The sound is Punjabi, but the setting & look of most Punjabi music videos is Western...

When Bollywood wants to show you Punjab, they take you to fields with golden wheat, tractors, and girls in suits and flowing phulkari dupattas. The Punjabi entertainment industry does the exact opposite. In the music videos that you see on umpteen Punjabi entertainment channels, Punjabi kudis wear short skirts and skimpy tops and boys woo them in big, flashy cars. Punjabi music albums seem to have had a surfeit of ‘desipan’. While the lyrics are in Punjabi, the settings of the videos are usually western, as are attires and to ensure sales, covers of cassettes and CDs have a predominantly western look.

Popular and recent Punjabi albums like ‘Romantic Jatt’ by Miss Pooja, Diljeet Dosanjh - The Next Level, Youngster 2 Gabroo boast of a swanky look and feel. As Ravinder Rangowal, a prominent director of music albums in Punjab points out, “youngsters now want an English touch to the album. Along with the usual lyrics, rap is favoured, both in English and Punjabi and this is not an urban phenomenon, young people in villages have got advanced too,” he reasons.

The change in taste is reflected elsewhere too. Balwinder Singh, owner of Sethi Musico, a music shop in Ludhiana’s posh Sarabha Nagar market, says the sale of the music album of ‘Heer Ranjha’, starring popular Punjabi actor-cum-singer Harbhajan Mann, is not as much as other racy Punjabi albums.

Simar Pangli, also a director of Punjabi music albums, agrees that the demand for ‘Punjabiyat’ is seen more in the NRI crowd. When they organise live shows, they want the flavour of rural Punjab. This, he says, is managed well by Punjabi movies. “A film can straddle the two worlds, and combine the appeal too. With a large number of Punjabis living abroad, movies can encompass a wide range. But music videos, which have only a few minutes to catch one’s attention, flaunt glamorous western settings,” sums up Simar.

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