Besharam Rang, Naatu Naatu to Pasoori and Manike: Best party songs of 2022

The year 2022, which saw some of the biggest regional hits, along with a few unexpected blockbusters, and some big-budget flops has finally come to an end. Irrespective of the films that earned crores or fell flat at the box office, many of them made a noise with their hit party numbers. While the Pathaan song Besharam Rang turned out to be an icing on the cake with its arrival in December, the controversy surrounding the Deepika Padukone and Shah Rukh Khan number couldn’t hamper its instant popularity. It garnered over 144 million views on YouTube in three weeks. The second song from the film, Jhoome Jo Pathaan, is also racking up the numbers. (Also read: Best movie songs of 2022: Brahmastra’s Kesariya to RRR’s Naacho Naacho and Gangubai Kathiawadi’s Shikayat)

The year otherwise saw a wide range of dance numbers, as versatile as Alia Bhatt’s garba song Dholida from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi to RRR’s Naacho Naacho (Naatu Naatu in Telugu) which showed the unstoppable Ram Charan and Jr NTR matching dance moves and making it to the shortlist at the Oscars in the Best Original Song category. Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon’s Bhediya song Thumkeshwari with its quirky hookstep also became a go-to choice on the dance floor.

Ranveer Singh’s film Jayeshbhai Jordaar couldn’t last long at the ticket counters but the promotional song Firecracker was an instant hit. The song, with some peppy English lyrics, stands miles apart from the film which had Ranveer in the role of a Gujarati father. His latest dance number Current Laga with Deepika Padukone, from his other box-office dud Cirkus, also made it to the list of hit party numbers this year. Similarly, Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday’s song Aafat from their film Liger topped the music charts. The song is not just a trippy, foot-tapping number but is also visually stunning with exotic locations and quirky shots. It doesn’t matter if it was mostly updated through VFX after being shot on a Goan beach.

Manike from the Sidharth Malhotra-starrer Thank God seems to be quite a soothing contrast from those named above. The movie didn’t work but this recreation of Yohani’s hit Manike Mage Hithe went on to become music lovers’ favourite in no time. This slow party number has been re-sung by Yohani along with Jubin Nautiyal and Surya Ragunaathan, with music by Tanishk Bagchi – the king of remixes these days. Tanishk’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 title track was also a massive hit despite being a recreated version of the 2007 original.

Another recreated song was The Punjaaban Song from the multi-starrer family drama Jugjugg Jeeyo. It emerged to be one of the most widely played songs this year. Be it the number of times it was performed by the cast members including Anil Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor, Kiara Advani and Varun Dhawan or the controversy it created over original Pakistani singer Abrar Ul Haq calling it a wrongful recreation of his hit Pakistani number, the party people didn’t seem to care much about who owned the credits for the song.

Another Pakistani song that was widely played at parties was Pasoori. The original song by Ali Sethi and Shae Gill went on to beat BTS’ Butter to become the most Googled song in the world this year. While several Bollywood celebrities shared their love for the song, singer Arijit Singh went on to perform it at his Mumbai concert in November.

Nora Fatehi remains one of the most popular dancers in India and besides Manike, she also featured in Guru Randhawa’s single, Dance Meri Rani. Viewers had to look closer to figure out it wasn’t Shakira but Nora in the song, but that didn’t affect the popularity of the song.

Badshah emerged as the biggest contributor in this list with his three songs including Tauba featuring Tamannaah Bhatia and international outing Voodoo with J Balvin and Tainy being a hit on the dance floor. His slow rap song Tauba also made its presence felt in the party circuit. Though his songs Sajna Tere Liye Sajna Ye Chudi Kangana and Srivalli from Allu Arjun’s Pushpa: The Rise were released in December 2021, they managed to dominate the party scene this year too.