Ever wondered what makes those millions of songs in Desi movies watchable?
Whether the heroine is Aishwarya Rai or some unheard local actress,no director wants to risk a movie without those duet songs with around 20 girls dancing in the background!The shameless 50 year old heroes still try to dance it out all through the songs,with the oft-repeated school drill type steps.This write up is not going to focus on the heroes or the heroins.Much is being written about them already,with many bloggers still showering platitudes on those granddad_like_looks_yet_active heroes and just_out_of_school heroines!
Has anyone ever given attention to those millions of extra actors who add "extra" spice to the songs?
These are some of my observations about them..
1)The extra/background dancers for the heroins shall not wear the same coloured dress as the heroine.
2)The extras are carefully picked in such a way that they don't have a pleasing look when compared to the heroine,lest they hog the attention that the heroin was supposed to get!
3)The female extras need to work for every rupee they get as emolument,i.e,they need to mouth the songs and dance thoroughly as if that song was the life or deatch decider for them!
4)The camera should never focus more than a few seconds on any of the extras;the camera speed along with the extra's frantic running in the song making sure that none of their faces get registered in any of the viewers' minds.
5)The male extras generally tend to be dark in complexion,so that hero gets a facelift automatically due to the relatively dark coloured background.
6)LHS=RHS always..Wait thats not any ending to a theorm/proof.It just says the male extras almost always equal the number of female extras in the song!The heights and physical appearances are also matched while selecting these pairs.
7)Both and male and female extras need to replicate the actions that is being done by the hero and heroin respectively!Imagine Vijaykanth doing the "left to right rope pulling" like act in a dance and the extras behind doing the "fast paced in and out peeing" like act in the dance..
8)Not much make-up or powder is allowed for the extras,lest they become more prominent than the pink painted heroin.
9)The male extras generally are not expected to be clean shaven.They need to sport a look reminding everyone of the guy on the street,who doesnt bother to comb his hair or iron his shirt!
10)The female extras from the 1970s and 1980s tamil flicks looked much better than even some of the heroins today!1970/80 extras wore much decent costumes and sported well-plaited hair,sometimes even flowers and they wore shiny clothing.
11)At some part of the song,it is a must for all the male extras to wear a lungi or Veshti,making sure that the underwear underneath is well exposed.
To be continued..
-Raapi
Posted by rajesh | 
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