January 29th, 2007
Prabhu Deva - Kalluri Vanill
Here is an odd music video from India. I can’t help but hear it as a THRILLER copy. The dance moves are really, really, well… creative. I bet Mr Deva (the male singer) put it in his contract that he got to be the tallest person in the video. The female singer has the highest voice I’ve heard since Minnie Riperton. By the way, the opening passage is really shrill so you might want to ride the volume.
January 30th, 2007 at 5:34 am
Roger — this is pretty standard Indian film footage. Prabhu Deva (the male lead here) is the most popular Tamil movie star these days, and even here you can see more than traces of his skills in classical South Indian dance. While he has been called the “Indian Michael Jackson”, it’s the music video as a genre that owes more to the Indian film than the other way ’round. (If you have any doubts about MJ’s own capacity for appropriation, catch Groucho Marx moonwalking in his opening number as Capt. Spaulding in “Animal Crackers” here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCvz8y_DUSY ).