This needs some explaining. I don’t mean songs that extol the virtues of doing housework (as someone who does more housework than the average middle class Indian woman, I cannot imagine ever extolling the virtues or joys of housework—it’s possibly the most thankless, relentless and utterly monotonous job out there). But the monotony of housework, the fact that you can get nearly all of it done without really applying your mind or having to concentrate, means that you are free to do something else. Especially something musical.

My mother-in-law invariably turns on the radio and listens to songs as she goes about her work. But my mother, from as far back as I can remember, used to sing. As she went about dusting and the cooking and whatnot, I’d hear her singing. She still has a wonderful voice, and back in her heyday, it was stunning—and her repertoire was amazing, all the way from hymns to hits by Elvis and Jim Reeves (and some old Hindi songs: as lullabies, she sang O mere pyaar aaja to my sister, and Yehi woh jagah hai to me).  I too, when I’m doing housework—especially when I’m cooking—sometimes sing. All sorts of songs.

So, too, do a fair number of people onscreen. Here, then, are ten songs that feature people singing as they go about doing housework. Besides my usual criterion, about the film in question being a pre-70s one that I’ve seen—I’ve imposed one more rule: that the person should be doing some work in the course of the song (this is why Kismat ki hawa kabhi naram doesn’t feature on my list; while Bhagwan’s character is in a kitchen, surrounded by pots and pans and even wearing a chef’s cap, he never uses any of those for anything remotely connected to housework).