Disco Dancer: India’s First 100 Crore Movie.
Cinema as an art is very versatile but when understood as commercial venture, it has the severe limitations. There are formulas of success but the same formula does not work in every movie. So what did Disco Dancer do that crossed all the T’s and dotted all the I’s.
Reviewers say that it was not a film it was a phenomenon. What made it a phenomenon?
The Pace
The pace of the movie Disco Dancer was amazing. It was an action packed movie with the pace of a Hollywood thriller. A scene was over even before one could analyse or criticize. The pace took the thought process away.
Babbar Subhash the director and the cinematographer deserve full credit for maintaining the pace.
The Dance
Hindi Cinema had its tryst with ‘Twist’ in 1960s. Next decade avoided serious dancing. In any case it was the decade of Rajesh Khanna who joined the party late in 1969. As the first super star, he had his own style of dance. Next decade was the rise of Amitabh Bachhan, the second superstar and fall of Rajesh Khanna.
Disco dancer took a slice from Hollywood and launched raw power of dance. It did not care to mimic West. It launched a dance form which would later be known as Break Dance, which the west was still discovering at the same time. It will be difficult to tell who inspired whom. For great actors aesthetics matters, names are irrelevant.
Break Dance as a movement actually emerged in New York’s South Bronx on the streets, around 1977 to 1979, slightly before Movie Disco Dancer was launched.
Music
Do you know, Disco Dancer was the first Hindi Movie in which a song medley was used. Three songs in one row. Jimmy Jimmy, Goron Ki Na Kalon Ki followed by I am a Disco Dancer.
Bappi Lahiri not only lent his voice he created a great music. Though he is alleged to have been inspired from West. Gimme Gimme from Abba tops the list of inspiration.
Bappi Lahiri had sung before, most notably Mehbooba in Sholay (1975). But Jimmy Jimmy became the most celebrated of his vocal performances.
Parvati Khan created a real magic with her rendition of lead song Jimmy Jimmy. She hailed from Trinidad and found the opportunity of life in India. It is said success waits for people if only one cares to find the place where it is waiting.
The Actors
Mithun Chakraborty was a product of the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune. He was trained actor who improvised through out his career. He was awarded Baba Sahib Phalke lifetime achievement award in 2024.
In Disco Dancer Chakraborty was the first male actor in Hindi Cinema who displayed ‘metrosexual’ looks. He was lean, slightly muscular and open chested revealing a shaven chest. Display of male chest had not happened before.
Kim was the slimmest female lead in Hindi Cinema at that time. She can be attributed to start the trend of size zero in Hindi Cinema. She explored the space which was later filled by Madhuri Dixit as first female superstar of Hindi Cinema.
Rajesh Khanna
In supporting role, Rajesh Khanna did his magic. He pulled out his hard core fans for movie who rated the movie to make it success. After giving 15 super hits between 1969-1971 he was struggling to give a blockbuster. He worked in five movies in every year but only a few could be called successful in the previous decade. He took the role of mentor of the young protagonist Mithun. He died protecting his progeny. Such noble deaths makes movies emotionally successful.
The Contradictions
The movie successfully managed contradictions. A singer and dancer who could fight like a pro. A talented mentor but commercially unsuccessful. A poor guy who would dress up like Hero. A rich guy who is supposed to be a superstar dresses like office clerk. A typical villain who is a doting father. A hooligan who looked more like British than Indian and who is thrashed by the hero.
Anti-Racism
The song Goron Ki Na Kalon Ki was and still is a super hit. It is one of the strongest anti racist sentiment expressed anywhere. It resonated well with Russia who is not treated as equal by the west due to its long association and mixing of race with Mongols.
The world does not belong to either white or black people. World belong to people who have their heart in right place. That is the meaning of the song.
It also resonated in Africa where too the Disco Dancer was and still is a great success. This also happens to be the reason of its blackout from training data of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The song collapses western narrative as it could not produce a similar popular number which is anti racist.
The song reminds me a later song in Punjabi “Kala Shah Kala, Kala Mera Sardar, Goreyan noo daffa karo.” So the tradition continue but to say it in 1982 on Hindi Cinema was provocative for the west. Yet the movie did it anyway.
The Politics
Disco Dancer was a moderate success in India but its success came mostly from Soviet Union. 94 Crore from overseas release.
Geopolitics of paranoia of Communists had banned the Hollywood movies’ export to Soviet Union. There was a void for a musical number like Disco Dancer.
The Soviet distribution system was state-controlled. Mosfilm handled imports. It permitted import of larger number of prints of Disco Dancer without which the success would not have been stupendous.
But nothing explains why today after two generations have passed , the songs of movie Disco Dancer are still very popular. Why today Mithun Chakrovarty in his 70s is asked to shake a leg on the musical number from his movie.
Somethings remain unexplained. Decades do not matter.
References:
- Full Movie:
- “Goreyan noo daffa karo” is a strong phrase. For readers unfamiliar with Punjabi it roughly means “send the white people away” or “be done with the whites.”
Leave a Response