Understanding Bollywood through music

Join Robin Sukhadia in this 6 session exploration of the magical aesthetic of Bollywood film music. Through screenings, discussions, in-class performance demonstrations, field trips (SF International Asian American Film Festival), and guest lecturers, students will deconstruct the arrangements, themes and structure of Bollywood film songs from the 1930’s to present day.

Bollywood film songs will be used to examine the larger context of South Asian culture. Film-viewing, readings, lecture, and discussion will introduce students to Bollywood dance/costume, issues of gender roles and marriage, reaffirming the values of family and duty (dharma), Hindu-Muslim conflicts, and the resurgence of nationalism. Films will be in Hindi with English subtitles; no knowledge of Hindi or Indian culture is required to take this course.

Special focus will be given to some of the great film composers, including SD Burman, Naushad, RD Burman and AR Rahman. The influences and impact of playback singers such as Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Rafi and Mukesh will also be explored. Sequences from the following landmark Bollywood films will be presented for discussion: Maqbool, Omkara, Mughal e Azaam, Dil Se, Sholay, Qurbani, Silsila, Jodhaa Akbar, Lagaan, Devdas, Umrao Jaan and more.