Bollywood is one such movie industry which is known to portray everything in a big way and every emotion in an exaggerated manner. And songs play a very pivotal role in such exaggeration. Songs like, ‘Kabhie Kabhie’, ‘lag jaa galay’, ‘gumnam hai koi’, ‘ajeeb dastaan hai yeh’ and many more yesteryear compositions have facilitated to make things look more intense, big and dramatic. But such songs were always presented in a good taste and had a very pure, artistic thing about them, because of which we never found them annoying, rather these songs made music a must have in every bollywood movie. Since ages we’ve appreciated these songs and have worshiped their lyricists and composers.
But times have changed now and changed big time. The scenario is totally opposite of what it used to be before. We as viewers have become so demanding that movie-makers nowadays are compelled to think big and think out of the box. Now those songs with soft music, simple lyrics and classy visuals can’t survive the rush. Heroines fully dressed from head to toe, dancing around the trees and romancing with her lover from 10 feet away is a strict no-no these days. But did we ask for what we are getting? Well to some extent, yes, but movie-makers went on to give us what we never demanded. Composers nowadays do not have to brush their brains and spend hours in coming up with a good song. All they need is a cheeky slang, a funky catch-up line, two or three tongue-in-cheek moments, a curvaceous heroine to dance and a ‘biiiiiiiiig’ set and tada, they come up with a blockbuster (but not a legendary) song.
Such kinds of songs were always heard once in a while but never did this fling take shape of something big. Songs like, ‘Main aayi hu Up bihar lootne’, and ‘Choli ke peechey kya hai’, were quite forward for their times, but somehow they survived any ‘risen-brows’. This wave became more traumatic with the rise of the movie ‘Dabangg’, where Malaika Arora stole everybody’s hearts with her ‘Munni badnaam’,which proved to be a huge success. This success helped the movie cross many benchmarks and slash many records. That song started a wave and Bollywood was not lazy to let go off such a formula. Then came songs like ‘Sheila ki jawani’, ‘Jalebi bai’, ‘Tinku jia’, ‘Anarkali disco chali’, ‘Chikni chameli’, ‘Bubbly badmash hai’, ‘Fevicol’ etc, which garnered more views than the film itself.
Every movie-maker is now keen on including a saucy number in his movie to attract huge revenues. Songs nowadays are losing the substance and are becoming too predictable and mainstream. People may remember the songs but will forget the movie it belonged to, until and unless they see the videos. Videos are also becoming so ‘similar’ that it takes a while to recall the movie name. Producers nowadays, are roping in big names and spending huge sums, that the song sometimes appear to be bigger than the movie, and then they have some cheeky slang fitted in these songs which makes the huge sums spent all the more worthless.
The more recent songs like, ‘Tamanchey pe disco’, ‘Dhat teri ki’, ‘Matt maari’, ‘Gandi baat’, have bashed all logic, decency and sense. To these movie-makers I’d say, try putting more effort in the movie instead of the song and you’ll get your money’s worth. But this wave has become unstoppable. Give the producer the best actors, the best script and the best crew, he still will want an item number. And times will change further, but for good or bad, I don’t know. But till then,
Let’s lungi dance lungi dance lungi dance!!!
