"Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" was one of the gems that Doordarshan had given us. I remember that each time it went on air I would have my eyes glued on the TV. It best described the myriad hues and the rainbow of culture that India stood for. It symbolized the essence of India in each pixel.
Zoom Channel, to celebrate the 61st Republic Day, launched a modern version, titled "Phir Mile Sur". There theme was India in the 21st century. They incorporated messages like child education and women empowerment. There intentions may not be bad but the end product turns out to be a disaster. Agreed gone are the days on inter-state disputes. So they didn't want to project regional and linguistic diversity. But you should atleast do justice to your theme.
Modern India is defined by four driving factors - Entertainment(Bollywood), Sports, Politics and the Techno-economic boom. The video pays scant regards to all but the entertainment industry.
Ohh Yaa... they do have a hurried a 1 min slice for sports at the end !
How can you not have Sachin Tendulkar and APJ Kalam if you want to project the face of India in the 21st century ? Where are the Ambanis and the Narayanmurthys? Is there a bigger icon for the Bengalis than Sourav Ganguly ? Is India just about the entertainment industry ? Are the social activists, the Booker prize winners and the Nobel laureates mere puppets in front of the bollywood biggies ? What were Ash-Abhi, Ranbir, Shahid Kapoor and SRK doing in the video ? Marketing their next apparel line ?
Aamir's jig involving a rehashed version of 'kya bolti tu ?' falls flat. A Taare Zameen Par jig would have been more in tune with the theme of the video. And what the hell is Deepika Padukone doing - flaunting her legs attired in something that seems to have come straight out of a Kingfisher calender shoot.
The makers do lack creativity. They could have done so much more.
Amitabh is the sole connecting link between 'Mile Sur' and 'Phir Mile Sur'. They could have shown him to display the transition that has taken place since the late 1980s.
You could have had the three Khans together on screen for the first than as always letting them be on a lone pedestal because of their inflated egos.
At a time when the biggest issues that affect India are Hindu-Muslim unity and terrorism, they could have done so much ! I believe, Narendra Modi walking hand in hand with the Pathan brothers would have touched a raw nerve in everybody.
Worst of all the editing is as bad as it gets. A careful look will convince you that in the portion containing Sonu Nigam, people are being warded off by the security to avoid a stampede. And the playback is worse. The first precaution that one takes is to make sure that the lip movements are in sync with the actual audio. Deepika's and Priyanka's lip movements seem like they are dire need of acting classes. Bhupen Hazarika's shoot seems to have been done by a 12 year old on Photoshop !
The makers dont seem to have a sense of either History or Geography. To cite an example, they have clubbed Oriya architecture with Sivamani.
As one of my friend rightly commented it looked more of family reunion video for the Bachchans, the Amjad Ali's and the Krishnamurthys
Zoom Sucks ! "Phir Mile Sur" Sucks !
Even the amateur version created by Indians at MIT was way better. Atleast it portrayed what India was. This particular video seems like a hotch potch assembly of bollywood personalities. It seems more like a marketing gimmick from Zoom to ensure that it holds onto its fast diminishing viewer base, by fooling around with patriotic feelings. Even though they have tried to incorporate various messages but the messages seem to be lost in Salman's abs and Deepika's legs.
Click here to view the entire 16 min video.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Hangover - Re-enacted
Dec 31, 2009 - A night to remember : That is if I could remember what happened ....
8:00 am Jan 1, '10 - Hrishi tries waking me up. I give him a blank stare and ask him to try again after 10 mins. As I float back into my slumber, I wonder as to what Hrishi is doing in my room. But the lethargy takes over my reasoning capabilities.
8:20 am Jan 1, '10 - Phone rings.
Even in my torpor, I can discern that Hrishi seems to be talking to someone about the number of bags we have !
What bags ? What the hell is Hrishi doing in my room ? Why does the mattress not feel familiar ? Why isn't the AC on ?
