August column: Music in Bollywood
The Bollywood music industry comprises original soundtrack albums that feature plot-specific songs composed especially for a film. Among the most unusual features of this industry are playback singers that record the songs before filming and actors that lip-sync to these songs on screen to make it appear as if the characters themselves are singing. I would like to elaborate on the origin and purpose of music in Hindi cinema and the unique role that playback singers perform in this art form.
My column on Indian cinema for the month of August was about music in Bollywood films and the unique structure of the art form. This column is published on the last Thursday of every month in local Vermont newspapers, Brattleboro Reformer, Bennington Banner and Manchester Journal. Read the full piece below.
The Bollywood music industry comprises original soundtrack albums that feature plot-specific songs composed especially for a film. Among the most unusual features of this industry are playback singers that record the songs before filming and actors that lip-sync to these songs on screen to make it appear as if the characters themselves are singing. I would like to elaborate on the origin and purpose of music in Hindi cinema and the unique role that playback singers perform in this art form.
Films and music
Music has been an integral part of the Indian culture and every celebration is accompanied by songs that correspond to the occasion. It was therefore natural for music to have become a part of Indian cinema right from its genesis. The first Indian talkie, “Alam Ara” (1931) had seven songs that were all sung live by actors on set. Some Hindi films in the same decade featured as many as 42 songs. That number reduced drastically and over time, an average of five to seven songs per film was established as the norm.
Historically, songs have served varied purposes in Indian cinema: At times, they have been used as plot devices to take the story forward; occasionally, they’ve acted as the narrator or character’s voice but their most important function has been entertainment. Before the advent of television, people in India listened to the radio and songs acted as advertorial tools for marketing a film before its theatrical release.
Filmmakers wanted audiences to listen to the songs, sing along, earmark their favorites so that when the film released, audiences would throng to cinema halls to watch the on-screen picturization of familiar melodies. This attuned Indian audiences to expect song and dance in every film and the opening week of a film was determined by how successfully the music was received in the pre-release period. As a result, an entire industry of lyricists, composers, singers, musicians and even critics was born that catered to and were specifically trained for Bollywood film music.
Beginning of playback
Synchronized sound in films, especially in noisy Indian cities, was difficult and recording music live on set was turning out to be one of the biggest hurdles for filmmakers. In 1935, composer Rai Chand Boral, for a film called “Dhoop Chhaon,” introduced the concept of lip-syncing to pre-recorded songs. This opened separate avenues for artists that could act well and those that could sing well.
Soon, recording songs for films came to be known as playback singing. The recording setup for Bollywood music in the early days was often done at the filming studio after wrap-up. Singers were expected to record amidst hot studio lighting, often without chairs or proper equipment. The recording quality of songs from the 1940, 1950s and 1960s is quite variable with the singer’s voice often coming across louder than the accompanists.
Music composition and recording for a Bollywood movie typically take place well before filming so that the songs are ready for actors to lip-sync on screen. The music director roughly explains the situation of the song to the singer and where it appears in the film.
When used as plot devices, songs convey a range of emotions and act as the character’s interior or exterior monologue. Therefore, playback singers have the challenging responsibility to emote and infuse a range of emotions such as grief, hatred, joy, adoration, jealousy and laughter into the song. Unlike dubbing, where the actors’ expressions are in front of the voiceover artiste, playback singers have to rely on their own imagination and understanding of the song situation. All of this while, of course, singing in perfect tune and pitch.
Artists such as Lata Mangeshkar, her sister, Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, Manna Dey are yesteryear legends that created the grammar for playback singing in Bollywood music. For decades, these names were the singing voices behind countless heroes and heroines. A playback singer was considered most beloved and successful based on the versatile quality of their voice. The more faces that could lip-sync to a voice, the more usable that voice became. Doyenne and playback queen of Bollywood, Lata Mangeshkar has sung for almost 80 different heroines over eight decades.
Method singing
Bollywood music has been an ever-evolving genre wherein singers have created their personal styles and methods to perfect a song recording. There are countless examples of singers using unusual techniques to express through song, almost like method acting.
Some songs recorded in the 1960s before much technological advancement required singers to create echo effects by modulating their voice and adjusting their distance from the mic. In some songs, singers had to pretend as if they were shivering, crying, laughing or teasing. To bring out a character’s inebriated state, singers sang in a low tone while slurring or occasionally added hiccups to the song.
“You enact a song like an actor does his scenes,” contemporary playback singer KK had explained to me in an interview (KK’s full interview about playback singing can be found on my podcast, Vidhi’s Jukebox).
Indian cinema produces an average of 1,000 films per year and soundtracks account for nearly 80% of a film’s revenue. Bollywood music constitutes 50% of the country’s overall music market. Some movies that were unsuccessful at the box office continue to be remembered only for their music, which explains why songs remain an inseparable part of Indian cinema. The idiom of music and the way audiences interact with songs is quite different in Hindi movies. The manner in which Indian movie lovers react to hearing a Bollywood song, especially if they are in a foreign country, is indicative of the familiarity and sense of “home” the music makes them feel.