Antara’s
Namaste, Dear Music Lover,
As noted for the past few years… my relentless web team has been chipping away at the design and build of an online forum here to provide a place for everyone to share their thoughts, feelings and opinions about playback songs in Bollywood movies!
It’s called Antara’s Bollywood Takes and it promises to be very fun & informative. (Presuming enough good people join us and contribute and/or reply to contributions. This is what I get for being regarded as a very fun person… the very fun tasks of building and maintaining a forum to support fun activities!)
No two songs are identical (which is why we find it fruitful to explore the various versions, even amongst the various ‘woods producing movies in multiple languages around India and the greater South Asia region). No two singers are the same, either. I want to remind everyone that we’re doing this neither as a contest nor to provide a venue where visitors criticize or complain about what or whom they dislike.
We’re also not wanting to promote dissent about political or entertainment industry figures (there are countless other places online or in person for such things), or language snobbery. Nor do we encourage anyone to try to rate or rank singers or assign wins and losses to anyone or any project or song. We don’t currently pay contributors for their work, although conceivably (in the foreseeable future) we may do so.
Also, just to clear up any misconceptions, until further notice, we’re also not being paid to do this. Should apt sponsors identify themselves and step up to help, however, we aren’t opposed to the right partners helping us. If and when sponsorship happens, it will likely be quite obvious who it is. Either way, we hope that anyone finding something of merit here will help us to find an ever-expanding audience.
Whew! That’s a lot of disclaimers, lol. Really, friends, we/I just want people to take part in constructive ways… noting why they do (or don’t) love this song, that style, singer’s tone, group/orchestra(s) or genre(s). We’re talking about things (songs) more than people here.
It’s still fine to express your love, disdain, or even disinterest in specific songs and movies… we’re posting these advance warnings because we want the tone here (on my web domain) to reflect our family values: Indian values of respecting diversity and embracing people of various backgrounds and opinions, in order to enable folks to openly share their impressions and thoughts on the World Wide Web (WWW).
We created this to be of service to you, Dear Music Lover. Our goals here won’t depart from that main objective… we’re excited to be able to provide a free Bollywood community forum. Residence in or near Bombay/Mumbai is not required to take part (but it may help!).
Commentaries about local landmarks and businesses are also welcome. We’re told that local environs, public figures and landmarks or businesses have often served as inspiration for some of the best songs.
While we strive to recover from the devastation in the aftermath of a global pandemic, it seems to us at AntaraMitra.com that one way to help with economic recovery is to support not only the people who make and distribute films, but also local theatres and other venues (even to include places of worship and local government). Therefore we will entertain some discussion of cinema theatres, when and where useful/constructive.
(Again, we’re not specifically endorsing or promoting any places or spiritual practices mentioned by contributors—the information and opinions expressed here are solely theirs, not necessarily mine/ours.)
In a matter of weeks (some time in 2021) it should be all ready to go! When it is, I won’t necessarily make any more announcements about it (as I feel that we’ve already created plenty of advance warning and anticipation).
May our forum allow Bollywood music lovers around the planet to share their insights with others! As I have said and will reiterate: it’s not only about me. It’s about songs that we love or wish were better in specific ways. This is why your voice is welcome to take part.
Vital note about the Forum: we don’t allow anonymous sharing! In other words, anyone seeking a place to spew hatred or ventilate random dumb or silly humor without being a responsible adult willing to stand behind their own content contributions will have to do that elsewhere! (Should you prefer to use a stage name or author’s pseudonym, that’s up to you.) Also: if you’re not yet legally an adult, that’s not a problem. You can spend however much of your available time you wish reading here and getting familiar with the topics raised, until you are age 18 or older.
We’re not super-serious here, yet we’re also not untethered to reality and a willingness to take and give credit where it’s due. So again, everyone is entitled to her or his opinions, and everyone HERE is required to respect the views and expressions of others.
🔥Flame wars just won’t be a thing here! I can promise you that a) it wasn’t/won’t be easy and cost-free for us to create and support this forum, and b) it won’t be made available for anyone else to take part instantly and anonymously. We’re also only marginally interested in hair care advice and other non-musical topics, if you were wondering. So when others go off-topic, and occasionally they will, we’re not deputising anyone else to police or call them out. Should a pattern of abuse occur, my web team will be “on it like white on rice.”
Trust is a key to successful relationships. We cannot trust those who hide their identity, however a global social contract holds everyone to account via her/his personal human identity. Because children cannot be held responsible for their actions, they cannot contribute to the forum content. But again, they’re quite welcome here (to read and to learn about Bollywood songs, which India annually produces in the thousands)!
Our semi-elaborate user validation process is designed to weed out 100% of the trolls and sneak attackers. This is how Bengali culture works. We separate the rogue from kind elements and celebrate with those good people prepared to take part responsibly.
Please also note that all personal data you provide for user validation will be kept secure in strict confidentiality. Permanently (unless/until you choose to remove it upon leaving). However, we hope you’ll join us and continue to remain an active valued part of this experience for as long as you’re able.
We never sell or give away personal data, period. This is partly why it’s taking so long to prepare and launch this public service. For one thing, I felt that’s an important point to make prior to launch. We have neither time nor inclination to add drama to our lives (nor to the lives of those entrusting us with their thoughts and descriptions of their feelings about movie music).
By the by, not all movie music consists of songs. Other film soundtrack music is termed incidental music, and it’s generally purely instrumental (no vocals). We’re certainly open to discussions about incidental music, however my/our primary focus here is on songs with lyrics (including nonsense lyrics [also called vocalise or scat singing—which in the forms of rap and hip-hop music ‘songs’ are both en vogue again, having first appeared in American Jazz and some films roughly a century ago]).
As you may have noticed, for universality and maximum reach abroad, we publish primarily in English, however your language preference for reading is up to you. We cannot promise that certain concepts or phrases will be accurately rendered in every language (although we’ve found Google Translations generally very good, and that’s why we use them). Should you take issue with any aspect of my web site including anything on any part of the forum, you’re always welcome to send correspondence to us at our main admin email address.
On another language issue, however, we’re confident in our ability to identify and remove hateful or incendiary remarks/asks, in virtually any modern language. This forum will always be rated G for General audiences of all ages. If you’re concerned about any content here for any reason, please don’t hesitate to offer your thoughts, and while we cannot respond to every message, I can assure you that we will read them with substantial impartiality.
Inasmuch as those who contribute here choose to make it, Antara’s Bollywood Takes may or may not serve as a source of music history and literature data. Thanks so much in advance for whatever contributions you should choose to make here. We really do appreciate each and every contribution and contributor! Corrections to factual information presented by anyone here are always welcome.
I truly hope that everyone here enjoys and derives something useful by participating in this new forum. God knows that our lovely fans are very loyal and supportive (through thick and thin times).
Thank you so much in advance for your continual involvement! We hope to be here for the long term, as T-Mantra Music and AntaraMitra.com take on planet Earth for a kinder, safer future.
Namaste,
♫ AM ♫
