|
By Vickey Lalwani Š2004 Bollyvista.com |
The hero woos the heroine with a compliment. She hesitates, but smiles. What next? If it's a Bollywood flick you are watching, one can bet his last shirt that a song will follow!
It's incredible how the song and dance routine is the norm in Bollywood. Agreed, trends are changing as maverick filmmakers like Ram Gopal Varma are saying goodbye to songs, but one cannot deny that music is one of the most essential facets of a Hindi movie. Sadly though, music in Bollywood today is full of mediocrity. In the golden era of the 60's and 70's, a mediocre album used to be an exception rather than a rule. Sadly today the situation has reversed itself.
It's easy to argue that geniuses like R.D. Burman or singing greats like Kishore Da and Rafi Saab come once in a generation. In spite of their absence, we have seen some great albums in recent times, like the fresh and vibrant 'Dil Chahta Hai' or some of A.R. Rahman's works. The tragedy however is that composing music today is becoming more of a business rather than an art. Composers fill their so-called musical bank with compositions of a number of 'inspired' tunes.
Plagiarism in music is nothing new to Bollywood. In fact, even the great R.D. Burman was not entirely original. Many of his compositions like Tera Mujhse Hai Pehle (Aa Gale Lag Ja) and Chura Liya Hai Tumne (Yaadon Ki Baarat) were either lifted or adapted from English tunes. Yet, the legend had the art of identifying the tunes that matched the lyrics. Moreover, the number of songs adapted by him is meager, when compared to his original compositions.
|
SEARCH
