Apr 9/08
A night with Bachchan
I was going to post about something else today, but last night we were invited by some friends in Paris for some mean, home-made Indian food. After dinner we all settled into a trashy Hindi movie, Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswathi, starring everyone’s favourite megastar, Amitabh Bachchan… as you do.
The first time I (deliberately) saw Bachchan on the silver screen was in Toronto in 2002 at the Ontario Place IMAX theatre. There he was, in mega-widescreen, making out with ladies in front of the pyramids or shedding a single tear, with a four hour-long sonic backdrop of orgiastic, string-infused music.
The movie was called Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and it would eventually become one of the most popular titles ever in the history of Indian cinema.. in that horrible yet occasionally amazing way that mega-Hollywood films like Titanic are tops over here.
I made friends at intermission who filled me in on the subtler details of over-the-top Bollywood contemporary film. The crowd was really into it, and the man they were all there to see was Amitabh Bachchan.
This guy is so popular that when in 1983 he fell into a coma after being injured on the set of the film “Coolie” all of India went into mourning. Apparently millions of people from all faiths and backgrounds prayed, plus thousands gave blood and kept a candlelit vigil outside his hospital. An article I read in Time Magazine claims that “one fan ran 800 km backwards across India in jubilation”.
Needless to say, he recovered. While the movie I saw last night signalled his temporary downfall in the late 80s he would rise again during the 90s to regain the title of India’s favourite movie star. And why not? Anyone who can talk to cobras, wrestle crocodiles, get the ladies and still do a mean dance is ace in my books.
Now my Indian music collection is sub-par, but I do have a few favourite tracks related to Bollywood that I could share with you today.
First of all, don’t miss the final scene from the movie I saw last night, Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswathi. Watch until the end when he shows up with the croc. Classic.
Next, one of my favourite 70s Bollywood tracks is “My Heart Is Beating” by Preeti Sagar from the 1975 movie, Julie. The video is fantastic.
In 2005 The Kronos Quartet released a beautiful album of music from R.D. Burman’s Bollywood music called You’ve Stolen My Heart. My favourite remake is from the 1971 movie, Caravan. You can see the original scene/song here. (And in case you’re wondering, yes, Bachchan was in several of R.D. Burman’s films in the mid-1970s.)
For the sake of completion I’ll include a track from the Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham soundtrack. It’s cheesy, sure, but see the movie and you might understand why it’s also amazing.
Last but not least we’ll throw a little Madlib into the mix. He’s my favourite hiphop producer, and even he is into Bollywood. His 2007 release, Beat Konducta Vol. 3 & 4: In India, uses Bollywood clips as the basis for all the mixes. Some great video here.
Feels good to be back.
Preeti Sagar - My Heart Is Beating
Kronos Quartet - Piya tu ab to aaja
Bole Chudiyan
Madlib - Masala
April 9th, 2008 at 9:27 am
and he’s back!
fantastical.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Ouch.
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham is awesome.
These people are awesome (Barney, get out of this body). Hugues used to have a choregraphy over a scene, but of course if you ask he’ll deny.
I saw a documentary on Bachchan, this guy is basically a god.
Great tracks, by the way.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Apart from the fact that Amitabh made a full recovery, of course, my favourite part of the story about the injury on the set of “Coolie” is the way that in the finished film there is a freeze-frame at the moment of injury and text appears on the screen - in three languages - to inform the viewer that this is when it happened. A great example of breaking down the barrier between reality and fiction! Someone put it up on youtube.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Great to have you back!
If you get a chance have a listen to my world/global podcast, would love your opinion.
http://www.flyingcarpet.podomatic.com
As you may hear my defenition of world is very broad!
Alex
April 18th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Gareth- we watched Coolie in its entirety the other night. Amazing.
April 27th, 2008 at 7:42 am
i was so inspired by this post i went and picked up two new bollywood dvds the other day at my local indian grocery….. i first heard of mr.Bachchan when i was building my aishwarya fan site. (im sure you are aware of their relation) i cant wait to find this particular movie and i hope to see many more posts about the amazing entity known as BOLLYWOOD!
May 3rd, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Hi there. I’m just getting out of a full year listening to almost no other new music than Bollywood’s; watching the movies picking up my favorites tunes. It all strarted with the
masterpiece Taal (by Subash Ghai, music AR Rahman). Now among my favorites for music, we have Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (mid 90’s but quite trad. by Jatin-Lalit), Ram Lakan (early 90’s the great Laxmikant-Pyarelal), Coolie (early 80’s, also L-P), Noorie (forgot about dates & composers), and the wonderful Jis Desh Mein Ganga Bethi Hai (mid 60’s pure trad.)
But other examples are unnumerable (like late N.F.A. Khan’s apparition in a song of Aur Pyar Ho Gaya close before his death, or the famous disco tune Dum Maro Dum from Hare Krishna Hare Ram). In the meanwhile, Bollywood is emerging ever more, here in France and I just _love_ this. Cheap rental or buying (yes, indian groceries are amazing places) of a jollyfull 3 hours masala film with up to an hours of singing and dancing is the best price ratio you’ll get from any mass culture business. Also check other kind of indan music like brass bands (CD Les fanfares du Rajastan) and also Bollywood Brass Band, remixes from the great Bally Sagoo (bangra and all styles) and Apache Indian (bangramuffin), wedding songs, ghazals (sung poetry), sufi songs and more and more and much much more.
And now that I start back again listening some other kind of musics when seeking for novelty, at last dicovering your blog, well what are you talking us about? Well thanks so much, at least it gave me an occasion to post very early after the discovery
Next time -very soon- I promiss I’m going to post about my favorite US bands, and like Antibalas from who you already talked they are not out of the spot of your web wonder!
June 4th, 2008 at 3:22 am
Sounds like Gibreel Farishta from The Satanic Verses. I bet Rushdie had Bachchan in mind…
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:03 pm
There are so many other far better movies than K3G…actually K3G is one of the worst movies of AB…try and watch some of his old flicks like Don, Satte Pe Satta, Deewar, Bemisaal, Abhimaan, Amar Akbar Anthony, Coolie, Naseeb…to name a few and from the newer list try Agneepath, Hum, Khuda Gawah, Black, Khakee, Cheeni Kum (2007) Nishabd (2007), Bunty aur Babli (2005)