Daler Mehndi
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Brief career highlights
Avijit Ghosh, March 17, 2018: The Times of India
It was the mid-1990s when Daler Mehndi arrived with shimmery robes and frenetic rhythms. He sang Bolo Ta Ra Ra Ra and birthed Punjabi pop.
Over the next few years, the genre would take over the airwaves and music tv channels spawning a bunch of imitators and adding a new dimension to the burgeoning Indi pop.
But Mehndi remained the high priest of bhangra pop.
The son of a gurbani singer from Patna, who once drove cabs in the USA, had justifiably earned that epithet delivering a string of foot-stompers. Mehndi’s rendition was highpitched, robust. His girth seldom interfered with his frenetic moves.
The songs were often a marriage of the West and the East: heavy bass and dholak, electronic drums and dafli.
The singer’s passion for music was evident at an early age. When 10, he met some artistes in Benaras on their way to Jaunpur. Mehndi left with them without informing anyone. When his family found him, the kid was singing before a huge audience wearing a garland of crisp currency notes.
Mehndi was a natural crowd-pleaser.
Even in Kochi and Chennai, he crooned to packed arenas. In 1997, he boogied alongside Big B in Mrityudaata. Those were hard times for Amitabh Bachchan and the singer was roped in to shore up the film’s fortunes. The movie nosedived but the sardar of Punjabi pop not only made his mark but also outshone Bachchan on celluloid He sang Sadde naal rahoge to aish karoge, zindagi ke saare mazey cash karoge (If you stick with us you'll have a great time/ You'll cash in on all of life's fun). “Aish” and “cash”, that’s what the chartbusting track promised. Too bad, the words sound so ironical in the context of the human trafficking case for which he was sentenced to a 2-year prison term
2018
Sentenced to 2 years in jail
The Patiala court has convicted Punjabi pop singer Daler Mehndi and sentenced him to two years in prison for his involvement in a human trafficking case dating back to 2003. He was however granted bail.
According to reports, Daler Mehndi, his brother Shamsher and others had been accused of illegally sending people abroad by disguising them as members of his troupe. In return, the complainants alleged that the accused had taken Rs 1 crore from them, and even failed to return the money when the deal never matured.
Reports further claim that the Mehndi brothers had taken two troupes in 1998 and 1999 to the US and illegally "dropped off" about 10 people there.
Bakhshish Singh of Balbhera village of Patiala district was the main complainant in the case registered in 2003 at Patiala sadar police station. Daler Mehndi was arrested after registration of the case and released on bail after a few days.
In 2006, the Patiala Police filed two discharge petitions stating that Daler Mehndi is innocent. The court, however, set aside those petitions.
The Patiala Police had even raided the singer's offices at Connaught Place in New Delhi and seized case files of those who had paid the Mehndi brothers passage money, PTI reported.
