Mayank Shekhar: Bappi, Da original rockstar

Bappi Da had unwittingly or wittingly modelled himself on the pop culture of the Wild West whose stars thrive on standing out from among the regular crowdAs journalistic requests go this was possibly the strangest Fittingly enough it was from Bappi which is how Alokesh Lahiri is best known who called one night Earlier that day Id shot an interview with him for my TV show Bappi then 54 had come down to the Mehboob studio set along with his son Bappa The interview had gone off quite well with sensational revelations on his swag and sartorial sense Much of it was inspired by hiphop artistes in the West he told meBut the phone call was about something else Bappa is very upset Bappi said Throughout the interview you called me Bappi not Bappi Da Please change it Not knowing how editing that was possible gently explaining that I called all guests by their first name given the shows casual tenor I was mildly irritated that it was Bappi making this odd demandIn my head Bappi okay fine Bappi Da was cool defined as someone who cares little about how hes judged choosing to remain his own man rather than a character created by consensus Therefore as a public persona who is unabashed about his paunch double chin and kilos of jewellery wholly oblivious of gags on his voice accent and his lyrics You are my chicken fry fish fry masala dosa samosa Bappi Da had unwittingly or wittingly modeled himself on the popculture of the wild West whose stars thrive on standing out from the crowdBappi Da is more MeatloafElton John in Hindi films where music has traditionally been taken so seriously that his contemporaries or past greats ShankarJaikishen LakshmikantPyarelal LP and others have appeared dignified like classical musicians or bland like bankers No knock on that Just saying For what is showbiz without its OTT bizarreness and eccentricities The uninhibited Kishore Kumar was just that In Bollywood where rockstardom is outsourced to movie stars Ranveer Singh from the current crop is the only one who gets itA minor flipside for Disco King Bappi Das shiny gold look is that it may have distracted from his discography which is 18 karat gold too Hes a trained classical musician who began dabbling in tabla at age three He entered the mainstream scene in the 70s when melody still ruled How do you define melody Well melody khao khud jaan jao And he could move you with itAny good playlist from the time will inevitably have Pyar mein kabhi kabhi from Chalte Chalte 1976 if not the films killer title track He ruled in the 80s when dholak songs were rendering the scene too low for RD Burman to effectively participate in it Bappi Da arguably brought such skillfully synthesized disco into the pop discourse that you cant help but continue to groove to the Namak Halaal soundtrack Jawani janeman Raat baqi Pad ghungroo at a Bollywood night In that sense he was that rickety bridge between RDB in the 70s and AR Rahman in the 90s for music with an ethereal youthful quality that can transcend generationsWas Bappi Da a plagiarist meaning he blatantly lifted tunes without crediting the source Especially towards the 90s Yes Some of this occurs in Bollywood because of the briefs handed down sure you can say no and the incredible volume churned out to keep a prolific film industry running on the back of music alone Beatles did 13 albums in their entire career same as U2 Bappi Da recorded 180 songs for 33 albums in 1986 alone entering the Guinness BookThere is no condoning thievery still I think it reached its craziest point in 1990 with musicians fighting over who had stolen the Guinean Mory Kantes song Tama first LP as Jhumma chumma in Hum 1991 or Bappi as Tamma tamma in Thanedar 1991 which has now been reremixed in Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya 2017 while the track had already been used in Agneepaths background score 1990 and later as a Telugu numberIn a moment that proves irony can reverse karma Bappi Da sued the US band Truth Hurts in 2002 for lifting riff from his lesser known song Kaliyon ka chaman He won credit in an LA court Music connoisseurs in the West may have first heard his work then Or perhaps in Adam Sandlers You Dont Mess With The Zohan 2008 with the track Jimmy Jimmy which is a cult classic in the Eastern Bloc or former Soviet Russia with fans from that generation who are nuts enough over this number to have even placed a statue of Jimmy or Mithun from Disco Dancer 1982 in Almaty KazakhstanActor Chris Pratt recently discovered the song Jhoom Jhoom Jhoom Baba from Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki in the desi trailer of Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 and he wished it could be there in his films American version tooI have my personal favourite if you want to dig deeper into Bappi Da classics First shut your eyes Switch on Tu mujhe jaan se bhi pyaara hai from Mithuns Wardat 1981 Bappi Da sings a mellifluous duet with Usha Uthup Identify the male and female voice as you go along Send me your score Thank me laterMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass 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