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INDIA - SENSUAL SONG - 'Takatu Taka Tai' - MANDAKINI & JEETENDRA – FILM: 'SINGHASAN' 1986
SWEETNESS and VULGARITY make strange bedfellows with these two 'HINDUSTAN-HISTORICAL' theatrical bedfellows from the regal 1986 'NEW WAVE' film 'SINGHASAN'...namely, the ravishing 16 year old MANDAKINI and the 20-looking-but-45-year-old-bewigged-bemustachioed-hero JEETENDRA! The voices of then new PLAYBACK SINGERS: KAVITA KRISHNAMURTHY on MANDAKINI and NITIN MUKESH [a young voice that takes a few years off JEETENDRA!] make for a new sort of sound after decades of the same tryst of MANGESHKARS and KUMAR spiriting out of the mouths of 100s of film stars. These new recording artists did bust up the songbird 'cartel' that the MANGESHKAR SISTERS & CO. had gripped INDIAN CINEMA MUSIC with for forty years, however, these replacement voices are weak in comparison and represented the FATAL DILUTION of TALENT and AUTHENTICITY that has descended into the bland forgettable talentless mediocrity of PLAYBACK SINGING in INDIA CINEMA with the 'Bollywood' tag today.
MUSIC DIRECTOR BAPPI LAHIRI
BAPPI was a great composer - Inspired by WESTERN MUSIC and DISCO plus some INDIAN MAGIC of his own. This man was a legend and produced some rhythmic tinsel compositions that really are unique, catchy, simple, yet often murderously athletic for the ORCHESTRAL PLAYER to peform.
'NEW WAVE' TO GLOBAL GREED
'SINGHASAN' was possibly one of LAHIRI'S last really stunning 'NEW WAVE' film scores where nearly every song is musically and visually divine. By 1986 INDIAN CINEMA was changing...£$€£$€.. was 'on the Bombay horizon' in the shape of the $10 DUBAI/LONDON/NEW YORK cinema tickets...the domestic India movie house market at Rs.2 a seat had no chance...The CULTURAL TELESCOPE was turned back-to-front to catch the money-heist abroad...ORIENTAL 'NEW WAVE' films were just 'too Indian' for the exporting cash crop for Bombay overseas...BAPPI LAHIRI'S days of, "Dintara Dintara" and authentic theatrical INDIAN-LOOKING VISUALS would be sharply booted out to make way for..."Oh, Miss '86 Aaya Hai" in shorts and sunglasses with mediocre star sons and daughters..and 'HOLLYWOOD' deformed into 'BOLLYWOOD'...INDIAN CINEMA began to GLOBALISE to cash in abroad...Local interest in cinema began to wane...one man said of 'BOLLYWOOD' to me in Delhi in 2004, "We don't understand these new films. We don't like the songs. Also the vulgarity and nakedness make it impossible for me to take my family to the cinema. I would feel shame sitting with my relatives in such a film. We are good Hindu people, this vulgarity in India is not acceptable to us. We don't go to the cinema in India any more...".
'TAKATU TAKA TAI'
The LYRICS to BAPPI LAHIRI'S 'NEW WAVE' films were brilliant and memorable but never terribly poetic...This one means nothing in particular in English! It is just a set of RHYTHMIC SYLLABLES with some vague connections to TABLA BOLES - Indian hand floor TABLA drums have names areas to hit called 'BOLES'/'SPEAKS', e.g. 'Ta' [edge area], 'Tin' [middle area] ... The areas and pattern to be played is often relayed to the player by speaking the BOLES then the pattern is played. The title comes from this and to do with SENSUAL DRUM PLAY ON THE BODY OF THE LOVED ONE! The other main line of the song is, "Pyar ki pehli raat aayee"/"The first night of love has come" which is more lyrical with gliding violin runs whisking us up to 'heaven' [I presume!]...
The simplicity of the LYRICS and REPETITION did make LAHIRI'S songs really memorable and unique but blasted by the critics and 'the educated classes' [who were also astonished at the increasing nudity..of a non-Western INDIAN TRADITIONAL kind...].
ORCHESTRATION
BAPPI LAHIRI'S ORCHESTRATION [plan organised music parts for an orchestra] was attacked in the 1980s by RELIGIOUS SCHOLARS in INDIA on the grounds that, "It is obscene and subconsciously promotes illicit sex that corrupts youth through constant violin scale runs and other effects that aurally simulate orgasm and sexual arousal in songs. We are aware of the agenda of this orchestration in the cinema". It was the PROGRAMMATIC [music which supports dramatic themes rather than just being purely music] elements that were objected to in BAPPI'S music. Whether these effects were for sexual titilation, pop song energy or just orchestration that provided visual cues is not clear. The accusations are hilarious and typical of slurs on BAPPI LAHIRI'S films which were hated by the critics but a smash at the box office.
ARRANGEMENT
The odd new voices are fresh, if not weak, but are wrapped in a delicate quite 'WESTERN' and contrasted ORCHESTRATION but the song is quite definitely INDIAN.
The FORM [sections over time] is quite disjointed by theatrical brass and string 'film music' bridges, possibly for two reasons. Firstly, the sung parts of the song are repetitive and a little fragile. Secondly, the visuals of the song maybe required the 'dashing' ORCHESTRAL BRIDGES.
Category | Education |
Sensitivity | Normal - Content that is suitable for ages 16 and over |
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