Indian TV shows should show more love to music
Soundtracks are an essential part of movie’s/show’s. Music makes us perceive the emotions being displayed on screen and increases the overall connection with the scene. A good soundtrack drags us into the film and makes our heart quiver for the characters.
And to top it off — we are Indians. The impression that the world has about us is that we break out in dance on the road everyday. And they have a reason to. We love our music. And it moves us beyond what the screen can.
A road trip isn’t complete without humming Dil Chahta Hai with your friends, a wedding isn’t complete without crying to Din Shagna Da , and a party is definitely not complete if you haven’t danced to Kala Chasma. I am not limiting music to movie songs but also the background scores that accompany our films. So much so that background scores becomes the title songs of production houses.
Indian producers have always understood the importance of music and we have a good ecosystem of music directors. Whether these directors focus on remarkable music or item songs, that’s a different debate.
But when it comes to Indian TV shows, the focus on music is worse off. I am not even going to comment on the TV shows produced by the likes of Balaji Telefilms but limit myself to web-shows.
Indian web-shows are a recent phenomenon. But for an industry that was almost non-existent a couple of years back, they are picking up stride.
Youtube has had tons of short films created by enthusiastic Indian college (should I say engineers?) students but I think the first web-series etched in our memories is Permanent Roommates which launched in 2015. The success of the show prompted networks to take web-shows seriously and they responded swiftly.
Yash Raj Films set up their subsidiary Y-Films which produced some solid shows out of which “Love Shots” and “Bang Baaja Baarat” really stood out. UTV launched “Girl in the City” through their Bindass channel. Viacom 18 launched their own streaming app — Voot and produced shows such as “It’s not that Simple”, “Sinskaari”. Smaller Production houses such as Luv Films (“Life Sahi Hai”)also entered the foray. Digital Content startups quickly emerged and hitched themselves to the new media consumption habits of millennials. Arre was lauched by ex-Network18 executives in 2016 and they have produced content such as “Official Chukiyagiri” and “I don’t watch TV”. Pocket Aces Media which runs Filter Copy launched their own Media channel — Dice Media and produced “Little Things” which is one hell of an original show.
However, these web-shows don’t give the importance to soundtracks that is deserved. I am not saying these shows have bad soundtracks. The soundtracks are good. TVF’s shows generally have Vaibhav Bundhoo as the composer. And he has delivered music that has moved us- from making us feel victorious when Pitchers finally got their funding to
“Anginat Sapne” in “Humorously Yours” which makes us identify with the protagonist’s hopes and dreams.
But there is so much more potential that is yet to be explored. We are people who hum our movie tunes long after the movie goes off screen and we expect our shows to deliver music that is nothing less than exceptional.
Let’s look slightly westward to see how things are being done there and if we can learn something from them. And when I say westward, I mean let’s look at Netflix which has been churning out originals faster than the ABC network can say A-B-C. Netflix released an estimated 126 original series or film in 2016, more than any other single American network or cable channel.
Netflix gives a lot of importance to sound. If you watched “Stranger Things”, you know exactly how the eerie music in the title song gave you a deep unsettling feeling and pulled you further into the show.
Netflix uses music that is highly dependent on the setting of the show. For Stranger Things, they got the music from an unknown retro-leaning synth band S.U.R.V.I.V.E which set a retro, dark and alien soundtrack to the show.
If you watched “Marco Polo”, you would have been transported to the mysterious and adventurous land of the Kublai Khan’s Mongolian era. The music was from a Mongolian folk rock band Altan Urag and set the dark mysterious tone for the show.
If you watched “Bojack Horseman”, you know that Bojack is not just an amazing show but also a list of must-listen-to-soundtracks. The music shaped each episode and wove us into Bojack’s self-awareness narrative with songs such as Sea of Dreams and Impossible .
Jesse Novak, the composer for Bojack said in an interview —
“I do feel like the job of the composer is to help gel everything together, to give the viewer a cohesive experience from one episode to the next, familiar sounds that return even when you’re in unfamiliar territory. It’s to give more consistency so that when you’re watching, every time you watch an episode, you feel like you’re going to that place again. Just like wardrobe or makeup or anything else, it has to have consistency.”
This intense focus on music is paying off for Netflix. It has kept customers like me more engaged in their shows and makes it impossible for us to unsubscribe from their mo’ fuckin’ expensive service.
Critics and consumers alike have been raving Netflix’s music whether it be Hans Zimmer’s elegant music in “The Crown” or the street music of New York in Luke Cage.
Netflix is a data driven company. They realized good soundtracks make people wait through the opening and ending credits rather than fast forward. For them, time spent on their service is the primary metric. And they have established that focus on music to increase the experience of their service.
For us Indians, music is not just a metric. Music is deeply rooted in our traditions and celebrations. If you hit it off with your companions during a journey, you know that you are in store for a god-damn endless Antakshari session.
Shouldn’t our shows give more importance to music?
Indian music is as diverse as India is. Even though our music has been majorly bombarded by Bollywood/Honey Singh/Badshah , the stage has evolved for Indie artists who are exploring uncharted styles from Nucleya’s EDM to Tamizha’s hip-hop.
Collaboration between web-shows and Indie artists would be mutually beneficial. Web-shows can ask artists to create music depending on the scene/tone of the show and artists can increase their presence through the coverage. Such a future will help us, the consumers get the both of both worlds.
