"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.
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I hated the video too. For the simple fact that it looks more like a bollywood pop video more than anythng else.The last vid came in 1988, so to me the biggest icon the country has seen ,and one who is consistent too in being the most admired-adored-respected indian,sachin tendulkar-should not have been missed,istead of the bolly stars dancing or having an exxagerated strech(srk),u can just make these sports icons stand,surprising that people who made the old vid 20 yrs back with what ever media coverage and exposure they had, had that creativity and sensibility to include them but the modern 'creative' film makers seem to lack that.
ReplyDeletePS: I dont mind deepika legs though :) hey come on man thats how a part of modern india dresses up, so nothing wrong in showing it how it is
u r rite about not showcasing India from all facets.... bt i think "mile sur" from the start is about culture... not about how developed India is... so they tried to project that thot in an awful way....
ReplyDeletei agree with u that its more like Bachan family re-union in a few cases :D