Where are the quality tunes and lyrics that have recall value?

We are half-way through 2019, and once again complaining about the future of Hindi film music. During this six-month period, very little has risen above the commonplace. Industry honchos though, may deny that. At the recent Music Inc. conference, Neeraj Roy of Hungama Digital Media Entertainment and Amarjit Singh Batra of Spotify India said 80% of music consumption in India is from films, with Bollywood taking the largest chunk. Despite numerous attempts by both the big labels and upstarts to promote popular non-film or indie music, they haven’t created any superstars like those of 1990s Indipop.

Rare gems

All this sounds good on paper, and during conference speeches. The real question is: where are the quality tunes and lyrics that have recall value? From January to June, the only examples of good and successful soundtracks were Gully Boy and Kalank. The former worked for a while, mainly because it used Hindi hip-hop smartly, and connected with youngsters. The Kalank’s music, despite amazing songs like ‘Ghar More Pardesiya’ and the title track, was affected by the film’s box office disaster.

There were other films with reasonably good music (Bharat, Student Of The Year 2) and some with a good song or two (Manikarnika, Kabir Khan, Luka Chuppi, Article 15). Despite the movie’s success, the music of Uri: The Surgical Strike didn’t garner much interest. The recently-released Malaal has some wonderful ballads and songs influenced by Maharashtrian folk music. However, of the 50-odd films released this year, this is definitely a poor average.

Downward spiral

What are the factors that have caused this poor showing? Foremost is the overdependence on recreating old numbers, which on some occasions consisted of six songs in the top 20 radio charts. This trend was discussed at length in my column dated May 23, where I talked about the many filmmakers and composers who are taking the easy way out, compromising on originality. Secondly, even the so-called original hits have little long-term appeal. We still hum the songs of Barfi (2012) and Aashiqui 2 (2013), but how many 2019 tunes do we remember? Of the 18 numbers in Gully Boy, many may talk of ‘Apna Time Aayega’, ‘Meri Gully Mein’ and ‘Asli Hip-Hop’, but what about the other 15?

Thirdly, experienced music directors are keeping a low profile. A.R. Rahman came up with the unimpressive Marvel Anthem for Avengers Endgame, attracting criticism from even his ardent fans. Pritam and Vishal-Shekhar returned after a long gap. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (Manikarnika) and Amit Trivedi (India’s Most Wanted) had only one film and Vishal Bhardwaj has had no releases.

There are too many new music directors, lyricists and singers. The roll call is a mix of promising artistes and wannabes. Among singers, not one has come anywhere close to Shreya Ghoshal or Arijit Singh. Most newcomers are happy getting to the number five position on some chart, and splashing their ‘hits’ on the social media. Many are talented too, and just not getting the right break. Finally, with the fading of physical retail and dependence on online streaming, the rules of marketing film music have changed. Earlier, one could build up a film’s music by releasing the album two months in advance. We’re sure filmmakers and industry folks have a game plan for the changed environment. Sadly, the results are not showing.