Bollywood soundtrack collectors on Soulstrut
generique
625 Posts
Who is into Bollywood soundtracks? What's your story? Which record lured you in? Favorite era/composer? Is your region good for finding them? I've been collecting them for some years now. First ones that made me get "it" were Call Girl by composers Sapan Jagmohan and Hare Krishna Hare Rama by Rahul Dev Burman. For some reason Holland used to be great for finding them. Probably because of the large population of Hindus from Surinam who came here over the years. Went to India a couple of times to dig and to Pakistan too. Now I have a trimmed collection of around 400 of 'm (Hindi that is) but I rarely ever find any new ones with heat. To find new stuff I moved on to other regions of the subcontinent, such as Tamil Nadu and Pakistan and a whole new world opened up. Incredible composers, incredible tunes. I prever films from those regions too because they are raunchier and cruder.I like all era's actually. Golden age sweet exotica, sixties clubtunes, seventees massala stuff, eighties disco. I'm not into the more traditional stuff or it has to be very old.Absolute favorite OST is Parmatma by the obscure composer K. Babuji, which seems to combine all the elements I like in Indian OST's.
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I recently got my bollywood schooling..... I did a radio show dedicated to the tracks I like.
Here is the playlist:
Kalyanji Anandji - Yaari Hai Imaan Mera - from Zanjeer
Ananda Shankar - Charging Tiger - from Sa Re Ga Machan
Ananda Shankar - Jungle King - from Sa Re Ga Machan
Kalyanji Anandji - Na Na Na Yeh Kya Kame Lage Ho - from Bombay 405 Miles
Usha Khanna - Tere Jaisa Pyara Kol Nahin - from Hotel
Kalyanji Anandji - Kya Khoo Lagti Ho - from Dharmatma
Kalyanji Anandji - Theme Music (Sad) - from Dharmatma
Bappi Lahiri - Title & instrumental Music 2 - from Jyoti
Rahul Dev Burman - Tum Kitne Din Baad Mile - from The Great Gambler
Kalyanji Anandji - Aye Naujawaan - from Apradh
Kalyanji Anandji - O Saathe Re - from Muqaddar Ka Sikandar
Kalyanji Anandji - Pyar Zindagi Hai - from Muqaddar Ka Sikandar
Mohd Rafi - Chand Mera Dil - from Hum Kisise Kum Naheen
Rahul Dev Burman - Hai Re Na Maro - from Garam Masala
Kalyanji Anandji - Professor Pyarelal -
Sonik Omi - Anken Meri Maikhana - from Sawan Bhadon
Hemant Kumar - Loves Reflections - from Love In Canada
Bappi Lahiri - Come Closer - from Kasam Paida Karnewale Ki
Kishore Kumar - Main To Hoon Shree Ram Avtar - from Aaj Kaa MLA
Rahul Dev Burman - Baby Lets Dance Together - from Shalimar
Bappi Lahiri - Jeena Bhi Kya Hay Jeena Pt 1 - from Kasam Paida Karnewale Ki
Shankar Jaikishan - Hotel Mein Bottle - from Papi Petka Sawal Hai
Kishore Kumar - Disco 82 - from Khud-daar
Bappi Lahiri - Chalo Calcutta - from Aaj Kaa MLA
-peeJ
Bollywood rules, I'm gonna make a mix for Soulstrut, maybe it'll get some shine.
Please do, I remember your bollywood auctions from some time ago and they were packed with heat. Didn't you offer a mix with them?
Also what happened to the yearly Waxing Deep Bollywood set sale?
I got into bollywood by checking out the Upasnaa OST at a store listening station, that shit got me open and I've been hooked since. Unfortunetly I don't have many bollywood joints because I never see them anywhere. I've always wanted to go up to Flushing, Queens to see if there were any at some shops around there. I've asked at the Curry Hill music/dvd store, but they only have cds.
I don't know if they are still there, but soulstrut had some bollywood mixes on the mix page that were pretty good.
Waxing Deep went back to school and couldn't manage the work involved in set sales.
Unexpectedly, there's an Indian population in Fredericton and I'm able to source the occasional Bollywood collection. This means that there may be future Bollywood set sale...
The last place I'd look for Bollywood vinyl would be the Indian/Pakistani stores -- you might find the odd store that still has vinyl because they never sold off their inventory.
But I think Bollywood vinyl has pretty much been relegated to online auctions and the 'oddities' bins of indie records stores. Also all the vinyl-producing plants in India shut down ages ago, so there's no new vinyl to be had anywhere.
I've used (still use) Bollywood samples in my own tracks, I'll post up a few of my tracks here soon.
A lot of the real heat comes outside of Bollywood -- the regional industries (especially Tamil and Malayalam films) in southern India are amazing, I've barely tapped into that. A.R. Rehman is the kingpin but there are many others... there's this guy Harris Jayaraj who's done some interesting stuff too, he used to work with Rehman I think.
If you want to squander a few minutes on this crazy "Bombay TV" Indian movie subtitle maker thing, check it out here. Loads of fun.
Anyway if anyone has specific questions just pm me...
Yeah, that Pakistani stuff is very exciting, Thenon (long time since we talked). I remember you bought some stuff I was also bidding on. I think Uf yeh bevian, with that cover where a guy is hit full on by some emancipated Pakistani chicks. I went to Pakistan and bought a whole collection from a former radio station/mix tape joint. Condition is crap but it's great for reference. Have been upgrading since but it's extremely difficult. You really wonder where those records went.
bluesnag spent a year in india recently and as a result he and I (through trades) both have hefty stacks of vinyl... mostly the more known crossover titles however...
True, mostly dried up, but I did hit on some old inventories plus their CD section can be good for reference.
