A love letter to Bollywood

I grew up in the world of films and Hindi tunes, colloquially termed “filmy music,” a world that extended beyond wedding Sangeets and obligatory family-friend parties. No nightly meal was complete without my parents’ favorite childhood songs quietly filling the room with their nostalgic rhythms and beautiful words, and no car ride was truly perfect without playing either the Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara or Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani soundtracks with the windows down. I can still recall three-year-old me falling asleep to my dad singing Aa Chal ke Tujhe, a song I still know every word to despite not having heard it in years. 

Bollywood is my tenuous connection to my birthplace and my escape into the beauty of a country where I haven’t lived in 14 years but constantly yearn to explore. On the rare occasions when I return home, I visit the same three places. I miss out on the beauty that lies outside the big cities. I haven’t yet seen the magic of Rajasthan and tasted their famous kachori, I’ve yet to see Manali’s gorgeous natural forests or visit Rameswaram at the very Southern tip of India. And yet, somehow I travel there through my favorite movies. Just by clicking play, I’m transported to a new world, and I’m accompanied by highly dimensional characters that fully experience each emotion. 

For someone who didn’t grow up with them, Bollywood films might seem dramatic, over-the-top, and unhealthily unrealistic. But to me, they’re simply magic.  The dramatic love stories and the friendships are colorful and vivacious in a way that is unique to Bollywood. A simple glance over the shoulder will hold so much love that it’ll have my friends and me fangirling for ages. Comedic scenes from 3 Idiots, Chennai Express and the timeless Golmaal have me clutching my stomach as I laugh at my favorite moments with my family. 

But the true hallmark of a Bollywood film is its music. Ah, the music! Even before you get to the lyrics, there’s something indescribably homey about a Bollywood song. A classic item song will never fail to have me on my feet, channeling my inner Deepika Padukone while singing into a hairbrush in my room or singing loudly in the car with my friends as we drive to our favorite local chaat food truck. The songs that fall into “romance” or “coming-of-age” are filled with longing and pure nostalgia. The instrumentals alone will never fail to call to mind your most meaningful, bittersweet memories, whether they have anything to do with the song or not. I always lose myself when I listen to those “Subhanallah”-type songs, the soft guitar and expansive vocals calming my mind and returning it to simpler times. Listening to them with headphones alone brings me a sense of solidarity; I find comfort in the fact that someone somewhere has felt the same peace listening to these songs that I feel now. 

And then, there are the lyrics. Lyricism in Hindi is truly diverse — from silly “Hinglish” jokes in item songs to the raw yearning in those heartbreaking songs that play as the hero almost loses the heroine in the end. But nothing truly compares to the magic of a Bollywood love song. Cheesy? Absolutely. Over the top? 100%. But, Hindi is the language of love for a reason: It’s hard to imagine desire, ecstasy, heartbreak and melancholy captured so intimately with an English pop song the way it is in Bollywood. The poetry in a Hindi love metaphor is unmatched: “the nights are tasteless without you” just doesn’t ring the same as “tere bina beswaadi ratiyaan” does in Hindi. 

And, to me, it’s always seemed that the words themselves roll off my tongue effortlessly when I sing along. They just make sense next to each other; words in a Bollywood song just flow, and they carry emotion and meaning in a way that I’ve never experienced with any other language. Perfect scenery complemented by heavenly, cohesive instrumentation makes for an unparalleled ambiance, and I can’t help but fall in love with Bollywood all over again. 

My love for Bollywood has endured the test of time; I still dance around my room the same way I did when I was young. My “Love But Ishq Hai” playlist still unlocks the hopeless, romantic, lover girl in me and brings me back to the world of easy love, of grand gestures, of girls dancing in their gorgeous lehengas and jingling chudiyan. And, on my most stressful days, it’s to my Bollywood playlists that I return, finding home and magic in the escape, beauty and comfort of my “filmy” world.

Shreya Tiwari is a sophomore from Austin, Texas majoring in Biomedical Engineering. She is a Science and Technology Editor for The News-Letter.