Customer Reviews

Rough Guide to Bollywood Gold

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I like this CD just fine, but I have a picky issue with the packaging. It confused me to find that the "Gold" refers to a classic Bollywood era roughly 1960-1980. I was expecting a more contemporary collection because World Music slapped Aishwarya on the cover as an obvious marketing ploy. Why not one of the heartthrobs of the era?

The songs all have great character; the info in the booklet about performers and careers is nice; the extra data track interview with DJ Ritu is half good (she is interesting - the interviewer, unfortunately, is a dork who seems prepared only with superficial questions); some of the songs make me want to seek out the movies, and it was nice to hear the live, very rare version of R.D. Burman singing his own Mehbooba Mehbooba (though I think I like the version in Sholay better).

If you're looking for a fix of Indian pop culture, this CD will definitely do the trick! "Bollywood Gold" is full of wonderfully vibrant music, all of it overflowing with powerful emotion spiced up with a healthy dash of sentimentality and melodrama. The instrumentation is good, of course, but in this genre vocals are the main thing, and so this CD features some of the classic voices of Indian film--beautiful and charismatic voices either feminine or masculine (and highly distinct in that regard) that tell a story in their own right, that are able to evoke a wide range of feelings in the listener regardless of whether the latter understands the lyrics or not. If you've seen these movies, you'll relive them here for sure. If you haven't, like me, then the enchantment of this music might trick you into thinking you have--or else inspire you to go looking for them afterwards.

As with most "Rough Guide" CDs, this one excels in giving the listener a fine range of tracks both listenable and representative, all lovingly handpicked by an expert aficionado of that specific musical form. "Bollywood Gold" comes to us courtesy of DJ Ritu, who in the liner notes does a wonderful job of introducing the different singers (Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey, Jolly Mukherjee, and Mahendra Kapoor) as well as giving a crash course in the social history of playback singing in Indian film, after which each track (in order) is explained in good, relevant detail (including but not limited to what movie the song comes from). All of this comes after a movingly personal reflection on what this wonderful music meant to Indian immigrant families in England, of how important it was in their lives--making this quite a bit more meaningful than the average "greatest hits" album. And, as this listener found out, some of that enthusiasm is definitely contagious.