Gone way off track

The Phir Mile Sur video is too heavy on Bollywood, say musicians.

Thirteen top musicians and 18 prolific singers fell a tad short in rewriting history.

HT Image

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

, the anthem that entered millions of households — and hearts — through Doordarshan in 1988, has now been given a contemporary twist. Only that

Phir

Mile Sur

, the new version that was first aired on TV on January 26, is disappointingly inclined towards Bollywood, feel members of the music fraternity.

Singer Javed Ali, of Delhi 6 and Jodha Akbar fame, says the song lacks ‘Indianness’. “It’s difficult to digest in totality. You’re bound to compare it with the original. And sadly, it doesn’t come anywhere close. In the process of modernising it, the makers have killed its soul,” he says. Musician Rabbi Shergill, too, feels that “certain streams of culture haven’t been touched”.

“And there’s too much Bollywood,” he adds.

Composer Sandeep Chowta, who also heads Columbia Records in India, says, “Where are Ashaji and Lataji in the music video? And where are the great musicians, sports and science achievers? There’s too much of Bollywood presence. Also, the new version seems to be broken into segments, while the original was pretty seamless,” he explains.

Not everyone agrees though. Composer Shantanu Moitra, who’s reveling in the success of his 3 Idiots soundtrack, says it’s unfair to compare the new with the original. “It can obviously not match up to the first one. But it’s good that someone tried to reinvent it.”

The video, directed by Kailash Surendranath, features actors Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Salman Khan, the Bachchans, AR Rahman, Deepika Padukone and several others.