Please post 'm. I'm curious. I might post some of my own Bollywood related mixes.
This is great info. Thanks. Some regional pressings are pretty eh... wild though. Like Telugu stuff. I am just discovering the Tamil stuff and the percentage of heat seems to be above Bolly level.
I'll take you up on that!
And like DigDug mentioned, I do two monthly bollywood/bhangra parties here in NC. I play mostly newer stuff since it's a fairly mainstream crowd but I almost always bust out a lot of classic 70s/80s tunes by the end of the night.
And our writeup in THE FADER (thanks Catchdubs!):
I guess I got into them from the Sitar Beat comps that came out. Shit really is wild!
DJ Ferrari
I used to DJ and played Bollywood stuff too (small time). If I were to DJ again I would prolly also move on to newer material, if only for sound quality. There's some heavy tribal stuff going on in newer films that I occasionally watch. That party looks hot! Would like to be there some time!
Nice collection BTW.
I see you have most Ananda Shankar's but not Missing You. IMO that's a very underrated record. It has a great jazz walz vibe. No heat, but very interesting music.
For people in Amsterdam: I'm gonna do a Bollywood evening at the Melkweg cafe end of april during the fantastic film festival. It'll be low key, but (hopefully) with projections of wild clips. I don't know the exact date yet. Check the program. There'll be more "DJ's" playing out their weird collections, like 60's horror garage, German porn OST's and giallo soundtracks and what have you.
Low key, no admission.
This is a track I did a few years back that got some attention... based on Bollywood loops and samples... enjoy.
I've got more tracks in a different vein... soon come.
My sister is a huge bollywood fan so I often find myself watching contemporary bollywood flicks. On the whole, the music is crap. Mind you, the other night I watched 'Bunty Aur Babli' and there was disco scene where the played the disco track from Armaan (Ramba Ho ho ho Samba ho ho ho...). Has anybody seen Salaam Namaste? That's my movie right there. Bust abortion scene ever ("kill it!").
What's so funny about that is that ever since BUNTY AUR BABLI came out, at every party I've gotten requests for "Kajra Re" from its soundtrack. Meanwhile, my "Ramba Ho, Samba Ho" request quotient still remains at zero, probably because I have some active Usha Uthup hatteurs as regulars. Though it did get a good response from a white dude when I did play it once.
Word. My homegirl S*ja (originally from Kerala) DESPISES Usha and rolls her eyes whenever I play something she sings on. She even saw Ms. Uthup in concert some years ago and said she completely sucked.
Well, you do have to admit that Ramba is a pretty mediocre track. I don't blame people for not requesting it. Is Kajra Re good? I don't remember any of the music in that movie being particularly noteworthy.
It's ehhh.. but enough people liked the movie to dig dancing to it in the clurb. Then again, my man Gagan (one of the sikhs pictured in the club shot above) said this when I played it the first time:
"This song sucks dude."
but go to any Indian wedding, I can guarantee you this song will be played. it's really a song for the ladies (young and old) to dance to... it's going to danced to at Indian weddings for years to come.
personally, i like it, and i was surprised i did.
Oh it works alright! Everyone has fun dancing to it. Gagan's even warmed up to it since that first time! It's just not one of my favorites.
I have a question for the Bollywood collectors.
---What is the average mailing time for a record coming from Turkey into the US?
I've been waiting for Gumnaam for over a month.
That's nice. I used that Kalaa Sona sample too. Please post more.
Here are two tracks I did in 1998 with maybe 50% Bollywood samples. One is inspired by those mad title tunes, frantic, dense and full of changes:
HASEENA ATOM BOMB
The other one is inspired by Bappi Lahiri's disco funk and has many Bappi Lahiri samples (hm, intro is somewhat out of tune...):
DISCO LOVE
These are direct links.
cosign. id buy everything i saw, if i ever saw anything. i do have and love the two a. shankar records (not OSTs) but i think zero actual bollywood OSTs, and ive dug in many a city and on 3 continents (though never in india that probably explains it a bit, plus i dont know what im looking for).
that 3 CD Bollywood comp on Nascente was a nice thing to pick up to slake the thirst. headz who know - is it the good stuff? some of it was pretty dope imo.
There are certainly many good tracks on that comp but I think the compilation is pretty random too. I think it's not cool to discuss it here, but check the announcements section in a couple of weeks for something better.
I know this is SS and vinyl reigns supreme here. But in the case of Bollywood OSTs (and most music from the Indian subcontinent), CDs are where it's at. I don't what y'all want this stuff for -- listening, playing out, sampling, whatever -- but as you probably know the sound quality of most Indian vinyl is poor, maybe fair at best.
So, I generally stick to CDs for my needs. CDs are also good because a lot of the original source material recorded to tape, is restored/remastered before it gets on the CD, so you are already looking at a better sounding product.
So, here are some good sources for finding all kinds of Indian and subcontinental sounds on CD. They have it all -- retro through current Bollywood OSTs, folk music, Indian classical, devotional music, etc etc
NehaFlix
India Weekly
These are two sources for good quality, inexpensive CDs. These are US companies, I don't know if they do international orders.
Warning: sometimes they don't ship what you bought, and it's impossible to track down customer service by phone or email.
Also, note that some of the latest releases can be bought for just $4 or $5 -- dirt cheap, and the sound quality is fine.
hope this helps all the bollywood heads!
and keep in mind, if you just want cheap bollywood soundtracks to listen to, check out iTunes. They got ALOT on there, cause its all been licensed by Sa Re Ga Ma. Just search the store for like "Kasam Paida Karnewale Ki" or something, and then follow all the links from there.
-pj