The new trend: Women not allowed in music!

By Joginder Tuteja

Are we going to see a revolution of sorts in months to come as far as soundtracks of Bollywood films is considered? That’s because if one looks at the recent album releases like TUM MILE and LONDON DREAMS, there is something in common- ‘There is no female singer roped in to render even a single track’.

Shocking, but indeed true!

Surprisingly, both the films are hardcore musicals. While TUM MILE comes from the house of Bhatts, it is but naturally a musical entertainer with Pritam churning out some fabulous tunes for this Emraan Hashmi starrer. Even though there are five distinct tracks in the film, each of them has been sung by a male vocalist, whether it is Neeraj Sridhar, K.K., Mohit Chauhan, Javed Ali or Shafqat Amanat Ali. For a romantic film like TUM MILE with Soha Ali Khan as the leading lady, it is indeed a surprising decision by the makers to keep the album completely male dominated. However, since the album is complete ‘paisa vasool’, one doesn’t mind the aberration.

On the other hand, even LONDON DREAMS sees a similar route being followed. Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy have kept women out of this musical for Vipul Shah, which has a rock base to it. Absence of a female singer is even more glaring here since there are as many as eight distinct tracks. There is quite some range of male singers like Vishal Dadlani, Roop Kumar Rathod, Shankar Mahadevan, Feroz Khan, Mohan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Milind, Abhijeet Ghoshal and Zubeen Garg. Still, not a single track warranted a female singer to come behind the mike.

One wonders though if this may indeed turn out to be a trend of sorts in months to come? Looks quite doubtful though because Bollywood has traditionally been a ‘naach-gaana’ affair and though an album or two may have to follow a different route in order to comply with the film’s genre, a clear demarcation can’t really be made in soundtracks to follow.

-Sampurn Media