Return of the 'hit machine'
Most of the younger composers lift tunes from elsewhere, which is why their music doesn't last, Bappida, who's back in the limelight with hit number 'Ooh la la',
As we wait outside the 59-year-old singer-composer's Juhu bungalow, we hear the jingle of his jewellery before we hear him. Sunglasses firmly in place, his chain resting on his black t-shirt, the portly Bling King ushers us in. Apart from the signature blingy decor and furniture, what no one can miss in the large drawing room is the complete lack of space on the walls. Each of them is adorned with a multitude of trophies won by Bappida, who keeps referring to himself as the 'hit-machine.'
Given that both his parents were classically trained musicians, how did Bappi Lahiri get stuck with the over-the-top music of Mithun Chakravarty movies? "But that is what the public wanted and it worked, didn't it?" asks the man who partnered with the likes of Usha Uthup, Sharon Prabhakar and Alisha Chinai to deliver a series of hits in the '80s. Uthup jokes, "When you listen to those numbers now, my playback in duets with Bappida sounds like the 'male voice' while his softer voice sounds like he was singing for Kalpana Iyer, who was a staple in most of those films."
Audiences are like children
Film historian Mukul Joshi says Bappi knew his audience. "No matter how much critics call him loud, or crass, there was no escaping the fact that he had the pulse of the man on the street. Filmmakers lined up outside his bungalow."
It's not as if the tag of 'composer for the front rows' didn't bother him, given his lineage. His brilliant compositions, like the Yesudas bhajan, 'Shyam rang ranga re' (Apne Paraye, 1980) and the haunting Asha-Bhupinder ghazal, 'Kisi nazar ko tera' (Aitbaar, 1985) did not get him the kind of attention that came with his disco numbers. His attempts to throw the ball back into the audience's court drew criticism from stalwarts like Naushad. "Awaam toh bachey jaisi hoti hai. Hamhi achchi cheezein nahin denge toh unhe galat aadat toh padegi hi. (The audiences are like children. If you keep giving in to them, they will only ask for cheap stuff)"
A stung Bappi had hit back wondering whether Naushad could compose three hit film tracks in one night. "Hamara sangeet sunke toh log nahin, dil jhumta hai (Our music makes, not listeners but their hearts, dance)," the legend had reacted. Our attempts to get him to talk about that old squabble is waved off with a cursory, "that is such an old matter."
Suddenly he's in a hurry. With a quick aside to his help on keeping the white jacket and t-shirt ready for the next shoot, he switches topics. "I get goose-bumps when I think of how my latest song ('Ooh la la' from The Dirty Picture) has caught on with the public. I knew it would even as I was recording it. The lyrics, the dance, and the way Vidya (Balan) looks in the song have all come together perfectly," he says. "Vishal-Shekhar have also worked hard on the music." He does not forget to praise his co-singer Shreya Ghoshal. "Look at her training and preparation. She's matched my masti note for note." AR Rehman, who made Bappi sing for Guru gets a kind word too, without any prompting. "His dedication is touching." About other young composers, he says, "They are simply doing a cut-paste job from Thai, Indonesian and Korean numbers."
But isn't that a charge that kept getting hurled at him all through his own career? A defensive Bappi tosses his locks. "See, of the 5,000 songs you can call 11-12 songs inspired, but the rest were all original."
Interestingly, Lahiri had sued producer Andre Young alias Dr Dre for using his 'Thoda resham lagta hai' in the track 'Addictive' by Truth Hurts and accused Jennifer Lopez of stealing his tune from the Ghayal number, 'Sochna kya jo bhi hoga dekha jayega'. While the former was his own creation, the latter was "influenced" by pop group Kaoma's 'Lambada'. "The lambada is a traditional Brazilian form. I had simply borrowed the form. That cannot be called lifting," he insists. Perhaps, this was also the reason why he did not proceed legally against Lopez.
All Lord
Ganesha's doing
According to him, every composer has borrowed from Western and folk genres, and he makes his point with a few RD Burman tunes. "But your entire work cannot be just a lift," he says, adding, "That is the problem with most of the younger composers, which is why neither they nor their music lasts long like mine do."
He holds the fist-size Ganesha pendant on his neck and mutters a prayer. "After all, my work is all His doing. I am very superstitious about these things," he says, and goes into an elaborate explanation about each of the 12 heavy chains and the other jewellery he wears. The trinkets and charms are from places as varied as Ajmer Sharif, a Kolkata shrine, and the Vatican. Doesn't he find it too cumbersome to carry them all around? "But this is me. When I go abroad and keep all the chains inside my t-shirt, fans come up to me and ask why I'm not wearing any of them."
Bappida, who at one point had as many as 37 releases in a year, believes it is still early to hang up his boots. With both his recent outings as playback singer getting so much attention, he has every reason to think so.
