Watch a Bengali singer poke fun at Macher Jhol, Boroline and monkey caps

Singer Sawan Dutta’s song vlog features everything from Boroline to singing donkeys.

Boroline is the cream for my kith and kin

Sawan Dutta, a Bengali singer and music director, makes tongue-in-cheek ‘music videos’ about Bengali quirks.

I put on my lip, my cheek and chin

Boroline is more effective any day than Vaseline

That’s from Sawan Dutta’s cheeky ode to the multipurpose cream, favoured by Bengalis as a cure-all. Dutta is a Bengali herself, and a singer and music director. and has taken to creating tongue-in-cheek ‘music videos’ online to showcase her talents.

Watch: Sawan Dutta’s Ode to Boroline

Three months ago, when she decided to create the vlog, she didn’t want to do “the same songs about love and heartbreak” says the 45-year-old.

So instead, in some videos, she pokes fun at quirks unique to Bengalis. Her Winter is Coming, for instance, is a tribute to the Bengali sensitivity to cold and the merits of monkey caps, blankets and Johnee Ouwalkaar (Johnnie Walker) Gold. Macher Jhol is a ballad on how to cook the traditional fish dish ballad on how to cook the traditional fish dish. And that’s just two of the eight she’s posted so far.

Read: IIT Madras girls’ satire on gender roles is bang on

In these videos, Dutta dresses in a sari, big red bindi and black plastic-framed glasses, sings in a heightened accent and using exaggerated gestures paired with a mock-serious expression.

Her video, Winter is Coming,

Some of the other songs feature a donkey who likes to sing; an ode to living in Mumbai whose video was shot during a single evening’s commute from Versova to Colaba and a travelogue about Singapore.

All the songs are written, composed, performed and edited by Dutta, with her husband CB Arun Kumar pitching in to help shoot the videos.

“The content she creates is completely unique,” says one of her 96,000 viewers, blogger Anirban Saha, 27, laughing at the memory. “My favourite is Macher Jhol and even though I am Bengali and I don’t like the dish, it was very funny.”

Watch: A ballad on how to cook Macher Jhol

The vlog series is called Metronome and Dutta’s releases a new song every three weeks.

To check out more of her videos, go to The Metronome