TOO MANY SURS SPOIL THE GAANA

THE NEW VERSION PART 1




THE NEW VERSION PART 2

Most of us of a certain vintage will be aware of the old song on national integration; Mile Sur Mera Tumhara. Created in 1988 it was first aired on the Indian Independence Day, 15th August. Since then it has gone on to become an iconic song that serves as an instant recall to simpler times of Doordarshan, Chitrahaar and Krishi Darshan.

Last week the new version of the song was aired and here’s a few things that came to mind.
At almost 17 minutes compared to the original 6 this is a lumbering remix that does no justice to the original.

It starts with A R Rahman playing a strange instrument called the “fingerboard” which looks like he is almost creating music out of scratch. Very apt actually, but strangely he is filmed standing on a terrace surrounded by solar water heaters. Didn’t quite get the significance of that one.

Next comes Amitabh Bachchan in front of the Taj, but unlike the original which had the Taj Mahal this Taj is the Taj Mahal Hotel which bore the brunt of the terror attack last year. Again very apt but then Big B decides to upstage the Taj and begins to ‘read’ the lyrics. AB is a good actor when he wants to be but there is no Sur is this one. Bad idea. Bad bad idea.

Then it moves to the trio of Shanker Ehsaan Loy in the desert playing a remixed version of the song and as much as I like SEL as music directors and as much in vogue as remixes are, at this stage you begin to miss the stalwarts of the original.

Then its Anoushka Shanker, daughter of Pandit Ravi Shankar plays an instrumental version of the song on the sitar and does so admirably and very very restrained too. Maybe there is hope in this afterall.

Then there is a quick montage of some South Indian actors who I didn’t recognize but as they are wont to usually be, they are all mustachioed, swarthy and look very well fed. (I seriously didn’t mean that to sound racist. Just making an observation. That all.)

Shreya Ghosal on a open decked bus singing followed by Ash and Abhishek. Smartly the editors have followed the 80-20 principle and given Ash more screen time than Abhi. But Ash is over acting hopelessly and I silently wonder ‘Will Jaya Bachchan be next?’

But instead its a shot of an old age home with another actor from the south. Don’t get the lyrics or the significance in that one. The actor seems strangely smug.

Shot of the Dal Lake in Kashmir with the Kashmiri father-son duo of Pandit Shiv Prasad and Rahul Sharma on the santoor playing in front of the Qutb Minar with a quick glimpse of (Kashmiri) designer Rohit Bal in a shikara. Again the instrumental version on the santoor is quite well done.

Moving on to the obligatory Golden Temple and an unusually sober Gurdas Maan who is joined by the still beautiful Juhi Chawla. Juhi is singing in her own voice and not lip syncing like the other actors and it shouldn’t be a surprise coz she always had a very good voice. Very nice.

Next is Zakir Hussain who is quite electrifying on the tabla or should I say tablas because he is surrounded by about 10 tablas of various sizes and his instrumental version is also very very good.

Howrah Bridge and the making of the durga idols and with that we have singer Shaan and actors Prosenjit and Rituparna Sengupta. Bengal. Tick. Corny. Tick. Lame. Tick.

Bhupen Hazarika comes on to represent Assam and the poor old man probably is too sick to walk so its a close-up of him against some fake backdrop and the poor man has more make up than Aishwarya and her hubby combined.

It gets worse.

Next comes Shilpa Shetty surrounded by lots of Rajasthani women weaving what looks like giant shiny dish antennas. Was Shilpa Shetty the best they could get? Seriously???

Salman Khan is next and he is surrounded by (what I presume are) deaf & dumb children and the poor fellow is stereotypically made to wear jeans and a ‘banian’ and then the whole lot decide to say Mile Sur Mera Tumhara in sign language.

Percussionist Shivamani tries to do the instrumental version again by playing on water and fails miserably.

Kavita Krishnamurhy is joined by her Grammy award winning husband Mohan playing the instrument he invented and very imaginatively named: The Mohan Veena.

And then comes what is possible the lowest point of the video.

Deepika Padukone lip syncing hopelessly miss-matched to Rekha Bhardwaj’s earthy voice, dressed in an outfit that seems to be missing its lower half and standing seductively in the middle of a small river.

National Integration just went slutty.

But its not over yet. The makers decide they need rain and a close up of Ms. Padukone’s face over-emoting the lines like it were the Kama Sutra.

Wow. What has it come to.

This is followed by Priyanka Chopra (thankfully dressed decently) but again with a background voice that just doesn’t suit her. Like Juhi, Piggy Chops is also a pretty good singer so I wonder why they didn’t just let her sing her part.

Following her is the trio of Father: Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and Sons: Amaan & Ayaan Ali Khan. Once more their instrumental on the Sarod is beautiful.

By now its getting a lil boring and it only gets worse with more versions of the song sung by many more ‘artists’.

Dr. Yesudas singing alongside a very tall guy. Note to self: If standing next to a tall person and the camera is only filming waist up, get a stool.

Mamooty among some coconut trees but no Mohanlal.

An over enthu Gujju dude on a bus followed by actor Atul Kulkarni to represent the Marathis.
Where’s Raj Thackerey when you need him.

Louis Banks come on playing a guitarish-keyboard but its good to know he’s finally getting some recognition.

Actor and Danseuse Shobana is joined by Shaimak Davar and as they dance together, Shobana dressed in and dancing the uber-traditional Bharatnatyan and Shaimak in jeans dancing new age freestyle, its odd how Shaimak’s moves look more feminine than Shobana’s. Just saying.

Aamir Khan is next.

He begins in Shaan’s voice and in a throwback to his directoral debut, Taare Zameen Par, is surrounded by children. But trust Bollywood to not know when to stop. Aamir continues to sing the song but this time its to the tune of Aati Kya Khandala?

National Integration just became a pick up line.

Sonu Nigam obviously hasn’t given up neither his dream to become an actor nor his ambition to seem like a cool NRI ‘dude’ and here he is filmed in a busy street surrounded by ordinary folk singing beautifully (we have to give him that) but acting horribly. Someone wake him up. Hrithik Roshan he certainly is not.

And now Bollywood takes over completely.

Shahid Kapur sings the song like he did “Bakhuda Tumhi Ho”. Like it’s a rock anthem.

Ranbir Kapoor standing uninterestedly atop a hillock in white. Wasn’t it just the heroines his grandad dressed in white?

Karan Johar is very very fittingly shot in a multiplex.

SRK’s next. He brings rare passion to the song and even manages to do his outstretched hand act. Mile Sur indeed.

The 3 Olympic medalists Abhinav Bindra, Vijender Singh and the wrestling dude make up the sports quota with Bhaichung Bhutia & Saina Nehwal (thankfully not Sania Mirza) thrown in for variety.

It ends with a montage of army officers passing out mixed with some strange shots of people skiing down some slopes (??).

So is it better or even as good as the original?

And the simple answer is a resounding NO.

The lasting image from the original was of the Nightingale Lata Mangeshker dresses in a white sari with a tri-coloured aanchal signing while this one has a skimpily dressed Deepika Padukone singing in the rain.

The answer is quite simple isn’t it?

But What say You

Let me know.

Luv as usual.

Vish

THE ORIGINAL VERSION