The Female Playback in Bombay Cinema
Voice, Body, Technology
Shikha Jhingan author Barry Keith Grant editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Wayne State University Press
Published:28th Oct '25
Should be back in stock very soon
Drawing on sound studies and performance theory, scholar Shikha Jhingan explores the discursive nature of the female playback voice in Bombay film songs. Mapping the production, circulation, and reception of the voices of singing stars—notably Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle—Jhingan situates the singing voice as a cinematic object with limitless possibilities of distribution and dispersal. She employs the perspectives of a diverse range of listeners across a vast media landscape to illustrate how the affective charge of the female playback voice, combined with developments in audio technology, has led to a gradual expansion of opportunities for women in film, popular music, and media and audio production. With nuanced exploration of the way the human voice becomes intertwined with devices such as the microphone, radio, cassettes, and digital technologies, Jhingan argues for the sonic excess of the female voice beyond the narrative and visual. The Female Playback in Bombay Cinema is an authoritative addition to the field of sound studies with implications for gender studies, performance studies, and cinema studies.
The Female Playback in Bombay Cinema maps a dazzling itinerary of the female voice from radio, gramophone, and playback through to audiocassette, television reality shows, and YouTube uploads. Shikha Jhingan pursues rigorous film, musical, and sound analysis with an alertness to the wider intermedial imprint of the voice. A landmark for the field. Ravi Vasudevan, codirector of Sarai, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies Building on the author's wealth of research across the long history of the recorded female singing voice in Bombay cinema, this groundbreaking book sets the scene for a long-overdue shift of scholarly focus from the visual to the aural. Jhingan surveys her field with authority, care, and passion. The book itself sings. Rosie Thomas, author of Bombay Before Bollywood
The Female Playback in Bombay Cinema shows how the sonic attributes and affective force of the female voice in Bombay cinema have been shaped by media assemblages, from the early days of playback to the televised reality shows and digital platforms of the 2020s. Jhingan's sensitive analysis of the shifting relationships between the visual and the aural, body and voice, makes an important contribution to cinema and sound studies within South Asia and beyond. Amanda Weidman, author of Brought to Life by the Voice: Playback Singing and Cultural Politics in South India
Shikha Jhingan's book maps out the complex and contested destabilization and emergence of new norms for the female playback singing voice from the 1940s to the present, discussing changing relationships between voice, body, technology, and listening practices. Neepa Majumdar, director of graduate studies for the Film and Media Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh
ISBN: 9780814350942
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
296 pages