Remixed songs have a quick sell-by date. The original tune of the remix is an anachronism that we have to suffer when tone-deaf composers take the route of introducing us to lousy remixes of iconic old tracks in current films. Earlier this year, the remixes of ‘Tamma Tamma' in Badrinath Ki Dulhania, ‘Humma Humma’ in OK Jaanu, and ‘Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast’ in Machine, were prime examples of how swiftly they came and disappeared. The original tunes were tinkered with for promotional use but despite the brief popularity of the remixes, they were instantly forgotten once the films that featured them exited cinema halls.
Recreate and remix
Remixes for the heck of exploiting memorable tunes that have no context to the film’s plot is a common practise. There is however, an exception with ‘Zindagi Meri Dance Dance’ by Norwegian DJ Ole Petter Hergum aka Olefonken in the film Daddy (2017).
The upcoming film, starring Arjun Rampal and Aishwarya Rajesh in the lead roles, is a crime drama directed by Ashim Ahluwalia. Daddy, based on the life of the politician and former gangster Arun Gawli, is set in Mumbai in the 1980s. Ahluwalia has painstakingly tried to recreate a time when the city was reeling under the pressure of gangland warfare, some of which took place in dens hidden in bars and hotels from where the underworld dons operated.
One such location was Hotel Caesar’s Palace in the Khar suburb where the disco track ‘Zindagi Meri Dance Dance’ takes place. “The song appears in an important scene where Arjun Rampal’s character Gawli meets a rival gangster,” says Nidhi Gambhir, who designed the outfits for the actors performing in the song. The reference goes back in time to Arvind and Mahesh Dholakia, owners of the hotel, who were being closely-watched by the police. They were suspected for their criminal activities involving prostitution and for providing a safe haven for outlaws in their premises where they ran Cleo, a disco. In March 1987, the then police commissioner D.S. Soman cancelled the hotel's licence and closed down the discotheque. Arvind was killed in his cabin by a rival gang member and his brother was also eliminated in a shoot-out. Gawli was a prime suspect.
Show and tell
The song’s flashy club ambience serves as a perfect foil for the gangsters to carry out their wheeling and dealing. Music becomes the backdrop where the gangsters negotiate their power, and the atmosphere is charged with a pulsating energy of the unpredictable, giving the bad men the aura of looking cool under the dazzling disco lights. Recreating the interiors of the hotel, set designer Sukant Panigrahy focused on the stage where a glitzy rocket prop ushers in the actress Natasa Stankovic who croons the smouldering number.
“The glossy make-up for the actress Natasha Stankovic was inspired by Parveen Babi’s look in the song Jawani Jaaneman from the film Namak Halal (1982),” says Shrikant Desai, who designed the make-up and hair for the song. “The director was very particular that the dancers in the video must sport long hair, and men must have a mullet with a few strands falling on their foreheads like it was fashionable in the 80s.” Even the clothes had to look authentic. “We gave the actress a sequinned jumpsuit with a plunging neckline and matching golden boots, both of which were trends in the 80s,” says designer Gambhir. “[Her dancing partner Keith] is styled with a head band and clothes like Mithun Chakraborty used to wear in Disco Dancer (1982) and Dance Dance (1987).”
To match the choreography of the period, Caesar of the Bosco (Martis) and Caesar (Gonsalves) team channelled the moves he’d learnt from watching Chakraborty dance. "I love the 80s, the era I grew up in," says Caesar. “It was sheer joy and so rare to get to choreograph something so completely authentic, a film that mirrors what we used to imitate back in our days. We loved break dance. Mithun Da and Parveen Babi were our idols and you see so much of their fashion sense and dancing styles in this song as well."
The electro-funk dance number ‘Zindagi Meri Dance Dance’ was originally written by lyricist Anjaan and composed by Bappi Lahiri for the film Dance Dance but the track didn’t feature in the film. However, Daddy’s version retains the original vocalists’ performances by Alisha Chinai and Vijay Benedict. How this unheard track from the 1987 film found its way into Ahluwalia’s film is a fascinating journey that began with an accident. “On a trip to India I found myself running away from the rain showers and stumbled upon a very small store that stocked some vinyl in Bengaluru,” says the Hergum, the Norwegian DJ. “I came across a cover depicting two people soaring through the skies with the name Bappi Lahiri inscribed in the corner of the sleeve. As I was already a fan of Bappi Lahiri, I knew I had found something great,” says Hergum adding that when he returned home, the song ‘Zindagi Meri Dance Dance’ on the vinyl blew his mind. “I could not wait to play this at my regular residency at the club Jaeger in Oslo,” he says. “However, the sound was too old and sparse for today's sound system, so it had the effect of chasing people off the dancefloor rather than make them, well – dance dance.”
Hergum decided to remix the track on his computer, adding bass, drums and percussion to give it a more contemporary sound. “I wanted it to be as true to the original as it could be. The next weekend people loved what they were hearing, all dancing like crazy!” he says. “Several DJ's have asked me for it in the years since. Recently, out of the blue, I got an e-mail from the people working on the film Daddy asking me if they could use the track. It was a no-brainer to say yes to that.” The rest, as they say is history, a musical kind in this case.