THE ART OF BOLLYWOOD
by Rajesh Devraj with Edo Bouman
Taschen Books.

Crate digging in India is fun, and so is Poster diggingg!

Together with writer and fellow collector Rajesh Devraj Edo Bouman has dug deep into the Indian poster vaults. By speaking to artist & producers Rajesh Devraj has written the first detailed account of the Bollywood publicity machine and its artists. Contains scores of amazing original posters.

On the Taschen site you can leaf through the whole book.
See the LEAF THROUGH link below the cover picture at the very right, Check here

From the Taschen site:
“Since its inception in the second decade of the 20th century, the Bombay-based Indian film industry—Bollywood—has developed a unique visual language, articulated by the vivid hand-painted movie posters that have since become highly-desirable collectors’ items. While Bollywood poster artists produced a staggering number of these hand-painted images, their ephemeral work has traditionally been presented unevenly, with shoddy reprints and re-release posters. The Art of Bollywood digs deeper into the tradition, presenting the original art in its true glory—from seldom-seen posters to rare images of street publicity and cinema displays. The text provides a detailed discussion of the works of key artists, in this comprehensive overview of a previously neglected and underrated artistic genre.”

Release of the 2-LP of Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat by Charanjit Singh

Opening Durga Festival, Antwerpen, Belgium
Quick Shot Murugan, written by Rajesh Devraj
DJ Set by Edo Bouman, Bombay-Connection

Bollywood funk explosion with 14-man orchestra
Tribute to the funky sounds of R.D. Burman

Arrangements, Bass & Band Leader: Gerry Arling

Vocals: Najma Akhtar
Sandip Bhattacharya – Tablas
Mark Tuinstra – Guitar
Salle de Jonge – Drums
Klauss Tofft, Praful
Flutes & saxophone
Hans Leeuw – Trumpet
Dominique Brackeva – Trombone
Robert van der Hoop – keyboards
Red Limo Quartet:
Sietse van Gorkom – violin
Camilla van der Kooij- violin
Rani Kumar – alto violin
Jonas Pap – cello

Paradiso, Amsterdam, 20 nov 2008 20.00 – 24.00

The history of the Bollywood Film Poster 1950-present

Original Bollywood poster Exhibition

Curated by Rajesh Devraj & Edo Bouman (Bombay Connection)

FILM MUSEUM, nov 13 – dec 6 2008, daily 13.00 – 23.00

Clips Compiled by Edo Bouman, Bombay Connection.
Pre-view of Bollywood Poster Exhibition

Film: ZIBHAKANA (Hell’s Ground) by Omar Khan
DJ Set by Edo Bouman (Bombay-Connection)

RILEY, MONDRIAAN, ARLING & THE BOLLYWOOD MYSTERY
Live at the International Rotterdam Festival

- DJs: Edo & Johanz –

RILEY, MONDRIAAN, ARLING & THE BOLLYWOOD MYSTERY
Live at De Singel, Antwerpen, Belgium

RILEY, MONDRIAAN, ARLING & THE BOLLYWOOD MYSTERY
Live at the Fringe Festival, Amsterdam
Fri 31 aug, sat 1 sept, 21:30-22:30
Sun 2 sept 16:00-17:00

Live at Noorderzon Festival:

*Composer Gerry Arling samples a wide variety of images from Indian cinema, and builds a new musical collage around the spiritual music of idiosyncratic American composer Terry Riley, to unravel the mysteries of Bollywood. The exceptional Mondriaan String Quartetis joined by traditional Indian musicians, playing tabla and sitar, plus a computer. *

Concept, Programming, Bass: Gerry Arling
Mondriaan Quartet: Jan Erik van Regteren Altena (violin), Edwin Blankenstijn (violin), Annette Bergman (alto), Eduard van Regteren Altena (cello)
Keyboards: Ton van der Meer
Tablas: Sandip Bhattacharya
Sitar: Sidartha Siliceo
Images & Editing: Edo Bouman (Bombay-Connection)
Editing: Rinku Kalsey

Noorderzon Festival, Groningen
25 aug 19.30 – 25 aug 21.45

ARLING’S BOMBAY CONNECTION SITAR BAND
Live at the Tera Festival, Alkmaar

ARLING’S BOMBAY CONNECTION SITAR BAND
Live in Amersfoort.
DJ Johanz & Edo

ARLING’S BOMBAY CONNECTION SITAR BAND
Live at the Festival aan de Werf, Utrecht

ARLING’S BOMBAY CONNECTION SITAR BAND
Live at Paradiso
DISCO DANCER performed by Sujata Goel & Tarek Halaby
DJ set by DJ Johanz & Edo Bouman

Presentation of the BOMBAY-CONNECTION REWORKED & REMIXED album

ARLING’S BOMBAY CONNECTION SITAR BAND
Live at the Patronaat, Haarlem

ARLING’S BOMBAY CONNECTION SITAR BAND
Live at Waterfront, Rotterdam
DJ Gig by DJ Johanz & Edo Bouman

