Friends, this video will improve your life by an estimated 7.3%.
What is going on?
That was a clip from a 1957 Hindi RomCom called Aasha.
Aasha (transl. Hope) is a 1957 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film directed by M. V. Raman. It stars Kishore Kumar and Vyjayanthimala. The film was a critical and commercial success. This film was partly coloured by both Gevacolor and Technicolor.
Plot
The story is about Kishore who is a good-hearted person and always helps poor people even though he is from a rich Zamindar (property owner) family. One day, he travels to Bombay to stay with his cousin Raj, who cheats a lot with girls. When they both go for a hunt in the jungle, Raj meets a man who demands he marry his jilted daughter. Raj murders the father and he frames Kishore for the crime. Kishore is forced to flee. Finally, Kishore and his lover Nirmala prove that Raj is the guilty one, and Raj tells the truth in front of everyone. Now the police arrest Raj and Kishore marries Nirmala amid happy celebrations.Soundtrack
Wikipedia
The song “Eena Meena Deeka”, sung by Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle in two different versions, became very popular. It was one of the Hindi cinema’s first rock and roll numbers. The words of the song were inspired by children playing outside C. Ramchandra’s music room. The children were chanting “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe”, which inspired C. Ramchandra and his assistant John Gomes to create the first line of the song, “Eena Meena Deeka, De Dai Damanika”. Gomes, who was a Goan, added the words “Maka Naka” (Konkani for “I don’t want”). They kept on adding more nonsense rhymes till they ended with “Rum Pum Posh!”.
Asha Bhosle
Asha Bhosle (born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur, actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in the media as one of the greatest and most influential singers in Hindi cinema. In her career spanning over eight decades she has recorded songs for films and albums in various Indian languages
Apart from Hindi, she has sung in over 20 Indian and foreign languages. […] In 2006, she stated that she has recorded over 12,000 songs in her career, a figure repeated by several other sources.
In 1997, the British band Cornershop paid tribute to Bhosle with their song “Brimful of Asha,”[1] an international hit which was later remixed by Fatboy Slim.
Bhosle is an excellent cook and cooking is her favorite hobby. She often gets flooded with requests by Hindi film celebrities for kadai ghosht and biryani dishes and has rarely turned down a request. In fact, her paya curry, Goan fish curry and dal are very popular with the Kapoor family of Hindi films. Once, when asked in a The Times of India interview, what if her singing career had not taken off, she said “I would have become a cook. I’d have cooked in four houses and made money.”
Wikipedia
Emotions welled up as we presented Asha Bhosle with a WLBOTT Lifetime Achievement Award. There were many tears.
Elder G provides an interesting overview of Bollywood.
Bollywood: Factoids from the Backlot
The Name Is Younger Than the Movies
The word “Bollywood” is a portmanteau of Bombay (now Mumbai) and Hollywood.
It only became common in the 1970s, even though Hindi cinema dates back to 1913.
The movies were already dancing; the name showed up late to the party.
One of the World’s Oldest Film Industries
India’s first full-length feature film, Raja Harishchandra, was made by Dadasaheb Phalke.
No sound. No color. Plenty of mythological drama.
Bollywood began with gods and kings, which feels appropriate.
Playback Singing Is Bollywood’s Secret Superpower
Most actors don’t sing their own songs.
Instead, playback singers record the music, and actors lip-sync on screen.
This created legendary vocal stars whose voices became more famous than faces, including:
- Asha Bhosle
- Lata Mangeshkar
- Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, and others
One voice, many actors, infinite emotional mileage.
Songs Are Not a Detour. They Are the Highway.
In classic Bollywood logic:
- You fall in love → you sing
- You are heartbroken → you sing
- Society disapproves → you sing louder
- There is a misunderstanding involving a letter → definitely sing
Songs often:
- advance the plot
- replace inner monologue
- compress months into minutes
- ignore geography entirely
Characters may begin a song in Mumbai and finish it in Switzerland. No one asks questions.
Yes, the Movies Are Long. On Purpose.
Traditional Bollywood films often run 2.5 to 3.5 hours and historically included:
- an intermission
- snacks
- emotional recalibration
They were designed as events, not just screenings.
You didn’t just watch a movie. You moved in for the evening.
The Golden Age (1940s–1960s)
Often considered Bollywood’s most artistically influential era, marked by:
- poetic lyrics
- socially conscious stories
- classical and folk-inflected music
Films like Pyaasa and Mother India balanced beauty, tragedy, and critique with extraordinary grace.
This is the cultural soil from which Eena Meena Deeka cheerfully sprang.
Dance Is Language
Bollywood dance blends:
- classical Indian forms
- folk traditions
- jazz, disco, hip-hop, and whatever else wanders in
Precision is admired, but expression matters more.
A raised eyebrow can be choreography.
Animals, Rain, and Trains Are Recurring Characters
If you watch enough Bollywood, you’ll notice:
- rain signaling romance or heartbreak
- trains as destiny machines
- animals showing up at emotionally strategic moments
WLBOTT chickens would fit in effortlessly.
Bollywood Is Global
Bollywood films and music are wildly popular across:
- South Asia
- the Middle East
- Africa
- Eastern Europe
- the global diaspora
Long before “globalization” was fashionable, Bollywood was already touring emotionally.
A Very WLBOTT Conclusion
Bollywood treats joy, sorrow, absurdity, devotion, and spectacle as compatible forces.
So does WLBOTT.
Which makes Eena Meena Deeka not a novelty, but a manifesto: When words fail, sing nonsense with conviction.
[1] Brimful of Asha
The WLBOTT Canonical Version of “Brimful of Asha:” the Norman Cook Remix.
The full remix: