Falu’s Bollywood Orchestra will perform at the Barns of Wolf Trap on Friday.
When Slumdog Millionaire hit in 2008, it built on the prior success of films such as Monsoon Wedding and Bend It Like Beckham. The movie was still a surprise, grossing $140 million that year and winning the Oscar for Best Picture. All of a sudden, Indian—and more broadly South Asian—culture seemed to go mainstream in the United States. Dance clubs started featuring bhangra nights, chefs from the subcontinent were winning Beard Awards, and brown faces on TV were less of a novelty (see: Mindy Kaling and Aziz Ansari).
The appetite for all things South Asian has died down a bit since then, but there is still a fair amount of interest in societies whose traditions extend back millennia. However, it’s the subcontinent’s pop culture that’s had the longest reach. Bollywood, the name for the film industry based out of Mumbai, India, is the world’s largest movie factory and has an audience of billions that extends throughout Asia, the Middle East, and even into Latin America. The genre is known for its romantic melodrama, colorful costumes and sets, and of course, its music.
“Have fun with the colors of our culture” is what vocalist Falguni Shah, or Falu, as she’s known on stage, says to prospective audiences of her Bollywood Orchestra, which draws its material from Indian cinema and is performing tomorrow night at the Barns of Wolf Trap. “There’s a gap that’s widening everyday and music is the best way to bridge that gap.”
In terms of bridging gaps, there are several pertinent to Falu’s outlook. The first is with her non-South Asian audience, which can appreciate the rich melodies and infectious rhythms found in Bollywood music despite the language barrier. The other is with South Asians who grew up in this country. As with any immigrant population, there is often an exaggerated generational divide between those who grew up in the States and their parents who grew up in the mother country. She does this by taking well-loved Bollywood songs from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s and rearranging them in a modern context.
“The whole show is about taking those old classics and making it relevant to today’s modern music with EDM and electronic elements,” Falu explained.
One way Falu achieves her goals is by working with her music director, Deep Singh, who has collaborated with pop stars such as Katy Perry and George Michael. Singh orchestrated and arranged all the music for the ensemble. She also has a number of non-South Asian musicians in her band, which adds a twist because they bring their own background and experiences into the mix.
“They’ve learned Indian scales, microtones, and ornaments,” Falu said of her musicians. “Even though they are highly trained, they play it a little differently than how an Indian orchestra would play.”
This more commercial style of music is even a change of sorts for Falu. Raised in Mumbai, she was trained in a rigorous classical tradition. She moved to the U.S. in 2000 and has released three albums over the past decade. In addition to charting her own path through her music, Falu has worked with high profile artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Wyclef Jean, Ricky Martin, and A.R. Rahman, who is perhaps the most successful Bollywood songwriter working today.
While Falu does take a thoughtful approach to music making, ultimately its the emotion behind the music that is important. She hopes her audience will appreciate the same connections she recognizes between seemingly disparate forms of music.
“It flows like a river from one style to another, flawlessly,” she said.
Falu’s Bollywood Orchestra will perform at the Barns of Wolf Trap on Friday, January 15th. 8 p.m. Tickets $22 – $27. A limited number of tickets remain.