8:30 am Jan 1, '10 - Phone rings again.
Enough of the mystery. I wake up to a shock as I realize that me and Hrishi are in some place that looked vaguely like a dingy and smoky hotel room. I just stare blankly at Hrishi, as he gets back to discussing about the number of 'bags' to someone on the phone.
8:35 am Jan 1, '10 - Eureka !
I remember. At least till 11:30 p.m.
****
4:30 pm Dec 31, '09 - A sudden plan is made to celebrate New Year's eve in Pondicherry.
8:30 pm Dec 31, '09 - We (Me, Manish, Hrishi and Rahul) land up in Pondicherry.
9:30 pm Dec 31, '09 - We enter "Le B.. (Something with B)"; a sea facing hotel that offered us 'unlimited booze'
Around 11:00 pm Dec 31, '09 & After 3 bottles of Foster's, a shot of Red Vodka and a portion of wine -
... I dont remember much. Well, I have hazy memories of dancing with some Talwar Singh and clicking pics while I went shouting "Go Punjab !"........ I remember that the four of us made the entire crowd shout "IIT Madras Rocks" .. (Guess not a single one in the crowd knew what they were cheering for ! Half of them wouldn't even know what IIT stood for !)..
That's about it.... I guess. The next thing I remember was waking up in the hotel.
****
8:45 am Jan 1, '10 - As I wash my face, I wonder where the fuck are the other two guys - Rahul and Manish !
Hrishi reveals that those two left for Chennai the previous night itself after the police ordered them to leave the beach. It seems that putting up the night at the beach, which was our plan, wasn't legally allowed in Pondicherry. It seems Manish and Rahul left Pondy at around 3 in the night, after having failed to locate the two of us, bloody drunk and driving at 130 km/hr....
Hrishi also added that I passed out before midnight and they had got me to the beach. I left unconsciousness on the rock beach as the new year dawned. They went about wishing foreigners !(In hope that some firang chick might give them a new year kiss :D)..
Hrishi by this time was too drunk to accompany them, so he came back and sat beside me as Rahul and Manish continued their endeavour.
And this is where we lost them. And they lost us.
8:55 am Jan 1, '10 - Both me and Hrishi set about finding what had happened post midnight.
As we check our bags(the same bags that Hrishi was talking about on the phone. Rahul's bag was with Hrishi), we find a broken red toothbrush (that doesn't belong to any of us)and a piece of paper with "CALL ME , PRABHU 9*********". My wallet was missing. Hrishi had scratches on his knees and his brand new trousers were dirty as hell.
I go and make a quick inquiry at the reception, which is when we realize that it was an autowallah who dropped us at the hotel at around 2:30 in the night. A few more events dawned upon us. We were lathi charged by the police from the beach. As Hrishi tried to stand up and walk he fell over himself on the rock beach hurting his knees. I was so high that I could not even prevent someone from running away with my wallet. And then when we took shelter on the pavement on a road perpendicular to the beach, the police lathi charged us again, asking us to not be in the vicinity of the beach.
Something .. Something ... which we don't remember.
I remember paying the autowallah 40 bucks.
Something .. Something .. which we don't remember.
We also remembered having received innumerable calls from Manish asking where we were, to which Hrishi used to reply - "Dude, how would I know where I am ?"
9:35 am Jan 1, '10 - Enough of Poncdicherry. We buy a new helmet, have four cups of coffee and set back on our way to Chennai.
****
We still haven't been able to fill in all the blanks, especially the broken red toothbrush. By the way, Prabhu turns out to be a pimp, who slips in his number to random guys ! Fortunately and thankfully, all of us are still clean !(atleast we would like to believe so).
8:00 am Jan 1, '10 - Hrishi tries waking me up. I give him a blank stare and ask him to try again after 10 mins. As I float back into my slumber, I wonder as to what Hrishi is doing in my room. But the lethargy takes over my reasoning capabilities.
