Professor Catlin is an amazing professor! She is unbelievably knowledgeable about the course material, and her lectures are always interesting. I think Professor Catlin did a good job of adapting to the online format, and my experience with the course was not diminished. She was also able to answer student questions very effectively, and was prompt in responding to emails. Having guest lecturers teach us about and give us demonstrations of Indian musical instruments like the sitar and tabla was amazing, and definitely enriched the class. Grading was very fair, and Professor Catlin's empathy for students during the COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest issues was made evident when she decreased the page requirements for the essay, awarded extra credit for writing more, and decreased the difficulty of the final exam. The only downside to this class is that lectures are a bit disorganized and can be a bit hard to follow at times. Discussion attendance is mandatory, and try to do the readings so you can contribute to discussion, which is almost entirely spent talking about the readings. Some of the readings are long, but it pays to do them because 10 of the questions on the midterm and 10 of the questions on the final are on readings. You have to write either two 5-page papers or one 10-page paper—I went for the first option so I didn't run out of material to write about.

WARNING: The content for this class begins in the 1930's, and only reaches the early 2000's, so if you're hoping to learn about recent Bollywood music, you'll probably be disappointed. That being said, I learned several songs that SLAP, even if they're from the 1940's.

Being able to speak Hindi made this class even easier for me, but if you put in modest effort, an A/A+ is easily achievable, especially under an online format. Making a class study guide on Google Docs for exams based on the review sheets is a GREAT IDEA. I feel like this course really expanded my knowledge about Bollywood music, and music beyond the scope of Bollywood, as indicated in the course title. I learned a lot just by attending lectures and discussion sections, and the readings further enhanced my knowledge. I hope this class continues to be offered at UCLA, regardless of whether classes are online or in person!!!

Grade breakdown:
30% Midterm: Listening, Reading, and Class Lectures: 10 points each
30% Final: Listening, Reading, and Class Lectures: 10 points each
30% Paper(s)
10% Class Attendance and Participation in Friday Sections

The professor means well, but her lectures are so unorganized that this class is at times unbearable. She would cover way too many films in one lecture, we'd watch little snippets from as many as 10 films in one 2 hour lecture, so it was impossible to get anything worthwhile out of lectures. Also don't take it if you think it is going to be about modern bollywood, this class should be called HISTORY of bollywood because most of it is really old bollywood. Lecture was so unorganized and pointless that I just stopped going after the midterm. Discussion with TA Gavin was always pretty helpful and helped make sense of the class. The exams are pretty easy, she gives out study guides for the exams, which show you all of the readings, songs, people, and films you need to know for the exam. Memorize the study guides and you'll get an A on the exams. Overall, this class is a little disappointing, but it is easy and doable.

Only good things about this class were the TA Armen Adamian and the easy multiple choice tests. Professor's opinions about India and it's music industry are suck in the 70s which gets very old very fast. Attendance in lectures doesn't matter and I didn't attend at all after the midterm. Only discussion attendance counts for points (10% of the grade) and if Armen is still there don't worry about switching into a certain discussion because he lets you attend whatever's best for you. Midterm and final have listening, reading, and movie questions. You don't have to go to class except for the lecture before each exam where she'll write a list on the board of what songs and readings are fair game.
If you can, make her say what movies to know too because they were super out of the blue to us and Armen got her to curve the midterm for us since no one knew to memorize movie plots. He made study guides for us and all she had to do was look at them to see if they covered everything but she was too lazy to do even that. She'll make you want to drop from how boring she is and how horrible her taste in music and movies is but power through, stay on top of the readings, be able to recognize the songs, and know a sentence summary for each song's movie plot and you'll get an easy A. There's a final paper but don't stress cuz mine was actual trash, I'd light it on fire if I could, and I still got an A. Just have some self-respect and get it done before the last minute unlike me.