The Rain Song

The monsoons have always been my favourite, and although I don't get to seep them in Toronto, there's enough rain throughout the summer to make everybody complain of its being. Besides the rain, this time of the year always brings copious amounts of goodies to keep me occupied--dripping umbrellas, shoe-shopping in a shoe-string budget, the unputdownable urge to sit at home all day, eating out bills (coffee shops) and rain song blog entries almost everywhere. And I can't possibly ask for more.

So I got a little bit preoccupied. With these rain songs. Existing quintessentially in Hindi films, you would find the rain song used to express various shades of emotions as categorized below. All of which are, of course, very realistic.

[tip: to check the videos, right click on the underlined link and click on "open link on a new tab" to avoid getting out of this entry :-( ]

1) The-Pure-Enjoyment Rain Song--Pure enjoyment of the rains as portrayed in this



and this




and this.



Generally, the person chosen to do the portrayal is a female who dances without any inhibition of the body, in a valiant response to Freud, Foucault and Beavoir. The female actually goes against all forms of docility, patriarchal sanctions and cultural prescriptions, to the point of being powerful in holding and controlling the gaze of the onlooker/audience.
In the opposite case, there's a catch though; when males choose to show their enjoyment of the rain, it's generally in a group as in this,



or with another female.



Admittedly, these safeguards ensure the difference and distinctiveness of Indian male species from all other by being less malleable to effeminate and "soft" pleasures in life. It also nails home the point that they do not need to be involved in the process of "emancipation" as portrayed and essayed through dancing in the rain.

Only exception to the above is shown when the male is (all conditions apply);
a) in love,
b) is young
c) is shown to be waiting for the significant other (again, always a female; Gay films do not exist) e.g. this



and this.



and this:




The crucial thing here is falling in love, as falling in lust has different connotations as depicted by thunders and billions of blistering pitfalls as the human kind could imagine.

Exception: Inspite of starting with ominous thunders and a male protagonist who always looks ominous, love or lust notwithstanding, this was actually a love song.




2) The Sad Sad Rain Song--When males do enjoy the rain by themselves, it is generally done in a "I can't be bothered" way, wherein the pouring rain is usually a nice background facade to hide a forlorn lovers yesterdays,




or to drown in depressive gloom.





Possibly, the male is also sad because he is actually enacting a rain song, or showing the girly side which takes refuge in rains.

3) The Flirty Rain Song--This is a heavy category where as soon as it starts raining, people start flirting,




leching,



seducing,



and just being playful in general .




No idea whether the hormones are supposed to be free-flowing like Tata namak when it's rainy outside or is it simply a wet dressed curve-expressive female doing the trick?

4) The Romantic Rain Song -- Self-explanatory. However, this is a different category than the above as romance is flared wider than Dharmendra's nostrils (--> in a romantic scene). Examples with distinct flavour of romance include this,





this



and this.




And of course, now that I've mentioned it, this.





5) The Rural Realistic Rain Song--Innocent, simple, rustic flavoured. This.



I was just unable to put this song into any of the above categories. It is one of those borderline cases that always provides the perfect fodder to a rain-washed evening tea.
The border comprising of: whether this falls in the love song arena or the lust song arena. The video points to the latter, while the audio goes the other way.

Endure the ear-eye incoordination.