Remember the pelvic thrusting background dancers of the 90s that still get a redo by filmmakers looking for a nostalgia button? Or perhaps, the swing dancers in the black and white films as the leading lady or man, stood in a corner singing their heart out? Later this month, the Film and Television Institute of India will offer a course on song picturisation appreciation — literally, about understanding the nuances of how songs are picturised in Indian cinema and what different eras brought to the screen.

Speaking about the course, the idea of which germinated last year, FTII director, Bhupendra Kainthola and Karan Bali, the course director, say over the years everything about film songs in Indian cinema — music and picturisation has changed. The course is a new chapter in understanding this evolution. "Songs have been an integral part of our films right from our first talkie, Alam Ara (1931). Indians have music in our blood and we see this in our lives too, where we have a song for every situation from when we are born to when we die. Various forms of Indian theatre too, used music and dance as a part of their storytelling and this continued but naturally, when cinema took over from the stage as the primary form of entertainment.