Friday, June 26, 2009

DANGEROUS MJ - King of Pop... a Legend






In the morning, I got to know of the sad demise of the King of Pop... MJ - Michael Jackson was no more. He died of Cardiac Arrest...


Like a gush of wind all the memories of my childhood snapped in front of my eyes...

I remember when Abhijeet had first shown me a pic of MJ when we were at Carter Road... the first song that I had known of him was Black or White, that was when MTV had just started to take roots in India and Cable television was in its infancy.

Black or White, Remember the Time and the best of all THRILLER... the videos of these songs transformed the choice of a generation from Bollywood Hindi movie song buffs to Pop music followers. These songs with the videos of MJ's moonwalk and turnarounds brought break dance to the living rooms and bedrooms of many. I remember how Abhijeet, Rekir, Saurabh and myself used to pour talcum powder on the marble flooring at Abhijeet's house and attempt moonwalk. I remember how much I have tried to practice the turnarounds, which later brought the "chakkri"(bending down and circling on one foot) step, then the wind-mill that Abhijeet taught me.

Those were from a different era altogether. I remember how I used to discuss with Shomu about the dance steps for a dance competition. Then the dance on Black or White, I remember how I used to dance with Vinit and Vin'da on MJ's songs. I remember how I had written lyrics of the Earth song writing line by line listening from my old tape recorder. I remember how proud I had felt when Vinit was called the Michael Jackson of Dombivli, although the audience was anything but a pop culture audience.

I remember how although, we had a XII semester exam the next day, I had declared to my friends that I am getting down at Andheri to try and have a look at MJ while he is entering Andheri Sports Complex for his concert. I remember how Kalpesh and Anil joined me and how Rajkumar had also agreed. We waited for hours together trying to search each car and van for Michael. We got to see a host of Bollywood celebrities, but it was a huge dissappointment to leave after poor Rajkumar got his pocket-picked.

There are a few select mood-changers that I had and MJ's songs were one of them. Anytime to uplift my gloomy mood, MJ's songs were the best prescription. BAD, Beat It, Billy Jean, Earth Song, History, Stranger in Moscow, Blood on the Dance Floor, Ghost .... man oh man... what a contribution to Pop music that MJ has had.


To his detractors, he was all his life ….
a Male with a female voice
a Performer than a singer...
a Black man with a white skin…
a Father of a purported child with child molestation allegations…
a Pope for the masses although without a church…
a Rich man with a neverland ranch, but was bankrupt which drove him to Bahrain…
a Christian who converted or had to convert to islam...

He had his share of misfortune as well. But, which celebrities agonies are not amplified over and over through and are not caused due to the media? He had his bad names and times too, but to remember him for anything less than music would be a disservice to music itself.

Here is a joke about MJ that I recollected. It was a stand-up comedy performance by Johny Lever at a Film Fare awards function.

Jab Michael Jackson Bombay mein aayein…
Airport se jaate hue zopadd patti mein utare aur bachhon ke saath khelne lage….
Zopadi ke log unhe maarne ke liye daud rahe thhe…

pora palavnaari party aalii rechillate hue (kidnapping party has arrived)
Phir unka show thaa andheri sports complex mein….
Main baahar khada thaa tabhi ek dadiji ne mujhe poochaa…
“kya siddhivinayak ki line yahaan tak aayi hai?”
Maine bola nahi yahaan ki line siddhivinayak tak gayi hai…
“Kyun koi baba aayein hai kyaa?”
Main bola haan Michael baba aayein hain…
Woh boli "unhone koi chamatkaar kiya hai kya jo itne log aayein hain?"
Haan maaji chamatkaar kiya hai.. pehle kaale thhe ab gore ho gayein hain….
Phir main andar gaya toh dekha jo ladkiyaan patli see andar gayii thee pet fulaa ke peeche khadee thee…
Maine poocha kya hua itni jaldi?… woh boli “TOIL E T….. :(”
Itne logon ke liye toilet kahaan hai… TOILET nahi hai.. :( :(
Phir dekha Michael jaise hi stage pe aaya toh ladkiyaan…
"M-I C H A E L - I LOVE YOU" chilla ke behosh ho gayii…
Maine kaha arre itni badi fan? Dekh te hi behosh?
Uski friend ne kaha "kahaan ki fan? Doopahar se kadhee thii, khaana nahi paani nahi kuchh nahi… chakkar aa gaya…"

Tab maine bhi socha apna bhi koi Pandurang Dhumal Lezhim leke America jayegaa,
Lezhim bajate hue…. Woh gayegaaa…
Jee Ji re Jee ji Re Jee Jee ji (Johny lever sang a song with a lezhim music)
toh wahaan ki ladkiyan bhi bolengi…
PANDU I LOVE YOU…

I L O V E Y O U, P A N D U
To end the post what better than the Gem
"Heal the World"
Theres a place in Your Heart
And I Know That It Is Love
And This Place Could
Be Much
Brighter Than Tomorrow
And If You Really Try
You'll Find
There's No Need To Cry
In This Place
You'll Feel
There's No Hurt Or Sorrow
There Are Ways to Get There
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Little Space
Make A Better Place...
Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me

9 comments:

  1. It was shocking for me, Michael was and will remain one of the greatest entertainers that ever lived. I still remember his show in Bombay 1997. No one can beat him. Every thing is still in front of my eyes that evening in Andheri Foot ball stadium. He is considered one of the most successful entertainers of the past century, with a lifetime sales tally estimated at 750 million records and 13 Grammy Awards. I have always admired Michael Jackson. The world has lost one of the greats but his music will live on forever

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  2. True Karthik as I had described about the October evening in Andheri Sports Complex, Bombay.... nothing can match the hysteria when Michael used to perform... His music lives on forever...

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  3. Very well written.

    I still remember the talcum-powder-moonwalk attempts at Abhijit (the king's) place :-)

    Also still very vividly remember the break-dance steps. I think the most popular step was the one in which we used to act as if we were trying to move a mirrored wall by sliding our palms on it. Then there was another in which we used to act as if trying to climb a rope.
    Ahh.. how corny they were :-)

    Another popular (not MJ) song used to be "Cult of Snap" which shomu had specialized in and demonstrated the gyrations at a number of occasions.

    Also how could we forget the Axel-F number performed by Nishit on new years party on the terrace of our building, (I still remember datta ka pav-bhaji used to be a must-have on those parties :-)

    Ahh,, gone are those days :-(

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  4. Saurabh, Thanks a lot…

    With MJ’s demise the memories all just had to come to my mind… how could they escape…

    Remember the argument Abhijeet and you had about what kinda instrument is used to produce that sound in JAM?

    It seems hilarious now, but back then it went on for hours and days together…

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  5. Yes, of course i remember the Jam argument.

    It went something like this.... abhijeet saying that it was "Phusu Phusu Jam" and me and shomu thought it should be "Buzu Buzu Jam" .....
    I just laughed my ass off when i recollected that right now.. :-D

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  6. : D ... Tons of Laughter for this... almost fell of my chair...

    Phusu Phusu JAM and BuzuBuzu JAM...

    Life cannot get better than this man... why the hell we wanted to ever be grown up people...

    Hilarious Stuff...

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  7. Hi,

    Do you have the link of this Johny Lever's act ?

    Thank you !

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  8. No buddy, I dont have the link.

    I wrote down whatever I had remembered from the numerous discussions I had with my cousin about this act.
    IF ou get a video link then please do share it with me here :-)

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  9. can i get video of same

    ReplyDelete