Rough Guide: Bollywood Gold

[coll]: Rough Guide: Bollywood Gold
Reviewed by Sadie O., 3/13/07
One of many collections of hits from the “Golden Era” of Bollywood, 1960-1980. Personally, I think there’s much better music from films roughly around the year 2000, but try telling most Indians that… This version of “Mehbooba Mehbooba” is much closer to the film version than any of the others we have, and it’s really nice to have the original of Awaara Hoon, and it’s kind of nice that they DIDN’T include Dum Maro Dum since we have 4 versions of it already… Mostly, however, I really think you need to see the movies – they often don’t come off with much interest without the visuals, frankly.
No FCCs, are you KIDDING??? They don’t even KISS in Bollywood!
I like 12 best because it has utterly odd bits, 3, 5, 8, 14 also decent.
1. **quiet solo male vocals intro, then big filmi music, midtempo bouncy music with a bit of bhangra beat, hearty tenor male vocal and cutesy giggly female vocals – love duet (surprise!) Some very weird interactions…
2. **very 60’s cinematic sound, uptempo, orchestral. Male vocals with major yodeling.
3. ***classic number from the greatest Bollywood movie of all time, and it isn’t the actual film version! Damn… Rather downtempo, sort of a staggering beat, a bit of exoticism, manly male vocals, more yodeling. *
4. *bowed classical Indian instrument, ghazal sung by female playback superstar Asha Bhosle to a downtempo tabla-based beat.
5. ***wild uptempo twist-a-frug-a-gogo electric guitars and trap drums – Bollywood beach party! Manic male then female vocals. builds to a fever pitch.
6. *sappy strings, uber-romantic love duet. Vocals very much in the Indian tradition of gender roles, music rather Western film orchestra sound.
7. **starts off with male yah-hoo and big strings. Bouncy slightly uptempo male vocals, seemingly bravado-laden.
8. ***midtempo, very memorable tune, rather nasal male vocals. 3 Mustafas 3 did a lovely cover – the song was a hit over much of the world.
9. *slightly uptempo instrumental, very non-Western, hard to describe…
10. *solo male vocal intro, then big swingy midtempo beat with accordion. Love song duet, but not overly sappy.
11. **big cinemascope intro, slightly downtempo loping “king of the open road” vibe with a bit of semi-yodelling.
12. ****tweety-bird intro, gradually building into big chorus and big drums. MIdtempo bhangra with male vocals. Some truly odd musical moments here, and singer gets quite overwrought on occasion. Doesn’t seem to hold that much promise at first, but it’s pretty utterly mad overall.
13. **sad accordion intro, big emotional orchestra, tears of a clown stuff. Oh, it gets seriously weird a minute and a half in, then midtempo beat with a hint of cha cha.
14. ***sitar and flute intro –mysterious and sad. Then downtempo tabla beat with female vocals, very traditional instrumentation. Ends with either a diseased train whistle or a demonic bird.
15. *intro comes in rather slowly. Uptempo orchestra with jaunty beat, accordion, male vocals.
*track 3 - One of the greatest scenes ever filmed, I swear – there’s a gypsy tart quasi-bellydancing around in the outlaw camp while the singer writhes in the dust at her feet yodeling “beloved, beloved” at her – and good bad guy Amitabh Bachchan skulks around laying explosives in their tents. Gotta love a dance number where everything blows up at the end!