In conversation with the Penn Masala group

"We wanted to celebrate the impact that Indian cinema has had on our lives," said one of the members of Penn Masala group.

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In conversation with the Penn Masala group

Penn Masala group
Penn Masala group

Dressed like Raj Kapoor in Shree 420, six guys start off by crooning "Mera Joota Hai Japani" and end with the legend's grandson Ranbir Kapoor's stylish moves in "Badtameez Dil". The five-minute-long video has gone viral on YouTube both for its fine vocals and evolving sartorial style. On March 29, members of Penn Masala, a South Asian a cappella group from the University of Pennsylvania, uploaded a video tracking the evolution of Hindi film music from 1940s to 2014. Inspired by a cappella group Pentatonix, which took a similar approach to showcase the history of western music, the 13-member all-male ensemble comprising - Akiff Premjee, Varshil Patel, Anil Chitrapu, Dilip Rajan, Ashwin Muthiah, Prashant Ramesh, Chetan Khanna, Aneesh Kanakamedala, Brendan Mcmanus, Pranay Sharma, Hari Ravi, Praveen Rajaguru and Kashish Hora - chose defining songs of each decade which highlighted the evolving sound and melded them together to create an infectious arrangement and medley which instantly brings a smile to your face. "We wanted to celebrate the impact that Indian cinema has had on our lives," wrote Patel, Premjee and Chapu in an email interview. "We also made sure to not take ourselves too seriously."

Q:
What drove you to make a video on the Evolution of Bollywood Music? Did you want to celebrate 100 years of cinema?

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A: We've been brainstorming this idea for a while, ever since we saw another a cappella group (Pentatonix) do a history of Western Music video. We started discussing and thought, "Wouldn't it be incredible if we could show how Bollywood music evolved over time. The genre has undergone so many incredible changes over its lifetime, and we thought that it would be really fun to show that in a medley of songs. From there, things started to pick up: choosing defining songs of each decade, melding them together in our arrangement, and making sure that the general evolution of songs appealed to as wide an audience as possible. We did want to celebrate the amount that Indian cinema has impacted our lives - in our own creative way.

Q: The costumes and colour palette vary according to the eras and at one moment in the video you even kick a member out. All of it is done in good humour. Whose concept was it?

A: Indian cinema has always been about lavish production - great sets, costumes and dancing - and of course, a little humour here and there. The group wanted to emulate not just the music but the style of the decades we were covering as well - which is why we experimented with different outfits and colours. We also made sure to not take ourselves too seriously - this was an immensely fun project to work on, and we wanted to show that to our fans and friends in the video.

Q: Do you have a favourite decade in Hindi film music?

A: That's a tough question. In all honesty, every member of the group has a different answer to this. The gems of Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi are so vastly different from the Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal songs of today; it would be like choosing apples over oranges. However, we can all agree that the 2000s were great. We grew up listening to the songs of this decade and we naturally have a soft spot for it.

Q: You call yourself a South Asian a cappella group but since your inception in 1996 you have had, going by your website, at least two non-Indian members. How does one make it into Penn Masala?

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A: We don't confine ourselves to only having South Asian members - anyone can make the cut with a good voice and a genuine passion for the group. Pennn Masala currently has a non-South Asian member of our group, and has had a few in the past as well. That being said, the learning curve for Bollywood songs is definitely steeper if you don't understand the language.

Q: Have you ever considered opening up the group to girls?

A: When the group was formed in 1996, it comprised of all males. Since then, it has become sort of a tradition, and we take in new members every year. However, we are big fans all sorts of music in the Bollywood industry, and have covered numerous songs originally sung by both males and females.

Q: Take us through your recruitment process. What attributes are you looking for while enrolling new members?

A: Penn Masala looks for numerous things. Of course, one of the biggest factors is your voice - but there are many other aspects of an individual that we additionally assess. Even though we are a musical group, we are also a brotherhood, and are best friends both inside and outside of rehearsal. We want to make sure that new members can fit both the musical and cultural dynamic of the group, which is why we taking our recruiting so seriously.

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Q: How do you select a Hindi song you want to cover? Is it the lyrics, the melody, the popularity, the emotion it evokes?

