The Groovebox: The Clash

Amit Gurbaxani opines on the co-option of rock by Bollywood.

The release of the soundtrack to the Hindi film Break Ke Baad, which as you may have read features a number of Indian indie musicians, got me thinking again about how the co-option of rock by Bollywood may help indie musicians increase their fan bases. Exposure to a distilled version of something might encourage someone to explore the real thing. On the other hand, I thought of how the reverse – indie fans so traditionally averse to Bollywood wanting to try Hindi film music out after hearing their favourite artist on a soundtrack – is unlikely.

This is because Bollywood is so big, that it eats up everyone and everything. Ultimately, it makes everyone conform to its aesthetic. Take the case of Vishal-Shekhar, the music directors of Break Ke Baad. When they started out, and up until recently, they were one of the most interesting composers working in Bollywood. Like Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, they followed in AR Rahman’s footsteps to redefine the sound of Hindi film music in the late nineties and early noughties. They introduced fresh sounds; they didn’t just copy them. Five years ago, when Vishal-Shekhar made Abhishek Bachchan rap in Bluffmaster! it didn’t sound derivative. Somehow they managed to take a completely foreign genre – one more foreign to Indian sensibilites than even rock – and made it seem convicing. Sure, there was a novetly factor to the song; but while it sounded cheesy, it did not sound fake.

Cut to 2010, which has probably been Vishal-Shekhar’s most commercially successful year ever. They’ve scored two chart-topping soundtracks, I Hate Luv Storys and Anjaana Anjaani and in all likelihood, Break Ke Baad will make it a hattrick. Each of the albums are perfectly servicable Bollywood soundtracks, but to me they represent a precarious point in the duo’s career. But while they are consistent – the tunes have strong melodies, the vocals are never jarring – they’re also predictable. Vishal-Shekhar now have a “sound”. This might be seen as a good thing. But in the indie music world, bands win fans for experimentation. The more left turns a band takes, the more exciting it is for the listeners – at least in the long run. (For this, we need only look to Vishal’s own band Pentagram as an example.) Not so in Bollywood.

The best thing I can say about Break Ke Baad is that it uses fresh voices. We’ve never heard Monica Dogra (Shaa’ir of Shaa’ir + Func) like this before, and Nikhil D’Souza seems to be getting more confident with every additional Hindi tune he croons. For me, however, the soundtrack is not as half as rewarding as Vishal-Shekhar’s work for the 2009 flop Aladdin. I wrote about the album when I reviewed it upon release:

…the duo is still giving Shankar Mahadevan more interesting songs than he has been giving himself lately: the exuberant “Tak Dhina Din”, which segues through assorted interludes from a bed of horns and syncopated beats…Vishal-Shekhar have always been men of ideas, and though Aladin has its fair share of them, not all work. “Ore Sawariya” is a noughties update of “Rang Barse” while in “You May Be”, they’ve managed to make an English-Hindi ballad that doesn’t make you cringe…”

I gave the album 2 stars out of 5 (a lot of the other ideas didn’t work) but in retrospect, at least they tried.

Now, they seem to be in a comfort zone, and part of the reason could be because they’re being asked to work on films by directors and producers who share an aesthetic. If you aren’t familiar with Bollywood, and were to see a random montage of song clips from I Hate Luv Storys, Anjaana Anjaani and Break Ke Baad, you could very probably think they were all from the same film. Romcoms centered around sets of couples that are supposed to portray a certain “urban” cool, they may have differing plotines but the clothes, the sets, the mise en scene are almost identical. Not surprisingly, the makers of these films have a common link to either Aditya Chopra or Karan Johar, two filmmakers often cited for bringing in a new wave of Bollywood cinema in the late nineties. Alas, their proteges lack their mentors’s stronge sense of individuality. You can tell a Chopra or Johar apart from the rest, you can’t say the same for Siddharth Anand (Salaam Namaste, Anjaana Anjaani) or Punit Malhotra’s (IHLS) work. We’ll have to wait for Break Ke Baad to release for the verdict on Danish Aslam.

So perhaps Vishal-Shekhar are asked to make songs that sound exactly like Vishal-Shekhar songs by these filmmakers, and while the music might work for Bollywood fans, indie fans are very likely to dismiss it as commercial pop-rock lite. It’s almost like, if we were to draw a parallel between Vishal-Shekhar and Kings Of Leon, they’re in the Only By The Night stage of their career. They’re selling like never before, but creatively they’re at a career crossroads.

Amit Gurbaxani is Indiecision’s contributing editor. He writes and edits for the popular city-centric website www.mumbaiboss.com.

Pic: Shirley D’Costa