:: Various Artists - Streets Of Bollywood

Various Artists

Some of the biggest names in the Bhangra industry have come together to produce a collection of some of Bollywood’s biggest hits. Okay, so have I totally lost you? Most people I know think Bollywood is a place Tania Zaetta goes to when her career hits an all time low. That, or a place in India where they wear saris and make films like Bride and Prejudice. Seriously though, Bollywood is an industry that deserves a lot more than a washed up celebrity and a pun inspired name. “Bollywood” is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based film industry in India. Whilst its name may be a play on Hollywood it is a serious industry whose output is the largest in the world in terms of popularity and films produced. Bhangra is a form of music popular in India, the masters of the industry have picked out some of the best tunes featured in Bollywood films and packed them together on two cool-for-about-10-minutes CDs. So, I knew nothing about Bhangra or Indian music, but that didn’t stop me from picking up on the tune from the first track. That song made popular by the Black Eyed Peas “Don’t Funk with my Heart” was suddenly translated into Indian in a hands in the air, hips wiggling, bindi on head kind of way. It even had me and a couple of my friends dancing around the lounge room in an uncoordinated Bridget Jones meets Shakira kind of way. After the initial “wow” the music gets kind of “same-same” and the songs bare no real meaning on the non-Indian speaker. Though the songs didn’t do that much for me lyrically (surprise surprise), they did have this cool, mystic, funky sound that echoed throughout the album - just don’t ask me to tell you the names of the artists, let alone the songs!