Mile Sur Mera Tumhara- then and now

“Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, to sur bane humhara”, most Indians must be accustomed with this iconic song which used to be aired on television in the late 80s and 90s. Well, that time TV meant Doordarshan, most people had B/W sets, life was simple and stress free, there were more trees and farm lands and the fangs of capitalism and materialism had not shadowed the life blood of the country. And during that age, came this grand music video, ideated by advertising greats Piyush Pandey and Suresh Mullick, which used to flash on the screen of the national television. In fact, there was something so very special about this promo that it glued Indians to the set and made you and me proud about our nation.

The video, glorifying the unity in diversity of India, was a blend of both performers and amateurs. On one hand, it featured music maestros like Balamurali Krishna, Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi, Zakir Hussain, Lata Mangeshkar, film stars such as Waheeda Rehman, Sharmila Tagore, Hema Malini, Shabana Azmi, Mithun Chakraborty, Amitabh Bachchan, Om Puri, sports stars Narendra Hirwani, Prakash Padukone, while simultaneously, it also featured the common Indians- farmers, rural folk, urban Indians, school students, every community singing the same tune in their own language. There was so much originality and warmth in it that all of us related to the song. Who can ever forget that great long shot scene of the Taj Mahal, with the sun’s rays in the background!

Now cut to 2010- a new or rather recreated version of “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara” has come up. Presented by Zoom Television, this new version is named as “Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara- the corporate edition”. Well, the term corporate itself, brings about a sense of aloofness to the concept of unity. Not all Indians, or rather most Indians, relate to the corporate culture. It is for a handful few, whereas in the older, you had that tune and scenes, which portrayed the simple Indian, the common people, who are the real life blood of the nation.

Like its antecedent, the 2010 version too has singers, dancers, film stars and other celebrities but some where it misses that element of belonging. Here you have an ultra modern portrayal, which gives a wrong picture of the country as a whole. India is not about shopping mall or potato chips youth, it is about the ordinary man or woman who toils hard for livelihood, but at the same time is happy and satisfied with the simple things in life. In its course of making the new version more glamorous, what was been produced is nothing more than a rosy picture of the nation- bereft of its own true values and traditions.

The actors and other celebrities, who feature in the recreated edition, do not match an inch with their predecessors. Here you have some actors, sports persons, industrialists and others wearing some designer outfits and making fake gestures, whereas in the original one, everybody had put their heart and soul into the video, a real portrayal of India.  The level of dedication was much more then!

Seeing the new edition, one hardly understands why such a recreated version was made of a video, which still retains its originality and uniqueness, even after passing so many years. I guess, to some extent, the latter has done justice to today’s India. We have started forgetting our own traditions and cultures and blindly try to imitate the west. The new Indian goes for tours to Dubai to see shopping malls and five star hotels but fails to see the beauty of his or her own motherland (to me one birth is not enough to see the whole of India- such is the greatness of our country). We are gradually losing our ‘Indianness’, rather by free will, and one example of it- the ‘Corporate Edition’.

P.S: The other day I received an interesting sms from a friend of mine, Rakesh. Here it goes:

Funny Fact: Boys & gals fall in love bcoz of misunderstanding… and break up when they understand each other.

Fact of life: Poor man runs for his daily food…while a rich man runs to digest his daily food.