Indians And Their Love For Naagin Dance Is Never Ending!

You must have seen an uncle or the friends of the groom completely losing it while doing naagin dance at the baraat or on the dance floor at a wedding. Yes, we are talking about the group of people crawling on the floor doing naagin poses that you don't want to go near in case they accidentally hit you while they enjoy themselves to the fullest.

Naagin dance is one of the most important parts of an Indian wedding. For once, you can forget the shagun at a wedding but you cannot forget to dance to the tunes of naagin music on the dance floor. Usually, the 'ritual' consists of a person kneeling on the dance floor with a handkerchief in their mouth representing an imaginary pungi (musical instrument). While a group of people dance around them with their hands positioned like the fangs of a snake above their heads. The people usually involved in the ritual are uncles and brothers or the friends of the groom or bride. However, the ritual also involves the voluntary participation of women at the wedding as well that try to channel their inner naagins.

Naagin Dance At Indian Weddings

The origins of naagin dance date back to 1954 when veteran actor Vyjayanthimala's movie Nagin was released. The movie was a huge hit and the soundtrack consisting of music and Tan Dole Mera Man Dole became extremely popular. Another popular movie based on shape-shifting snakes was 1976's Nagin in which Reena Roy and Jeetendra played the role of naagin and naag. Its song Tere Sang Pyar Main Nahi Todna and the been tunes were immensely popular and are still used in shows based on nagin theories. Though these movies introduced audiences to naagin music, the concept of naagin dance came a little later in 1986 upon the release of Nagina.

Nagina starred Sridevi as naagin and Amrish Puri as snake charmer and the movie was a blockbuster. The fight scenes between naagin and snake charmer are considered the inspiration for the modern-day naagin dance that is the pride of Indian weddings. Mesmerising Sridevi in a white saree making fangs with her hands and giving death looks to the snake charmer won the hearts of the audience and they decided to turn their battle into a dance. The successive snake movies like Nigahen, Nache Nagin Gali Gali, and Jaani Dushman added to the list of popular naagin dance songs and tunes. Since then dance has been an inseparable part of Indian weddings.

Naagin dance can safely be called a product of the influence of Bollywood on the audience. Indians get heavily inspired by cinema, whether it is fashion trends or thoughts, conceptions, or music, Bollywood plays an important role in the life of most Indians. There are many viral videos of men and women losing it while doing naagin dance that show the unanimous love for it among people from different parts of the country. The best part is you don't have to be a good dancer to do naagin dance, just make fangs above your head with your hands, move your belly, and pretend to hiss, that's all you need to do to be a naagin at an Indian wedding. In fact, naagin dance is one of the rare cases of Indians being gender fluid because you can see men at weddings doing naagin dance more than women. How empowering it is.

Indians tend to enjoy any event to the fullest and use dance and music as a means of expression. Naagin dance is one of those dances that people perform when they are extremely happy or badly drunk. Naagin dancers can be seen taking up a good amount of space in a baraat or dance floor at a wedding and the more naagins and snake charmers on the floor, the merrier it gets.

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