24. "Ghar Aaya Mera Pardesi" from Awaara

It has all the makings of a dream.

I admittedly don't know nearly as much about Bollywood as I'd like to.  I've dabbled, you might say, and this won't be the last song and dance from the subcontinent to land a spot on my list, but the Bollywood musical is a largely unexplored frontier for me, and one I'm just beginning to fall in love with.  It may be that I'm just in awe over the sheer surrealist spectacle of this, or even more superficially that I'm an unabashed lover of all things Indian, but this number has an odd kind of hold over me.  Tempted as I was to select the volcanic love song from Awaara directly preceding this, I just couldn't shake the otherworldly imagery here.  Even more impressive is that this is the only entry on the list that I've seen for the first time this year.

It may well be that this has more in common with Busby Berkley than with modern Bollywood spectacles.  It's certainly nothing like the other number still to come, nor does it fall much in line with any other example I can think of.  But I think it's a fascinating specimen from an industry just beginning to cultivate it's own inimitable brand of cinema, and an experience that's proved truly hard to shake from my head.

And regrettably, the link above only contains the second half of the number.  Which at least may leave you something to look forward to.