Women's day is here - but where are the women in music composition?

I have been listening to music ever since I was a kid and thankfully music appreciation started getting rooted in me very early.

It all began when I started listening to English pop when we were living in the Middle East and then in the US. I fell in love with musicians like Phil Collins, Elton John, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston and bands like A-ha, Police, Bangles and so many more. The list can be endless.We then moved to India. Once I reached middle school, there was a mammoth change in the style of music I listened to, but I am only thankful for that. I was exposed to Maestro and G.O.A.T. Ilaiyaraja owing to this change of base. After that came AR Rahman and Vidyasagar as well. Even before these greats, we had MS Vishwanathan and Ramamurthy compose amazing music in Tamil. 

If you notice the difference between paragraphs 1 and 2, the earlier has both men and women musicians who not only sang but also wrote their own songs. The second paragraph however only has a male name. Have I missed out on some women musicians, am I being factually incorrect or ignorant? I hope not, but I am sure women musicians in India were restricted to being vocalists or playback singers. If I extend the example of classical Indian music both Hindustani and Carnatic, we have female vocalists and instrumentalists. Composers, Producers and Songwriters are at the top of the musical food chain and they have mostly been men in the Indian scene. I wanted to try and analyse why this could be. But before getting deeper into the reasoning, I wanted to do some background research and know about female music directors and composers before my time.  Some basic keywords research helped me find out 3 names that I would like to briefly mention about.

In the 1930s and 1940s, there was India's first female composer called Saraswati Devi who was born into a Parsi family and known by the name Khorshed Homji. Saraswati had more than a decent run and she scored music for around 35 films in the 1930s and 1940s. Then came Jaddanbhai Hussain who was a composer, writer, actress and director. She was less known with barely a few compositions for the grandmother of Sanjay Dutt and mother of Nargis Dutt. The composer to make a name for herself and who was the most successful of all the 3 was Usha Khanna. She scored music for around 3 decades between the 1960s and 1990s with around 150 movies to her credit. So clearly Usha Khanna is India's most accomplished female composer yet. 

A deeper study into some earlier articles written about women composers throws the same 3 names that I have mentioned here and they do show a list of a few more who I will name and write about in the coming paragraphs. A few names that get thrown around a lot are Jasleen Royal, Payal Dev, Paramapra Thakur, Sonal Pradhan etc. Of these names, the one who has good credentials based on quantity and quality and awards is Jasleen Royal. She is the first woman composer to ever win a Filmfare award for music and she also has more than a handful of compositions. When it comes to the others there is very little to really put them at the top, because I want to explore composers who can go on and dominate this "boys club" of film composers. Payal Dev, Parampara Thakur and Sonal Pradhan have very few movies to their credit and personally, I am not a fan of their limited work. The other media might voraciously praise their music, but let me quote you an example of why I feel otherwise. Payal Dev is credited with the music of 'Ginny Weds Sunny, but if you looked at the soundtrack, 3 songs were composed by her and 2 by Gaurav Chatterji. However in my opinion the only songs that really impress are those by Gaurav. 

Here is a list of some of the current generation female composers who I think are amazing.

Some have achieved and been in the limelight for their work and some have the potential to go on and dominate this "boys club" of film composers.

Sneha Kahanwalkar , Rachita Arora and Samira Koppikar

The ladies who will be revered are led by Sneha Khanwalkar who blasted her way into fame with albums like 'Gangs of Wasseypur' both parts, and she had movies like "Oye Lucky! Lucky Iye!", and the one that truly impressed me in terms of BGM scores "Detective Byomkesh Bakshy". Directors like Dibankar Bannerjee and Anurag Kashyap used her talent for their flicks and that is no mean feat. Somehow over the last few years, she has been witnessing a decline and I have been unimpressed. Now Rachita Arora is another name that has impressed with films like "Mukkabaaz", "Newton", "Shubh Mangal Savdhaan" and one must appreciate Anurag Kashyap who seems to be a common denominator providing women composers with an opportunity to shine. Samira Koppikar briefly between 2015 and 2019 did earn a name for herself thanks to albums like "NH 10", "Bareilly ki Barfi" and "Laal Kaptaan". The problem has been that many of these talented composers could not sustain themselves for reasons unknown.

Shalmali Kholgade

Here are some composers who will hold the mantle and if there are enough opportunities given and if the artists persist with drive and desire we could very soon be having most of our movie albums being composed by women composers. Shalmali Kholgade is at the very top for me and she has impressed me and the world enough with her debut Marathi movie called "June". The soundscape if something unheard of in Marathi movies and her indie EPs '2X Side A' in 2021 and '2X Side B' in 2022 showcase her composing talents even further. 

Aloknanda Dasgupta

Alokananda Dasgupta is a supreme force who is known for her scores in 'Geeli Puchi', "Sacred Games", "AK v AK", "Trapped", "Sacred Games" and recently "Shiv Shastry Balboa" which I have featured. Once again we have to thank Vikramaditya Motwane and Neeraj Ghaywan for standing tall and being the directors to give well-deserved opportunities to women composers like Alokananda. 

Also read: Top Indian songs of the week.

Let us move Southwards and here 2 women give me all the hope Neha Nair, and Revaa. Neha works as a co-composer and co-producer along with Yakzan Gary Perreira and they have a very unique way of creating sound, and the duo get pretty whacky with their compositions as well. Some of their famous works include "5 Sundarikal", Mayanadi"(BGM), "Sudani from Nigeria" (BGM), " Love", "Driving License", "Sumesh & Ramesh" and "Vaashi" (BGM). Revaa was impressed with her score for the movie "Mugizh" and she is back with one more series called "Ayali". I have featured a couple of songs and have been quite impressed by the BGM

We started the article with why women musicians exist as vocalists and instrumentalists in the movie space and definitely in the classical music space, but somehow they are disproportionately low as composers/producers. I think it boils down to men being unwilling to live in a space where they have to take orders from women. It applies to the corporate world but thankfully that is changing for the better at a brisk pace. That is why we find women devoid of opportunities to compose and produce music which will mean that men would have to work under them as instrumentalists, engineers and vocalists. Let us hope this situation soon changes let us all stand up for equal opportunity and do away with discrimination at work.