Bollywood Songs: Reflection of Wounded Nation in the Post-Independence

Abstract

The present paper examines how the Bombay-based Hindi film cinema culturally obliges to respond to the national crisis in the post-independence era. The paper will deal with Bollywood lyrics in general and how they highlight the crisis of the nation one after the other, for instance, brutal partition, Indo-China War, Indo-Pak War, White-Revolution and Green-Revolution. Along with, the brief discussion will be on the lampooned religious identities and religious tensions shown in Bollywood songs in the aftermath of partition of India/Pakistan. Songs were often based on communal harmony and the paper will briefly examine how the Muslim characters were shown sane and sensible in the Bollywood films. The project analyzes Hindi film lyrics through the compilations of Harmandir Singh Hamraz’s Hindi Film Geet-Kosh and Mir, Ali Husain., and Raza Mir’s Anthems of Resistance: A Celebration of Progressive Urdu Poetry (as primary texts). The project undertakes the study of various other articles and books related to the area of research. The paper will conclude by discussing the emergence of White-Revolution and Green-Revolution during 1960s.