It’s become pretty old hat for us to find Bollywood rip offs of Western music and movies. Indian Superman is probably still my alltime favorite but this music video manages to chart new ground on an extremely crowded landscape.
Not only do they rip off the tune, they also rip off the band –
Not wanting to be left out of the fun, some Westerner’s gave the video the Tunak Tunak treatment. The result is below the fold –
“Stay Cool, Alberto… It’s gonna be hecka bad”
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p> [related: it’s tough to talk about Bollywood antics without bringing up one of our favorite “oh please can we have an update?” blogs – Bollywood Fugly. Pay ’em a visit! ]
I hope that Alberto was able to stay cool.
Shammi may have danced to a ripped off Beatles number, but the dancing is all his and only his. The original yahoo! yahoo!
But ripoffs go the other way too,
Like when the great silicone valley Reality Show Star copied one from the Little Superstar
Bollywood rip offs of Western music and movies thats good if their precepion is like that how long we ll watch the duplicate storys and we want change so i think its a good changing…..
This whole Buffalax treatment to desi songs is getting old now.
“Hecka bad” is now in my personal dictionary. Done and done.
My knowledge of the beatles is fairly poor. Is this stolen off penny lane?
Yeah, I saw this a while ago. Those 4 guys behind Shammi were damn creepy looking. I am sure Thora Birch’s character in Ghost World would appreciate this video. I still think Aaja Aaja from Teesri Manzil is one of the trippiest songs I have seen in Hindi movies. At least, they had Shammi Kapoor in there to camp it up for our viewing pleasure. That guy is never boring. He always seems like he is in on the joke instead of being the butt of the joke.
I think those 60s Hindi rock songs did a good job coopting western songs. They put a lot of fun in it. I don’t quite get the westernization of songs in a lot of other Bollywood movies. They sound to me as bad as those Taiwanese pop songs.
Like Vinod’s title says, it’s: I Wanna Hold Your Hand
This is so funny. I have heard & seen the reverse of “buffalax” growing up. For example, my husband’s dad puts Kannada & Hindi lyrics to old Bee Gee’s (of Saturday Night Fever fame) and other old 70s disco songs. He’d substitute the unclear English lyrics with Kannada or anything that remotely sounded like an Indian lyric would get converted to Kannada/Sanskrit/Hindi.
I wonder what the stay cool Alberto singers/lip synchers feel like when they see their old film clips.
I have an issue posting comments
I have seen this video generate a lot of hate on YouTube. I am going to start a rumor that will make this worse. Here is how that will go: the director of this movie, Bhappi Sonie, wanted to use the Beatles’ image and music in the movie, but the Beatles would have nothing to do with it. So Bhappi approached Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who took a s&*t load of cash and in turn, using some tantric mumbo jumbo, convinced George Harrison that the Beatles should allow Bhappi Sonie unrestricted access to their material. George then convinced the rest of the boys that Bhappi’s ideas were great and that the Beatles’ music will change Bollywood forever. When the Beatles saw the video of this song, they became disgusted with their own music and just decided to break up. Yoko actually thought the video was great – so she was hated and blamed for the split.
How is the idea?
Two other rumor ideas: 1) The movie is the first of its kind – a musical based entirely on the Beatles’ music! 2) The Beatles actually lifted this tune for their song “I wanna hold your hand”. Those bastards did not pay a dime to the original composers, Shankar-Jaikishan.
AtComment2 – Jyotsana, you didn’t know the dance is Shammi’s spaz version of Elvis? He has done this in many movies and has publicly acknowledged that his dance is Elvis inspired. Those 4 extras are the Beatles imitators – to add insult to injury.
13 · Illuminati said
Elvis inspired Shammi to develop a non-Indian classical/non-Western formal dance routine, at a time when heros didn’t do much dancing in India, except of the rustic kind. That’s all. Shammi’s style is entirely his, and unique for a person a of his bulk. No bulky actor has acted (and been emulated) as a dancing hero. Let’s forget that Elvis never wrote anything and often rendered songs by African-American artistes (who were required to sign them away to make any money at all) although not as extensively as Pat Boone (who admitted many times to not knowing what his songs meant). Shammi worked on his songs and even got Rafi to adapt to his manner. For Shammi dance was an unlikely way to carve out a niche for himself during a period dominated by method actors.
AtComment2 – Jyotsana, you didn’t know the dance is Shammi’s spaz version of Elvis? He has done this in many movies and has publicly acknowledged that his dance is Elvis inspired. Those 4 extras are the Beatles imitators – to add insult to injury.
As if Elvis, and early version of Beatles were very original.
They completely owe it to African American Music – blues and gospel in the case of Elvis
buffalax is neither forward, nor reverse. it just is. there are still some countries where singng oblahdi-oblahdah will get you threatened with flogging [sotto voce] or worse .
KundiKarruppan – LOL! Too funny.
Jyotsana and Kush – such apologists for Shammi. I am sure Shammi is embarrassed by this now. Regarding Elvis taking African-American music, what’s new about it? Been happening all through – Elvis to Vanilla Ice to New Kids on The Block (they took the New Edition stuff unabashedly) to Eminem to Sean Paul to Amy Winehouse and Duffy. There’s so much rap in Indian pop music now that its not even funny (or too funny, depending on your POV).
17 · Illuminati said
Illuminati, there’s only so much (not much) you can glean by looking up Shammikapoor.com/net etc., Next time read the whole page before you come here and evoke titters and guffaws with your ignorance. Rap too, scatting, taan, bol, nattuvangam, dialogue as song, has been around for a very long time in Indian song and dance. Indian popular musicians are simply reminded of their own vocalising tradition by modern rap.
18 · jyotsana said
well — illuminati is right that new rap elements in desi bollysongs are straight lifts off US hits (some of which are insult to good rap and hip-hop themselves) rather than any modern interpretations of indigenous traditions. and even bolly was very US popular music inspired. for instance: helen, in a documentary, claims she regularly went to the US, bought records, watched shows in vegas and new york, and basically modeled her outfits and dancing on what she was in vogue here. shammi’s exuberant elvis-styled moves and current bollywood’s horrendous english rap lyrics ( with not a shade of the wit you find in american rap and hiphop) are much different in valence from ashok kumar rapping railgaadi (which you might say is in the indigenous tradition) or contemporary indian bands who fuse indigenous folk or classical music with their western inspirations (eg advaita and swarathma)
jyotsana, your frothing is, as usual, so unbecoming.
Jyotsana – what drowning said above. Plus, for comic relief, I bet you are similar to Shammi in girth. Which explains why you seem to seethe with anger at just about everything.
WTF? How does it explain that? Were you dropped on your head as a baby?
At Lupus Solitarius – I specifically prefaced my comment with “for comic relief” just so I don’t offend anyone other than Jyotsana (especially adipose lovers like yourself). Didn’t work I guess.