Top Four Bollywood Songs of All Time
4. My Name is Anthony Gonsalves (Amar Akbar Anthony, 1970). Like this movie it comes from, this song is random, campy, and inexplicable. But like the movie it comes from, we love it anyway!
3. Mere Samne Wali Khidkhi Mein (Padosan, 1968). Sunil Dutt plays a tone-deaf young man in love with the girl next door, played by Saira Banu. His rival is the evil music teacher Mehmood. How will Sunil win Saira? By lip-synching love songs of his friend Kishore Kumar, obviously! Bonus points for meta-comedy on Bollywood's playback singer and including themes of 17th c. French drama.
2. Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya (Mughal-e-Azam, 1960). I like this one because it showcases Madhubala's classical training. Also, all those little mirrors on her costume had to be coated in wax so they wouldn't reflect light and ruin each shot. ALSO: first Bollywood sequence to be filmed in color.
1. Chaiyya Chaiyya (Dil Se, 1989 98, but you wouldn't know it to look at their clothes). I'm pretty sure this is the song that switches Bollywood from love songs while running around trees to the modern SUPER SPECTACULAR approach. I mean, they filmed this on a freaking train; that's baller. Fun fact: the Indian news show at home used to close every show with this song. It's as much a part of my childhood as the fifty-million-episode Mahabharata.