Message of Anger in Bollywood Music Essay

The effect music may have on mood and perception is tremendous. Music has always been one of the ways of artistic expression of what a person may not say with words – it goes far beyond the measures of a simple language, trivial words and phrases. However, music may be used for the expression of different feelings, not surely positive. People may be dying of sorrow, of unshared love, of shame or grief. There is nothing impossible for music – any feeling may acquire deeper, richer shades if it is revealed in the musical format.

Songs and music have been used to add to the emotional effect in films or advertising for a long time. Songs are highly expressive, so they may create a much better effect, depending on what the person wants to show. If a film is of science fiction or thriller genre, the choice of music is intense, depressive, with many drums and electro guitars, etc. If the film is a comedy, the choice of music falls on light, pleasant and fast melodies. Romantic films involve the choice of calm, romantic, relaxing music.

Indian music is also a very significant element of Indian cinema art because Indian filmmaking relies heavily on dances and music. Bollywood, the main source of the Indian film industry, has made a strong emphasis on music and songs as an additional element of mood expression – many messages are included in Indian songs. Everyone who saw at least one Indian film knows that the major themes are expressed through dancing and singing, thus supporting the main direction of the plot. Indians express a wide scope of emotions through music – love, pain, friendship, grief or anger.

It is known that the fact of frequent use of songs in Indian films is a cultural phenomenon that has been historically formed. Indians treat music very seriously and have plenty of songs that relate to all possible life situations, their whole life is accompanied by music. It is even said that when a newborn baby enters this world, he or she is greeted by a song (Dudrah 47). Indians respect their music very much and sing songs not only in their daily life, but try to reveal their culture in films they produce. Indians include many messages in their songs and try to make them coherent with the plot of the film into which the song is included. They do this mainly through the text of the song and musical tones, in order to increase the strength of self-expression.

“There are songs that define the first sight of love, there are songs that calm down broken hearts, there are songs that celebrate victories, and there are songs that soothe the pain of loss. Bollywood music has billions of songs that can express billions of emotions” (Express yourself with Bollywood music).

The message to be dealt with in the present paper is anger and the way it is shown in Indian films. Anger is one of the strong negative emotions that is rendered with specific words and actions (dancing is also a significant part of an extra-verbal expression). Rendering this message may be analyzed on the example of a song titled “Chale Chalo” from the film ‘Lagaan” that was released in 2001. First of all, it is necessary to consider the plot and actions that finally led to the anger of the hero and its expression through a song.

The film was produced by Aamir Khan who at the same time played the main hero Bhuvan. The film is dedicated to the topic of the Indian fight against the British power, telling a story about an Indian village of Champaner, Gujurat. People in this village are poor and are urged to pay huge taxes, being unable to provide for their living. They are engaged in constant arguments with officers who impose these taxes on them, so one day it comes to a serious argument concerning the taxes, at the end of which the leader of the village, the young man Bhuvan, concludes a bet with the chief officer about the game of cricket: if the village residents win the battle, then they are free from taxes for two years at all. If they lose, they will have even a larger tax burden being imposed on them.

So, the village accepts the challenge and starts the preparation for the competition. However, not everything is that good, and the major part of the village does not agree to take part in the fight because they are not used to this game. Many people actually do not know what cricket is like and how to play it, so they are afraid of the defeat and are mad with Bhuvan for the agreement. However, Bhuvan manages to overcome their resistance and continues preparation for the competition. The song that is discussed in the present paper is sung by Bhuvan as soon as they come to the competition and he sees that there is no enthusiasm in his team, that nobody wants to play, that everyone has already got prepared to the defeat without fighting. So he sings a son of anger calling them to join him in the fight.

“The opening lines of the song goes, “Baar Baar Haan, Bolo Yaar Haan, Apni Jeet Ho, Unki Haar haan” implies that they aspire to gain victory. The character commands everyone to speak out that they would bring down their enemies. In the song, the actor busily reaches out to the crowd convincing them to revolt against the British colony” (Importance of songs and dances in Bollywood).

This topic is dominating in the whole course of the song – the calling for action is symbolic because the victory Bhuvan asks for, calls and begs for is not only the victory over the British soldiers and their rule over all villagers with high taxes but also the fight of the whole Indian nation against the British rule. People in rural villages used to be too humble and obedient to initiate the fight – they are too scared and too exploited to even make a slight attempt to do something and change their miserable life. This is why they need an instigator – the person who will light this fire in their hearts and will make them resist the British reign take a chance to win some dominance.