8:20 am Jan 1, '10 - Phone rings.
Even in my torpor, I can discern that Hrishi seems to be talking to someone about the number of bags we have !
What bags ? What the hell is Hrishi doing in my room ? Why does the mattress not feel familiar ? Why isn't the AC on ?
8:30 am Jan 1, '10 - Phone rings again.
Enough of the mystery. I wake up to a shock as I realize that me and Hrishi are in some place that looked vaguely like a dingy and smoky hotel room. I just stare blankly at Hrishi, as he gets back to discussing about the number of 'bags' to someone on the phone.
8:35 am Jan 1, '10 - Eureka !
I remember. At least till 11:30 p.m.
****
4:30 pm Dec 31, '09 - A sudden plan is made to celebrate New Year's eve in Pondicherry.
8:30 pm Dec 31, '09 - We (Me, Manish, Hrishi and Rahul) land up in Pondicherry.
9:30 pm Dec 31, '09 - We enter "Le B.. (Something with B)"; a sea facing hotel that offered us 'unlimited booze'
Around 11:00 pm Dec 31, '09 & After 3 bottles of Foster's, a shot of Red Vodka and a portion of wine -
... I dont remember much. Well, I have hazy memories of dancing with some Talwar Singh and clicking pics while I went shouting "Go Punjab !"........ I remember that the four of us made the entire crowd shout "IIT Madras Rocks" .. (Guess not a single one in the crowd knew what they were cheering for ! Half of them wouldn't even know what IIT stood for !)..
That's about it.... I guess. The next thing I remember was waking up in the hotel.
****
8:45 am Jan 1, '10 - As I wash my face, I wonder where the fuck are the other two guys - Rahul and Manish !
Hrishi reveals that those two left for Chennai the previous night itself after the police ordered them to leave the beach. It seems that putting up the night at the beach, which was our plan, wasn't legally allowed in Pondicherry. It seems Manish and Rahul left Pondy at around 3 in the night, after having failed to locate the two of us, bloody drunk and driving at 130 km/hr....
Hrishi also added that I passed out before midnight and they had got me to the beach. I left unconsciousness on the rock beach as the new year dawned. They went about wishing foreigners !(In hope that some firang chick might give them a new year kiss :D)..
Hrishi by this time was too drunk to accompany them, so he came back and sat beside me as Rahul and Manish continued their endeavour.
And this is where we lost them. And they lost us.
8:55 am Jan 1, '10 - Both me and Hrishi set about finding what had happened post midnight.
As we check our bags(the same bags that Hrishi was talking about on the phone. Rahul's bag was with Hrishi), we find a broken red toothbrush (that doesn't belong to any of us)and a piece of paper with "CALL ME , PRABHU 9*********". My wallet was missing. Hrishi had scratches on his knees and his brand new trousers were dirty as hell.
I go and make a quick inquiry at the reception, which is when we realize that it was an autowallah who dropped us at the hotel at around 2:30 in the night. A few more events dawned upon us. We were lathi charged by the police from the beach. As Hrishi tried to stand up and walk he fell over himself on the rock beach hurting his knees. I was so high that I could not even prevent someone from running away with my wallet. And then when we took shelter on the pavement on a road perpendicular to the beach, the police lathi charged us again, asking us to not be in the vicinity of the beach.
Something .. Something ... which we don't remember.
I remember paying the autowallah 40 bucks.
Something .. Something .. which we don't remember.
We also remembered having received innumerable calls from Manish asking where we were, to which Hrishi used to reply - "Dude, how would I know where I am ?"
9:35 am Jan 1, '10 - Enough of Poncdicherry. We buy a new helmet, have four cups of coffee and set back on our way to Chennai.
****
We still haven't been able to fill in all the blanks, especially the broken red toothbrush. By the way, Prabhu turns out to be a pimp, who slips in his number to random guys ! Fortunately and thankfully, all of us are still clean !(atleast we would like to believe so).
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