Back in 1985, in a neighbourhood off Gariahat Road, Kali puja was the coming-of-age festival for many. Not because there was still no ban on crackers. But because in the early November chill, the puja committee would host a breakdance competition late into the night. Those who were surreptitiously listening to Thriller and Bad at home for fear of parental censure were that night free to play The Way You Make Me Feel really, really loud. And yes, moonwalk to it.

Michael Jackson was Dangerous — he made our puja pandals go pop.

For a decade and more, in the city of Rabindrasangeet and Bollywood beats, “pop” meant MJ and his song and dance spelt a kind of forbidden thrill.

“He was the Amitabh Bachchan of music. The driver at the wheel loved his moves and the babu’s son in the backseat loved his music,” smiles Abhijit De, a manager with a multinational company, who remembers the Navami night in 1983 when Thriller was first played in his para puja pandal.

Musician Vikramjit “Tuki” Banerjee confirms how the Jackson effect continues to vault socio-economic boundaries. “We play numerous shows in rural Bengal, in places where there’s no electricity. The moment we step out of the car, they look at us and say, ‘Dekh, dekh, Jackson!’ They may not know our Prime Minister, but they sure know who Michael Jackson is!”

The MJ magic went way beyond his music, with Thriller spawning a full-fledged “underground” fashion scene, with curled, shoulder-length locks, drainpipe trousers/jeans and those famous “Jackson boots”, from Park Street to Paikpara. Youngsters here, there and everywhere would break into breakdance and the pelvic thrust soon became a Bollywood trademark.

For guitarist Sumit Bhattacharya, 33, Thriller — the first “western” music album bought by him and banned by his grandfather — changed his life. “Till then, I wanted to be a cricketer, but Thriller made music cool.” So cool that Sumit now handles a full-time job in Mumbai and flies back to play with his Calcutta band.

Singer Anita Basu Mallick’s MJ mania took her one step further. “I saw Michael Jackson perform live in Paris, in 1992. I was only 12 years old, but I remember every mad, hysterical moment.... It was like magic.”

For a generation of Calcuttans, MJ was like magic — he taught them to just Beat It.