Hindi films have a very neat structure. They can be divided into three parts – romance, conflict and resolution. The lovers meet, or childhood friends grow up into lovers and dance around trees and sing romantic songs. Then the villain strikes, who lusts for the girl or her wealth, and kidnaps her; or the girl’s Daddy cannot stand the boy and locks her up; therefore, the lovers sing sad songs. In the end all the misunderstandings are removed, or the villain is beaten to pulp, and the lovers unite singing happy songs again. If eight or nine songs are divided evenly, about two or three should fall under the sad part. Some movies have weepy endings, especially if they happen to star a ‘Tragedy King’ or ‘Tragedy Queen’, which means that there could be proportionately more sad songs.
A tribute to old Hindi film music. Songs of the 30s through the 60s.