaired character in a fictitious bollywood movie [in his mind!])

First posted on the Global World 2010 thread:

Anybody know anything about the below? I forget whether there's a separate Bollywood/bhangra etc thread.

Fox Searchlight Pictures (Slumdog Millionaire) presents MY NAME IS KHAN, the biggest and most anticipated new Indian motion picture of 2010, an epic romantic drama with universal appeal.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's musical score for the film reflects the myriad hues of the film. Music composers Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are India's must renowned and accomplished artists, and the trio has been responsible for some of the biggest hit soundtracks of the last decade. The album has Sufi inspired sounds and features amazing vocalists from the sub-continent - Rahat Fateh Khan, Shafqat Amanat Ali and Adnan Sami. The music is earthy and features very prominently in the film. Over 20 minutes of the film is set solely to music.

― curmudgeon, Monday, January 25, 2010 5:13 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
It's being released February 16th

my wife's favorite Bollywood comp: http://www.answers.com/topic/i-love-bollywood

speaking of slumdog millionaire, the soundtrack brought to my attention the tame a r rahman (the guy who did the soundtrack) which lead to my checking out a recent comp "the best of a r rahman (composer of the music for slumdog millionaire)" which rocked, and further lead to downloading some huge 3 gb collection of his contributions to about 80 other soundtracks, pretty much all of which are GREAT. i believe he's quite well known in india, if not to say ubiquitous, so maybe it's kinda like saying "gosh, the beatles sure are great" or something. but i gotta say the dude can produce the hell out of a soundtrack. he seems to thrown in at least one really cool, original idea per song, usually more like 5 or 6, he chucks in a lot of interesting chord changes as well (which i find overall is not bollywood's strong point, it's not part of the musical culture and i suspect it's hard to pull off and still sound "indian" but this skill seems to be one of mr. rahmans many selling points)

btw, i really find him quite listenable as well - the cheese factor seems to run pretty strong in a lot of mumbai's musical exports, but not so with this guy - really his stuff seems very very easy on the ears, i've got a constantly updated playlist i'm drawing from his collected works and i keep getting drawn back to it....

om shanti om has one knockout song - the first one thats sung when theyre in the cinema. the later ones are all pretty forgettable.

maybe it's kinda like saying "gosh, the beatles sure are great"

A.R. Rahman is pretty much one of the biggest musical names in India so yeah, this is about right

revive!!

"the year disco broke: india on the dancefloor 78-84" mp3 cdr mentioned upthread, six years ago or so? does anyone still have it?

CTRL+F "Burning Train" = no results, WTF?

Ah, fuck it, I'm going to post some of my favourite youtubes on this thread.

Burning Train - Title Music (R.D. Burman)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmS-G7RI7Z0

The Burning Train - Meri Nazar Hai Tujh Pe (R.D. Burman)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCemp_hR2_Q

Rocky - Aa Dekhen Zara (R.D. Burman)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJglcQFTITo

like all of them

? can't say I've noticed that trend

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Shah_Rukh_Khan_%28Berlin_Film_Festival_2008%29_4.1.jpg/220px-Shah_Rukh_Khan_%28Berlin_Film_Festival_2008%29_4.1.jpg

this guy looks white to you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2hSEu4X1WA

really appreciate the effort here

shakey he's like a big actor holdover, but whenever I visit my parents they're watching some bullshit two bit new movie with actors with a lot of anglo facial features

also, you shoulda posted a picture of rajinikanth

Pale = beautiful is clearly a huge issue and one that goes far beyond the film industry. It's an exaggeration to say that the majority of stars are 'almost white' but there's no doubt the actors are not reflective of the country's diversity.

well yeah there's no arguing with that

just saying that when I'm out eating chaat somewhere and watching vids looped on dvd on the big flatscreen in the corner more people in the newer vids have a homogenized look but then again I don't really pay close attention to these movies on a historical basis, and actively dislike most of them

whenever I listen to that sun city girls track, after it's over, I think to myself "good hustle guys"

uh oh i'm having a fantasy otm. one of the things i love about sharukh khan is how indo his features are--sort of amazed he still gets cast.

but not really because he's awesome.