Most of the younger composers lift tunes from elsewhere, which is why their music doesn't last, Bappida, who's back in the limelight with hit number 'Ooh la la',
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As we wait outside the 59-year-old singer-composer's Juhu bungalow, we hear the jingle of his jewellery before we hear him. Sunglasses firmly in place, his chain resting on his black t-shirt, the portly Bling King ushers us in. Apart from the signature blingy decor and furniture, what no one can miss in the large drawing room is the complete lack of space on the walls. Each of them is adorned with a multitude of trophies won by Bappida, who keeps referring to himself as the 'hit-machine.'
Given that both his parents were classically trained musicians, how did Bappi Lahiri get stuck with the over-the-top music of Mithun Chakravarty movies? "But that is what the public wanted and it worked, didn't it?" asks the man who partnered with the likes of Usha Uthup, Sharon Prabhakar and Alisha Chinai to deliver a series of hits in the '80s. Uthup jokes, "When you listen to those numbers now, my playback in duets with Bappida sounds like the 'male voice' while his softer voice sounds like he was singing for Kalpana Iyer, who was a staple in most of those films."
Audiences are like children
Film historian Mukul Joshi says Bappi knew his audience. "No matter how much critics call him loud, or crass, there was no escaping the fact that he had the pulse of the man on the street. Filmmakers lined up outside his bungalow."
It's not as if the tag of 'composer for the front rows' didn't bother him, given his lineage. His brilliant compositions, like the Yesudas bhajan, 'Shyam rang ranga re' (Apne Paraye, 1980) and the haunting Asha-Bhupinder ghazal, 'Kisi nazar ko tera' (Aitbaar, 1985) did not get him the kind of attention that came with his disco numbers. His attempts to throw the ball back into the audience's court drew criticism from stalwarts like Naushad. "Awaam toh bachey jaisi hoti hai. Hamhi achchi cheezein nahin denge toh unhe galat aadat toh padegi hi. (The audiences are like children. If you keep giving in to them, they will only ask for cheap stuff)"
A stung Bappi had hit back wondering whether Naushad could compose three hit film tracks in one night. "Hamara sangeet sunke toh log nahin, dil jhumta hai (Our music makes, not listeners but their hearts, dance)," the legend had reacted. Our attempts to get him to talk about that old squabble is waved off with a cursory, "that is such an old matter."
Suddenly he's in a hurry. With a quick aside to his help on keeping the white jacket and t-shirt ready for the next shoot, he switches topics. "I get goose-bumps when I think of how my latest song ('Ooh la la' from The Dirty Picture) has caught on with the public. I knew it would even as I was recording it. The lyrics, the dance, and the way Vidya (Balan) looks in the song have all come together perfectly," he says. "Vishal-Shekhar have also worked hard on the music." He does not forget to praise his co-singer Shreya Ghoshal. "Look at her training and preparation. She's matched my masti note for note." AR Rehman, who made Bappi sing for Guru gets a kind word too, without any prompting. "His dedication is touching." About other young composers, he says, "They are simply doing a cut-paste job from Thai, Indonesian and Korean numbers."
But isn't that a charge that kept getting hurled at him all through his own career? A defensive Bappi tosses his locks. "See, of the 5,000 songs you can call 11-12 songs inspired, but the rest were all original."
Interestingly, Lahiri had sued producer Andre Young alias Dr Dre for using his 'Thoda resham lagta hai' in the track 'Addictive' by Truth Hurts and accused Jennifer Lopez of stealing his tune from the Ghayal number, 'Sochna kya jo bhi hoga dekha jayega'. While the former was his own creation, the latter was "influenced" by pop group Kaoma's 'Lambada'. "The lambada is a traditional Brazilian form. I had simply borrowed the form. That cannot be called lifting," he insists. Perhaps, this was also the reason why he did not proceed legally against Lopez.
All Lord
Ganesha's doing
According to him, every composer has borrowed from Western and folk genres, and he makes his point with a few RD Burman tunes. "But your entire work cannot be just a lift," he says, adding, "That is the problem with most of the younger composers, which is why neither they nor their music lasts long like mine do."
He holds the fist-size Ganesha pendant on his neck and mutters a prayer. "After all, my work is all His doing. I am very superstitious about these things," he says, and goes into an elaborate explanation about each of the 12 heavy chains and the other jewellery he wears. The trinkets and charms are from places as varied as Ajmer Sharif, a Kolkata shrine, and the Vatican. Doesn't he find it too cumbersome to carry them all around? "But this is me. When I go abroad and keep all the chains inside my t-shirt, fans come up to me and ask why I'm not wearing any of them."
Bappida, who at one point had as many as 37 releases in a year, believes it is still early to hang up his boots. With both his recent outings as playback singer getting so much attention, he has every reason to think so.
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