Introduction
Year 2019 was an year where Hindi music have seen many significant changes in its future directions. There are some singers and music directors made their place as influencers. The trends are healthy and we decided to write about this in a very short account based on some interesting songs we heard focusing on the people behind it and how these songs reflect some issues relevant to India’s society.
New trends in Hip-Hop and Rap
The very first subject of interest are songs from the movie Gullyboy. Written by Zoya Akthar and Reema Kagti, the movie captured the life of boy from Dharavi, a slum in Mumbai. A number of documentaries were made in the past that surprisingly missed to capture the real life of humans. See the video at the link recently came on YouTube that captured brilliantly in less than 20 minutes, life of people who live in a slum. There is a lot in that movie, so caution while watching.
2016 was an year that saw a lot of turmoil in student life in India (1 & 2), with few incidents like a lower cast boy’s suicide in upper education institute and a missing student case. Zoya when decided to tell the story of a ‘Gully boy with a talent in rap singing’, she decided to hire Chandigarh-based producer Siddharth Sharma aka Dub Sharma (3) to give music in the movie. Dub Sharma released a track at that time called Azadi that created a lot of excitement during the 2016 student movements which followed by a write up on his blog titled, I hope my song dies (4). The blog post explained why he made Azadi, his intention was to document what was going on in student protests from a creative perspective. Critiques thought his song was directly supportive of anti-India government sentiments.
When Mr. Sharma was contacted by Zoya for the movie along with singer-songwriter Ankur Tewari, that started a new turn in India’s music. Gully boy had eighteen tracks all western style Rap music. The film also included Azadi as one of the main tracks. The rap music of the film was the right mix to display how young poor see the lack of response to their problems by authorities. Use of rap music was a good medium to express these emotions. The Student movement and anti-India government sentiments were not the subject for the movie. The songs of the movie hit the top charts for the entire 2019, of which “Apna time Ayega“, was outstanding in its musicality. Is the music scene in India going to produce a lot of rap songs in the coming year? Don’t think so. Yet, it sure made an impact on the music scene. Independent hip hop artists like Bantai Emiway and his latest hit on Corona virus is a great example; unknowingly India’s audience is accepting this style into its new tastes. In truth some of our traditional folk lore is in the style of a rap. So as always India had invented many things much before than rest of the world, but we did not know that we invented them!
Multi music directorial trends
A multi music director production Kabir Singh, was a new trendsetter for Bollywood music scene. The soundtrack is composed by Mithoon, Amaal Mallik, Vishal Mishra, Sachet–Parampara (a duo consisting of Sachet Tandon and Parampara Thakur) and Akhil Sachdeva. Lyrics are written by Irshad Kamil, Manoj Muntashir, Kumaar and Mithoon. Songs from the movie were finest tunes we heard last year. Arijit Singh did an exceptional singing for the Song Bekhayali, was like a fresh breath in a lot of noisy scene. Arman Malik’s Pehla Pehla Pyar was also a good song that went up the charts from this movie. A big shout out for this hard working youngster.
Kalank and its music was the next outstanding one that made a real impression that Pritm is taking a solid position among new music directors. He displayed that he can do a great work for a time period movie and yet make music relevant to modern day. Shreya Ghoshal’s Ghar More Pardeshiya was an outstanding composition made for this film. Movies’ title track Kalank sung by Arijit Singh, lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya and composed by Pritam, was also an outstanding composition; a joy to listen in the magic voice of Arijit.
The next position is for songs from movie Kesari. The movie had one outstanding song Teri Mitti sung by B Praak, lyrics by Manoj Muntashir and composed by Arko Pravo Mukherjee known as Arko. Arko a medical graduate from Calcutta, had been in music direction for sometime. But this probably is his most noticeable music direction, that made him look like a serious music director. The film also have another melody Ve mahi sung by Arijit Singh & Asees Kaur, lyrics by Tanishk Bagchi composed by Tanishk Bagchi. The music for this movie also is by many directors all the way from Tanishk Bagchi, Arko Pravo Mukherjee, Chirantan Bhatt, Jasbir Jassi, Gurmoh and Jasleen Royal; with lyrics written by Kumaar, Manoj Muntashir, Kunwar Juneja and Tanishk Bagchi.
