There cannot be a better to time to write a hearty post about the epitome of the Indian advertisement industry..
Once a beautiful example of advertisement - a not-for-profit commercial has been recreated and unveiled today in India that stands to be the 60th Republic Day of our beautiful but developing country!
If you haven't guessed by now - I am talking about the iconic sequence..Mile Sur Mera Tumhara..... that houses all these wonderful celebrities motivating all of us to see our nation's foundation - Unity in Diversity. The original video was created & launched in the year 1988 by Lok Seva Sanchar Parishad. It comprised of famous and not-so-famous people from different parts and walks of the nation sharing the same song under the same blue sky!
It sounds kind of sentimental..but that was the exact notion of the video.. It was made & played as an effort to instill the Unity in Diversity essence in the minds of people . I am really not sure how much it really impacted the people then..But I & my family have always liked watching it. Even as an adolescent, I was touched by the whole video.. Wanted to know who all those people were and what exactly they meant to say - the languages that I had barely heard or understood! Of course, then we didn't have this kind of information (over)flow so didn't have a lot of sources to get the facts.. Today I can.. Can just google and watch the video multiple times or find out exactly who starred in that video then! And it doesn't end over there.. I get to see the newly recreated videos of the same song sitting right here in my living room - with no Indian channels telecast on my TV!! Amazing! But that's a different topic altogther..
Coming back to the original - it was just original! I am not a big fan of recreating things anyways.. Be it movies or books or remixes!!.. Little old-fashioned one might say - But I like it in its original form most of the times!! So it wasn't too much of a surprise when I didn't like the recreation i.e. Phir Mile Sur.... instantly. Of course most part of the song gave me the same goose-bumps the original one used to give me ..But still I feel both the parts of the video lacked the impact..the essence...the overall magic the older one still has! This one feels a lot more commercial to me.. Having Bollywood celebrities in most of the video - it doesn't come right out - which apparently it should ideally!
That's what I think might be the secondary intention of the creators this time.. Having the currently famous Bollywood celebrities on board to give out the message to a larger number of young audience..On another note, I actually appreciate the sentiment (or the commercial aspect) that they brought together a more diverse group of artists in this video.. However what really pained me was the fact that the clips of the Army, Navy, and even Sportsmen were put in the very end of the sequence.. To their justification - I am just glad they had them there atleast!!
It was actually nice to see 2 very popular but very different dancers very effectively promoting the basic notion! I am unsure of the fact why Deepika Padokone was casted - was it because of her father or just because she is hot-favorite amongst the youth these days..
I felt Ranbir Kapoor was there as the mascot of the Kapoor family leading the torch as a 4th generation actor.. Also, I loved Salman Khan's silence clip with the kids..It was so touching..
Having A. R. Rehman, Amitabh Bachchan, Zakir Hussain, Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Amir Khan etc was so much predictable that it almost sucked! Don't take me wrong - I love Rehman's and Hussain's music and appreciate the biographies of most of the very talented artists..But there were some personalities I felt just lacked the edge for the actual intention! And some were just missing out! I would have loved to see people like Javed Akhtar or Rajnikanth or our writer President A P J Kalam or even the famous Sachin Tendulkar!! I just felt all these very very famous AND influential people were completely absent..which made the video all the way less effective!
(The fact that I've mentioned the same people as most newspapers online is purely coincidental.. I didn't even know so many people were talking (criticizing) it till I published & googled)
I don't want to do a direct comparison with the older version as they can't do much justice along these lines too.. But the fact that even today Bollywood has the most influence on the youth of our country - actually is not a very pleasant thought. Its sad to see that with all the information...changes...and development too - our youth doesn't have very influential role models outside Bollywood!! So given the fact - what can really reach upto the target audience TODAY - I think the creators of this recreation have done quite an OK job!
There is not a doubt in my mind that it does not even closely stand near the original video that is generally referred to as the unofficial anthem of our country! Not the music..Not the people in it..And certainly Not the emotion conveyed!!
However, just as in other parts of life - we should look ahead ..not dwell in the past too much...and Move On!
So here's a Cheer to the Republic of India along with the old & new Mile Sur Mera Tumhara....To Sur Bane Humara!
Happy Republic Day!
