{"id":1816,"date":"2016-06-27T07:59:41","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T02:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=1816"},"modified":"2026-07-17T19:47:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:17:21","slug":"disco-dancer-movies-bollywood-mithun-chakraborty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1816","title":{"rendered":"Mithun Chakraborty: The Disco Dancer Who Defined the Wicked \u201980s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

T<\/span>he last quarter of 1982 was an exciting one in the history of India for two reasons. The Asian Games came back to New Delhi after a gap of three decades. Confident landmarks like Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Indraprastha Indoor Stadium, and Khel Gaon got added to the Mughal-Lutyens landscape of the capital city, and became a part of the collective national modernisation dream almost overnight.\n\nThe other big event in the life of India was the release of <\/p>Disco Dancer.<\/em>\n\nB Subhash\u2019s Disco Dancer<\/em> is the rags-to-riches story of Jimmy (Mithun Chakraborty playing Mithun Chakraborty), who braves acute poverty to become India\u2019s best disco dancer. Fighting the whims and fancies of his punishing fate and inner demons, Jimmy goes on to ace the coveted International Disco Competition, bringing joy, pride, and honour to the nation and her people, one pelvic thrust at a time.\n\nThere is enough in Jimmy\u2019s stimulating and sterling biography to shake, rattle, and roll the viewers. As a kid, he is falsely accused of stealing by PN Oberoi, the evil rich businessman. His mother takes the blame and goes to jail. The mother-child combine is taunted and tormented with the cries of maa-chor-beta-chor (which, for the record, does not sound like what it is meant to sound like), and they leave Mumbai to settle in Goa. Jimmy grows up to sing and dance at local weddings, while Oberoi\u2019s son Sam becomes the country\u2019s most popular disco dancer, and a pompous ass with ill-fitting moustache and trousers. His manager David Brown leaves him because of his wayward ways, discovers Jimmy, and soon enough, Sam is dethroned. Side note: Om Puri playing a character called David Brown is why a lot people from the 1980s still have trust issues.\n\n

But Disco Dancer turned out special because of its very universal, very identifiable theme.<\/blockquote>\n\nThe now-famous Jimmy exposes Oberoi at a party, and also falls in love with his daughter. Outblinged and outsmarted, Oberoi gets his men to electrocute Jimmy through his guitar, but kills his mother instead. Jimmy gets guitarphobia, developing cold feet at the competition, unable to dance. That\u2019s when Rajesh Khanna in a career-defining special appearance as Raju Bhaiyya hams in what looks like an entire episode of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi<\/em> to motivate Jimmy, asking him to \u201cGaaaaa!\u201d The film is still called Disco Dancer<\/em>. \u201cGAAAAA,\u201d he beseeches and screeches. Jimmy gets his mojo. Oberoi\u2019s goons kill Raju Bhaiyya to make him ham some more. Our hero kills them back. Oberoi gets electrocuted.\n\nAnd they all lived happily ever after.\n\n\"Disco\n
\n

Rajesh Khanna in a career-defining special appearance as Raju Bhaiyya hams in what looks like an entire episode of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\nThis may sound very simplistic and formulaic, thanks to my ha-ha-ha retrospective gaze, but for the 1980s cine-goers, nothing could be farther from the truth. Disco Dancer<\/em> is not a film. It is a state of mind. This journey of the lowbrow to the high street is an electrifying \u2013 in more ways than one \u2013 celebration of the absurd and the awe-inspiring, the real and the surreal, the sounds and the silence. Disco Dancer<\/em> is definitely not a film. It is the overwhelmingly viscous space between the trash and the transcendental.\n\nThe audiences, while rooting for the classic good-versus-bad tale, also played cheerleaders to what they thought was the emerging, new India. Where the macho hero could be a dancer, wear shiny clothes on stage and lungis at home, shake his limbs without any love interest around for most part of the film, be surrounded by fangirls, and still have his mother feed him food with her own hand. This was a protagonist hitherto unseen. Not a brawny rebel, but an artiste, a performer. Who could fail and clam up and cry, but finally emerge victorious. Because maa ka aashirvaad. That a primarily western and alien concept like disco could be mainstreamised, with quintessentially Indian storytelling and a central character that never would exist in real life, is what got the audiences to the theatres. Then you had the emotions, struggles, failure, success, vengeance, love, and drama. Also, Jesus Christ and Krishna. Plus, a mandatory Rahim Chacha, thank you.\n\nDisco dancing became us.\n\n\"Disco\n

\n

Disco Dancer is a state of mind.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\nWhile there was not much to talk about the country\u2019s economy, militancy was rearing its head in Punjab, mills in Mumbai were coming to a standstill, and the honourable Prime Minister was publicly throwing out her widowed daughter-in-law from her home, we were still dancing. Maruti Suzuki was on the threshold of giving the middle-class-middle-brow India wheels that they had never imagined, Amitabh Bachchan<\/a> was gearing himself to get back to the studios after a long stay at the hospitals, Chambal dacoits had started wilfully surrendering, Kaur Singh and Satpal were trouncing their opponents at the Asian Games in boxing and wrestling respectively, Jimmy was crushing the disco kings and queens from Afreeka and Paris. Things were beginning to look up. Toh jhoomo, toh naacho, aao mere saath naacho gaao. We had reasons to believe. Backed by Bappi Lahiri\u2019s music. And moustachioed men wearing ballerina dresses complete with tutus.\n\nThe Buggles may claim that Radio Killed the Video Star, but Auva Auva<\/a> belonged to Bappi Lahiri and Usha Uthup. Jesus by Tielman Brothers could become the ballad of Krishna<\/a>, and Jesus did not really mind it seeing the perfect fit. The ultimate winner of the film, though, was the title song, I\u2019m A Disco Dancer<\/a>. The song starts with Mithun jumping on the stage, and then freezes on a screaming woman\u2019s face for almost five seconds. That, in a nutshell, sums up the impact of the film on its audiences. Hypnotic and frenzied. It wasn\u2019t as if Mithun Chakraborty\u2019s histrionics or Bappi Lahiri\u2019s music had any novelty value. Ravikant Nagaich had previously gifted Surakksha<\/em>, Sahhas<\/em>, and Wardaat<\/em> to the audiences. But Disco Dancer<\/em> turned out special because of its very universal, very identifiable theme. The synthetic saga of tribulations and triumphs scored because of its straightforward simplism. And not just in India. It was the first Indian film to pocket \u20b9100 crore worldwide, with Goron Ki Na Kaalon Ki<\/a> becoming an unlikely anthem across countries!\n\n\"Disco\n

\n

I\u2019m A Disco Dancer. The song starts with Mithun jumping on the stage, and then freezes on a screaming woman\u2019s face for almost five seconds.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\nThe impact of Disco Dancer<\/em> was pretty much like the Asian Games. It made us feel all good and gooey until the next big jamboree. The beats were lost to the Madrasi eyesores featuring Jeetendra, and then to the Nadeem Shravan onslaught. Mithun went on to do Ooty films. The buzz around Kaur Sing and Satpal was forgotten already.\n\nBut what a thrilling high it was when it lasted! It was quite the time to disco.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disco Dancer is not a film. It is a state of mind. It is the overwhelmingly viscous space between the trash and the transcendental.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":1821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nMithun Chakraborty: The Disco Dancer Who Defined the Wicked \u201980s<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Disco Dancer is not a film. It is a state of mind. 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