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[Prashant Pandey]

Documenting the contemporary history of the making of the Hindi Film song 



A half note up, a half note down- Musicmakers in Delhi learn to rock 


My research sets an aim to document in minutest detail the making of a Hindi film song. Any typical Bollywood song has three basic elements –Vocals, lyrics, and music track. Like a film script any song can be broken down on these three parameters. Therefore my research is divided into exploring and critically analyzing these processes 

a) Composing and making the music track 
b) The contemporary craft of writing lyrics 
This will include the study of the changing cartography of the Hindi film song. 
c) Recording of the song by a playback singer under the supervision of the composer and technicians. 


1. During the first month I have started to brush technical concepts related with sound Technology and song recording. Mostly it is regarding how a particular sound file can be generated and stored in a digital form. This is largely through Internet and contributions by friends.  

2. Documenting the work of two Delhi based composers Ram Subramaniyam and Abhishek Mathur aka Shekhu.

Interactions with two talented Delhi based composers Shekhu(age 24), a full time composer/arranger  and Ram Subramanium(age 26), a finance executive.  Both of absolutely hate traditional bollywood dhick chik dhick chik i.e. same formulaic music tracks.  

 These two composers are extremely well versed with computers and computer softwares. They handle the composing as well as the recording part all by themselves. You may say a combo of a composer and sound recordist and arranger.  Ram who is working with the Price Water House Coopers (PWC) refers himself as a weekender as he makes music on weekends.  He has a lot of friends in US who continuously supply him music loops through net. This gives him an edge in terms of   putting new sounds is concerned.  “If Rahman can use sound samples from Germany why cant I”, he told me in a long chat. 
Shekhu’s whose father is a bureaucrat operates from his posh chanakyapuri house. He has a “modest” set up of 2 guitars, a MIDI keyboard and a Shure mic and a home PC with an enviable disk space.  
Observing both these musicians one thing is clear. They think like an arranger. If the   basic tune is there they will make a very good track. Then secondly both these composers agree that film music is all about reach and replay value. It is especially applicable to the composers who are based in Bollywood. Reach and replay should here be interpreted in marketing terms and what music companies be telling the producers and director of the film when they want to sell the music. This is largely how they think the industry must be like. 
However both of these composers do not know much about mainstream Hindi film industry (“ I like this guy 
RD”) and though they eventually want to do films; their first response is an outright rejection- of practices, of tunes, of singers and so on. 
They are also not too keen on assisting an Anu Malik or some Himesh Reshmiya.   


3. Starting a study of Kumar Sanu’s career and singing style. This involves finding out why so many singers (amateur and professionals) copy him. Readers this is for you. Try singing a kumar sanu song or any song. Can you sing it without straining your forehead and producing a nasal sound? Tanmaykant a budding singer says that singing through nose you can easily approximate high notes something that is very difficult to do through the throat or stomach. Ghulam Sadiq Khan at the Faculty of Music, University of Delhi (he trained Jaspinder Narula) told that in Pakistan the teachers encourage the singers to sing from pait(stomach). Therefore singers there have deep voices unlike the Indian singers who follow a very KL Saigal kind of nasal style.  Jaspinder too agrees.  
 The study of Sanu’s career coincides with an analysis of Nadeem- Shravan whose first claim to fame was Aashiqi (T-series, 1990) in which Sanu sang all the songs except one.   The trio of NS, Sanu and lyricist Sameer created waves with a string of   film fare awards. However out of the three only Sameer is still going strong by managing to write songs like, ek simple si coffee bhi kick deti hai. Liking sanu is no more  “cool” especially  with listeners who got their musical bearings after the first half of the nineties. There are new singers like Kunal, KK and Shaan who can sing high pitch songs with an English accent.  

4. I have arranged a   meeting with Satish Kaushik, the director of a recent super hit (music as well as the film), Tere Naam. He shall be in Delhi this week and I would like to ask him how he gets his music done. 


6. My next posting will be from Mumbai – direct from the heart of film music industry. 
   I have spoken to a few assistant music directors and they will like to help. So all of you let me know your responses about this one and keep in touch. There’s lot more to come.   


Prashant  Pandey 










prashant pandey
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