Nithya Ramani
Michael Jackson was a big part of Jaaved Jaffrey's initial years, when the latter impersonated the legend in stage shows. But unlike many others influenced by Michael, Jaaved was lucky enough to meet Michael at the Bollywood Awards in New York.
He pays a tribute to the King of Pop:
I started dancing during school. In 1982, I saw people break-dancing in the streets of US. I saw a 12 year old kid doing the moonwalk and I didn't know how he did it. I used to dance and choreograph the moonwalk for my college annual day functions. In fact, that was the first time we used the mirror effect step, the gloves and umbrella. That was the first time it was done in India and it became a craze.
I always refrained myself from copying him completely. I used to copy a few signature steps.
We became big fans because he never exploited women in dance, with skimpily clad clothes. It was hard core dance and even the dance wasn't suggestive at all. They were all clean songs and at times, spoke about important topics. Nobody can touch him as a performer.
During Off the Wall, he was a very normal child with the big nose and pimples. Then suddenly in Thriller, his nose had gone in, cheeks and lips became thinner, eyebrows were shaped and the hair had changed. During Bad, his lips looked brighter and the hair had changed even more. His music and beats had improved steadily.
Smooth Criminal is my favourite. The suit he wore in the Smooth Criminal was [Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor] Fred Astaire's. So were the short pants and coloured socks. He was a huge fan of Fred.
The spinning over dance step was copied from [American entertainer] James Brown and then, Michael evolved it in his own style.
Like any other fan, I was looking forward his comeback concert next month. We might do a tribute on Boogie Woogie. I would like to do something for him.
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