Shaival Thakkar

On the 21st of September, I read on a fan-site that the musical group REM has decided to call it a day. After 31 years of making some great songs and performing all around the world, they have decided with mutual consent to break up. On the day I read this news, there were some 20,000 comments on that story from fans across the world.

The next day, the number of comments went up to 40,000 and more.

However, most people here in India know REM mostly through 2 songs ‘Everybody Hurts’ and ‘Losing my religion’. These are no doubt great songs but there is much more to REM than these 2 songs.

• For example, when you fall in love with a beautiful woman (and there are many of those in India!), you could listen to ‘At my most beautiful‘ (Up)

• When you want to listen to a song about loving your family (and here in India we are a very family-oriented people), you could listen to ‘Sweetness Follows‘ (Automatic for the People)

• If you work in a call centre with nightshifts (and there are oh so many of those here!) then you could listen to ‘Daysleeper‘ (Up)

• If you want to kickstart your day and stop being sleepy (this applies to people outside India also!) then you could crank up ‘What’s the frequency, Kenneth?’ (Monster) or ‘Uberlin‘( Collapse into now)

• If you have unfortunately fallen unrequitedly in love with someone (and that just happens too much in India!) then you could listen to the soulful mournful ‘So.Central Rain‘ (Reckoning)

• When you are sick of the infrastructural problems and corruption (in India and have decided to cast your lot in India inspite of these problems) then hearing ‘Stand‘ (Green) can make you feel like you’re doing the right thing.

• When you are saturated of Bollywood songs selling love to you (And romantic love is so very complicated in India!) all the time then Michael Stipe’s obscure lyrics sung with pretty musical arrangements of Mike Mills and Peter Buck can rescue you. Try ‘Imitation of Life‘ (Reveal)

• If you want to make a dreamy serenade to the one you love (and in India we don’t serenade that much I guess!) then try ‘The Great beyond‘ (‘Man on the Moon’ soundtrack) or ‘You’re in the air‘ (Up)

• If you are studying for board exams, or your parents have forced you to study a subject you do not like (here in India kids commit suicide due to all this mess) then try ‘Walk Unafraid‘(Up) and if that doesn’t work then try ‘Everybody Hurts‘ (Automatic for the people). (It is the tried and tested life saving song for the human condition of hopelessness and might also work for the Indian human high school condition of board exams!)

• If you have successfully serenaded the girl or the guy you like, then the next logical REM step would be to sing ‘Be Mine‘ (New Adventures in Hi-Fi) (however, in India you might have to sing ‘Be Mine’ to the family of your girl/guy first) for you to get the permission to take her/him ‘Nightswimming‘ (Automatic for the people)

• If your relationship gets complicated then you will know that with love come ‘strange currencies‘ (Monster) (like caste, religion, gotra etc), then she might tell you that ‘She just wants to be‘ (Reveal) and then all you can do is sing ‘There she goes again‘ (Dead Letter Office) or sing ‘I’ll take the rain‘ (Reveal)

• And if there is no love to be had then you might as well become a cartographer and get caught in ‘Maps and Legends‘ (Fables of reconstruction) instead of getting caught (on stupid exploitative Indian shows) like ‘Emotional Atyachaar’.

• If you teach at a college or university in India where students are not paying attention then you could listen to (that happens everywhere in India!) ‘Sad Professor‘ (Up)

• And lastly if you support the Jan Lokpal Bill (to end corruption in India) then you could maybe sing the ironic and political song ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)’ (Document) and maybe even translate it into Hindi?!

And if you are finally a fan of REM’s music then imagine how awesome it would have been for them to play live in India! That would have been something!

However, I am not going to complain about them never playing in India. I am just glad that they made all this wonderful music and I got the chance to discover it and enjoy it.

And I am happy that all the 4 members of the band are alive and doing well and did not fall into the stardom trap of drugs, depression and suicide.

Thank you REM.

Love,

Shaival

Kartikey Sehgal
Part One
Part Two

Another theatre writer, Vikram Kapadia, whose play is undergoing adaptation for film, thinks that “there is no fixed formula as to what makes a film work”.

Vikram’s play ‘Black With Equal’ is a black comedy in English about the trials and tribulations of a housing society and has been staged more than a hundred times.

