SHEELA (1987)
Page 3: Songs |
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| The songs
of Bollywood movies are, theoretically, supposed to |
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| advance the
plot and character development but all too often |
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| are used merely for decoration. The six
songs in this film, surprisingly, are used to resonably good effect, in
that at the end of each song you are more well-informed about the characters'
motivations. I have decided to add a section for every song for two
reasons - most people love Bollywood songs because they are highly amusing
and they are a good excuse to provide more video captures. |
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| Song No. 1: Sheela, Queen of the Jungle |
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This device is used to show
the passage of time as Sheela grows to womanhood. Firstly we
see the baby Sheela being suckled by her ape mother. Next we
see her as a young child frolicking with her animal friends - apes,
turtles, elephants, etc. We finally see her as the statuesque
jungle queen mounted on her trusty jungle steed, a la Tanya Roberts.
The song is a brassy James Bond-style number with a lot of English
words sung by a Madonna-sounding woman accompanied by both male and
female choruses - "Sheela, Sheela, Sheela. Daughter of
nay-tuuure, Queen of the Jun-gooool!" It is really an excuse
for a feast of eye candy, as we see Sheela swinging on vines, galloping
her zebra along the top of the ridges above Victoria Falls, and standing
on top of rocky outcrops, hands on hips. |
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| Song No. 2: The Jungle Disco Trading Post |
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This is a truly bizarre moment. When
Rajah and his boys first arrive upriver they visit a strange bar-cum-nightclub-cum-discotheque
(complete with mirror balls). It is populated by a motley crew
of jungle low life. They meet a tall dark stranger who we later
learn is a nasty poacher. We also meet Téhéhé,
and the implication is that she is a woman of the night. We
are treated to a saucy bump-and-grind dance number by Téhéhé
and a bevy of native girls wearing African tribal outfits and glam
rock eye-make. The men dance with the women and there is plenty
of pelvic thrusting. I would love to show you a frame from
this but the scene is missing from my 90 minute dubbed-into-Turkish
DVD. It is present on my 2-hour Hindi video. Until I upgrade
my equipment, here is Tehehe sunbaking as solace. |
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| Song No. 3: Jungle Campfire Drunken Orgy |
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This is Bollywood at it's
best - a truly wonderfully tacky and lurid dance number with exotic
costumes and blatant sexuality. Sheela has been lured into a
cage by the bad guys using lion cubs as bait. To celebrate the
success of their mission they have a drunken party, entertained by
Téhéhé beautifully dressed in a spangled orange
harem outfit trimmed with gold. The tune is an up-tempo number
with lots of throbbing drums, staccato horn sections, a grunting male
chorus, and a fast killer riff played on a surf guitar. Téhéhé
pulls out all of the stops to tantalise the men with her abundant
sexuality, using plenty of pelvic thrusting, shimmying and pouting.
As the men get drunker they hallucinate that Sheela has left
her cage and joined the party. |
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| Song No. 4: Sheela and Shankar Jungle Love
Song |
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This lighthearted number
is used to develop the relationship between Sheela and Shankar. Following
a slightly racy nude swimming scene, obviously inspired by the similar
scene in the Tanya Roberts film, the worlds of Sheela and Shankar
begin to blend. Prior to this Sheela has been completely wordless
and her vocalisations have been chimpanzee-like animal grunts. As
she introduces Shankar to all of her animal friends he begins to introduce
her to the words for these creatures. A constant refrain of
the piece is Sheela stuttering ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-nee to indicate her
desire to talk. There is lots of water splashing, cutesy dancing,
playful frolicking and generally fun-filled light romance. It
is worth noting that this is a fairly typical genre of Bollywood song.
(Note the gloves.) |
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| Song No. 5: Sheela My Sheela Love Song |
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The next tune is a variation
on this sappy, sentimental love song theme, and is my least favourite
Bollywood song and dance genre. The target audience is obviously
teenage girls and lonely rickshaw wallahs. Shankar fantasises
that he has taken Sheela back to his world to show her the
delights of civilisaton. The tune is a moderate tempo reggae
number with steel drum accompaniment and a slightly mournful trombone
solo. We are subjected to several minutes of wide-eyed Sheela
taking in the deserted streets of Harare, she and Shankar skipping
down the pavements, dancing on the flat roof of tour boats, rolling
in the grass and twirling in slow motion (Sheela's long raven-haired
tresses are a delight in these scenes). Warning - this scene
contains several near kisses! |
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| Song No. 6: Sheela Queen of the Jungle - Reprise
& Farewell |
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This is the same tune used
for song number one while Sheela was growing up. Here it is
used as an economical recapping and resolution device. Sheela
and Shankar have just finished fighting Rajah and the poacher in the
animal compound, the poacher has become croc bait and Rajah has been
pummeled to a pulp by Sheela's ape mother. As the ape walks
over to join Sheela Rajah manages to revive and blast the ape with
his double-barrel shotgun. Sheela is distraught and rolls down
the rock face with the bleeding body of her ape mother. As the
song starts (Sheela, Sheela, Sheela! Queen of the Jun-gooool!)
she relives her whole life, animal friends and all. A lone,
forlorn Shankar is intercut to signal his fate as an abandoned man
as Sheela rides off into the sunset on her trusty zebra steed, content
to return to her own happy world. |
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SOURCES
• Many thanks to Frank Bonilla for providing the abridged, Turkish-dubbed DVD of this film at the
last minute
IMAGES
• All vidcaps are from the abridged, Turkish-dubbed
DVD of this film |
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| • To obtain this film - pray hard, it is
near impossible to find |
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SHEENA
© is the property of Sony Pictures Corporation
This independent, non-profit, fan-based analysis of the Sheena material
is copyright © 2006 Paul Wickham
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