Hello all – the Retro Caf – the IF Podcast series is back with another Blast from the past: Retro caf Episode #12: Bappi Lahiri special!!! And what's more? The New 'Guess the retro person' competition too!
Once again we received overwhelming response from the members and most of you were correct.
Now for this week's
'Guess the next retro featured person'
A man with the golden voice, with no formal training in music, he was not just a singer, but a Music Director Par excellence. Initiated into Rabindra sangeet at a very young age, he was largely responsible for making Rabindra sangeet and Natyageet an integral part of film music. Who is he. Guess the artiste who will feature in next weeks Retro Caf. Guess who he is!!
Please send in your entries to kirtib, by pm, by Monday, 26th June 2006 , 11.00 p.m. India time... The lucky winner will be picked up by the Development Team and will be given an option to dedicate one song of that artiste to any member of his/her choice. The winner will also have the option of dedicating the message (two minutes message) live on Retro Caf. Yahoo!
Now time for some words about our this weeks Retro Featured person: Bappi Lahiri, better known as Bappi da in the Hindi film industry!
Javed Akhtar once said, "Have you ever heard a Bappi Lahiri song that is dull? His songs are so bright." That sums up the Bappi style. Even the pathos-laden melodies ('Nanha Sa Panchhi Re Tu..', 'Naina Yeh Barse..') always have a certain spark in them. Bappi Lahiri is one composer who had the basic credentials but chose to go commercial in most of the assignments (400 films in approximately 28 years) that he took up.
Known as the Disco King at his peak, the poor man is generally considered the master plagiarist even though as he says, "Everyone has plagiarized right from the veterans. But I have done it from famous sources, there is no pretence'. The composer is always bedecked with jewellery, which includes pendants of religious or astrological value. His worst critics concede that he was always a trendsetter and that he has his own identifiable compositional and orchestral style, which Bappi says is only possible when you have a strong musical base. Considered a poor clone of R.D.Burman, he denies it and says that S.D.Burman and Madan Mohan are his inspirations. His favorite singers have always been Kishore Kumar and the Mangeshkar sisters and he has always sung a lot.
His hits include "Hari Om Hari" (Pyaara Dushmun), "Mere jaisi haseena ka dil" (Armaan) and disco numbers like "Rambha ho" (Armaan), "Disco station' (Hathkadi) and "Koi yahan naache naache" (Disco Dancer). "I am a disco dancer" created a sensation of sort all over India, with everybody eating disco, drinking disco and sleeping disco.The same song won great acclaim in Russia and China. He received the Golden Award for the music in China. Songs like Rambha Ho in Arman and Hari Om Hari in Pyaara Dushman swept the teenagers off their feet. Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar, the legends of the music industry of India, sang to his tune.
He gave a new life to his music with hits Chalte Chalte, Namak Halal ("Pag ghunghroo"- 1982) ,Himmatwala (1983),and Sharabi, for which he won the Filmfare Awards for best music director in 1984.
Recently he made a great comeback as a Playback singer – which is most probably happened for first time in the history of Hindi Movie music industry. Not only had he given his voice to the hit song "Boombai Nagariya" in the movie "Taxi No. 9211" he is also singing a song for today's legendary composer A.R. Rahman!
Cricket
Marathi TV
