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Independent India’s history has been captured in
Bollywood THE songs of Bollywood — from "Aao bachchon tumhe dikhayen" to "Kajra re" — best portray India’s journey since Independence to the present day when it is fast emerging as a major power, says a Paris-based historian-filmmaker. Vijay Singh has chronicled the journey of India through eight much-hummed Bollywood songs in his 64-minute documentary movie, India By Song. The docu-feature, an Indo-French production, premiered on August 14, a day before India celebrated Independence Day. "My movie is not a straightjacket documentary — an overview of 63 years of Indian Independence. There is a higher truth in it. I have tried to tell history by using Bollywood songs from the 1940s till date," says Singh. "Film songs are not just songs, they represent the emotions of the country. The songs are the best examples of women’s emancipation — how the role of the woman has changed over the decades. Earlier, the woman acted coy while enacting love scenes but now the woman makes love to the guy from the top — virtually," he said. India By Song features eight film songs and 11 interviews, he adds. The songs showcasing the changing socio-cultural and economic milieu of India include "Aao bachchon tumhe dikhaye" from Jagriti, "Awara hoon" from Awaara, "Pyar kiya to darna kya" from Mughal-e-Azam, "Inhi logon ne le leena" from Pakeezah, "Dil ke armaan aansuon mein" from Nikaah, "Choli ke peeche" from Khalnayak, a short choreography by Saroj Khan, a sequence from the movie Dhoom II and "Kajra re" from Bunty Aur Babli. Explaining the choice, Singh says: "While Indians could relate to Awara in its early decades of austerity and poverty, they could identify with the song from Mughal-e-Azam in the years after Jawaharlal Nehru’s death. "For the decades that India was trying to make it big, I chose a song from Naya Daur. I tried to portray the Michael Jacksonisation of India through Saroj Khan’s choreography and Dhoom II," adds Singh. The people interviewed include historian Romila Thapar, cricketer Bishen Singh Bedi, Infosys chief mentor N. R. Narayana Murthy, Mumbai domestic help Anjali and a farmer from Punjab Suvinder Singh Kathumangal. Singh, a historian-cum-journalist-turned-filmmaker, has made critically acclaimed movies like Jaya Ganga, One Dollar Curry and Man and Elephant. He has finished work on the screenplay of his new movie, The Opium Symphony, based on his novel, The Whirlpool of Shadows, which tells the love story between the second King of Awadh, Nasiruddin Haidar, and his European girlfriend. Singh has written
several books, including Jaya, In Search of the River Goddess, The
Wounded Night and Authors, Places of Inspiration (as co-author).
— IANS
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