Bollywood

Bollywood is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based film industry in India.

Bollywood song and dance

Film music is called filmi music (from Hindi, meaning "of films").

Related Topics:
Filmi - Hindi

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While most actors, especially today, are excellent dancers, few are also singers. Songs are generally pre-recorded by professional playback singers with actors lip-synching the words, often while dancing. One notable exception was Kishore Kumar who starred in several major films in the 1950s while also having a stellar career as a playback singer. K. L. Saigal, Suraiyya and Noor Jehan were also known as both singers and actors. Of late, a few actors have again tried singing for themselves. Amitabh Bachchan, who started the trend of non-singing stars at the mike with the runaway hit "Mere Angane Mein" in "Lawaaris" in the mid-80's, continued his toe-dipping in singing with turns in "Silsila", "Mahaan" "Toofan" and more recently in the movies Baghban and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, as well as doing a duet with Adnan Sami in the song Kabhi Nahin (Never). Aamir Khan took a turn singing "Kya Bolti Tu" in Ghulam but only because "the character had attitude that only Aamir could do justice to", according to director Vikram Bhatt. These forays, while well-received at the time, have not led to real singing careers for either actor.

Related Topics:
Actor - Lip-synching - Kishore Kumar - K. L. Saigal - Noor Jehan - Amitabh Bachchan - Toofan - Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham - Aamir Khan

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Playback singers are prominently featured in the opening credits and have their own fans who will go to an otherwise lackluster movie just to hear their favorites. One of the most recorded of these playback singers is Lata Mangeshkar, who through a career spanning several decades has recorded thousands of songs for Indian movies. Most of the female songs in films from the 60's and 70's are sung by Lata. The composers of film music, known as music directors, are also well-known. Their songs can make or break a film and usually do.

Related Topics:
Fans - Composer

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The dancing in Bollywood films, especially older ones, is primarily modeled on Indian dance: classical dance styles, dances of historic northern Indian courtesans (tawaif), or folk dances. In modern films, Indian dance elements often blend with Western dance styles (as seen on MTV or in Broadway musicals), though it is not unusual to see Western pop and pure classical dance numbers side by side in the same film. The hero or heroine will often perform with a troupe of supporting dancers, usually of the same sex. If the hero and heroine dance and sing a pas-de-deux (a dance and ballet term, meaning "dance of two"), it is often staged in beautiful natural surroundings or architecturally grand settings. This staging is referred to as a picturisation. Switzerland has become a popular setting for these picturisations, largely because its Alpine valleys are reminiscent of Kashmir. Though considered by many to be India's most beautiful regions, Kashmir has been generally off-limits for quite some time due to violence.

Related Topics:
Tawaif - Folk dance - MTV - Ballet - Picturisation - Switzerland - Kashmir

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Songs typically comment on the action taking place in the movie, in several ways. Sometimes, a song is worked into the plot, so that a character has a reason to sing; other times, a song is an externalization of a character's thoughts, or presages an event that has not occurred yet in the plot of the movie. In this case, the event is almost always two characters' falling in love.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~