Bit depressing to see him in skin-lightening cream adverts but he's completely amazing otherwise.

did you guys see the whole Aishwarya Rai skin-lightening controversy? it wasn't her; it was a fashion magazine that apparently lightened her in Photoshop for the cover

http://jezebel.com/5719938/lawsuit-rumors-for-elle-india-skin+lightening-controversy

:( i hadn't read that

last time i was in india, my sister and i were joking about using the skin-lightening creams we saw freaking everywhere and my male cousin, very seriously, was like, i can get you guys some if you want it! it turned out his sister had a gigantic stash.

yeah :(

Aishwarya Rai is teh hotness

i'm sure i have no idea what i'm talking about, but my sister's in india for the summer working and she and i were talking about how what indians need is an analogue to the Black Arts/Black Power movement. obviously it's a different situation and would look different and it's pretty ridiculous of me to be opining about what a subcontinent full of people should be doing but.

that's pretty far off-topic i guess

i've never used these creams, and i object to the principle. (i bet they're not safe either.) but i'm a bit sensitive about the issue, because i actually got made fun of in the opposite way when I was a kid--I'm paler than a lot of Indian people (my family hails from the mountainous North) and my hair is more brown than black. when i was a kid, other indian kids would tell me i didn't look 'indian' enough, or that i must be half-Indian, or whatever, but no--my parents are both Indian

it was really odd

the funny thing is, when i was 14 years old, i actually hated Bollywood movies--at the time I wore all black and listened to Coil (why did I have so many Coil records? I don't remember now) but i distrusted Bollywood and its big, colorful, over-the-topness: it signified the mainstream to me, which i hated at the time

now, many years later, in my 30s, i adore Bollywood movies, and i appreciate them: also, things get more interesting when you add some time to them

yeah i didn't mean to suggest there's only one "indo" look. (my family hails from the mountainous north, too!)

Disco circa 1985, from the movie Saaheb, music by Bappi Lahiri:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDzOSqkWfCY

you can see a lot of michael jackson in those dance moves as well

plot synopsis, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Anil Kapoor plays Saaheb, the youngest son of the family. He is focused on football, his passion. Due to this, everyone in the family constantly tells him he is no good. However when circumstances demand, he gives up his kidney to fund his sister's marriage, at the cost of his football career.

it's no "aao na" but it's cool

Don't really know much about Bollywood but some Kollywood soundtracks I've enjoyed

Kadhal Rojave
Kadhalan
Paruthiveeran
Kannathil Muthamittal
Ghilli
Anniyan
Chandramukhi

tell me more! tamil cinema is not something i know that much about

more Bollywood 'I Feel Love' action (Bappi Lahiri, in case you were wondering)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7Cg-eFUWho

(starting at around 2:30)

Me on some Bollywood disco gems, over at Wired's Beyond the Beyond:

http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2011/09/musica-globalista-geeta-dayal-on-disco-part-1/

this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBu_TBNmmkc

Babla's Disco Sensation isn't a Bollywood OST per se but still really good, "Old film hits with a new disco touch"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMxl-wLNOB4

http://bodegapop.blogspot.com/2013/06/get-this-two-dozen-track-revelation-here.html

I gave myself a task: Using only CDs I'd purchased in Jackson Heights, Queens, over the last decade or so, create the Single Most Kick Ass 1970s-80s Bollywood Freak Out Mix of All Time without resorting to any track included on any previous Western Consumer-targeted Bollywood Funk/Disco/Dance or other compilation.

I really really love the 1930s/40s stuff on the History Of Indian Film Music box set from a few years ago. I'm having a hard time finding other CDs of that period however. Any recommendaions? I do have wonderful comps of Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar that are comprised of 40s-60s stuff, i believe.

That Bodega Pop link doesn't seem to work for me. Bah.

Any decent overviews of more recent Bollywood stuff (Yo Yo Honey Singh, "Badtameez Dil", etc)?

Isn't there a new thread kinda covering this now...forget what its called

Ah, sorry, I'd missed Rolling Punjab, Hindi/Bollywood, etc. jams from Central Asia... - though I can't see anything in that thread due to YT being blocked in China, and a rolling thread might not be the right place to ask about 90s/00s/etc overview comps.

Feels like the '90s are old enough for this thread. So, what about '90s Bollywood?

I'm hoping in vain that it'll all be like "My Adorable Darling"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4tmeg9me9E&t=4s

(Purists would argue they should've bought fewer guitars and more amps.)

Allegedly Anu Malik's songs did resemble lots of other songs, but not Bollywood ones.

Gurudev (1992)
R D Burman
Asha Bhosle,Shailendra Singh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=dpCrRj0CRKE

he he digging this list: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWYRTlrhMB12D?si=wIekccu4R2-aoJKNIB7t3w