The Groovebox: Pseudo Echo

Amit ‘The Groovebox’ Gurbaxani on sex, drugs, lungis, ghungroos and rock n’ roll.

I really hope that the people behind this website have sent A. R. Rahman an invitation for the Bacardi NH7 Weekender festival. Rahman, reportedly, has yet to see a “true rock star” from India. He told the Hindustan Times, “Culturally, we are a family-bound society and rockstars are known to do all sorts of odd things.”

He does not specify, nor does the reporter clarify, exactly what was meant by “all sorts of odd things”. Presumably, Rahman meant the “sex and drugs” that traditionally accompany “rock n’ roll”. Or maybe he just meant the tendency to throw TV sets out of hotel windows, or the need to demand bowls of M&Ms without the brown ones. We don’t know.

His comment, nevertheless, has both saddened and enraged me, for many reasons: first, because to me, Rahman is a musical genius (but hey, even musical geniuses say stupid things from time to time – for further reference, just see Morrissey); second, because this shortsighted remark comes from someone who was himself in a rock band; and third, because it comes around the release of what has been pretty much universally regarded as Rahman’s long-awaited return to form, Rockstar, a new Bollywood about the life of an Indian rock star.

When Rahman was in a rock band, as we have learned from his conversations with author Nasreen Munni Kabir, the Indian rock scene was very different. Back then, as most of you reading this know, the quality of a band was based on how well they could cover other people’s songs. Rahman is clearly a busy man and it pains to me to know that he has apparently not kept track of the very scene he was once a part.

Because even if we were to go by his myopic definition of a “rock star” being more about the lifestyle than the music, then he should know that Indian rock is not without its fair share of sex or drugs. But he fails to see the biggest aspect of rock n’ roll – that of rebellion. Up until maybe three years ago, any Indian who decided to make a career out of writing and performing his or her original rock music compositions, was by default a rebel. By going against the mainstream – which on one level meant choosing not to become a banker or engineer, and on another, choosing to work out of the Bollywood realm – they were giving a big, fat up-yours to the “system”. If that’s not “rock”, I don’t know what else is. To become a “rock star”, you need success, and if Mr. Rahman would like to learn the names of a few Indian rock stars, we suggest he carefully read the names of all the acts performing on any of the three main stages at the Bacardi NH7 Weekender.

To give him the benefit of doubt, maybe Rahman made his comments on the basis of what he knows – the Hindi and South Indian film soundtrack worlds. And the idea of rock there is bound to confuse anyone. I find it mildly amusing how many writers refer to the emergence of rock in Bollywood soundtracks, citing mainly two films Rock On!! and Rockstar, presumably because the two of them include the word “rock” in their titles. Poor pilfering Pritam has such a bad rep that people forget that he laid claim to the first Bollywood rock soundtrack back in 2007 on the basis of his work in Life In A…Metro. But as some have pointed out, Rockstar has in truth only two actual rock songs, ‘Sadda Haq’ and ‘Jo Bhi Main’. They are by themselves almost perfectly arranged, melodic rock tunes, but at worst they are the kind of rock one would associate with Pakistani pop-rock artists such as Atif Aslam (who predictably made a foray into Hindi film playback singing), and at best, the kind of rock one would associate with Sufi rock bands such as Junoon.

But even if one were to go by the very basic definition of rock as music made by a band that plays instruments such as the electric guitar, drums and bass, rock has been in Bollywood for almost as long as the genre has existed. Shammi Kapoor played a rock musician – inventively called Rocky – way back in 1966’s Teesri Manzil, and R. D. Burman’s “Western music” inspired soundtrack led people to call it India’s first “rock n’ roll” film.

As you can see from this video from the 1960 film Ek Phool Char Kaante, rock – and Elvis – had already arrived a few years before.

Today, as the lines between Bollywood and indie meet every now and then, it’s important to remember that for artists such as Monica Dogra and Sidd Coutto, both of whom have sung for Hindi films in the last couple of years, Hindi film work is the side gig. But we’ll make things simpler for Rahman. We won’t ask him to check out the dozens of Indian indie rock stars out there; we’ll ask him to see just one: his Bollywood brethren, The Raghu Dixit Project, perhaps the one homegrown act that many people believe can come closest to Rahman in putting Indian music on the world’s radar. Dixit (pictured) has a plan and it involves Bollywood, but when the world knows his name, it won’t be because of his soundtracks. Sometimes Mr. Rahman, rock stars aren’t about leather jackets and tattoos, but lungis and ghungroos.

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

The Raghu Dixit Project performs at the Bacardi NH7 Weekender on Saturday, November 19 at 8pm on The Dewarists Stage. Tickets are now on sale.