Collaborations
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Some
Bollywood
The story of Nana and Nani could make you laugh and cry—riding their bicycle and falling into a well, smoking and getting wet in the rain, and finally Nani’s tragic end and Nana’s impending execution. Generations of Indo-Trinidadians grew up with East Indian songs spilling from their stereos and Hindi films lighting up their living rooms. They also grew up with indigenous chutney music.
L
ore has it that the first Hindi film to be screened in Trinidad, Bala Joban, arrived way back in 1935. The exact year is perhaps not important. It was a long time ago. Some thirty years later, along came Sundar Popo. Backed by Indian instruments and reinterpreting Indian folk songs, singing partly in Hindi and mostly in English, he told stories that were deeply rooted in the rural Indo-Trinidadian experience. Nana drinking white rum And Nani drinking wine They called the music chutney, and like the condiment, it was spicy.
STAN JANUARY - APRIL 2016
Today chutney has, to some extent, gone mainstream. As the chutney pioneers handed over to succeeding generations, not only did annual competition increase its visibility, but its fusion with soca also broadened its appeal. Observers say that in the past decade or so, a new trend has manifested, with chutney artistes leaning ever more heavily on Bollywood for melody. A prime example is Ravi B’s wildly popular 2010 Chutney Soca Monarch winner “Ah Drinka”, its melody a faster version of Indian playback singer Kishore Kumar’s “O Sathi Re.” Without referring to the song or any artiste in particular, chutney artiste Raymond Ramnarine acknowledges that musicians all over the world are “stealing melodies,” which he says is fair as long as copyright is paid and limits respected. “But using an entire song—melody and music—
in your chutney?
to create a chutney shows total lack of creativity.” Ramnarine says promoters of lucrative chutney competitions are, to some extent, determining the output: one year Bollywood melodies are allowed, the next they’re not. “I sometimes wonder if the copyright organisation of India is aware of what is taking place with the music here in Trinidad,” he muses, “then what will be the circumstances?” But there is no stopping the tide of cross-cultural influence. For many Indo-Trinidadians, Bollywood remains an important connection to modern India. Rajesh Seenath, a teacher of classical Indian dance who is thoroughly scornful of westernized Bollywood dance moves, admitted to an anthropologist in 2008: “We are all film dancers at first.” In a world stitched together by internet cable, Bollywood is more available than ever. It continues to shape chutney, which in the first instance was a “revival and repackaging” of Indian folk songs. It is adding another layer to the Indian influence. The first generation of chutney singers was inspired by Indian folk songs, the next by Hindi film. “Ah Drinka’s” melody may not have been original, but its lyrics were of this place. Complain about me now that we married?