Bollywood Funk Experience

To the uninitiated, the richly hued and garish world of Bollywood film soundtracks can seem daunting and inaccessible. Jonny Trunk of the soundtrack reissue label Trunk Records and Joel Martin of dance outfit Quiet Village have compiled a 15– track taster that takes the listener from 1966 to 1984. What may seem at first bizarre will grow on those fresh to Bollywood’s magpie sound.

The album opens with the swirling strings of SD Burman – you could be forgiven for thinking you had just been granted an audience with the Pink Panther – immediately conjuring up cinema’s mid– century golden age. Instrumental interludes abound, courtesy of his son RD Burman, but the Burmans aren’t the only Bollywood giants heard from here. Laxmikant and Pyarelal are behind three of the tracks and Asha Bhosle graces three others. Try listening to Bhosle sing ‘typewriter tip tip tip or ‘twinkle twinkle little ’ without breaking into a smile. The sound begins to veer off in interesting directions halfway through when ‘African Dance’ brings African rhythms to Bollywood. The funk is firmly added by Charanjit Singh with the swaggering groove of ‘Pyar Chahiye Keh Paisa’ and Salma Agha’s ‘Come Closer’ announces the arrival of husky vocals and a lounge lizard cool to the screens of Mumbai.

Even if you thought you didn’t like Bollywood film music, you’ll be hard pressed to maintain that stance for the full length of this wonderfully eclectic compilation. The standout moment must be the four sublime minutes from that man RD Burman on his 1976 classic, ‘Mukti.