Bollywood Song Sequences:Can we do without them?. Review on Changing Face of Cinegoer

Can life be without breath? Can fragrance be without flower? Can light be without the sun? Oh God, I think I am beginning to sound like a bit of the maniac that I really am.

Okay, the real question, can Bollywood be without the song sequence?

Music is a limb in the body, which is cinema. Dramatic as this may sound, cinema is handicapped without music. I remember all those lectures in college about the role music can play to convey and evoke moods, emotions, the works. In my Film Studies class I have watched Russian cinema, Italian cinema, French cinema, Chinese cinema and some other films that I cant for the life of me remember, from which country. But nowhere in the world are there films made containing elaborate song sequences with costume changes, lip-sync et al.

This is a feature unique to the Indian category. It is only in Indian cinema that we have the perpetually arrogant looking protagonist, suddenly breaking into a ridiculous jig, to the strains of what is anything but a dance number. It is only in Indian cinema that we have the lead lovers treating the local park as their personal discotheque, gyrating and swinging without so much as a thought to anyone who might be looking on. Almost from the start, the song sequence has been an inseparable part of Indian cinema. The issue at hand is, after so many years of being fed these song sequences, can we do without them?

The answers could vary. If you were a filmmaker who makes big budget films with commercial success as the eye of the bird you want to shoot, the answer would be a big blaring NO! Sadly, the quality of films being whipped up these days is such that directors throw in ?item numbers? to attract the audience to the theatres. The result: there you are, a film buff sitting in the theatre, hoping that the review you read is proved wrong, and the poor excuse for a story is suddenly interrupted by a scantily clad girl dancing to a racy number that has nothing to do with the rest of the film! Believe it or not, these numbers do turn out to be responsible for what little business these films do.

First, the downside. Songs are an innate feature of cinema. But is it really fair to realism to treat them as short intervals? If your film needs relief, my suggestion is don?t make that film. What doesn?t naturally seem like part of the narrative doesn?t deserve to be in it. I would like to understand how in many films, the protagonists when they are in a romantic mood, suddenly seem to land up in the vast plains of some obscenely beautiful country when they are middle class people struggling against the prickling heat of Mumbai. And what?s more, they have a whole herd of firangi friends dancing behind them!!!

But to be fair, this unique feature of the song sequence has led grandeur to Indian cinema on many occasions in the past. I cannot forget the song sequences in Mughal-e-Azam with Madhubala shining like a heavenly body, or Guru Dutt?s soulful look in the auditorium song in Pyaasa, or Raj Kapoor singing in the circus in Mera Naam Joker, or even Madhuri Dixit doing the Mujra in Devdas.

One wonders what films like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge etc would have been like without the song sequences. The songs in Indian cinema are treated with reverence. Some of the songs have been filmed in a spectacular manner. There are many songs, which I remember but have no clue which film they are from. Song sequences have become a very deeply rooted part of the film culture. One almost cannot imagine films without them. Or at least could not, till a few years back. But the new crop seems to think otherwise. Earlier it was only the ?arty? films, which chose to forego this feature. But now, films vying for commercial success are also doing the same. Many films like Rockford, Ek Haseena Thi etc have done very well without having song sequences per say.

It is difficult to completely shrug off something, which is such an innate part of you. But with realism catching up with films these days, there has to be a limit to how fancy-free and footloose one can be. The trick here I guess, would be to choose the middle path.

Lip-sync seems digestible on a stage show, not in the middle of a children?s park. And please, please, get rid of the extras, once and for all!!!! The best use of a soundtrack is to have it in the background. But if you HAVE to have a song sequence, it should at least be a part of the narrative flow. Unobtrusive is the operative word here. After all, a film doesn?t have to have more than one interval.