ANTHRO 327 - 2017

Lecture 1
Songs, Stars, and Emotions in an Industrial Setting
Open
to all
studen
ts
across
the
Social
Scienc
es.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1259802744148819/
Bollywood =
1. A physical place
2. An industry
3. A popular culture
2 & 3: A small, closed world producing one of
the most widely and densely consumed
popular cultures on the planet.
A very personalized, long-lived, familiar cast
of characters.
3 & 2: An enormous, shared historical
repertoire, frame of reference and set of
symbols from which to construct new symbols
and meanings.
A physical space
&
A collection of
industrial spaces

Industrial spaces
Filming studios/shooting floors
Film music recording studios
Music recording studios
A small, closed world producing one
of the most widely and densely
consumed popular cultures on the
planet, created by a very
personalized, long-lived, familiar
cast of characters.
Film directors
Stars
Music directors
Playback singers
Lyricists
Choreographers
Arrangers/Assistants/Background Composers
 Taal
Director: Subash Ghai
Music Director: A. R. Rahman
Starring: Aishwarya Rai, Akshay
Khanna, Anil Kapoor, Amirsh Puri,
Alok Nath, et al
Lyrics: Subash Ghai, Javed Siddiqui
Choreography: Saroj Khan, Ahmed
Khan, Shiamak Davar
Barsaat
Director: Raj Kapoor
Music Director: Shankar-
Jaikishen
Starring: Raj Kapoor, Nargis,
Premnath, Nimmi
Lyrics: Shailendra, Hasrat
Jaipuri
Choreography: Krishan Kumar
 Playback singers
Taal Barsaat
1. Kariye
Hawa Mein naa (Sukhwinder
Udta Jaye* (Lata Singh, Alka Yagnik)
Mangeshkar)
2.
JiyaTaal se taal
Beqarar Hai*mila do*Mangeshkar)
(Lata (Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan)
3. Ishq Bina*
Barsaat (Sujatha
Mein Humse Mohan,
Mile Sonu Nigam, Anuradha Sriram)
(Lata Mangeshkar)
4. Nahin
Mujhe Kisisamne (Hariharan,
Se Pyaar Sukhwinder
Ho Gaya (Lata Singh)
Mangeshkar)
5. Ramta
Tirchi Nazar Jogi
Hai(Sukhwinder
Patli Kamar Hai Singh, Alka Yagnik)Mukesh)
(Lata Mangeshkar,
6.
AbNi main
Mera Kaunsamajhh
Saharagayi
(Lata(Richa Sharma, Sukhwinder Singh)
Mangeshkar)
7. KahinMein
Zindagi aagHardam
lage (Asha
RotaBhosle,
Hi Raha Aditya Narayan,
(Mohammad Rafi)Richa Sharma)
8. Taal
Meri Se TaalMein
Aankhon (remix) (Sukhwinder
Bas Gaya Singh)
Koi Re (Lata Mangeshkar)
9. IshqGaye
Chhod BinaBalam
(sad) Mujhe
(Kavitha Krishnamurthy,
(Lata Sukhwinder Singh)
Mangeshkar, Mukesh)
10.Kyaa dekh Pardesi
Bichhde Huye rahe ho(Lata
tum Mangeshkar)
(Vaishali Samant, Sunidhi Chauhan,
Sukhwinder Singh)
Kishore Kumar Playback singers ??
The Stars of Indian Popular Music

Asha Bhosle Geeta Dut

Mohd Raf
Playback singers ?? A cultural/industrial
response to a technological issue
Convert sound waves to electro-magnetic impulses,
Convert sound waves to light waves,
Record sound on magnetic tape
record sound on celluloid film:
Variable density
Variable area
Coursework
Four Quizzes on Lecture and Reading Content @ 7% (28% total)
(Weeks 3, 6, 9, 12)

Two Essays:
1: Remixes and Versions (20%) (approx. 1500 words) - Week 4
2. Stardom and Performativity (25%) (approx. 2000 words) - Week 11
Two Group Projects:

Group Project 1 The Filmfare Awards (10%) - Week 6

Group Project 2 - Coke studio (17%) - Week 9
Music in Narrative is a
Narrative Convention
Culturally constructed ways of telling stories
Culturally constructed shortcuts to meaning
Ways of organising and presenting
narrative:
Stylised character types
Story types
Uses of music
Costumes
Plot structures
Film Songs = Narrative Convention
= Emotional Engagement
One important
Allow convention
characters to infeelings
convey their many (most)
and moods
Indian
to othernarratives
characters is the inclusion of songs and
music. the audiences emotional response s to
Re-enforce
emotional
In the Hindi cinema these are composed for
scenes
the narrative
Most narratives
Demonstrate and mostabout
attempt
something commonly
to produce sung
actual
a characters by
nature
characters
a situationwithin
sympathetic
or the narrative
emotional responsesframe
to the signs
of action and
Externalise
Most emotion
traditional (words
dramatic and
forms images)
and most that
the interior emotions for the audiences
the narrative
commercial employs.
Indian film genres are music
benefit.
dramas.
Offer contexts for the production of spectacle and
erotic display
Film narratives are conventionally organised into scenes
that .

Relate narrative
information, Produce emotional
response,
or (usually)
Scene 1 Scene 3
some of
both
Scene 5
Diegesis: The internal logic of
the narrative; Scene 4
Scene 2 Scene 6
the narrative context
 Offer
contexts
for the
production
of
spectacle
Demonstrate and erotic
something display
about a
characters
nature or
about a
situation

Dil yeh bechain ve (remix) Taal ( Ghai, 1999)

the strength of certain conventions unique to
Indian cinema [is] as a constellation of
interruptions (3)

differentiating the relationship of song scenes to the diegesis:

delaying the development of the plot, distracting us from the other
scenes of the narrative through spatial and temporal disjunctions, and
bearing an integral link to the plot.(19)

Lalitha Gopalan. 2002. Cinema of Interruptions: Action Genres in

Contemporary Indian Cinema. London: British Film Institute Publishing.
Song in Hindi films:
Composed to fit the situation
The specifc diegetic moment of
the song
Situation Narrative
Context
Playback = Asha Bhosle, Rafi,

Pal do pal The Burning Train ( Chopra, 1980)

Situation Narrative Context
Playback =
Lata Mangeshkar
Mohammed Rafi
Kishore Kumar
Mukesh

Dekhe tumko Amar Akbar Anthony ( Desai, 1977)

 An enormous, shared historical
repertoire, frame of reference and set
of symbols from which to construct
new symbols and meanings
Based on the emotional experiences, of
individuals and generations, of the films and
the song scenes.
Cinephilia is
we should read popular Indian untranslateable
films from the point of view of a
cinephiliac (Gopalan)
 1. In the
context
of the
narrative
2. In the
context
of film
culture

Bunty aur Babli Bunty aur Babli ( Ali, 2005)

1. In the context of the narrative
(Stars as characters)
2. In the context of film culture
Song Scenes &
Cultural/Historical Density:
The moral of the story:

Songs and Song scenes

have meaning but be
VERY CAREFUL before
assigning meaning (of any
kind) to a song scene.