The sound of Mumbai’s streets

Is it time for desi hip-hop to get truly enmeshed with the sights and sounds of Bollywood, asks Rutwij Nakhwa

February 08, 2019 05:49 pm | Updated 05:49 pm IST

On stage:  Divine (Vivian Fernandes) with Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ranveer Singh

On stage: Divine (Vivian Fernandes) with Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ranveer Singh

“Apna Time Aayega” is the tag-line of Gully Boy, Zoya Akthar’s upcoming film inspired by the tales of two real-life Mumbai street rappers, Naezy (Naved Shaikh) and Divine (Vivian Fernandes), which stars in the lead, Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. At Gully Boy’s music launch concert, last month the city witnessed an extraordinary confluence between Bollywood actors and real, homegrown rap artists from the gullies of Mumbai, who triumphantly declared, “Apna Time Aagaya!”.

The launch concert magnetized hordes of city youth who came in thousands — not (just) for the “stars” but for the artists and hip-hop culture that they identify with. The launch concert headlined Naezy, Divine, and 16 other hip-hop artists alongside Ranveer Singh (proving himself to be a staggering rapper), who performed a mix of their own music as well as new songs from the film’s 18-song album. Alongside was the cast: Alia Bhatt, Kalki Koechlin, Siddhant Chaturvedi, with director Zoya Akhtar and Kubbra Sait as the night’s emcee.

Building momentum

In a way, this event, the film Gully Boy, and the phenomenon that it holds promise of exploding into, embodies an ongoing paradigm shift in both India’s hip-hop scene as well as the in the mainstream film industry. Over the past few years, audiences have warmed up to films that are moving away from Bollywood’s tried and tested tropes and formulae, with intelligent, unusual scripts and acting and filmmaking that seems to be taking itself just a bit more seriously; exemplary titles from 2018 being Amar Kaushik’s Stree and Shriram Raghvan’s Andhadhun. The turnout at the music launch event and the online response considered, Gully Boy seemingly already has a massive audience and appeal in India, and will premiere at Berlin International Film Festival. Akhtar’s latest is emblematic of a trend of recent films that have occupied the shifting gap between independent or parallel and mainstream, such as Newton, Manmarziyaan and Tumbaad .

Ever since 2016, India’s hip-hop (sub) culture, hitherto “underground”, has been increasingly becoming mainstream with ever burgeoning following on the Internet, but also record label deals, concerts and television appearances both in India and abroad, for the talent. Exceptionally so is Divine’s own journey from homemade tunes and videos made in an Andheri slum, to being signed by Sony Music and then quitting to start his own label, Gully Gang. Notably, Divine and Naezy are at the forefront of an internal shift in the desi rap-hip-hop scene from the superficial, aspirational and materialist to the more radical and political, rooted in reality. Delhi’s Punjabi rap largely centred on girls, cars and booze and played in clubs, with every other Bollywood track for a while featuring Yo Yo Honey Singh, whereas, songs like Mere Gully Mein , on which Divine and Naezy collaborated (a version by Ranveer and Divine is part of the new film’s album), is fuelled with implicit rage against poverty, corruption and police brutality. It is the sound of Mumbai’s streets.

Influential genre

A musician from Mumbai who was at the event, Shrey Jadhav, shared, “The thing about hip-hop is that it’s hands down the most socially influential genre we’ve known. While it originated in America, it has seeped into all tiers of music makers and consumers even in India to become what we like to call ‘desi hip-hop’. It's loud, angry, energetic and provocative and Gully Boy is India’s chance to bring the voice of this massive cohort to the forefront … desi hip-hop is a revolution, with MCs like Divine and Naezy in the vanguard and a movie starring big names is exactly the kind of fuel that this fire needs. Gully Boy will undoubtedly resonate amongst masses across India and the scene will flip, both in music and around us.”

Come February 15, and we’ll know the fate of the Gully Boy phenomenon, that is, whether it’s stays a massive, albeit brilliantly constructed, marketed commodity or becomes a more radical interruption in Mumbai’s mammoth culture industry.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.