ARLING’S BOMBAY CONNECTION SITAR BAND
Live at Mezz, Breda
DISCO DANCER performed by Sujata Goel & Tarek Halaby
DJ-set by DJ Johanz & Edo Bouman (Bombay-Connection)

ARLING’S BOMBAY CONNECTION SITAR BAND
Live in Hedon, Zwolle.
Feat. Sujata Goel & Tarek Halaby
DJ-set by DJ Johanz & Edo Bouman (Bombay-Connection)

ARLING’S BOMBAY CONNECTION SITAR BAND
Live at Grand Theatre, Groningen
DISCO DANCER performed by Sujata Goel & Tarek Halaby
DJ Johanz & Edo

ARLING’S BOMBAY CONNECTION SITAR BAND
Live in Buda Kunstencentrum, Kortrijk, Belgium.
DISCO DANCER by Sujata Goel & Tarek Halaby
DJ Johanz & Edo

Live at Paradiso: ARLING’s BOMBAY CONNECTION SITAR BAND

Arling’s Bombay Connection Band revives the amazingly funky grooves of the background music from Hindi films of the 1970’s. For the first time in 30 years these grooves are performed live since they were recorded while the films were projected at the walls in legendary Bombay studios such as MEHBOOB and FAMOUS.

These Bollywood grooves are married to the tradition of the SITAR JAZZ. The funky grooves of the 1970s Bollywood scores, their unexpected turns and twists, and the hard-rocking psychedelic sitar explorations form the new soundtrack to the 1979 cult classic SURAKKSHA. It draws the audience into the adventures of GUNMASTER G-9, the Indian Bruce Lee-John Travolta-James Bond-in-one, filled to the brim with Bombay chases, fake-moustached villains, underwater headquarters, cheesy dances, atomic explosions and cheap special effects.

ARRANGER & BAND LEADER: GERRY ARLING

The music for the film is especially arranged by composer and arranger GERRY ARLING, of the well-known duo ARLING & CAMERON. His keen cinematic ears were instantly triggered by the unconventional, genre-crossing, energetic and sometimes outrageous Hindi film instrumentals, and led him to revive this sound on stage with a full fledged band. Performed in its original form, yet contemporising it with fresh arrangements and blending in his own compositions.

REPERTOIRE

For the repertoire of the Band Edo Bouman from Bombay Connection Records dug up the most exciting slices of Bollywood funk from the vaults of Bombay, often from long forgotten B-films like CHOR POLICE, DIL DIWANA and BOMBAY TO GOA. The band also revives the closely related music of the sitar psych funk legend ANANDA SHANKAR, the cousin of RAVI SHANKAR whom married Western rock with the classical Indian sitar tradition.

GUNMASTER G-9 in SURAKKSHA (1979)

The concept for the 1979 thriller SURAKKSHA (safety) was to make a film on a story line of James Bond, with a hero who fights like Bruce Lee and dances like John Travolta, Indian style. Indeed they did, and the result is a extremely colourful, wide angle funky film soaked with karate fights, motorbike chases and underseas headquarters. The film, originally 2 hours and 20 minutes long, has been brought back to 70 minutes for the show and functions as something between a feature film and a action filled trailer, compiling all best action scenes from the film at breathtaking speed.

MUSICIANS

SITAR: Tammo Heikens, Ashok Pathak
TABLAS: Sandip Bhattacharya / Sathyam Sheoratan
TURNTABLES: Kypski
FLUTE-SAX-THEREMIN: Jan Klug
KEYBOARDS: Hans Kaldeway
DRUMS: Harry Arling
BASS: Gerry Arling

SUJATA GOEL & TAREK HALABY

The dancers SUJATA GOEL and TAREK HALABY perform the piece DISCO DANCER, a choreography made after a dance in the similar titled Bollywood movie from 1982. The piece is both celebrating and commenting on the exploitation disco Bollywood films of the 1980s, making for a colorful, hilarious deconstruction with the gracious movements of refined, thoroughly trained modern dancers. Also the famous hard rocking Bollywood surf JAN PEHACHAN HO from the murder mystery GUMNAAM (1966, featured in Ghost World), is given a similar treatment by Goel and Halaby. The piece DISCO DANCER was received very well in the dance world, and has been performed in many places, among others in France (Lille3000) and the UK (Tate Gallery London). The collaboration with Bombay Connection marks the beginning of a research into the history of Bollywood dance from the 40s into the early 90s culminating in different projects.

Sujata Goel (India/USA) is schooled thoroughly in the south Indian tradition of Bharatanatyam under her teachers V.P. and Shantha Dhananjayan and at the Kalakshetra; Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts. She worked with Madras based choreographer Padmini Chettur for 4 years and then moved to Brussels to study at Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’ contemporary dance school PARTS in Brussels. TAREK HALABY is an American-Palestinian dancer who got his dance training at the The University of Iowa. For three years he lived and worked in New York dancing with various companies and independent choreographers, after which Tarek took Brussels as his base and studied at de KEERSMAEKER’s PARTS.

DJ-set by Edo Bouman
DISCO DANCER by Sujata Goel & Tarek Halaby