Phir Mile Sur.....a Review

It's that time of the year that we wake up to salute our country & tell her that we are proud of being part of this wonderful nation. It's REPUBLIC DAY.... all the channels on the (no more) idiot box are weaving their own set of programs to create enough patriotic feelings amongst the viewers. While some of them did their bit with one or two patriotic movies and some songs, may be some discussions, what stood out was ZOOM tv's efforts to recreate one of the most cherished memories of our association with television industry. The Times of India group & Zoom brought to us a very beautifully recreated " Mile Sur mera tumhara" which was almost considered an anthem in those days(nearly 23 years).

The first one definitely had a much younger Amitabh & the recent one includes many more stalwarts, celebrities of today's India. Should we say, we see a much stronger India, a much bigger India, a much more stylish India. Well, we also miss some legendary faces like Bhimsen Joshi, Balamurali Krishna, Pt. Ravishanker & others but, we have the next genre artistes who are taking the legacy forward like Anoushka Shankar, Rahul Sharma, Aman- Ayaan, Shankar - Ehsaan - Loy & Louiz Banks holding up the pride of India in the video.

The video wins where it lives up to capture the strength of India in all spheres. Music, choreography, styling, conceptualisation is amazing. Hats off, to Salman who includes the hearing impaired & Shilpa Shetty who brings in the cause of Women upliftment. Unfortunately , it left me a little disappointed to see that the video doesn't capture the true essence of a kannadiga like it does with all other Indian Languages. While actors Vikram & Surya represent Tamil, Mahesh Babu represents Telugu, Mammootty, KJ Yesudas & his son Vijay represents Malayalam, Atul Kulkarni & Sonali Kulkarni represent Maharashtra. Its a treat to watch them all in their true essence of their regional flavours, Some shine in their ethnic costumes like Prasenjit- Rituparna ( Bengali), Atul- Sonali(Maharashtra), some just celebrate the sweetness of their language mouthing Mile sur in their own Language( like Vikram , Surya & Mahesh Babu). That's exactly what we miss in the kannada bit of Phir Mile Sur. I am sure the previous one where we just had a one liner with Prakash Padukone singing " Nanna danige ninna daniya.." was so much more effective than the current one. With all due respect to Dr. L. Subramniam & family who represent the Kannadigas in the video, My question to the makers is that "Didn't you find a Kannadiga amongst 5 million kannadigas who could do our bit for this National Video?"," What is so kannada about this bit?". Coming from a Cosmopolitan like Bangalore, I could relate & understand every other line in Tamil, Telugu & even Marathi, but I couldn't follow my own language in this video. The lines were "not so Kannada" coming from a set of Non Kannadiga family. Kavitha Krishnamurthy & family- we respect you yes, but , I dont think we can stand or appreciate mispronunciation of words in the little slot we have here & Sound so "not-kannada" on national TV. However, I would have appreciated if the makers would have done a little more research & checked out the talent here in Karnataka who could do justice & much better represent the Identity of Karnataka. I may be sounding very chauvinistic or very strong, but dear makers I don't think Karnataka requires borrowed talent to hold our pride. All that I want to say is , if you could have been so choosy about getting the best Gujarathi singer to feature the Gujarathi bit where he sounds Gujarathi, the audience could see Gujarat there, & likewise Kerala & culture of Kerala was so evident in its bit, but we didnt see Karnataka in the Video.

In our very own way , Karnataka's cultural space is booming with Talent which can uphold true spirits of being a kannadiga. I am sure, we would have loved to see a Rajesh Krishnan or a Hemant, Archana Udupa or MD Pallavi, Upendra, Puneet Rajkumar or even Ganesh standing in for us. Finally its not about other languages being represented well and our's not. We are aware that its about national integrity & each region getting its own chance to salute the nation in its own way, but dear makers both, Aarti Gupta & Kailash Surendranath, nothing about the Kannada piece in the video is Kannada except for the location which is Big Banyan tree.

& here's Karnataka for you - namma Naadu - My country ! I have put this together & just wanted to give you a dekko into the talent pool of our land. Needless to say, everyone who features in this video belongs to Karnataka, & the list is not exhaustive.

Happy Republic Day !!