Microkhan by Brendan I. Koerner

Asha on the Beach

June 17th, 2010 · 5 Comments

Once again, a fresh track has led us to discover a gem from distant shores. In this case, Gonjasufi’s haunting “Sheep” inspired us to seek out its source material, “Yeh Hawa Yeh Fiza” from the 1983 Bollywood classic Sadma. To our great delight, the singer is one of our all-time favorites, Asha “The Enchantress” Bhosle, whose ethereal voice we’ve long imagined on the soundtrack for the Now the Hell Will Start movie. The music doesn’t entirely jibe with the scenery, which seems inspired by the beach-party flicks of Annette Funicello, but we love the random burned-out Western hippie who makes a surprise appearance around the 2:22 mark. A bit too much bhang, good sir?

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5 Comments so far ↓

  • Jordan

    What I find funniest is that the fashion trends displayed in that video are almost exactly the same as a lot of what I see people wearing these days. Bearded dude is basically a clone of a lot of Portland hipsters. Everything comes around again…

  • jackal

    wait, bikinis in an 80s bollywood movie??

    as for the portrayal of hippies in bollywood (a fascinating topic btw!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_v9oQhVE2E

    — this is my fave portrayal. real live stoned out westerners in early 70s kathmandu filled in as extras. the plot basically revolves on how they corrupted a ‘good’ indian girl, heh

  • Brendan I. Koerner

    @jackal: Fascinating clip. Every third Westerner looks like John Lennon (probably on purpose). Good song, too. How does the flick end? Does the girl return to her roots, or does she run off to America with a hippie? Given my experience with vintage Bollywood, I’m guessing it’s the former.

  • jackal

    (Didn’t catch this — but this song’s also by your favorite singer) Never actually saw the film, but your guess sounds about right — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare_Rama_Hare_Krishna_(1971_film)

    Seems to have caused (or perhaps reflected) a bit of moral panic re: all the hippies showing up, among well-to-do Indians of the era.

  • Brendan I. Koerner

    @jackal: Wow, the whole soundtrack to that movie is great–thanks for introducing me.

    Hippies were once quite good at freaking out the squares. Now, not so much.