From the ridiculous to the retro is a matter of just three decades. Surely, there’s some musical justice in the fact that what disgusted Hindi film song aficionados in 1983, ‘Ui amma ui amma’ (Mawaali), becomes retro cool when remixed as ‘Ooh la la’ in The Dirty Picture (2011), giving the composer of the former and the singer of the latter a last brush with the popularity charts.
Biddu might have ushered in the disco revolution with ‘Aap jaisa koi’ (Qurbani, 1980), and Laxmikant-Pyarelal might have ‘beat’ him to it with ‘Om shanti om’ (Karz, 1980). Still, it’s with Bappi Lahiri – Disco Dancer (1982) and Himmatwala (1983) – that the sound of Hindi music changed forever. If R.D. Burman defined the sound of the ’70s with Hare Rama Hare Krishna and Jawani Diwani, the ’80s belonged to Bappi Lahiri and his two distinctive sounds: the synth-electro beats of his disco scores and the dholak thumps of his ‘tathaiyya’ films.
However, hidden behind the hit musical parade was a clutch of melodious songs that often escaped public attention. What set the composer apart was that many of these were sung by him. And it was ‘Ooh la la’ that ultimately brought back Bappi Lahiri, and his voice, to the popular imagination – giving the current generation a glimpse of the work of a much-maligned, much-mimicked but rarely well-judged composer and singer.
Here’s listening to the best of Bappi Lahiri’s oeuvre as a singer.
Jaana kahan hai (Chalte Chalte)
Kishore Kumar may have had the icing with ‘Chalte chalte mere ye geet’, but in what is a sumptuous cake of an album – a film whose songs have endured in popular memory despite not having a star face to front them – I have always been partial to this Bappi-Sulakshana Pandit duet. If there’s one song in Hindi cinema that makes me nostalgic for emotions I have never known, for a place and time I have never experienced, it is ‘Jaana kahan hai’. A lot of that has to do with the effervescent words by Amit Khanna, in one of the best debuts by a lyricist in Hindi cinema. At the same time, the music and the composition are equally responsible for the feelings the song evokes, with Bappi Lahiri’s voice conveying the sheer joy of being in love.
Bambai se aaya mera dost (Aap Ki Khatir)
In an otherwise forgettable film, this song, its peppy melody and zany lyrics (penned by Shaily Shailendra) have endured almost fifty years later. With it, Hindi music discovered a new, unmistakable voice in Bappi Lahiri. Music may have morphed from vinyl to cassette to CD to pen drive to smartphone, but this number is an essential part of youngsters setting out on a holiday to Goa (though the song itself had nothing to do with Goa). And to think this song was not even in the film when it was released! Only once the disc became popular did the filmmakers include it in the film’s closing credits.
Surakksha / Wardat
A few years before he hit the big time with Disco Dancer, Bappi Lahiri crafted some delectable foot-tapping numbers in Mithun Chakraborty’s 007-inspired Gunmaster G-9 ‘cult classics’ Surakksha and Wardat. What strikes you about these songs is the variety they offer within the ambit of the Western beat-inspired world so typical of Bappi Lahiri. And he imbues many of these songs with the sheer joy of his voice. ‘Dil tha akela akela’ with Lata (Surakksha, lyrics Ramesh Pant) and ‘Tu mujhe jaan se bhi pyara hai’ with Usha Uthup (Wardat, lyrics Ramesh Pant) are essentially romantic ballads at heart. ‘Mausam hai gaane ka’ and ‘Tum jo bhi ho’ from Surakksha (lyrics by Faruk Kaiser and Ramesh Pant, respectively), ‘Dekha hai maine tujhko’ and ‘Din ho ya raat tu pyar kiye ja’ from Wardat (lyrics by Ramesh Pant) are numbers to let your hair down to – the rhythm of which can make the most leaden-footed man shake a leg.
Tumhara pyaar chahiye (Manokaamnaa)
Bappi has been widely ridiculed for his voice, but ‘Tumhara pyar chahiye’ is arguably the best song he has sung. The pathos he brings to his voice and the evocative lyrics by Indeevar add to the song’s effectiveness. Unfortunately, the film flopped and a couple of gems sung by Bappi, including ‘Log saari rahein’, remained unsung. Of only academic interest today is the fact that one Kalpana Iyer made her debut with this film. A year later, she would be scorching the screen with Bappi Lahiri’s foot-stomping number ‘Rambha ho’ in Armaan.
Yaad aa raha hai (Disco Dancer)
The great Kishore Kumar used to say, ‘You better be on time for Bappi’s recordings, otherwise he will sing the song!’ And that’s exactly what happened most memorably with ‘Yaad aa raha hai’ in Disco Dancer, the film that gave Hindi cinema a new superstar in Mithun Chakraborty. In the middle of gargantuan hits like ‘I am a disco dancer’ and ‘Koi yahan aha nache nache’ (the latter sung by Bappi), Bappi Lahiri composed and sang what is without a doubt the best number in the film. A love ballad dedicated to the hero’s mother, the song proves that Bappi was capable of taking you to the dance floor even in a song that is essentially a soaked-in-pain ode to loss.
Yaar bina chain kahan re (Saheb)
Like S.D. Burman and R.D. Burman, Bappi Lahiri would time and again dip into the rich reservoir of Bengali folk songs to create some of his most memorable songs. These included exquisite numbers like ‘Nanha sa panchhi re’ (Toote Khilone), ‘Shyam rang ranga re’ (Apne Paraye) and chartbusters like ‘Jahan char yaar’ from Sharabi (inspired by Runa Laila’s ‘Bondhu teen din’), rendered by the likes of Kishore Kumar and Yesudas. There is also the forgotten gem ‘Jaaun kahan re guru’, in Vijay Anand’s last film as actor and producer, Hum Rahe Na Hum, which provides a glimpse of Bappi’s hold on Bengali folk and his ability to adapt it to a Hindi film song.
‘Yaar bina’ belongs to this school and takes off from ‘Je jon premer bhaab jaane na’, popularised by Runa Laila. The song is a reminder, if one was needed, that he was a composer who could make party rhythms and melody go hand in hand without missing a beat.