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ENTERTAINMENT,
MUSIC
Stereo
Nation
Patriotism
rocks. Fuelled by market forces and the media, a growing band of musicians
belts out nationalism with a different beat. Welcome to the India of Jana
Gana Mana on power chords.
By
S. Kalidas
If
words like "nation" and "nationalism" sound a trifle
moth-eaten in a globalised world, think again. Gone are the days when
August 15 conjured up, year after year, images of a grey drizzle, white
pigeons set free, a soggy tricolour and the prime minister's droning speech
from the ramparts of Red Fort in Delhi. And at the end of the protocol-heavy
ceremony came the mandatory singing of the national anthem.
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NEW
RELEASES
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JANA
GANA MANA:
Bharatbala Productions.
Sony Music.
INDIA
UNLIMITED: Susmit Bose.
BMG Crescendo.
PAIGAM:
Alka Yagnik and Vinod Rathod. Universal.
DIL
KURBAN JAAN KURBAN:
Niveditha.
Swingers.
AMAN
KE PUJARI: Annamika. Milestone.
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No
longer so. If you belong to a younger, more
happening generation, the visualisation of the concepts of independence,
nationality and love for the country come packaged with a radically different
look. And you don't have to look too far for it. Just switch on your computer
or TV and watch (and hear) Sony Music and Bharatbala Productions' rendition
of Jana Gana Mana.
Nor are
they the only ones in this business of pop-nationalism: From cricket to
Kargil and fusion music to masala movies the country is one vast market
of over a billion buyers. This year a host of music directors and producers
-- from usmit Bose's India Unlimited to Tajdar Amrohi's Paigam and Annamika's
Aman Ke Pujari to Niveditha's Dil Kurban Jan Kurban -- have flooded the
music shops with odes to the nation. The selection would have been more
substantial had the All India Radio managed to keep to its already once
deferred deadline -- it was to release a CD of the various historical
versions of Vande Mataram along with a definitive booklet on the national
song produced by Bandana Mukhopadhyay last year. The release was postponed
to August this year but the product is still far from hitting the market.
But then the public service broadcaster is yet to achieve the market savvy
of private competitors.
For a nation
given to mass pilgrimages (yatras) and public observance of rituals, jumping
on any bandwagon is but a small step. Today it would seem the wagon is
running on turbo-charged digital discs. The ace charioteer of this patriotic
omnibus is indisputably the passionate and sensitive filmmaker Bharatbala
with film music's boy wonder A.R. Rahman as his pulling horse -- between
them they have reined in the Indian imagination like no one else in recent
memory.
An advertising
filmmaker in his earlier avatar, Bharatbala was selling Coke and Pepsi
till 1996 when his Gandhian father, V. Ganapathy told him to "sell
India back to Indians". The idea took root in Bharatbala's mind and
has now become his life's mission. "The aim," he says, "is
not to sell a product but an emotion." His first foray was the two
volume Ma Tujhe Salaam, composed by Rahman. It had Vande Mataram rendered
by many leading artists. Now this duo presents the national anthem. Bharatbala's
co-director Kanika says, "Jana Gana Mana needed a new year 2000 version,
we have tried to make just that."
And how!
It is indeed a very moving experience to watch and hear stalwarts of the
stature of D.K. Pattammal, Bhimsen Joshi, Balamurali Krishna, Lata Mangeshkar
and Bhupen Hazarika render the national anthem (singly and jointly) with
Rahman's understated but masterly orchestral touches and audio mixing.
All major regions and instruments of India have been represented including
folk singer Sadiq Khan Langa from the deserts of Rajasthan. Says Vijay
Singh of Sony Music: "It is an articulation of one's pride in being
Indian. And Jana Gana Mana definitely validates that."
But not
all pop-nationalism manifests itself in the lyrical. It can bare its ugly
face too. When one talks of this phenomenon in media campaigns one cannot
but discuss, for example, its role in promoting the brand recall of cricket
sponsors. Since the advent of satellite television, cricket has come to
stand for a new aggressive "Indianness". The first set of promos
produced by the Indian team's sponsor, Wills cigarettes, included visuals
evocative of rioting and war. There was Nayan Mongia leaping over burning
tyres to collect the ball, and even Hollywood-esque disaster movie scenes
have been played out -- Sachin Tendulkar was shown using his bat to smash
away balls of fire. It is quite another matter that matches are fixed
and the quality of Indian test performance has been in inverse proportion
to the hyped media nationalism of the game's promoters and fans.
Is that
the gap between art and life? The trouble with pop culture is that it
thrives on what is known in ad jargon as "recall value", so
the idea or image is never very orginal. But public memory is short and
even if the formula for a campaign remains the same, new packaging will
make it appear radical.
So while
the nation swoons over Rahman's Ma Tujhe Salaam and Jana Gana Mana, few
recall that less than a decade ago dowdy old Doordarshan also ran campaigns
like Mera Bharat Mahan including the two- part Desh Raag produced to instil
a one nation-one people feeling. Mera Bharat Mahan was also an excellent
production that featured sportspersons, musicians and dancers.
This week
the other significant pop-nationalistic music album released is India
Unlimited, with its now-where-have-I-seen this-before red chilli logo.
"Our album is a tribute to India," says urban-folk singer Susmit
Bose, who has put it together with advertising professional Savitha Hiremath.
Featuring
mostly the same mix of faces as those recorded by Bharatbala, it is woven
around Gandhiji's favourite hymn Vaishnava Jana To. Ironically, no one
seems to remember that Gandhiji himself boycotted the celebrations on
August 15, 1947. On that day, the Mahatma was in Noakhali in Bengal where
riots were raging. However, Bose insists it's not an attempt to jump on
the patriotic bandwagon. "It is only coincidental that it came to
be released now. I have nurtured this concept for five years."
While no
one will dispute that a nation has to periodically re-invent its own image
in the minds of its people, one would also expect the people to apply
their minds while viewing such efforts.
-with
inputs from Sharda Ugra, Leher Kala and
S. Sahaya Ranjit
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