I wanted to do a songs post, because this week is wearing me out and I don’t have the energy for a “real” post.  And also because it was Mardi Gras yesterday and I have a great Mardi Gras song.  But I couldn’t think of any other Mardi Gras songs, so instead of doing that theme, I came up with another.

The “real” rules for Antakshari vary game to game.  The general idea is that one team starts a film song, and then ends at a random point in a lyric.  The other team has to pick up from that point with a different film song.  Sometimes it is on the same syllable, sometimes it is the same word, sometime the same musical note, I’ve been told all kinds of variations.  I’m going to be simple, and just say that they have to have something similar between them, either the title of the song or the title of the movie or the chorus.

Here is the one real true Mardi Gras song I could remember:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYhoPzgcmso

Apparently the title is “Zinda Hai Hum To”?  But I always think of it as the “Maria Maria” song.

Related to that, here is another song with a similar “Maria” sounding refrain, that I also like:

That song comes from the film One 2 Ka 4, whose title is a reference to the popular song from an earlier film, Ram-Lakhan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqVCl_vfIpE

That reminds me of this song from Swades, with the repeated “Ram” refrain.

The title of the song is “Pal Pal Hai Bhaari”, which reminds me of the similarly titled song from Lage Raho Munna Bhai:

Which of course reminds me of the excellent title song from the original:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVEJXqKC8as

The chorus is “bole to”, which makes me think of this song that similarly has a tough guy Bombay gangster “bole” refrain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvBOAJe3Mlw

The other part of the refrain is “Sun”, which makes me think of this melodious song:

And the title of that film reminds me of the all time greatest (of many) songs titled “Chalte Chalte”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbkg1qapQ68

And now I am stumped!  Obviously, there are still dozens of “Chalte Chalte” songs to choose from, but I feel like once I used it once, I’m not allowed to use it again.  And I can’t think of any “Pakeezah” songs, or even anything that sounds kind of like it!