ABSTRACT
Music is at the heart of the Indian film story, and when one thinks of Indian film, music is most likely the very feature that first comes to mind. Audiences are well acquainted with background music, found in most commercial film traditions, which serves important functions such as signaling and enhancing emotion, introducing characters, intensifying conflict and humor, and improving the audience’s general understanding and enjoyment of the film.1 However, with the exception of Disney cartoons or old Hollywood extravaganzas from the 1950s, contemporary Hollywood audiences are rarely treated to film musicals, that is, films containing songs as diegetic foreground music. Indian films utilize music in quite a unique way. Indeed, Indian films’ consistent engagement with music throughout its history is its crowning achievement, distinguishing it from every other film industry in the world. Yet despite the number of scholars writing about Bollywood and other Indian cinematic traditions, very few authors engage with the music of these films.