“Another line “Chale Chalo, Chale Chalo, Mit Jaave Jo Takraave, Chale Chalo” states that whoever attempts to bring them down shall be destroyed. The actor sings this song in order to boost the confidence of his countrymen” (Importance of songs and dances in Bollywood).

Again, this line is symbolic in creating the warrior spirit in the countrymen whom Bhuvan took for the fight. Preparation was only one challenge to overcome, and actually, they were all well-prepared, but the issue of an unconscious wish to subdue is stronger as soon as the time to resist comes. This is what causes anger in Bhuvan and rises these words to be sung by him and express his emotions to his fellowmen.

“In the lines “Toot Gayi Jo Ungli Utthi, Paancho Mili To Ban Gayi Mutthi”, the actor states that the finger that is pointing at them shall be broken” (Importance of songs and dances in Bollywood).

This is one more line that verbally expresses the rage and aggression the Indian people have towards their suppressors, thus showing that these men do not want to stand the misfortunes anymore and they are ready to fight. This song is a vivid expression of the message of anger in Indian music.

What else is relevant in the context of discussing the message of anger in Bollywood music is the theme of unity, or, to be more precise, the calling for unity. As it may be seen from the song ‘Chale Chalo”, it is also a calling for unity against the enemies, as well as other songs including the message of the negative type. One more example that can be given concerning anger is the message of “Kandhe Se Kandhe” from the film ‘Lakshya’ released in 2004.

This film also deals with the topic of unity of fellowmen in the fight at war – the young man who is the hero of the narrative leads a senseless life and gets to the army where he faces the horror of military actions:

“The actor and his fellow soldiers sing this song to bring up courage among them. The starting line of the song goes, “Kandhon Se Milte Hain Kandhe, Quadmo Se Quadam Milte Hain, Hum Chalte Hain Jab Aise Toh Dil Dushman Ke Hilte Hain” which states that when all of them join hand in hand to fight with their enemies, then the enemies would be terrified. The actor recites those lines to demand unity among them. Another line of the song goes, “ Ab Jo Bhi Ho Shola Banke Pathar Hain Pighlane” (Importance of songs and dances in Bollywood).

Another example of the expression of anger may be seen in the song “Jane who Kaisa cor that”, which is translated as ‘who knows what kind of a thief it was’ from the film Yaraana (1995):

“This song apparently evokes largely anger and resentment, as the heroine sings of how her love and happiness has been spoiled by her evil, sadistic husband. The song is sung on a ‘difficult’, non-diatonic scale, and has a highly percussive accompaniment, with some chromatic elements, too” (Morcom 177).

The song expresses anger and violence, and the scene of the movie culminates with the wife stabbing her husband. Thus, morals and global justice are preserved at the end of the story, according to the vision of Indian culture.

The last relevant example to be discussed in the present work is the song from the film “Sholay” of 1975:

The evil Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) asks his men: Holi kab hai, kab hai Holi? Cut to rustic Ramgarh, where the virile Veeru (Dharmendra) and the loquacious Basanti (Hema Malini) join the villagers in celebrating Holi. Holi ke din dil mil jaate hain, rang on mein rang mil jaate hai, they sing even as the threat of an attack by Gabbar Singh looms over the hamlet (Chatterjee).

The song symbolizes anger because of its being interrupted by gunshots and is continued by a violent scene, thus making an astounding effect. The emotion of anger is also expressed in the course of singing because of the very feeling of resistance the villagers want to express by their joy towards the evil person who attacked them.

Making a conclusion from everything that has been said, it is necessary to note that there is a wide scope of emotions expressed by Indian songs in films produced by Bollywood because Indian culture is very rich and traditional in this aspect. Anger is one of these feelings, and it may be expressed verbally in many contexts, as it has been proved by a set of examples given out in this work – this may be either a calling for fight or a calling for unity, personal grief or the anger of resistance. No matter what causes these emotions, Indian music art has found a great number of means of artistic expression.

Works Cited

1. Chatterjee, Saibal. Holi-Wood, 2004.
2. Dudrah, Rajinder Kumar. Bollywood. SAGE, 2006.
3. Express yourself through Bollywood music, 2009.
4. Importance of songs and dances in Bollywood, 2007.
5. Lagaan. Aamir Khan Productions, 2001.
6. Morcom, Anna. Hindi film songs and the cinema. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2007.