Our Republic Day Gift- Phir Mile Sur...

In my previous post , I had mentioned that I would write a few more posts on ST’s book but I am going to break the continuity and instead write on the recent gift i.e “Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara” that we have received on our Republic Day ! What a shame that this song is a pathetic sequel to the fantastic “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara”.

One set of people are fuming that megastars such as Rajinikant are missing from the video. I understand that the makers did not want to have the same cast as the original because this video also symbolizes the previous generation passing the baton to the current generation. But then the casting for the video is deplorable. Industrialists such as Narayan Murthy and Ratan Tata have been left out. So are the Ambani Brothers. If they don’t represent India then who does ? In sports how could they ignore Vishwanathan Anand, Rahul Dravid , Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly ! Instead of them we have folks from the film industry who haven’t even fully made their mark !

The second flaw with the video is that, there is no focus on the “national integration concept”. Why is each film star given separate screen time. It would have been much better if Shahrukh , Aamir and Salman all came and sang together. This is what the song would have represented, people coming together inspite of their differences. Imagine having Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi coming together in the video. The whole of India has lamented that their differences have cost India several Olympic medals. They could have atleast been cast together in this video. Or we could have had warring politicians come together to share screen space. All this to the common man symbolizes people coming together for the cause of our great nation. Instead we have an “Aamir Khan” singing in that horrible “Aati Ka Khandala tune” and Shahrukh doing his trade mark “Streched Hands”. All these stars have had their own solo screen time shifting the focus from the actual purpose of the song. Sportspersons have been pushed to the very end and have very little presence in the video. This reminds me of the time when all the bollywood stars were invited to Delhi to carry the Beijing Olympics torch and P.T Usha and several other eminent sportspersons were ignored !

The third flaw in the video is the lack of emotion in several of the actors. Ash with her trademark plastic smile is just one example. I appreciate these actors spending time for this video but the effort simply wasn’t good enough. I don’t think actresses need a 2 inch makeup all the time. Ash and Shilpa are you guys listening ?

After the Aman Ki Asha blunder on New Years day , TOI has successfully spoilt a legendary song on the eve of Republic Day. I shudder to even think of what they are planning for the next big event. The makes of the video should understand that “India is not just about Bollywood”.

Several years down the line I would be ashamed to show my children this Phir Mile Sur video and hence would instead show them the original.

To end the post on a positive note I would say that A.R Rahman starting the song is really nice. Our Oscar winner deserves all the accolades that he gets.