Vishram Dhole awarded doctorate at Savitribai Phule Pune University

 I am delighted to inform you that my colleague Vishram V. Dhole, Assistant Professor at the Department of Media and Communication Studies of Savitribai Phule Pune University, has been awarded PhD recently. Following are the detail  

Title of the Thesis: 

      A Study of Hindi Film Songs from 1950 to 2010 as a Location of Popular Culture in India

Guide: Prof Ujjwala Barve, Head, Dep. of Communication and Journalism, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune 

research Centre:

Department of Communication and Journalism, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune

 Abstract:

Despite its existence since 1931, large scale production and an unquestionable centrality in popular culture in India, ‘Hindi film songs’ has remained a highly understudied area. Even the growing fields of film theories and cultural studies have only marginally dealt with its cinematic and cultural significance. The thin body of scholarly work about Hindi film music has focused mostly on assessment of its essential characteristics, style and historical development (Arnold, 1988, 1991) comparative context and technological platforms (Manuel, 1988, 1993) meaning construction and musical arrangement (Booth, 2008, 2011) and production, style, commercial life and reception (Morcom, 2007). The studies are informed by ethno- musicological or neo-Marxist perspectives and take up production, distribution and reception of Hindi film song as the central objects of analysis.

It is against this background that the study takes up the actual content of Hindi film songs as a location of popular culture. Since popular music is designed to reflect the continuous present tense of social-cultural life of a group, a study like this will help develop a macro view of what Ranade (2006) calls as the surface manifestation of contemporary cultural forces. The research first takes undertakes Content Analysis of 610 songs using the stratified random sampling from the population of more than 18000 ‘popular songs’ from 1950 to 2010 to study various generic & thematic elements of songs. As a part of the triangulation methodology, the study then carries out a detailed qualitative analysis Hindi film songs’ complex engagement with the forces of modernity and post-modernity. Using various issues and concepts, the study analyses the representation and framing of its central theme of engagement- Romantic love. It does so by focusing on three aspects- struggle & ubiquity of romantic love, its legitimization and, construction of romantic utopia. While romantic love represents the interior dimension of ‘modernity’, the study also analyses the exterior dimension of modernity through the re-presentation of ‘City’ in the songs. The study then takes up Hindi film songs’ engagement with two important markers of post-modern aesthetics- intertextuality and self-reflexivity. The analysis reveals the ways in which text production system of Hindi film songs relate with other text systems and its own past. The analysis helps to understand the growing influence of the post-modern aesthetics on Hindi film songs particularly from the 1990s.

 Besides finding out several aspects of generic and textual patterns of Hindi film songs from 1950s till date, the research also reveals Hindi film songs’ ambiguous relationship with the project of modernity. It shows that the song system is increasingly reflecting the post-modern values and aesthetics particularly from the 1990s. The idea of ‘Romantic love’, which dominates more than 70% of Hindi film songs, is a site of complex negotiation between ‘moral individualism’ of the modernity and the patriarchal forces of traditions. This large scale, long duration, empirically driven study of the text of Hindi film songs helps to understand a highly important site of popular culture in India and also reveals some contours of the Indian society’s engagement with the overarching meta-narratives of modernity and post-modernity.

Key Words: Hindi Film Songs, Songs as Genre, Modernity, Romantic Love, City, Inter-textuality, Self-reflexivity, Post Modernity, Content Analysis

 bout the Researcher:

Vishram Dhole works as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Media and Communication Studies of Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU). He has twenty years of teaching experience at the post-graduate level. Before joining academics, he worked as a journalist with a leading Marathi newspaper Loksatta for nine years. As a journalist, he worked for the desk as well as reporting and, covered many important events and issues. He writes regularly for leading Marathi newspapers, periodicals and participates in panel discussions on news channels. He has written yearly columns for Marathi dailies Sakal (2008 & 2009), Loksatta (2012) and Lokmat (2013 & 2015). He has conceptualized, scripted and directed six documentaries on various social issues. It includes ‘Jaldindi’ on environmental issues, ‘Ranwata’ on the developmental work by Dr. Prakash Amte& his colleagues and, ‘Sahar’ and ‘Gumraah’ on development and security issues in Kashmir.  He has worked for several educational audio-visual programs at EMMRC and scripted more than ten radio programs for Pune station of All India Radio. He has designed and conducted training programs for senior editorial staff of leading media houses like ‘The Week’, ‘Lokmat’ and ‘Sakal’. He has also designed and conducted several training programs for the senior scientific and managerial staff of Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) for their communication and media related objectives. He has also worked as consultant for Opinion Polls carried out by Sakal during Lok Sabha, Maharashtra Assembly and Pune Municipal Elections. He also provides consultancy to Public Relation and Advertising agencies.

Contact:

Email: vishramdhole@gmail.com

 

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