World Sleep Day: A Hindi film playlist to help you stay up all night, or fall asleep

To sleep, perchance to dream,’ said the Bard. ‘Ghoomer deshe diner seshe,’ wrote Gurudev. ‘Dying is the same as going to sleep,’ was how Dom Moraes put it.

Robert Frost’s ‘miles to go before I sleep’ has inspired generations. Wonder what he would have had to say about Kumbhakarna from the Ramayana, who slept off half the year. Or the koala, which sleeps 20 hours a day. Even the Beatles have sung, articulating the very opposite of what Frost had to say:

When I wake up early in the morning

Lift my head, I’m still yawning

Please, don’t wake me

No, don’t shake me

Leave me where I am

I’m only sleeping

Everybody seems to think I’m lazy

I don’t mind, I think they’re crazy

Please, don’t spoil my day

I’m miles away

And after all I’m only sleeping

Hindi films and songs have also delved into sleep, more specifically sleeplessness, with lovers in particular complaining about lack of sleep when in love. Fans of Hindi films will also recall the unforgettable sequence involving Keshto Mukherjee, Hindi cinema’s go-to boozer in the 1970s, in Bombay to Goa, who spends the whole bus ride sleeping, wakes up only to find a snake staring him in the face, and promptly goes back to sleep after giving us a priceless expression.