A: There are so many outstanding songs in Bollywood today, so choosing what to do for the group can be a very difficult task at times. We look at all aspects of a song - meaning, melody, song structure, popularity, and mood of the song before making a final decision. The group makes these decisions together, which is useful considering everyone has different musical backgrounds and opinions. If we can get the entire group to agree on a song, it is essentially a microcosm of the audience that we are targeting.

Q: The merging of the two worlds (American pop and Hindi film music) and the transition between them is one of the strongest aspects of your work. How long does it take for you to come up with the final work?

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A: Choosing songs that go well together and arranging them itself takes quite a long time. After teaching it to the group, recording, editing, mixing and mastering the track, it can take well over 50 hours to see a song from inception to its completion. It's all worth it in the end, because having our fans completely immerse themselves in our music is the ultimate goal.

Q: How many times in a week do you meet and hours do you devote to practice?

A: We usually meet around five times per week (excluding shows) and practice for two-three hours at a stretch. However, music is just one facet of Penn Masala - all of us spend a good deal of time outside of rehearsal to work on songs/arrangements, spearhead projects (like the Evolution of Bollywood Music) and do other administrative tasks. All of our members are very devoted to the music that Penn Masala makes, and we all enjoy putting our time into something that we love.

Q: When it comes to selecting an English song to go with a Hindi one, is it important that the two songs share an emotion? For instance, "Fix You/Ishq Bina?" goes well together as it elaborates on the theme of love. But "Down/Desi Girl" don't. How does it work?

We actually have different approaches for different songs. It is important for mixes to sound similar to one another, but that's just scraping the surface. For certain pieces, we want the themes to mesh - just like Coldplay's "Fix You" and Taal's "Ishq Bina" do. For others, we look for a similarity in feel - like The Fray's "Over My Head" and Woh Lamhe's "Kya Mujhe Pyar Hai." And others have varying reasons why we choose to mix them. It makes the song selection and arranging process tough, but extremely rewarding.

Q: In your more recent work, you are not simply moving from one song to another, but shifting between from English to Hindi lyrics. Tell us what made you move in this direction.

For a few songs off of our latest album, Kaavish, we sought to experiment with new languages and arranging styles. Because of this, we had the opportunity to really change the perception of what a "cover" should be and show how they don't necessarily have to sound exactly like the original. With many of the songs on that album, you could listen to each individual song we covered followed by our version, and they would sound entirely different. Going forward, we are making sure to continue to push the envelope musically, all while producing content that our fans will love.

Q: Are any of the past members still pursuing music?

Many of our alumni do still continue to pursue music outside of University, to varying degrees. They all continue to care immensely about Penn Masala and support the ventures and efforts of the current year's group. Our alumni are in fields ranging from start-ups to medicine to banking and more; we are extremely fortunate to have such a wide array of alumni that all are just a phone call away.

Q: AR Rahman seems to be a unanimous favourite of the group. What about his music in particular inspires you? Any other favorites?

Rahman Sir is one of the most prolific and talented composers in the history of Bollywood, and he has been an enormous source of inspiration for our group. It's because he is able to incorporate so many different styles (pop, Western classical, Qawwali, Carnatic, etc.) into his pieces, it's possible for us to experiment with different genres of American music as well. Outside of AR Rahman, we are enormous fans of Vishal-Shekhar, Amit Trivedi, Ilaiyaraja and more. Going forward, we would love to collaborate with some of these music directors in Bollywood.

Q: Is there a tradition of Hindi film watching in the group? Do you make it a point to visit the nearest cinema to see a film or is there a DVD night?

Many of us have been listening to Bollywood music our entire lives, but we unfortunately don't often get a chance to see the latest blockbuster Bollywood hits. We do keep up with the music in the industry, messaging each other new releases and songs that we want to cover.

Q: Do the members need to have a background in music prior to becoming a part of the group?

The beauty of the group is that individuals do not need to have extensive backgrounds in music to join - just a passion for the songs and good voices. Even individuals who are not South Asian and had no prior exposure to Bollywood have been and are members of Penn Masala. We do, however, have singers in the group who have had training in both Classical and Bollywood music, but it's not a requirement.