Zoozoo Kar Mere Man Ko

Ever since Vodafone invented the TV version of stick-men, we have all gone gaga over Zoozoos. While I liked them, I did not realise how impactful they were till my son started to watch them unblinkingly! The only way I can watch IPL over Tom & Jerry if every ad break has a Zoozoo ad! Which it usually has... 

So, I was pondering this lazy Sunday about other Zoozoos! 

One of the earliest Zoozoos that I can remember is from Jewel Thief. As Tanuja and her friends pout in a blue covertible, Dev Anand slouches and slants with a fishing rod and sings "Yeh dil na hota bechara, kadam na hote awara, jo khubsoorat koi apna humsafar hota..." Of course, this beautiful song starts with a trademark Kishore Kumar yodel and Zoozoo Hmmmmm... Zoozoozoozoozoo... Teereeteeeee... Teereeteeeee... Teereeteeeeeeeeeeee - and you can hear it here. 

I always thought that this song also had a lot of Zoozoos but on close hearing, they turn out to be Hnoo hnoos and Mmoo mmoos. 

If the Zoozoos ever become the sponsors of Kolkata Knight Riders, then they would not remain Zoozoo any longer. They would become Juju! And a prescient Bengali band called Chandrabindoo foresaw this possibility several years back when they composed a song called Juju, in the eponymous album. 

For the uninitiated, Juju is the fear factor brought in by Bengali mothers and governesses to rein in their wayward wards. "Sweater na porley Juju dhorey niye jabey" (Juju will catch you if you don't wear a sweater) is one sentence that is a common refrain across the state. And the cute part about Juju-s is that they are ageless. For Sourav, a Juju is an Australian coach. For Pranab-babu, Juju is Jawrdaari. For Ratan Tata, Juju is West Bengal's next Chief Minister! 

I had previously described - in considerable detail - one of Mithun's magnum opii. And the piece de resistance of that film was this song, which went Zoo Zoo zubi zubi zubi. And as you hear the Bappi Lahiri masterpiece here, don't get put off the garbled words in the initial frames. This is not a SRK film you are watching here. The Prabhuji chalisa is available completely (in 16 parts) on YouTube - dubbed in Russian! 

Remember... In the pantheons of Bollywood divinity, there are two kinds of Gods. There are ordinary Gods and there is Mithun Chakraborty. 

Apart from these Zoozoos, there are so many more Zoos. 

There's Zizou. There's Warne's Zooter. There's Maruti's foreign partner - Zuzuki. 

There's Zooni - a (forthcoming) film by Muzaffar Ali, which he has been making since Umrao Jaan. The story of a Kashmiri poetess was supposed to star Dimple Kapadia and Vinod Khanna many moons ago. Now, they can try to persuade Twinkle to come out of retirement and Rahul Khanna to come out of whatever he's been in. 

There must be so many more. So, which is your favourite Zoozoo? 

PS: Nilendu, hope that was frivolous enough!