Why's Bappi Da original rock-star

As journalistic requests go this was possibly the strangest Fittingly enough it was from Bappimdashwhich is how Alokesh Lahiri is best knownmdashwho called one night Earlier that day Irsquod shot an interview with him for my TV show Bappi 54 then had come down to the Mehboob studio set along with 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 ldquoBappa is very upsetrdquo Bappi said ldquoThroughout the interview you called me Bappi not Bappi Da Please change itrdquo Not knowing how editing that was possible gently explaining that I called all guests by their first name given the showrsquos casual tenor I was mildly irritated that it was Bappi making this odd demandIn my head Bappi okay fine Bappi Da was coolmdashdefined as someone who cares little about how hersquos judged choosing to remain his own man rather than a character created by consensus As a public persona therefore unabashed about his paunch double chin and kilo of jewellery wholly oblivious of gags on his voice accent and his lyricsmdashlsquoYou are my chicken fry fish fry masala dosa samosarsquomdashBappi Da had unwittingly or wittingly modeled himself on 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 greatsmdashShankarJaikishen LakshmikantPyarelal LP and othersmdashhave 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 lsquoDisco Kingrsquo Bappi Darsquos shiny gold look is it may have distracted from his discography that is 18 karat gold too Hersquos a trained classical musician who began dabbling in tabla at age 3 He entered mainstream scene in the lsquo70s 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 lsquoPyar mein kabhi kabhirsquo from Chalte Chalte 1976 if not the filmrsquos killer title track He ruled in the lsquo80s when dholak songs were rendering the scene too low for RD Burman to effectively participate in Bappi Da arguably brought such skillfully synthesized disco into the pop discourse that you canrsquot help but continue to groove to the Namak Halaal soundtrack lsquoJawani janemanrsquo lsquoRaat baqirsquo lsquoPad ghungroorsquo at a Bollywood night still In that sense he was that rickety bridge between RDB in the lsquo70s and AR Rahman in the lsquo90s for music with an ethereal youthful quality that can transcend generationsWas Bappi Da a plagiaristmdashmeaning he blatantly lifted tunes without crediting the source Especially towards the lsquo90s Yes Some of this occurs in Bollywood because of 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 careermdashsame 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 Kantersquos song lsquoTamarsquo first LP as lsquoJhumma chummarsquo in Hum 1991 or Bappi as lsquoTamma tammarsquo in Thanedar 1991 which has now been reremixed in Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya 2017 while the track had already been used in Agneepathrsquos background score 1990 and later 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 lsquoKaliyon ka chamanrsquo He won credit in an LA court Music connoisseurs in the West may have first heard his work then Or perhaps in Adam Sandlerrsquos Donrsquot Mess With The Zohan 2008 with the track lsquoJimmy Jimmyrsquo which is a cult classic in the Eastern Bloc or former Soviet Russia with fans from that generation nuts over this number enough to have even placed a statue of Jimmy or Mithun from Disco Dancer 1982 in Almaty Kazakhstan Actor Chris Pratt recently discovered the song lsquoJhoom Jhoom Jhoom Babarsquo 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 filmrsquos American version tooI have my personal favourite if you want to dig deeper into Bappi Da classics First shut your eyes Switch on lsquoTu mujhe jaan se bhi pyaara hairsquo from Mithunrsquos 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 later