[coll] Bollywood: An Anthology (Silva Screen)
Reviewed by Sadie O, 11/25/05
Reasonably good overview of hits from Bollywood movies through the years. I don’t agree with all of the selections (two numbers from “Hum” and none from “Dil Se” is just bizarre), but there are plenty of undisputed classics. The Classic and Contemporary timeframes overlap as well. The artists given on the back cover are the singers – you’ll see Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangesgkar over and over; the two sisters have probably 100,000 recordings between them. The female vocals are sometimes almost painfully high in register to Western ears. The combinations of indigenous and Western musical styles are pretty illuminating. Sound quality is not always the best. Interestingly, the “contemporary” stuff seems to draw more from traditional Indian music than the earlier cuts.
1. 4:25 Cute 20’s jazzy sound and production meets 50’s pop/rock, overly adorable vocals go back and forth from Hindi and English, a touch of tabla interrupts the bop.
2. 3:24 **More jazz (this time 40’s) meets bop, cute and swingy vocals. Very nice horns on this. Interesting to see how India mixed American musical styles.
3. 3:26 Bhangra drums and definitely Indian tune (and classic Bollywood orchestration) make this more the typical Bolly sound. Fades out – probably cut out longer ending.
4. 6.01 Starts with long “oooh”, rattles and Bollywood orchestration come in a long time before vocal duet and chorus, very Indian folkish.
5. 6:51 Slow and quite romantic sounding, although it’s apparently a mystery. No beat until almost halfway through; the music follows Lata’s vocalizations. False ending and fade halfway through. Beat comes in stronger this time.
6. 2:35 **Already a station favorite, this is an undoubted hit from the hippy era. Nice to have the original available – the music is truly wild.
7. 6:03 Uptempo, shaker percussion recalls ankle bells of classical dancers. Tune is based on a raga. Strange vocalization midsong. Somewhat odd blending of orchestration with very classical aspects.
8. 3:43 **Lounge-y rumba with accordion and sax. Weird and cool!
9. 5:26 Starts with strangled humming and cough, then vocal duet like singing lesson. Downtempo music starts about a minute in.
10. 4:50 **Mysterious minor key with a bit of funky beat, pretty tune and vocals. The song remains popular in remixes.
11. 5:01 Very downbeat, soft flutes and bells, sad love song.
12. 3:15 **Jazzy horns and funky beat – sounds a bit like “Shaft”. Then there’s a bit of Western guitar… Then it’s just Bollywood. Ends very abruptly.

1. 8:00 Uptempo, terribly dramatic, many musical styles – very visually evocative. Make up your own narrative! It’s unlikely to be as goofy (crashing the bridal shower in drag) as the film.
2. 4:41 Starts soft with mostly vocals and flute, gets into an almost dubby downtempo groove. Has been sampled by Lil Kim.
3. 3:12 **James Bond with sitars – WAY groovy! Has been sampled by the Black Eyed Peas.
4. 5:33 **Mellow, evocative, jazzy build. Title phrase sung in English. Cool bass line. Extreme lounge.
5. 5:27 Spacey intro very slowly leads into rhythmic modern take on Indian folk dance. Seductive vocal duet. Odd ending.
6. 4:36 Looping rhythmic folk-based groove, still a popular number.
7. 6:11 Shit. This is the LEAST interesting song from this film! It’s sappy as hell. It’s also one of those songs that crawls into your brain like an earwig from hell and you hate it twice as much…
8. 4:54 Midtempo and upbeat, sung in Tamil. You can imagine all the slo-mo…
9. 4:58 **Cool rhythms start, then solo vocals by Asha, then lots of great instrumentation and vocals/chorus. Solid example of modern Bollywood/AR Rahman composition.
10. 8:22 **Rhythmic intro merges into Latin groove, celebratory feel, big Amitabh Bachchan hit much remixed (usually faster – the originally is solidly midtempo, although upbeat). Huge hit.
11. 5:00 Flute n trance n Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Some kick-ass sufi beats n chorus, too. Oddly musically tense in places, given the artist.