Viral video: Here's your definitive Bollywood playlist, ready to liven up traffic jams

Picture this: you’re stuck in a quintessential Indian big-city traffic jam, you peer out of the window and catch an aunty dozing off in her car on one side, some children squabbling in a cab on the other. [caption id=“attachment_2200866” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Screengrab from the video.[/caption] The signal seems to have frozen and if you are in real bad luck, there’s probably a naka bandi up ahead. How do you stop yourself from feeling suicidal? If the music system in your car has conked, then well, we can’t help you. If it hasn’t, plug in your iPod and scroll straight down to the Bollywood playlist. And in the really unfortunate circumstance that you don’t have a Bollywood playlist, you should first chide yourself for being a music snob and then search for the following video on YouTube.

Presented by a group called Enthu Cutlets, the video is a compilation of popular Hindi songs, right from Eena Meena Deeka (Asha, 1957) to Hungama Ho Gaya from Queen (2014). The video, a Hindi remake of the hugely popular Mime Through Time video released by SketchShe last month, has three girls sitting inside a car and dancing to the most popular Bollywood songs starting from the 1950s. So, like we said, if you’re stuck in a traffic jam, it’s a great idea to use the video as a dance mix-cum-playlist and try not to feel particularly murderous towards the traffic policemen of the city. Because as a video, it’s not quite a patch on the SketchShe one that compiles the biggest US chartbusters Boogie Woogie Bugle Boys (1941) by The Andrew Sisters to Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball (2013). The SketchShe video is particularly interesting because the actors in the video don’t take copying the original songs seriously, instead, spoofs some of them. For example, the Britmey Spears Baby One More time section is hilarious as they girls act like Zombies as the lines ‘When I am with you, I lose my mind’ plays on the background. Or when they dance to Beyonce’s Single Ladies, lip syncing to the lines ‘If you liked it, then you shoulda put a ring on it’, they make a hilarious, bridezilla face. The SketchShe video works because it’s satire combined with the biggest dance hits we know. However, the Bollywood mime is too plain in comparison. Also, Bollywood itself has produced some great original songs whose visuals have great retro styling and the scores are reminiscent of the popular music from various phases in the industry. For example, Dhoom Tana in Om Shanti Om, Woh Ladki Hai Kahaan from Dil Chahta Hai or even Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. That’s why the Bollywood Mime may not be the best ode to Bollywood you would have landed in the recent times.