Like Aatish, he is comfortable with placing an item song in the film but his concern is avoiding the ‘dumbing down’ ‘of content. He wants the audience to understand his film but doesn’t want to sacrifice the richness of the content; the reason the play was popular.

“This much I can do; I can shift some of the scenes from the building to, say, a garden”. But is he going to agree to the producer’s demand for an item number in the garden? For instance, a scantily clad girl dancing around the fighting residents? “This would mean giving too much importance to the song”, he says, pauses, and adds, “however, there is a role of a bar dancer in the film and we could include the song somewhere”.

Vikram is currently writing the final draft of the film that he shall also direct.

He says that he has so far faced no pressures from the producer regarding his vision for the film.

“I am noticing that the trends of filmmaking are changing and producers are realising the importance of the content of the film. That is why you can show one minute of any song in the film and people can hear all of it in the audio disc”.

Sanjay concurs; “Some directors and writers may have differences regarding item songs and marketing but finally they align with the marketing concepts”.

He illustrates the synthesis; “Khosla Ka Ghosla had a foot tapping Punjabi song that was used as a promotional song but was not a part of the film. Similarly, the item song in ‘Jab We Met’ was used over the closing titles of the film”.

And though Suhail would not want an item song to be placed out of context, he is okay with their inclusion in a film like Vishal Bhardawaj’s ‘Omkara’, where the songs were absolutely integrated with the film.

Atul is currently working on an adapation of a novel to film and also on the screenplay of Kamal Haasan’s ‘Marmayogi’ that is currently on hold. He hopes to keep his screenplay free from needless songs and item numbers.

“So far, I have not had to compromise”, he says. “I am trying to keep myself away from projects that require such adjustments.
But it would be difficult, I feel”.

Table

After talks with producers who don’t want to be named.
Films are made for different segments of an audience and each segment is targeted differently.

Example: a film like Dostana would fit mostly in the first three categories. It had ‘catchy’ songs, big stars and contemporary content (homosexuality) that was humourous.

This concludes the story, ‘One Item Less’.

Kartikey Sehgal
Role of songs in a film’s success and a filmmaker talking about his film losing out to an item song and marketing.
Part One here.

…continued
But Sanjay feels that though an item number does not define a film, “there is at least a chance that more people will go to theatres. Because of the item song and any marketing ploy, the film is not going to lose out on audience”.

This logic, however, does not justify why the film ‘Summer 2007’, directed by Suhail Tatari, lost out on success. The film dealt with farmer suicides but it was touted as a romantic college tale. Instead of the problem “that 70 percent of India has been facing forever”, as Suhail describes, the item song was given more prominence by the producers and newspaper headlines claimed that the film will ‘redefine item numbers’.

Suhail is sure that the item number and some other songs in the film were a hindrance to its success. “They made the screenplay look long and awry”.

 
Summer 2007: The film dealt with farmer suicides but it was touted as a romantic college tale… the item song was given more prominence by the producers and newspaper headlines claimed that the film will ‘redefine item numbers’.

Suhail believes that his film lost out due to “improper marketing”. He particularly opposes the usage of songs in trailers to promote a film.

“A film can work wonders without any song. How many songs were there in ‘A Wednesday’ or ‘Aamir’? ‘A Wednesday’ was carried to success by two old men”.

Although Suhail had agreed to the inclusion of the item song, he now feels that it added nothing to the film that showed farmers dying due to hunger and debts.

His experience has wisened him to the marketing aspects of a film. “Marketing is not about gimmicks. It should involve telling the people what the film is about. In India we hide the story behind the songs”.

While talking about his film’s marketing blunder he says, “The producers decided to not show or mention the village—which was central to the film— in the promotional campaigns. Only the trailers shown in theatres hinted that the protagonists go to a village and find something very amiss. Otherwise, people didn’t know what the film was about”.

Suhail says that he knows the reason why the issue was hidden from the people. “The producers thought that it was a financial risk to show a village to the city audience” and “we have an apathy to what is not ours”.

Like Suhail, Aatish has grievances with some of the songs in ‘Aankhen’.

Although the film was a big success, Aatish feels that “some of the songs hampered the storytelling and distracted the audience from the plot”.

Aankhen was an adaptation of Aatish’s popular Gujarati play Aandalo Paato (Blind Man’s Bluff). There were no songs in the play but Aatish had agreed for songs in the film to cater to commercial requirements of the producers. On his part he had wanted that the film doesn’t slack due to their placement.

