{"id":5214,"date":"2016-03-04T08:12:36","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T02:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=5214"},"modified":"2016-03-04T08:12:36","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T02:42:36","slug":"20-years-of-taal-when-music-made-the-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=5214","title":{"rendered":"20 Years of Taal: An Ode to the Time When Music Made the Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

O<\/span>n Monday, Varun Dhawan shared the first look of the<\/p> Coolie No 1<\/span><\/i> remake, directed by his father David Dhawan, where he plays the lead with another star kid, Sara Ali Khan. It\u2019s yet another addition in the interminable line-up of sequels, adaptations, and remakes that conveniently preclude the need for any kind of original thought. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the soundtrack of these films, where bad dance remixes of Punjabi standards are the order of the day. For instance, besides being a pointless sequel, <\/span>Student of the Year 2<\/span><\/i><\/a> gave us a remake of Kishore Kumar\u2019s \u201cYeh Jawaani Hai Deewani\u201d that absolutely no one asked for.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nTo try and find an original song in Bollywood in 2019 is as fruitless as searching for survival tips in PM Modi\u2019s episode of <\/span>Man vs Wild<\/span><\/i>. But the music landscape of our movies has not always been so bleak. In the halcyon \u201890s, Bollywood found fans around the world, thanks in large part to its churn of catchy tunes that could transcend barriers of language and nationality. So how did we go from the wonders of A R Rahman\u2019s work in <\/span>Taal<\/span><\/i> back in 1999, to the insipid rehashes that dominate playback charts today?<\/span>\n\nAs any <\/span>\u201890s kid<\/span><\/a> could tell you, there was a time when it was the music that made the movies worth watching. A time when I would see Malaika Arora gyrating atop a train in <\/span>Dil Se<\/span><\/i>\u2019s \u201cChaiyya Chaiyya\u201d, or the sex-on-the-beach scenes of \u201cChurake Dil Mera\u201d in <\/span>Main Khiladi Tu Anari<\/span><\/i>, a time when singing and dancing along was even more of an event than the plot of the film. For me, everything that happened in between the music was basically window dressing \u2014 only there so I could enjoy the conceit of watching a movie. In fact, looking back at my favourite \u201990s movies like <\/span>Taal<\/span><\/i>, my <\/span>nostalgia<\/span><\/a> is as much for the music as any story or star. On the surface, after all, the narrative of <\/span>Taal<\/span><\/i> is not that different from, say, <\/span>Rangeela <\/span><\/i>(1995). In both films, a small-town girl makes it big as a performer in Mumbai and gets caught up in a love triangle; both even feature lots of dance sequences performed by its actors in typically bizarre outfits.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\n\nBut what sets <\/span>Taal<\/span><\/i> apart from its predecessor is not just incredible charm of <\/span>Akshaye Khanna\u2019s<\/span><\/a> Manav, who could pull heroine Mansi (Aishwarya Rai) over a mountain cliff to take creepy photos of her and still be a heartthrob. He was helped along by the delicate strains of \u201cTaal Se Taal Mila\u201d that played as he stared into Mansi\u2019s eyes while she clutched his hand, swinging precariously over a chasm and looking confused as hell. Then there was Rai\u2019s graceful, unaffected portrayal of a simple village girl who transforms into a canny singing starlet, underscored not only by her expressive dancing but also the lilting, romantic musical motifs that follow her character. And Anil Kapoor\u2019s usual attention-grabbing effervescence as the hotshot music producer who helps build her career, is punctuated by the upbeat, slightly sinister energy of \u201cRamta Jogi\u201d. The role of Vikrant Kapoor would win him many accolades, but it was deftly defined and contained within a single song.\u00a0<\/span>\n

So how did we go from the wonders of A R Rahman\u2019s work in Taal back in 1999, to the insipid rehashes that dominate playback charts today?<\/blockquote>\nThrough all the Bollywood drama of <\/span>Taal<\/span><\/i> \u2014 which includes the well-worn <\/span>tropes<\/span><\/a> of a poor girl who is not accepted by a rich boy\u2019s family, a pair of star-crossed lovers, and a benevolent third-wheel suitor who lets her return to her true love \u2014 runs a thread of profound emotion that makes it much more than the sum of its parts. This depth can only come from a brilliant soundtrack, chock full of instant classics like the heartcry of \u201cIshq Bina\u201d and the bouncy \u201ccoo-coo-coo\u201d of \u201cKahin Aag Lage\u201d. They immediately bring an otherwise good film to life, elevating it into an unforgettable experience. <\/span>As director Subhash Ghai commented at the time: \u201cThis movie is a romance and I could have called it anything… but <\/span>Taal<\/span><\/i> means music and music means <\/span>Taal<\/span><\/i>. After listening to the songs, I felt it was worth all the trouble.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\n\nCertainly, coming up with an enduring soundtrack like <\/span>Taal<\/span><\/i>\u2019s takes a lot more effort than a Honey Singh remix. Even twenty years on, is it possible to hear the title of the film without having the chorus to \u201cTaal Se Taal Mila\u201d play in your head? I wonder if the kids who\u2019ve grown up listening to cringe-worthy electronic versions of beloved Kishore Kumar songs will look back at those with the same fondness that millennials have for our \u201890s favourites \u2014 or whether the art of great original music is lost to Bollywood for good. Still, I\u2019d rather accept this new reality than have to endure the horrors of <\/span>Taal 2<\/span><\/i>, starring Aryan Khan, <\/span>Baby Taimur<\/span><\/a>, and Misha Kapoor. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To try and find an original song in Bollywood in 2019 is as fruitless as searching for survival tips in PM Modi\u2019s episode of Man vs Wild. But as any \u201890s kid could tell you, there was a time when music made the movies worth watching. The soundtrack of Taal elevated the film into an unforgettable experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":5215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3114],"tags":[8839,3651,278,1589,2156,8840,140,1410,141,8841,8842,7296,136,368,8843,1124,452,3021,7218,8844,8845],"class_list":["post-5214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bollywood","tag-20-years","tag-90s","tag-aishwarya-rai","tag-akshay-kumar","tag-akshaye-khanna","tag-alka-yagnik","tag-anil-kapoor","tag-ar-rahman","tag-bollywood","tag-chaiyya-chaiyya","tag-ishq-bina","tag-malaika-arora","tag-movies","tag-music","tag-playback-singers","tag-shilpa-shetty","tag-sonu-nigam","tag-student-of-the-year-2","tag-subhash-ghai","tag-taal","tag-taal-se-taal-mila"],"yoast_head":"\n20 Years of Taal: An Ode to the Time When Music Made the Movies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To try and find an original song in Bollywood in 2019 is as fruitless as searching for survival tips in PM Modi\u2019s episode of Man vs Wild. 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