Opinion Bappi Lahiri in Shanghai and the power of music

In the 1982 Hindi film, Disco Dancer, when Rita (Kim Yashpal) gyrated to Bappi Lahiri’s disco beats, singing “Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy… aaja, aaja, aaja”, she was expressing a yearning for the love of Anil/Jimmy (Mithun Chakraborty), the dashing eponymous hero. In 2022, as yet another one of China’s strict Covid-19 shutdowns is imposed on Shanghai, residents are singing the hit song to express yearning of a different kind: Switching the word “Jimmy” for “jie mi” (Mandarin for “give me rice”), they’re asking the government to listen to them, as they struggle to meet their daily needs amidst the supply disruptions created by the latest lockdown in their city.

China’s zero-Covid policy has meant that the country has seen some of the strictest lockdowns in the world and led to people protesting against the harsh measures in any way they can. Earlier this year, when Shanghai was under lockdown for 60 days, residents took to windows and balconies to scream their frustrations out onto the empty streets below. And this week, videos emerged of workers in an iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, which was under lockdown after a Covid outbreak, climbing over a metal fence to walk back to their hometowns, often 100 km away.

Advertisement

While it may be a little surprising that a frothy dance track has been adapted as a protest song in Shanghai under the latest lockdown, the adaptation makes perfect sense. Indian film music has long found resonance in countries as diverse as Egypt, Afghanistan, Russia, Ghana, Japan and China, helping people express love, hope and heartbreak. The hummable melodies strike a chord with people to whom the lyrics of the songs — “Awaara hoon”, “I am a disco dancer” — mean little. That the angry residents of a Chinese city found an outlet for their frustration in a Bappi Lahiri track is just another example of the immense capacity of music to contain multitudes — of stories, meanings, experiences.