Malhari Dance / Bollywood Entrance
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About
Malhari Dance, also known as Bollywood Soldier Dance, is a reaction GIF featuring Indian actor Ranveer Singh (who portrays Bajirao I) dancing alongside several armor-clad soldiers from the 2015 Bollywood film Bajirao Mastani. The GIF is pulled from one of the movie’s songs called “Malhari” that includes a lengthy dance sequence between the famous Indian commander and his troops. It’s typically used to express excitement, happiness or reactions involving intense hype for a wide variety of situations.
Origin
The original clip that the meme is pulled from is seen during Bajirao Mastani, released on December 18th, 2015, specifically the scene where Bajirao sings and dances with his soldiers during the song, “Malhari.” During the clip (featured below), Bajirao performs an extended dance sequence while celebrating with his warriors. Around the 1:25 mark, he walks through the army with his hands behind his back and suddenly bursts into dance (the most commonly used portion seen in memes).
The song (and movie itself) received positive reception from critics and fans upon release. As of April 2020, the song, uploaded on May 3rd, 2016, currently has over 130 million views, 500,000 likes and 24,000 comments on YouTube.[1]
Spread
The GIF version of the scene appears online as a reaction several times throughout 2016 and 2017. One of the earliest examples was uploaded to Imgur[2] on October 19th, 2016, by user comameirda. Using the caption, “When you win the game after your whole team is dead,” the post (seen below) received nearly 650,000 views and 19,000 points.
When you win the game after your whole team is dead..
Another example was posted to Imgur[3] on May 24th, 2017, under the title, “Bitcoinity GIF at $4075 GDAX.” The post (shown below) has since been viewed over 3.2 million times, and subsequently became a popular celebration GIF to use within the Bitcoin community.
Bitcoinity GIF at $4075 GDAX
Imgur[4] user notcleverenoughforaname also uploaded the scene on June 16th, 2017, alongside the title, “I tell my boss I'm leaving work early because it's too nice out and she tells us we can all get an early start to the weekend.” This post (shown below) received over 2,500 points, 100 comments and 500,000 views.
I tell my boss I'm leaving work early because it's too nice out and she tells us we can all get an early start to the weekend
On Reddit,[5] the GIF first appears on August 12th, 2017, in a post from Redditor packetinspector to the r/Bitcoin sub. Posted under the title, “Bitcoinity USD $4000 gif,” this version (seen below) also references the cryptocurrency, receiving nearly 22,000 upvotes and 1,300 comments.
Bitcoinity USD $4000 gif from r/Bitcoin
Redditor[6] mijuzz7 posted another variant using a more traditional meme format on March 18th, 2020, to the r/dankmemes sub. The meme (shown below) was upvoted almost 100,000 times and gifted several Reddit awards.
Let's go Grandpa from r/dankmemes
Donald Trump Malhari Edit
An edited version of the GIF, which places Donald Trump’s face over Bajirao’s, briefly went viral between 2019 and early 2020. This remixed variant was covered in several news articles in both the U.S. and in India. In addition, it resurfaced in February 2020 when Donald Trump Jr. shared two examples of the Trump edit on his Facebook[7] account. The first post (seen below) was viewed over 1.1 million times, liked over 65,000 times and shared another 34,000 times.
Template
Search Interest
External References
[1] YouTube – Malhari Song
[2] Imgur – When you win the game
[3] Imgur – Bitcoinity GIF
[6] Reddit – r/dankmemes
[7] Facebook – DonaldJTrumpJr
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