MUSI 1500 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Music Of Bollywood, Cinema Of India, Lata Mangeshkar
Document Summary
Regional cinema (i. e, produced in languages other than hindi-urdu) have been an important feature of indian film since its conception. Late 1940s, cinema production was dominated by bombay and madras, but a large portion of this output has always aimed at regional markets. Regional cinema consists of imitations of glittery bombay films, distinguished only by language and less slick production. Other regional films reflect a greater orientation towards local life and culture, and they are of interest here for their frequent use of stylized regional folk music. However, the aspect is least evident in tamil cinema, which comprises the largest category of films after those in hindi. Tamil films differ from hindi films only in subtle karnatak vocal tones; the north indian. Tabla and nal seem to be preferred to the karnatak mrdangam, whose tone is lower and less ringing.