 
Aankhen: Aankhen was an adaptation of Aatish’s popular Gujarati play Aandalo Paato (Blind Man’s Bluff). There were no songs in the play but Aatish had agreed for songs in the film… Although the film was a big success, Aatish feels that “some of the songs hampered the storytelling and distracted the audience from the plot”.

Despite the experience, Aatish doesn’t mind if songs are not integral to a film’s plot. “They must be ‘catchy’ and should not come in the way of the pace of the film”.

Aatish is assured that more than the songs it is the film’s content that brings success. However, he also feels that it is difficult to determine what the Indian audience really want.

He illustrates; “People who liked Aankhen and Waqt (another play adaptation) also liked some other styles of films. If I make a Venn diagram of the trend, then I will discover that the number of people who like two opposite styles of filmmaking is very large. The number of people who like only a particular style of filmmaking is very less.”

Written first for DNA

In Part 3: A theatre director adapting his popular play for the screen. Will he go for songs and item numbers?

Kartikey Sehgal

Written first for DNA

Director Shyam Benegal, who has captured myriad expressions of life in his various films, had to free himself from the clutches of the item-number when he was making ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’.

“He did not want to include songs in the film. He did so on the behest of the producers”, says writer Atul Tiwari who has worked with the director.

In one of the songs, that was probably required to be the item song of the film, a village girl wears tight pants and extensive make-up as her lover dreams of a life of bikes, cars and aeroplanes.

The song from Welcome To Sajjanpur: “The dream sequence was an attempt to avoid making the song into another raunchy item number.” Image source.

Atul, who has written the screenplay for Shyam’s ‘Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero’, speaks in the director’s favour.

“The dream sequence was an attempt to avoid making the song into another raunchy item number. It is to his credit that he tried to make every song integral to the plot of the movie”.

Perhaps the song and dance decision was propelled by the commercial failure of Shyam’s ‘Bose’. The epic was based on the last five years of Subhas Chandra Bose’s life and was without any item songs or self-generated controversies. It did not even create rifts out of the differing personalities of Subhas and Gandhi as some other films on Indian history had successfully done in the past.

Atul feels that  none of these gimmicks would have in any way proven beneficial to the film and could have, instead, spoiled the message.

The epic was based on the last five years of Subhas Chandra Bose’s life and was without any item songs or self-generated controversies… Atul feels none of these gimmicks would have in any way proven beneficial to the film and could have, instead, spoiled the message.

But producer Sanjay Routri feels otherwise. “Anybody who talks of marketing as being detrimental to the film in any way should put himself in the shoes of the producer; the man who is spending money and taking risks”.

Sanjay has worked as the executive producer of ‘Johnny Gaddar’ and ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’ among other films. His range of work includes the assurance of the marketability of the movie; from getting saleable actors to listening and deciding if the item number would find favour among the audience.

He contrasts Atul’s line of thinking; “Songs and controversies are the best marketing tools for a film”, he laughs but doesn’t want to give examples. “In foreign films, trailers are released periodically to garner attention for a film; in India, our songs are our trailers”.

“You can check that in most films, it is either the item number or the controversy that aids the film”.

Atul, on the other hand, says that he belongs to a school of thought that consciously wants to avoid the pull of the item song and its interference in the film. He knows that in an industry where over 90 percent of the films find sustenance difficult, it has become mandatory to include an item song.

“But tell me, how many films do you remember that were declared a ‘hit’ because of the item song?”

Sanjay agrees that songs, and particularly item songs, are a tool only for awareness. “The solution to increase the success rate of Hindi films is better content. But songs and item numbers, if at all, will only attract more people into the theatre and not detract from the viewership”.

Writer Aatish Kapadia holds the same view on the power of the item song to garner attention but doesn’t think that people would go to theatres because of its presence.

He is the screenplay writer of the commercially successful film ‘Aankhen’ and had no qualms in including an item number in the film. “I look forward to the item song in every film”. Aatish is a fan of the song ‘Kajra Re’ (photo: right) from the film ‘Bunty Aur Babli’; “I adore the song”. But he doesn’t believe that an item song can attract more people into the theatre. “People went to the theatre to primarily see Bunty and Babli and they looked forward to the item song”.

In Part 2: A film that lost out due to songs and an item number