JoySauce Radio: The ‘Best of the Best’ bangers
This month, we're highlighting some of our favorite tracks from Netflix's coming-of-age Bollywood fusion dance film
From left, cover art for “Enjoy Enjaami” by Dhee, “Kaliyaan” by Lost Stories & Bawari Basanti, and “Chicken Lemon Rice” by Priya Ragu.
Graphic by Ryan Quan
Words by Anjana Pawa
JoySauce Radio: Consider JoySauce Radio our own personal song recommendations—featuring some of our favorite tunes and videos—all from Asian and Pacific Islander artists around the world.
Best of the Best just dropped this month on Netflix, and if you haven't watched two childhood besties claw their way through their college’s competitive Bollywood-fusion dance scene yet, you must fix that immediately. Aside from the iconic cast and crew, which are full of South Asian creatives, the movie also boasts a pretty impressive soundtrack, with songs ranging all the way from Kollywood (the Tamil film industry) hits to Pakistani American bangers. This month's JoySauce Radio pulls a handful of gems straight off the film and also includes a few hits that would’ve been right at home if featured in the movie.
“Kaliyaan” by Lost Stories & Bawari Basanti
Mumbai-based duo Lost Stories (Prayag Mehta and Rishab Joshi) have spent years building a reputation for blending Indian folk sound into festival-scale electronic production. “Kaliyaan” fits into that formula so well that it feels almost euphoric as you listen. Vocalist Mahima Dayal Mathur, who performs as Bawari Basanti, is a Hindustani classical and folk singer whose powerful voice grounds the track even as the beat drops. The combination of her rooted vocals and the duo’s high-volume production is exactly the kind of needle-drop that works perfectly when Best of the Best reaches for in its biggest dance sequences.
“Enjoy Enjaami” by Dhee ft. Arivu (Prod. Santhosh Narayanan)
Star of the film, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who is Tamil Canadian and the daughter of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, has been outspoken about her heritage since her earliest interviews as an actress. So it feels fitting that a Kollywood-rooted track made the cut on the movie’s soundtrack and the stars dance to this hit. “Enjoy Enjaami” became a cultural phenomenon across Tamil Nadu and the diaspora alike, with lyrics that trace lineage and land through generations. The artist Arivu has said the title itself is a term of endearment, a name that his grandmother used to call him lovingly.
“Ghungroo” by Arijit Singh and Shilpa Rao
A song literally about dancing until your ankle bells (ghungroos) won't stop ringing was always going to end up on the soundtrack of a movie about a cutthroat Bollywood fusion dance team. Originally from 2019's Bollywood film War, “Ghungroo” is a glossy recreation of the Pankaj Udhas ghazal “Ghungroo Toot Gaye,” with a luxurious video that was filmed on Italy's Amalfi Coast with aerial choreography that's become Bollywood’s favorite camera trick. Arijit Singh, who built his career on devastating ballads, gives us one of his more loose and fun hits here. Paired with Shilpa Rao’s voice, this is a song that’s hard to not move to.
“Chicken Lemon Rice” by Priya Ragu
This one didn't make the film, but it easily could have. Priya Ragu is a Tamil Swiss singer born in Switzerland to parents who fled the Sri Lankan civil war in the 1980s—a story that runs strikingly parallel to Ramakrishnan's, just one generation and one country over. Ragu grew up singing in her father's Kollywood-inspired family band before eventually moving to New York and building a sound with her brother/producer, Japhna Gold. Together, the siblings began making R&B and hip-hop music fused with South Indian instrumentation and the Tamil language itself. "Chicken Lemon Rice" is the perfect example of this fusion coming to life.
“Peechay Hutt” by Hasan Raheem, Justin Bibis & Talal Qureshi
This song made its debut on Coke Studio Pakistan's 14th season, and it's had a journey since the release four years ago. At first, some people called the song a mess, but after a while, the public warmed up to it and it became one of the country’s favorite exports. The track went on to soundtrack an episode of Marvel's Ms. Marvel, whose lead is a Pakistani American superhero from New Jersey, and was later adopted as an unofficial anthem of Pakistan's Aurat March, the annual women's rights demonstration. Its impact is far, but it’s also a banger that will get you off your feet.
Published on September 29, 2026
Words by Anjana Pawa
Anjana Pawa is a Brooklyn-based culture reporter who regularly covers music, entertainment and beauty. You can find her on Twitter at @apawawrites.