Monday, January 25, 2010

Fir Mile Sur - More of a disappointment

Last time, it was, 15th August, 1988 and DoorDarshan launched a second anthem of India "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" which was almost on the lip of every Indian. I have grown up by listening this beautiful song frequently and I used to sing the full song in all the languages. And I know this was the case with all of us.

On the eve of 26th January, 2010, almost after 22 years, Times of India and Vodaphone-Essar came together and launched a new version (Fir Mile Sur) on Zoom. I heard the news just a week ago and I was excited about it.

Today I watched (not enjoyed) the full song !!! It was more of a disappointment.

First let me spread the highlight on original version.
  • The original song was created in Lok Seva Sanchar Parishad and promoted by Doordarshan.
  • It was composed by Ashok Patki and written by Piyush Pandey.
  • It was sung in 14 different Indian languages, cast by 14 Movie/TV actors, 4 Singers/Musicians, 9 Sportsmen, 7 others from different fields.
  • Total duration was around 6 minutes.

A glimpse on New version
  • A new version includes 22 Superstars, 18 renowned musicians, 13 artists/singers and 15 other icons.
  • They shot in 13 different cities of India and total it took 2 months.
  • Video is created by Kailash Surendranath who also directed the original one 2 decades ago.
  • Amitabh Bachhan is the only one who has been part of both the versions.
  • 1st version was including Prakash Padukone and 2nd version is including his daughter Dipika Padukone.
  • Total duration is around 16 minutes.
I started watching almost half a way while having a morning tea and a newspaper in my hand. And after few minutes, I caught 1st half by changing the channels. Few things I like, few not; It is not upto the expectation. Firstly, as a general sense, people always remember and praise 1st version. When they get the second version, they immediately start comparing it with the first one and adjourn the court by giving the final verdict saying its not like the 1st one. This generally happens. I may be one of them but still let me make my Disappointment-bag empty here; on the blog.


-Ve
  1. It was more of a bollywood song.
    • Shahid was singing as he was in Kismat Konnection (Bakhuda Tumhi ho...)
    • SRK; as usual; was waving his hand in the air as he was in Kal Ho na Ho
    • Aamir was sort of Ram Shankar Nikunbh of Taare Zameen Par.
    • Sallu was there in Baniyan and flaunting his body.
    • Dipika is flaunting her legs.

What the heck??? Are these guys promoting secularism of India or promoting themselves? I couldn't understand.

  1. Why didn't they include any Cricketer? Indians are most influenced by Cricket, followed by Movies. So at least they should have included Sachin & Dhoni.
  1. How come they missed “Taj Mahal”? Come’on…modernization of the song should not be allowed by removing Taj Mahal from original copy.
  1. Of course, a modified version is coming in 2010; so it should be for Gen Next. But taking all the big Bollywood stars and ask them to perform in their own way is not the modernization of such a beautiful second anthem.
  1. How about including Ambani, Tata, Birla, Dr. Abdul Kalam, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Vajpayee, some famous child stars (Darsheel Safary, Tanay Chheda, Shriya) and of course most importantly “Aam Aadmi”?
  1. If the whole song would have been composed by A.R.Rehman, it could have been far far better. (Remember Vande Mataram?).


+Ve
  1. The song starts with beautiful tune given by A.R.Rehman and then Big B expresses himself in his own voice.
  1. Priyanka is promoting Girl Education
  1. The best part of this new version is – They included “deaf and dumb” children acting “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara”. This is something eye-catching in this new version


I may be wrong at some points, but again it is just an individual perception. Feel free to post the comments and give your views.

8 comments:

Life_In_A_MetrO said...

Hi nisarg, good analysis there :)
Here are my takes on it..

In the tamil part, vikram does a "Yo" gesture at the end , and that looks too contrived and amateur, to say the least.

Deepika padukone is completely wasted in that water sequence, man, look at those seductive poses and looks, what exactly is she trying to convey? And the vocals given to deepika and priyanka do not match with them at all. And personally , I felt Yesudas deserved to have a li'l more footage:)

Thank you!

Ravi said...

agreed with all ur views, have only one thing to say, Everything has turned into business and fame now a days, so may be this has been flavored with film stars rather than cricketrs or industrialist. After all, they can better sell a product.

Santosh said...

I saw the making of fir mile sur few days back and it had Mukesh and Neeta Ambani, Vijay Mallya don't know what happened to their part.

You forgot last time most of the Parts having regional words actually showed a glimpse the regular life of that part (e.g. The Kasmiri guy on a Shikara or the Punjabi Household singing Together.)

Last time it it actually meant unity where people come together where this time it was each individual trying to do something different and mostly failing.

Last time they showed India's progress by showing the Kolkata metro this time there was nothing except a huge star cast. They missed india's moon mission, the IT growth industrialization.

The repeats in this one is also the guy on the piano (in the last one they only showed his hand).

This time they have added the army, nave and air-force which was somewhere missed last time.

Tanmoy Das said...

completely agree ..
> the new tune is not good. looks like to accomodate all the stars it is being stretched from 6 to 16
> bhupen hazarika's voice...like himesh.. no offence... he is great but now his voice is not at all good
> juhi chawla singing that punjabi part.. again woooof..
> cinematography not good

plus all -ve points told by you....

in nutshell - not a good effort at all.

Vineeta said...

Really good analysis Nisarg! Yeah it is diappointing to hear jazzy version of the classic Mile Sur Mera tumhara! I truly believe that such classics are to be cherished for years to come and should remain untouched!

It is almost same as RGV ki Aag story :D He tried to remake the classic movie Sholay and failed miserably and so did the new version of Mile Sur Mera Tumhara.

Classics grow rich with years and should remain classics forever :)

Divya said...

Totally agree with u on this one dude....

Honestly, the second one was nowhere close to the original.... What a disappointment....

abin said...

Really, the second version was too sluggish , out of tune and a pathetic approach to redefine the first version.Shahrukh waving his hands like one of his usual gimmics, deepika showing legs ( she was much better in BSNL adv.), salman flauting his muscles ( he could have well dressed) being few of the fallen parts.

I agree that sachin and various other eminent personalities should have been included by removinf some bollywood jokers.

Unknown said...

Hi Nisarg,
That really is a good analysis.
Well, I agree to some of the points u mentioned, but not all.
Sticking to the fact that it looks more like an advertisement of Bollywood Stars, actually all of them have expressed the "patriotism" (kind of) in their own style. If you see the previous version also, you would notice the similar kind of gestures by stars (own style).
According to me, it is a good attempt with some flaws definitely.Thanks to AR Rehman who actaully gave it a rocking yet traditional and enthusiastic yet sober taste. Even the voices of Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal seem to be very soothing in this one.