Phir Mile Sur?... Not at all!

The Times of India Group and Zoom have launched "Phir Mile Sur" on the 60th Republic Day of India. This new version of that famous song "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" which made you shudder every single time it was played on Doordarshan is supposed be an endeavor to rekindle patriotism and remind us of the "Unity in Diversity" mantra that India stands for. I remember how years back, while waiting for a movie to begin or during the 5 mins break in between a serial and the news, the magical tune would suddenly be heard on my 18 inches Weston TV and I would run from any corner of the house to lip sing along. My gramma, hailing from a musical background, would help me identify the stalwarts of the music world featuring there right from Pandit Bheemsen Joshi to Shivkumar Sharma. The names used to be so difficult to remember then but somehow they still managed to create a sense of pride whenever I thought about belonging to the same country as them.
Having grown up singing the song in all Indian languages although not having a word-to-word translation, seeing the places that seemed to exist in different world and looking at faces of people belonging to varied race and culture, I could easily accept them all as part of my extended and extensive kin and understand that I share my brotherhood and my National Anthem with people who look different, talk different yet share the mutual feeling of "Oneness".                                                            
The simplicity of technology, people and culture which was reflected in the original version was so true to the  then country. It was a bias-free video showcasing the myriad colours of the nation with shades of township along with the tinge of village-life. When children clad in different colours were shown marching from three different directions to form human-tricolor in sync with the enticing music in back-ground,  it surely sent a chill across the spines of millions of viewers every single time.
Has the new version been even close to getting us there? Has it been able to evoke in us the same sense of belonging for the nation? Has it been able to make us even a little proud of who we are? I certainly doubt. The video for me is nothing more than a visual delight that brings together the celebrities of tinsel town repeating their signature steps on screen, though for a much-heard-song this time. Ironically, even most of the musicians shown in the video are those who have strong media presence. And why  should it not be so when the video itself is an initiative by Zoom and the TOI group who are  the best known people for owning registered recepies of NEWS creation.

For God's sake, India is NOT prominently about Bollywood only. Where are those individuals who have contributed to the nation in other varied fields such as Business, Science, Politics, Armed Forces, etc.  Haven't they done enough to qualify featuring into the video sending message of National Unity and Accord? They have conveniently been left out only because their profiles weren't 'glamorous' enough to accelerate the TRP rating of channels the video would be played on. Isn't one of the responsibilities of such an initiative is  also to educated the masses and inform them about the facts they need to be proud of and NOT show them the same faces which are already there in every second TV commercial, in every game and chat show and even in the social campaigns these days across all channels? Ironically, this great song depicting country's Oneness has been reduced to a just-another-filler, thanks to Zoom and Times of India. Sadly but surely, it horribly failed to leave the impact even close to what the older one had.

The Original 'Mile Sur Mera Humhara'

Phir Mile Sur