Maine maine tujhe tujhe by Vijay Benedict and Alisha Chinai
Anyone making a playlist for Diwali house parties? Here’s a cracker of a number guaranteed to get your guests groovin’.
Bappi Lahiri scored the music for the 1988 B. Subhash action film, Commando, starring Mithun Chakraborty and Mandakini. The film was a hit, like most of B. Subhash-Mithun collaborations in the 1980s.
The times were kinder, Indian movie-goers didn’t expect Mithun to do an Arnie in action — Hollywood’s 1985 offering, Commando, not only had the beefy Schwarzenegger, but seaplanes, cliffhangers and heavy artillery.
Mithun’s Commando had a sad backstory, a shocked mother with memory loss and some less-than-spiffy fights. But Mithun had two aces up his sleeve. Bappi da and Vijay Benedict.
Bappi da, India’s Disco King, who had to wear shades presumably to shield himself from the glare of the kilos of gold he wore, struck gold when he ran into an unknown singer, Vijay, in London. Bappi da offered Vijay the title track of the 1982 film Disco Dancer, also directed by B. Subhash. Sung by Vijay, I am a disco dancer saw Mithun’s fame skyrocket not just in India but in the then Soviet Union.
The same team, including Anjaan, the lyricist who penned I am a disco dancer, came together for Maine maine tujhe tujhe. As it’s a duet, the addition was Alisha Chinai.
Vijay’s unique throw met Alisha’s Babydoll-meets-femme fatale huskiness. The result? Hypnotic. Play Maine maine tujhe tujhe full throttle or put on earphones. The opening vocal echoes pull you right in. Bappi da’s orchestration, his USP, melds with these two fresh voices to create a trance-like soundscape.
Too much is made of Bappi da’s appearance, his occasional hat tips to global chartbusters and unabashed love for Hollywood, but Alokesh Aparesh Lahiri (November 27, 1952 to February 15, 2022) was a musical colossus and a trailblazer.
An accomplished tabla player from age three, his use of beats in his music — disco-electronic or otherwise — was both intrepid and pathbreaking. His orchestration with Indian and western instruments had its own drama — think Pag ghunghroo bandh Meera nachi thi. And full points for versatility — from Jimmy Jimmy aaja aaja and Raat baki, baat baki to Kisi nazar ko tera intezaar aj bhi hai, from Chalte chalte to Ooo la la. Bappi da never let music genres faze him.
Perhaps more than fellow rule-breaker R.D. Burman, Bappi da had an ear for new voices — Vijay, Alisha, Parvati Khan, Mohammed Aziz. Imagine picking dark horse Vijay to sing for the male lead in the era of Kishore Kumar.
It’s another matter that Vijay left playback singing after his brother was murdered in 1991 and became a gospel singer. Life, like Bappi da’s music, always has a plot twist.