The year was '92, and a funny looking Jat wearing a Michael Jackson hat and earrings with a flashy red jacket and a red tie looked every bit as clichéd as you think. What he also brought was a booming voice, one that had a good range especially a good solid baritone. A good timber for a singing voice, Baba Sehgal however rushed in the era of rap into Hindi music.
Albeit low-budget and limited-success with earlier albums, the year '92 favored Baba. His funny parody Thanda Thanda Pani, originally Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby became a hit. The biggest hit however, is undoubtedly, Dil Dhadke.
Starting out like a cheesy 80s music video, the single features the ravishing Pooja Bedi as a 'dream girl'. A bare-chested Baba standing in front of a bright red table fan is a cool throw-back to that era of music videos. Incidentally, the random girls, Baba and Pooja Bedi are never in the same frame together, which makes me wonder if they never even met, each of scenes were shot separately and then put together: not unusual, just sounds like a struggling artiste who gets his first break and has the ability to put together a music video. The overall video, and the song itself, became a hit!
The lyrics and the meter became his signature, 'mein to jaoonga, pakdunga, chedunga, gaoonga, bolegi woh na-na-na-na-na hey na-na-na-na-na' .. using the natural rhyme of the words in the language but at times, surprisingly difficult to roll off our tongues. Baba also portrays himself as a innocent and aspirational, dependent on someone else to protect him and make him successful 'mujhe god hi bachhae, ache ache logon se hi mera parichay karay'.
The timing was a part of this success. MTV had only just launched in India, in collaboration with the state-run Doordarshan. This music video became the first Indian music video to be aired on MTV India. It received a lot of screen-time, especially as requests poured in as MTV made inroads to masses that typically weren't too keen on English music.
Watch Baba Sehgal in Dil Dhadke
Albeit low-budget and limited-success with earlier albums, the year '92 favored Baba. His funny parody Thanda Thanda Pani, originally Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby became a hit. The biggest hit however, is undoubtedly, Dil Dhadke.Starting out like a cheesy 80s music video, the single features the ravishing Pooja Bedi as a 'dream girl'. A bare-chested Baba standing in front of a bright red table fan is a cool throw-back to that era of music videos. Incidentally, the random girls, Baba and Pooja Bedi are never in the same frame together, which makes me wonder if they never even met, each of scenes were shot separately and then put together: not unusual, just sounds like a struggling artiste who gets his first break and has the ability to put together a music video. The overall video, and the song itself, became a hit!
The lyrics and the meter became his signature, 'mein to jaoonga, pakdunga, chedunga, gaoonga, bolegi woh na-na-na-na-na hey na-na-na-na-na' .. using the natural rhyme of the words in the language but at times, surprisingly difficult to roll off our tongues. Baba also portrays himself as a innocent and aspirational, dependent on someone else to protect him and make him successful 'mujhe god hi bachhae, ache ache logon se hi mera parichay karay'.
The timing was a part of this success. MTV had only just launched in India, in collaboration with the state-run Doordarshan. This music video became the first Indian music video to be aired on MTV India. It received a lot of screen-time, especially as requests poured in as MTV made inroads to masses that typically weren't too keen on English music. Watch Baba Sehgal in Dil Dhadke
Great writing - a comprehensive account , and it keeps the reader attentive until the very end !!
ReplyDeleteExpecting more gems from you :-)