WEEKLY DHAMAAL: GAON KI GORI TO AN ITEM NUMBER…NAACH GAANA TIME… FINAL PART
After the soundtrack of Hindi films, the next thing that strikes my mind is the Bollywood dance sequences. The dancing in Bollywood films, especially older ones, is primarily modelled on Indian dance: classical dance styles, dances of historic northern Indian courtesans or folk dances. In modern films, Indian dance elements often blend with Western dance styles, though it is not unusual to see Western pop and pure classical dance numbers side by side in the same film.
The hero or heroine will often perform with a troupe of supporting dancers. Many song-and-dance routines in Indian films feature unrealistically instantaneous shifts of location and/or changes of costume between verses of a song.If the hero and heroine dance and sing a pas-de-deux, it is often staged in beautiful natural surroundings or architecturally grand settings. This staging is referred to as a “picturisation”.
Songs typically comment on the action taking place in the movie, in several ways. Sometimes, a song is worked into the plot, so that a character has a reason to sing; other times, a song is an externalisation of a character’s thoughts, or presages an event that has not occurred yet in the plot of the movie. In this case, the event is almost always two characters falling in love.
Bollywood films have always used what are now called “item numbers”. A physically attractive female character (the “item girl”), often completely unrelated to the main cast and plot of the film, performs a catchy song and dance number in the film. In older films, the “item number” may be performed by a courtesan dancing for a rich client or as part of a cabaret show. The dancer Helen was famous for her cabaret numbers.
As Sona Karia, an upcoming fashion designer based in UK puts it across, “Hindi films have always been close to me and the Indians who live here. Globally, the songs and the dances form an identity of Hindi cinema. At times, though, they are shown unnecessarily, which should be cut down. As a student of fashion I have also observed the colour that the music and dance adds to the value of Indian Cinema. But lets not make it a tradition.”
I decided to take an Indian perspective and I found an enthusiastic guy, Avish Ramchandani, who has a very unconventional line of thinking about the naach-gaana that happens in Hindi movies, “I like substance and most of the films have these sequences which are inherited from an alienated world. The songs and dance sequences form the basic reason for which our cinema is still very orthodox compared to cinema made globally.”
In modern films, item numbers may be inserted as discotheque sequences, dancing at celebrations, or as stage shows. For the last few decades Bollywood producers have been releasing the film’s soundtrack, as tapes or CDs, before the main movie release, hoping that the music will pull audiences into the cinema later. Oftentimes, the soundtrack is more popular than the movie.
In the last few years some producers have also been releasing music videos, usually featuring a song from the film. However, some promotional videos feature a song which is not included in the movie.
Hanumant Bhansali
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