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Bonus Episode: Bollywood Special- The Art of the Item Number

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This week we crack a main ingredient of Bollywood movies. The Item number! Asim is joined by our very own Bollywood Diva Kara also known as FilmiGirl and Paresh, one half of the music mix masters duo, The CurrySmugglers. Together we dissect what makes Bollywood Item Numbers such a unique phenomenon and what makes them really tasty, we pick our favorite tracks that made us throw our hard earned cash on screen and making it rain. We finish off with the Paresh’s “Memorial Picks of Filthiest Item Numbers”. Our mommy’s will be proud. Check out the full episode after the jump!

According to Wikipedia an Item Number “is a term commonly used in the Indian film industries, such as Bollywood, Kollywood and Tollywood, to describe a catchy, upbeat, often sexually provocative dance sequence for a song in a movie that usually has no relevance to the plot of the film.”[1]

Disclaimer: Please do not be offended by the contents of the show, it’s all in good humour and overt filmgeekiness!

This Episode will be posted on CurrySmgglers, do check out the season 3 Finale!

 

Show Notes:

  • Intro
  • What Makes an Item Number?
  • Top  5: A Run Down of our favorite Item  tracks and clips
  • Paresh’s “Memorial Picks of Filthiest Item Numbers”
  • Outro

Here are the links to our filthiest picks:

Hope you enjoyed the show!

You can write to us feedback@upodcasting.com

Check out the CurrySmugglers and Filmigirl‘ s Sites!

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6 thoughts on “Bonus Episode: Bollywood Special- The Art of the Item Number”

  1. Another interesting podcast, thanks for the tweet about this piece from the archives. I was surprised at how few of the songs mentioned I’d heard or seen. Of the songs mentioned, I would include Kajra Re, Ishq Kamina, Babuji  in my top 10. It also confirmed that Helen leaves me cold – I’d never heard Aa Jaane Jaa from Inteqam before, and I *LOVE* the song, even though I prefer Asha to Lata. But Helen left me unmoved in that one, as in the other one mentioned as well. I will definitely be LISTENING to that song again, but not watching it I’ve never really got Helen’s appeal, sadly.

    I think the podcast showed that my definition of what I look for  in “item numbers” is not the same. The songs I think of as my favourite item numbers all meet the requirement you mentioned for being extraneous to the plot, and are also not particularly cerebral in their appeal: Chaiyya Chaiyya, choli ke peeche, chamma chamma, Lut Gayee (Hulchul) are examples, but I know that some of them are not widely considered to be item numbers . I really DO like  Kajra Re, Ishq Kamina, Babuji and it was nice to have at least a few in common with some of your troika, also one I listen to a lot still, Deedar De. The other things I enjoyed about the podcast was being directed to “sexy sexy sexy”  and realising how unbelievably hotter Karishma is now than then, and getting a nudge to rewatch OSO. Another long listen, but worth it, thanks to you all.

  2. Another interesting podcast, thanks for the tweet about this piece from the archives. I was surprised at how few of the songs mentioned I’d heard or seen. Of the songs mentioned, I would include Kajra Re, Ishq Kamina, Babuji  in my top 10. It also confirmed that Helen leaves me cold – I’d never heard Aa Jaane Jaa from Inteqam before, and I *LOVE* the song, even though I prefer Asha to Lata. But Helen left me unmoved in that one, as in the other one mentioned as well. I will definitely be LISTENING to that song again, but not watching it I’ve never really got Helen’s appeal, sadly.

    I think the podcast showed that my definition of what I look for  in “item numbers” is not the same. The songs I think of as my favourite item numbers all meet the requirement you mentioned for being extraneous to the plot, and are also not particularly cerebral in their appeal: Chaiyya Chaiyya, choli ke peeche, chamma chamma, Lut Gayee (Hulchul) are examples, but I know that some of them are not widely considered to be item numbers . I really DO like  Kajra Re, Ishq Kamina, Babuji and it was nice to have at least a few in common with some of your troika, also one I listen to a lot still, Deedar De. The other things I enjoyed about the podcast was being directed to “sexy sexy sexy”  and realising how unbelievably hotter Karishma is now than then, and getting a nudge to rewatch OSO. Another long listen, but worth it, thanks to you all.

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