Ramblings on Gully Boy

I have never liked rap music. Like ever. Maybe I have listened to a song or two when others played it in a car but that's about it.

That was before Gully Boy.

Boy, what a movie! And what songs! Just watched it on Prime the day before.

The movie is several months old now, so most of you would have already seen it. If not, then stop everything else you are doing and go watch it.

It's that good.

But I am not writing a movie review. I just want to share some thoughts which came to me.

Hip hop. Hard hai.

If what MC Sher says in the movie is true and if hip hop really is not just about the sexually explicit, women denigrating crap that most rap songs seem to be, then I am tending to think that it can become palatable to some extent.

Hip hop fan boys, I have nothing against hip hop music. It's just that my exposure has been limited and I don't seem to like it much.

I loved the music in Gully Boy, though. Gully Boy really stood out and spoke about his position in society, about his dreams and his struggles, about the injustices and the discriminations he and his ilk has to face.

It reminds me of classic rock music. They used to sing about these things.

Perhaps, hip hop has become so popular because it speaks about real people. I hope and think that is the case.

Bengali music scene.

Another thought that keeps coming back to me is the state of Bengali music now. We are stuck in time. After the jibonmukhi movement of the nineties, and the bangla band movement from the 2000's, Bengali music seems to be stuck in doldrums. 

There are good singers, there is good music. But most of it is film music. 

There is no rock star is Bengal now. No artist is bringing something new to the table, at least in my limited understanding there is nothing revolutionary which has captured the public imagination in recent times.

Hope that changes.

Hope we get our very own Gully Boy from the streets of Kolkata.

Hope he tells us something new.