Why has clubbing in India become so awful?
It’s been four months now that I went to a club for the last time and that I found myself sulking at a table in a popular Bandra establishment. After about 15 minutes on the alcohol-free dance floor, I realized that I could not pretend to enjoy techno music exploding through the speakers. My friends were not found. Foreigners around me did not seem interested in hitting a conversation with anyone outside of their clique. In the car with my friends on the way back, I noticed bitterly: “The next time I say I want to make the club, please shake me hard and remind me that night.”
The problem was not only one night. It was a series of nights spent leaving, to go home disappointed. As with all things, Bollywood was partly to blame for this disappointment. Growing up, I imagined clubbing in India to look like what it was represented on the screen: Deepika Padukone happily turning under the neon lights like ‘Uff Teri Adaa’ (Karthik calls Karthik) Plays, Katrina Kaif pulverizing and efforcating champagne in “Choomantar” (Simple Brother Ki Dulhan) or Kangana Ranaut climbing at the top of a bar counter and tearing off his sweater in ‘Hungama Ho Gaya’ (Queen). Unfortunately, apart from the neon lights, these representations of the party now seem to be false or a relic of the past.
Based in Delhi, Vyoma Trivedi, 25, assistant marketing director, admits that clubbing in the capital can be a success. “There are nights when I went home before 11 pm,” she deplores. “If you go to a place where music is mainly from techno or famous songs, it makes people stand in a corner with their drinks.” Mridul Munjal, 22, who lives in Gurugram and works in marketing and communications, agrees. “It seems that Delhi’s clubs are trying to respond to everyone and, in doing so, ultimately responds to anyone properly.”
Over the past five years, electronic music, including techno, house and trance, has increased in popularity, going the dominant current in metropolitan cities in India. In Mumbai, spaces like Bonobo, Antisocial and Khar Social highlight a kind of music that was once reserved for raves and underground festivals. Unfortunately, this has also led to a lack of diversity in the sound landscapes of clubs. With most places that stick to a similar sound, revelers cannot be found with music that they may not necessarily appreciate. “Take Bollywood, for example. If a film succeeds commercially, you will only see this kind of film released again and again,” explains the musician Rock Bann Chakraborty. “Likewise, if a DJ has done well with techno, each place will play techno. No one wants to take a risk by giving an interpreter or even a gender to different consonance.” On the other hand, the 47 -year -old remembers that Zenzi, a lounge bar described once like “Bandra lounge”, which closed in 2011. “It was like our second house. We would end up work and run there ”, he enthuses, recalling how he had offered his first job in Mumbai by a foreigner, he spent a few hours chatting with the bar. “For 3-4 nights a week, they would have a group or a live DJ. There were open micro nights, sessions of spoken words and disconnected sessions. Many different activities to keep people socially involved.”
