Pop goes the bollyweasel

Picture this - you’re at a local discotheque/ pub/ lounge bar - whatever else you want to call it these days, and there’s some good pumping house/club music playing. You’re standing there with a drink in your hand, bobbing your head to the beats, making small talk with your friends.

But somehow when that’s over and you can’t crane your head looking around admiring the upholstery anymore, your mind begins to crave something more. You want something recognizable, the lyrics of which you know, something for which you have a visual in your mind, something to give you a reason to break into ‘dancing the funky chicken’..and suddenly it’s there!

You hear the opening bars of the biggest current hit that has been pouring out of every single TV channel and from every single passing car, and which has also become everyone’s annoying ring tone.

You hate it but you love it, because it’s got energy of its own, an attitude, and a call to release your innermost inhibitions without a second thought.

You may ask what the hell I am talking about. Well, I am talking about the ‘item song’ - the biggest cultural crossover that the musicians from the Indian film industry have managed to single-handedly make a household name and an industry in itself. What started out as a vehicle for a struggling starlet/tartlet has become a tabletop performance for the biggest of Indian heroines.

It has also become one of the selling points of a soundtrack album. It makes careers of music directors, gets heroines overseas shows, and sustains box office for an otherwise flop film.

So what’s the big deal, you may ask. Well, the big deal is that this has become our pop industry, our ‘billboard hits’. Every year we have a few consistent chartbuster hits which continue to travel well into the next two years, and beyond (Kambakht ishq, Aisa jadoo dala re). And with the advent of ‘remixes’, hits of yesteryear are thrown back in our faces with some level of success (Yeh vada raha, Bin tere sanam) and acceptance (c’mon, you know I’m right).

So while the Enriques, the Britneys, the Kylies and even the Michael Jacksons of the world languish on the fringes of our music listening spectrum, we get a Dus bahane/Aashiq banaya aapne/Kajraa re. Because these days when we walk into a discotheque with our friends, and when we’re all flying and on a happy vibe, there is nothing more than an ‘item song’ that infuses the night with an extra-strong shot of adrenalin. If I may say so.