India’s 60th Republic day will be remembered for two prominent goof ups. Number one – goof up on the Padma Awards, and two, a foul mess up of the iconic song ‘Mile Sur’. There was one commonality between the two though – bollywood, and a row over who was deserving. Though what makes Saif Ali Khan eligible for Padma Shri is something only the Government of India can answer, when it comes to the iconic song Mile Sur, i.e the Aam Junta song, the public took the baton in their hands (read mouse and keyboards) and expressed their angst, or say just used their freedom of speech on this special day. What really boiled their blood? Ironically, some of the key personalities from the world of sports, literature, politics and people went missing while undeserving bollywood newbie’s smiled their way through the new Phir Mile Sur video. Jale pe namak or whatever they call it… The web buzzed with a thousand comments, and thousand others seconded those thoughts. I think some bad note boomeranged to the makers.
If we look at the message that the 1988 version gave out, this one hardly comes close – the original remains firm and unbiased. It featured actors, musicians, authors, sportsman, dancers and most importantly the common man of India in equal light. The old song also gave a taste of different languages – Marathi, Hindi, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Bangla, Assamese, Oriya and Gujarati. The languages seemed as if they melted into each other, and that, in a way, easily passed on a message of unity and integration. Maybe not integration, but in the new video, people have something else to discuss – Deepika’s legs and her yellow dress. Wait… what happened to the music? Does appealing to the new generation means you can add any jazz?
Greats like Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Balamuralikrishna and Lata Mangeshkar lighted up the screen in old version – in short, most of the people that featured were highly respected for their ideals and contributions to their respective crafts. Ironically, it seems that the new Phir Mile Sur stoops down to a level where it has to recruit bollywood celeb kids who are yet to achieve something real. There are more questions that the producers will have to answer. Is bollywood more in focus because its produced by a channel that airs bollywood content? And what makes the makers think that only bollywood can represent India’s unity and integration? Popularity cannot be the answer to this because for most Indians, this video was about watching credible personalities from all quarters who come out as commoners celebrating the nation’s diversity – not pose striking glammed-up plastic figures. If the video was made for the youths, the producers didn’t know how popular former president APJ Abdul Kalam is among youths, forget personalities from cricket. This and more… there are many glitches in the new version.
Phir mile sur opens up with A R Rahman playing a Continuum fingerboard. But one wonders why he was not made to play his principle instrument Keyboards or piano on which he could have perhaps contributed a lot more? A wild search on Wiki reveals that the fingerboard generates audio, but it is still primarily designed to be a controller. So, one of most well known musicians was asked to play on some hi-tech machine and not an instrument? Great! Next comes Big B who is the common prominent figure between the two videos – impeccably dressed, Amitabh Bachchan has lend his baritone to the song. Son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwariya Rai too get featured. The ‘bollywood fraternity for integration’ sentiment starts building here. Among bollywood icons, the shots featuring Salman Khan with the deaf and dumb children’s are the only one’s that are well crafted, but his body bearing image is taken too far. Aamir Khan’s Aati Kya Khandala preposition sounds the most repulsive and so does Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘with arms wide open’ stunt’. Was it patriotism or romanticism – we are clueless
Unlike the old video, the new version has very few highlights – Ustad Zakir Hussain, Sivamani, Dr. Yesudas and Gurdas Mann – you guys are genuine – thank you! Amjad Ali Khan and sons, Anoushka Shankar, Dr. L S Subramanium, Shivkumar Sharma and Rahul Sharma could have been captured in a better way. And why is the great Bhupen Hazarika sounding out of tune? or sportsmen added as an afterthought? Apparently, the video is too long, and in spite of the long time, it fails to make the point or have personalities that could have expressed the sentiment of national integration – it’s still unclear why does a fabulous singer like Sonu Niigaam acts like wannabe MJ. The list of rants can be endless with this song
One wonders… were people too quick to react? Has the analyzing got too far? Interestingly, there was reasoning behind all those reactions. Last heard, the Advertising fraternity is unhappy because one of India’s foremost ad guru’s, the late Suresh Malik from O&M, who was instrumental in conceiving the song, was not credited in the new version. Isn’t it hard to believe that it comes from a team that worked on the original twenty years ago?
