The Rough Guide to Bollywood

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Product Description ------------------- As the Indian film phenomenon sweeps mainstream Britain the Rough Guide To Bollywood is the essential introduction to the colourful, vibrant and dramatic soundtracks of the multi-million dollar industry that is bigger and more productive than Hollywood. Compiled by DJ Ritu, broadcaster and club DJ for London club nights Kuch Kuch and Club Kali and assisted by BBC Asian Network's Bhagwant Sagoo – this is a collection of the biggest and best Bollywood has to offer. .com ---- With Andrew Lloyd Webber getting in on the act and Bollywood films making it into Leicester Square, India's film music has finally moved to center stage. But as DJ Ritu points out in her liner notes for The Rough Guide to Bollywood, it's been a long haul. "My English India is no longer a secret," she confides with . The tracks she and her colleague Bhagwant Sagoo have compiled offer a comprehensive survey of Bollywood's music from the 1960s through today. What's striking is how frequently the same few voices crop up behind the multitudinous faces seen onscreen. The voice of Kishore Kumar--India's answer to Al ly--recalls a bygone musical age of graceful elegance. Asha Bhosle ( /exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/220124/${0} ) shows how a voice can change, chameleon-like, to suit the needs of the moment. On one track she radiates raunchy sleaze, in another dreamy seduction, yet the shaping of the phrases remains recognizably her own. Meanwhile, her sister Lata Mangeshkar ( /exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/94446/${0} ) can be heard in duets with a variety of male singers. On some of these tracks the boxy acoustics betray the venerable age of the s, while on others you can feel the atmosphere of the club all around you. That's where these songs have been tried and tested, and that's where they will now be most appreciated. For a different take on these same singers, check out Manteca's I Love Bollywood ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005QBEF/${0} ). Sugar-coated escapism rules! --Michael Church