Quantcast

Call for Papers: PopMatters Celebrates The Jam in Massive Special Section

Music
cover art

Various Artists

Bollywood Bloodbath

(B-Music; US: 11 Oct 2011; UK: 24 Oct 2011)

The songs on Bollywood Bloodbath were fossicked out of decades of B-grade Bollywood horror movies. I suppose that’s obvious from the cover. The genre of the film is the focus here, not the genre of the songs; there is disco, ‘80s tunes with drum machine and sneering pop sax,  boogie, piano, rock guitar, laughter, and “the drummy theme from the first-ever 1949 Indian ghost film”, which is a tense bit of thriller music. The big guns come in the last track when RD Burman and Lata Mangeshkar team up for “Bindya Tarse Kajra Barse”. “Bindya” has such a toy-like insinuating lilt that you wouldn’t associate it with horror, but an online search for the movie itself ends with footage of curtains heaving with sinister winds in a shadowy nighttime mansion while the actors upstairs open their eyes in bed, waiting for ghouls. Their pyjamas are impeccably decent. Mangeshkar ah-ah-ahs over the top. A lot of the songs are like this: romantic or upbeat rather than horrific. Others have tense chords and human growls, giving them kinship with the album cover. Still. Bollywood Bloodbath is likely to send you away with the impression that 20th century Indian horror films have been about cute scares rather than massacres—family-friendly fear.

Rating:

Comments
Now on PopMatters
The Walkmen: Heaven (Reviews) [Tue, 2:00 am]
King Tuff: King Tuff (Reviews) [Tue, 2:00 am]
Lake Street Dive: Fun Machine EP (Capsule Reviews) [Tue, 2:00 am]
Theresa Andersson: Street Parade (Reviews) [Tue, 2:00 am]
AlunaGeorge: You Know You Like It EP (Capsule Reviews) [Tue, 2:00 am]
Mean Jeans: Mean Jeans on Mars (Reviews) [Tue, 2:00 am]
Yarn: Almost Home (Capsule Reviews) [Tue, 2:00 am]
Lee Bannon: Fantastic Plastic (Reviews) [Tue, 2:00 am]
Devil May Cry: HD Collection (Reviews) [Tue, 1:00 am]
'Battleship': What Did You Expect? (Short Ends and Leader) [Mon, 2:00 pm]
East Meets Least: 'Thirteen Women' (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 4:00 pm]
'Man to Man' is an Early Talkie that's Not Stagey at All (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 4:00 pm]
  1. The Top 10 Overplayed Songs You Hate by Artists You Love (Sound Affects)
  2. Tea with 'Sherlock': Investigating the Investigators (Features)
  3. Sunk? This 'Battleship' Stunk! (Short Ends and Leader)
  4. Tenacious D: Rize of the Fenix (Reviews)
  5. Top Ten Lost Midwest Punk Singles (Sound Affects)
  6. 10 Pieces of Cinematic Art That Require Revisiting (Short Ends and Leader)
  7. Like 'Doom', In Heels (Moving Pixels)
  8. Punk Rock's Pet Sounds: An Interview with Bomb the Music Industry! (Features)
  9. She's a Rainbow: A Tribute to Donna Summer (Features)
  10. Counterbalance No. 82: U2's 'Achtung Baby' (Sound Affects)
  11. 'Albatross': A Not-So-Weighty Coming-of-Age Meets Mid-Life-Crisis Film (Reviews)
  12. Counterbalance No. 83: The Stooges' 'Fun House' (Sound Affects)
  13. We Will Avenge Them Or… Be Avenged?: The Individual in the US Experience (Features)
  14. Go Goth!: Ranking the Burton/Depp Collaborations (Short Ends and Leader)
  15. The Queen and Her Crayons: An Interview With Donna Summer (Features)
  16. The Best Canadian Records of the Year? The Fun Agony of Voting for the Polaris Prize Long List (Sound Affects)
  17. Flash Points: Mommy's Breast, Marriage Equality and Why Chipotle Is King (Features)
  18. Something’s Wrong with the Black Widow! (Graphic Novelties)
  19. Sergio Leone: Something to Do with Death (Columns)
  20. Killer Mike: R.A.P. Music (Reviews)
  21. Sherlock Holmes, Dirk Gently and the Case of the Eccentric Detective (Columns)
  22. Early Summer 2012 New Music Playlist (Mixed Media)
  23. In Support of Supports (Moving Pixels)
  24. Flash Points: Chicks, Sluts and Facebook (Features)
  25. In Defense Of... Rock Radio: A Force in Popular Culture (Columns)
  26. The Cult: Choice of Weapon (Reviews)
  27. Willie Nelson: Heroes (Reviews)
  28. Garbage: Not Your Kind of People (Reviews)
  29. 'People's Pornography': The Mundanities of Pornography and Surveillance Culture (Reviews)
  30. Like a Jack London Story on Steroids: 'The Grey' (Reviews)
PM Picks
Music Archive
Announcements

© 1999-2012 PopMatters.com. All rights reserved.
PopMatters.com™ and PopMatters™ are trademarks
of PopMatters Media, Inc.

PopMatters is wholly independently owned and operated.
PopMatters is a member of BUZZMEDIA Music, MOG and Guardian Select.