A significant impact made when the song Vaaste hit charts last year. Sung by young actor/singer Dhvani Bhanushali & Nikhil D’Souza“, composed by “Tanishk Bagchi ” and the lyrics by “Arafat Mehmood”. Tanishk gave Dhvani a life and career through this song. Tanishk is also from Calcutta. His last year show that he is a very successful music director with anything he ever gave music turned to be hit on the internet and top charts.
Shaitan ka Saala, this crazy song had been a forceful top here. Sohail Sen sang and composed it, Vishal Dadlani featured in it, Farhad Samji wrote the lyrics. In a multi-composer film, Sohail’s song is an outstanding rhythm that suited a scene so well; must say song is the heart of its success. The song is about Devil’s brother in law, Baala and it feels like that is how Devil’s brother in law sing and dance. It is absolutely a great work by this young talented music director.
The music from Luka Chuppi by Tanishk Bagchi, Abhijit Vaghani and White Noise while the lyrics are written by Kunaal Verma was absolute pleasure to listen. Coca cola and Duniya both are nice songs that made an impression that Tanishk is a hit maker music director from last year. The song Coca Cola is beautifully sung by Neha Kakkar, Tony Kakkar, and Young Desi. Duniya by Akhil & Dhvani Bhanushali, Music Composed by Abhijit Vaghani. Some of the his best songs that won him awards are numbers like Kanha sung by Shashaa Tirupati show real talent of this young music director.
The Ghungroo Song from movie War is our next pick. All thanks to singers Arijit Singh and Shilpa Rao; composers Vishal and Shekhar, and lyricist Kumaar. The singers did an excellent job singing this foot tapping number that put the highly hyped duo music directors on the top chart. The duo used to make a lot of melodies that hit the top charts, had been struggling to keep the tempo going in recent years.
O saki saki from the movie Batla House. The song is sung by Tulsi Kumar, Neha Kakkar, B Praak. The track is recreated and written by Tanishk Bagchi. The song is originally composed by Vishal- Shekhar. The so called item song, made an artistic come back with this song. The singing by the trio is the outstanding factor that made this song a chart buster last year.
Last place in top 10 picks of last year goes to Chashni in the beautiful voice of Abhijeet Srivastava; Lyrics: Irshad Kamil composed by Vishal & Shekhar. The song other wise an ordinary melody is big time saved by this amazing singer Abhijeet and he is an outstanding talent to look for in the coming years.
END NOTES
Overall last year had seen a lot of meaningless foot tapping dance numbers made in order to have the young dancing kids Tiger Shroff and Varun Djavan to dance for. While trying to cater to box office trends, music directors at least tried to keep the good music going on. Except for music of Kalank, a period film that gave a beautiful song like Ghar more pardeshiya, almost all other top songs are representation of large shift in the music interests for an entire Bollywood scene.
We don’t think there will be good music if there is no good meaningful movies made. All the songs that we displayed here goes with some good stories made in the last year. Essentially, Bollywood music and thus major Hindi music industry is intertwined with serious movie making. Earlier days of Hindi film music, there used to be cinemas made called ‘parallel cinemas’, that catered to an audience that craved for artful cinema and music. Understandably those trends are completely wiped off from Bollywood. Sad thing is that realism in Hindi movies is hard to come by for some strange reason.
When movies go big to take subjects of serious nature, expected to have music of quality to go with it. Hope Hindi cinema will go in that direction in the coming years and we will see great movies made and great music made along with it.
References:
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35349790
- https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/a-brief-history-of-student-protests-in-india/story-zYvk2GeblUVBtzjOzcLA1N.html
- Meet Dub Sharma, the ace producer behind some of the smash hits on the Gully Boy soundtrack- First post Feb 2019.
- i hope my song dies- Dub Sharma- blog post
