A Sleeve, and Shammi Kapoor
First off, thanks so much everyone for your kind comments on the Swallowtail shawl! It’s speeding away to Calcutta even as I type this, and I’m waiting to see what the MIL says.
The other day some friends and I were talking about the practice, among popular female Hindi film singers, of singing in such a high pitched scale that it made you want to go and hide somewhere. I don’t mind it that much; I think Lata Mangeshkar, who popularized this style, has one of the most beautiful voices ever. Some years back a scholar argued that this high, virginal voice in film music and its move away from more throaty, sensual voices associated with Muslim singers like Noor Jehan or Shamshad Begum came to represent the young, postcolonial Indian/Hindu nation’s anxieties and desires in the 1950s. But this argument, while not without some merit, also failed to explain the tremendous popularity of Lata’s sister Asha Bhosale, whose voice and songs were anything but virginal. Asha Bhosale is tremendously versatile, having recorded both serious natyasangeet, the light-classical Marathi form, innumerable rock-and-roll adaptations for hindi songs composed by her husband Rahul Dev Burman, and also an album with, of all people, Boy George (don’t ask.)
The conversation reminded me about being in the college band way back when, and the fights the girls and boys had over the scales to sing these popular numbers in: the boys would refuse to budge and sometimes the girls had to sing in a weird falsetto to match. I hated doing duets for this reason. For one show, though, I was delighted about one Asha and Mohammed Rafi number, which was doable and a treat to sing. Alas, we couldn’t perform it because the male singer got cold feet at the last minute and refused to come on stage. I remember being very mad. Boys.
The song, O Haseena Zulfon Wali (O Beautiful one with the lovely hair) was one of my favourites from a film I heartily recommend: Teesri Manzil (The third floor). Barring the heroine, Asha Parekh (about whom the less said the better), this film had everything going for it: Shammi Kapoor, crazy contortionist, romantic and comic hero, R.D.B.’s music and a whodunit storyline by Shakti Samanta that was totally, delightfully predictable. This song also features the lovely Helen, the most gorgeous "vamp" dancer in Hindi cinema. I love the sets, the costumes, the zany dance steps; Shammi Kapoor and Helen clearly had a great time cavorting through the song and didn’t mind poking fun at themselves.
I always wondered what reasons there were (if any) for those extra-high voices. It doesn’t seem as widespread in the contemporary pop music and film soundtracks I’ve heard. Do you think that’s consistent with the scholar’s theory (considering it’s not the 1950s anymore)? Thanks for always sharing such entertaining YouTube clips!
I love this song..my parents owned a video tape of this, and we used to literally watch the movie once a week before the days of Star TV. I think this number in particular set the standard for massive Busby Berkeley style productions for Hindi film songs that we see today.
Typepad never sent me notification of these comments. Weird. Re. the high-pitched voices, really, it’s not just a 50s phenomenon: the Mangeshkar sisters who popularised this style dominated well into the late 80s, and spawned a lot of less-talented mimics who couldn’t carry their voice that far but felt they had to to be heard. Nails on a blackboard, for the most part! In the last decade or so, though, a more bass, almost masculine kind of female voice – like Shubha Mudgal, if you’ve heard the soundtrack of the film Parineeta, or Ila Arun, who sang a lot of Rajasthani folk tunes – are becoming popular.
Glad you two enjoyed the clip!
Thank you again for another cool film clip. I’m all about the dancing. I love seeing the Spanish-esq aesthetic reflected and constructed through the Bollywood genre. It would be such a great clip for teaching because often my students believe that only white people in Hollywood films employ and/or represent other cultures in dance sequences… I love getting them to think about things from diverse perspectives (many of them already do out of situational necessity, but many of them also don’t yet.) That the same practice (seemingly the same) can be the result of a variety of approaches and motivations. But, before I can ‘go there’ I still have much to learn about Bollywood and Indian culture. Much. But my first response is being tickled to see one culture’s materials (embodied) through the eyes of another culture’s genre — and how when I think of this clip side by side with the Spanish section in a dance number from Singin’ in the Rain… it just gets me thinking about all sorts of interesting things.
At any rate, thank you for your last response about the political currency of Muslim actors… Other than being completely blown away by the more recent films of Aamir Khan, and Shahrukh Khan — I mean, I could go on and on about the refreshing approach to several pressing issues and the willingness to deal with ambiguity… and let the ambiguity stand. But, I really know very little about the day to dayness of life in India and Hindu-Muslim realities, past the Indian novels I’ve read and the Hindi films I’ve seen. Your comment was very helpful toward gaining a further understanding in relation to film and celebrity status. I look forward to seeing the research you mentioned on the issue. Anyhow, I just wanted to say thanks. I watch Bollywood films first because I enjoy them, and then I find that they really make me think about things in new ways. And as an academic, I can’t help but always be interested in cultural dynamics. (and you know, I came to your site for the knitting…) BTW: I love the look of twisted stitches in stockinette. I look forward to seeing your sleeve to see how they look alternated. Safe travels, and thank you again, I am really enjoying your blog on many levels.
Hi Mary, thanks so much for your detailed comment. The article I’d mentioned on Lata and her voice is in the journal Economic and Political Weekly by Sanjay Srivastava, but I’ll try to dig up the exact ref. It came out a couple of years ago, I think, and was titled “the idea of Lata mangeshkar.” As for different cultural influences, I’m sure there’s a lot of work on this wrt. Bollywood, but western influences, esp. in orchestral arrangements and rock and roll have been quite significant in early decades (let me see if I can find a classic video of this kind…) There continue to be influences, but i am not a fan of more recent music, and there’s also plagiarism, and I wonder, actually, if these borrowings are just wholesale “western” or can be parsed into more specific european ones as well.
Do check out the music of A.R. Rahman at the musicindiaonline.com site, though. He’s very innovative and blends a lot of different kinds of sounds and instruments.
hi
i would like to know how to contact you? i wanted to learn how to work in improving my blog. also how to add film cilps to the bolg
thanks in advance
shruti
wow – that is a lot of stitches! I give you credit – don’t know if I could do it! the row of twisted EOR sounds very interesting – would love to see a close up!