The Music Of Bollywood | RS Unplugged

The massiveness of music can be, in a way, traced by the number of genres it can be categorized into. In our world itself we have innumerable genres, however today I am taking on a genre which has been significantly making its mark in the world’s music. Filmi, described as ‘of/from films’ (from Bollywood). The word is often used in daily-life for everything related to our movies. However, it actually has been declared as a genre of music.

Filmi songs are composed as an integral part of the Bollywood feature films, which show actors dancing on them, and aid to the narrative of the film. Often the soundtrack is more popular than the movie, or a movie will become a hit just because it has good music! (However, it’s not the case anymore; a bad movie cannot be saved even by good music!). Lately, a new trend has also begun where a few songs don’t appear in the movie, but just act as “audience-grabbers”.

Now, what does filmi music comprise of?? ...

Well, it has a vast, yet a simple answer … anything to everything!!

Yes, that is the reason why when we think about it, we don’t think about rock or jazz or blues or pop or anything else, but just ‘filmi’ music, because it has them all. Varying from Qawwalis to rock, from classical Indian music to the grooviest remixes, it encompasses everything. It can infact be considered as the fusion of all the other genres, but keeping that filmi touch intact in it. And courtesy to some of our finest composers (read that as Pritam, Anu Malik, & even R.D.Burman, & many more), we get to hear music from all over the world. ;)

The major reason why filmi music is reaching out to the world today is because of the tremendous increase in the popularity of Bollywood. We can also see many English artists doing fusion with Indian composers, (Not to forget that Akon is singing a song in hinglish in RaOne!) & with Mr.A.R. Rehman winning the Oscar, landmark has already been set.

Infact, this is just the beginning. Bollywood classics are still unexplored by the world. With a plethora of colors and variety that it holds, filmi music is surely a big bang in the world music.

Written By: Rishabh Shukla