Winter is here: Easing into the chill season with snowy Bollywood
A lazy wintry morning, you reluctantly kick the blanket’s warm embrace and drag yourself to the kitchen to brew a hot cup of tea. Now perched atop the couch, wrapped in an oversized sweater with droopy sleeves, you look out of the window and unwittingly find yourself humming, “Yeh haseen vaadiyan...”
Umm... of course, assuming it’s your day off.
We don’t want you to be late for work.
Hindi cinema’s relationship with the rain is legendary and as sweet as the smell of wet mud itself. But its torrid love affair with winter is as comforting as the feeling of breathing into your cupped palms — warm, cosy, often reminiscent of a love that was.
Here’s our list of winter songs that capture the beautifully serene, yet harshly cold winter in all its glory, all its moods.
Yeh haseen vaadiyan
Like the first flush of Darjeeling tea, winter starts off gentle, inducing a childlike marvel in you at how beautiful everything is. You find yourself transported to the valleys of Kashmir or Switzerland, donning a chiffon saree, with both your aanchal and hair blowing softly in the chilly breeze. Think Roja or Silsila, think Yash Chopra, and you’d know what we mean. 'Beautiful' is an understatement.
Beedi jalaile
Soon, however, the realisation that flowy chiffon sarees are not your best options for battling winter dawns on you. And it’s time to bring out the ghilaaf and the lihaaf, for ‘thandi hawa’ is also khilaaf. Although ‘biri jalaile’ kills, one cannot deny the unbearable craving for it, and all things smokey. Let’s just settle for a cup hot chocolate, and throw in a couple of marshmallows for good measure.
Omkara had it right.
Dilli ki sardi
Winter’s chilly bite will eventually sink its teeth into your flesh, and you will find yourself singing, albeit in a trembling voice, the Zameen number, “Tadpaaye tarsaaye re, saari raat jagaye re pyar tera Dilli ki sardi!”
Staying up at night is going to be a norm, no matter how hard it may get to decipher if it’s because of the cold bedsheet underneath — or a sense of longing.
Zara sa jhoom loon main
Enough is enough. It’s time to get the big bottles and tiny glasses out if you want to fortify yourself against the cold. The ‘jhoomna’ is but a side effect — and a rather fine one — and we honestly don’t mind it one bit. Better warm and in high spirits, as DDLJ put it, than cold and dead, right?
Subhanallah
And then, of course, everything is beautiful again.
Thanks to the greatest attribute homo sapiens are blessed with — the coping mechanism — you’ve eased into winter, and winter has, in turn, held you in its embrace. Neither of us wants this love story to end, but then the Indian summer has to play the villain. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Now, hum to the Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani track.