Bappi Lahiri obituary: The undeniable and continuing importance of Bollywood's Disco King

Bappi Lahiri with legendary singer Kishore Kumar. (Image: Instagram/bappilahiri_official_)

Bappi Lahiri, music composer and singer known for his own brand of synthesised disco, passed away in Mumbai from sleep apnea - a medical condition in which oxygen supply to the brain can get cut off during sleep. He was 69.

Born Alokesh Lahiri in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, to classical musician parents, “Bappi Da” (as he was fondly called in the film industry by many) was initiated in classical music as early as four. He remained a devoted classical musician, although he became the Bollywood Disco King by the early 1980s.

Somen Kutty Sarkar, a Mumbai-based music producer and arranger, who has worked with Lahiri for several years during his global concert tours and who has known him closely for more than a decade, remembers him as an easy-going artiste who was always open to new sounds and rhythms. “He knew how to extract the best out of his musicians, he was adaptable and a dream collaborator,” Sarkar says. Sarkar has been part of sessions in which Lahiri would sit with his harmonium and sing Indian classical. “Very few people know that beneath the bling and the disco, was a serious, brilliant Indian classical singer.”

Lahiri’s signature was his versatility, offset by his singularity. He composed for several Bengali films, including his debut as a composer in the Bengali film Daadu (1972), for which, Lata Mangeshkar sang his composition. His first Hindi film as music composer was Nanha Shikari (1973). Over hundreds of films, Lahiri’s compositions have been sung by Kishore Kumar—who was also related to him as a  maternal uncle, and was a profound influence in his life and music—and other legends such as Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle and Usha Uthup.

By the mid-1980s, Lahiri’s brand as “Disco King” was getting solidified, following the breakthrough in 1982 with the Disco Dancer album. With songs like “I am a Disco Dancer”, “Jimmy Jimmy Aaja Aaja” and “Yaad Aa Raha Hai” from this film, a blockbuster directed by B. Subhash—a rags-to-riches yarn of Jimmy (Mithun Chakravarty), a street performer, who becomes India’s “disco king”—Lahiri’s music started playing in every corner of India.

Also read: Exclusive: Bappi Lahiri brought a revolution in Indian music, says Disco Dancer director B Subhash

In the following years, in quick succession, he composed for two films which marked the ascent of Amitabh Bachchan as the definitive 1980s’ superstar—Namak Halal (1982) and Sharaabi (1984). This decade almost belonged to Bappi Lahiri—Himmatwala, Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki, Saaheb, Adventures of Tarzan, Dance Dance, Sailab and Thanedaar, among several others had at least one disco hit by Lahiri.

Producer-director Sanjay Gupta, a long-time friend of the Lahiri family who launched Lahiri’s son Bappa Lahiri in his film Alibaug (2011), was a 19-year-old assistant director to Raj N. Sippy in Thanedaar (1990) when he first met Lahiri. The Sanjay Dutt-Madhuri Dixit starrer had the song Tamma Tamma Loge, which, next year, became Jumma Chumma De De in the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Hum—both songs derived from the original by Guinean singer Mory Kanté. Gupta remembers, “By then he was quite big, but I was struck by his easy presence and openness. We became close over the years. I don’t remember meeting him much at Bollywood parties and  social occasions. He just worked all the time. Every day at 1.30pm, he would come down to his music room-cum-studio at his home and worked till the end of the day.” Gupta says Lahiri was a serious foodie and a lavish host for his house guests.

By 1990, Lahiri’s music had travelled to Southern and Central Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and most remarkably, to the Soviet Union. His global presence was obvious when he got 1980s’ British pop sensation Samantha Fox to do a number with Govinda (then going through a Michael Jackson phase in his moves) in the film Rock Dancer (1995) in which a red chiffon sari weighed down by a thick layer of gold was one of the several costumes Fox wore dancing to Lahiri’s composition “Traffic Jam”.

“I am a Disco Dancer” and “Jimmy Jimmy Aaja Aaja” continue to be cult songs even in Putin’s Russia. In her book Leave Disco Dancer Alone! — Indian Cinema and Soviet Movie-Going After Stalin, author Sudha Rajagopalan writes that Disco Dancer, called Tanstor Disko in Russian, became a “landmark film in the Soviet Union”, as popular as Raj Kapoor’s socialist-themed Awara had been some decades ago.

Also read: Days before death, Bappi Lahiri had paid tribute to ‘Maa’ Lata Mangeshkar

In 2002, this writer witnessed the “Tanstor Disco” craze in a dive bar in New York’s Lower East Side. It was a paid Bappi Lahiri-themed night. A Russian man played him, his purple velvet overcoat accenting reams of faux-gold neck pieces, performing “Jimmy Jimmy” atop the bar counter. At some point, a rumour circulated in the bar choc-a-bloc with Russians and Indians that Bappi Lahiri himself was going to make an appearance during the night. The cult following went berserk; eventually their hopes were crushed; “Bappi da” did not come.

Much of Lahiri’s oeuvre isn’t about originality—he copied tunes from all over the world with impunity, much like several others in Bollywood. His contribution to Indian film music is a signature fun vibe—a combination of Indo-Western synth disco sound, an Everyday Bengaliness and baroque bling sartorial style. These elements coalesce to make a persona that’s not going away from public memory soon.