Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

Happy Republic Day India! 60 years of being a Republic this year! To commemorate this day, Kailash Surendranth revamped the 1988 doordarshan production "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara". Originally released on  Independence Day 1988, the song meant to promote national integration and enjoyed cult status.It was a great collaboration of film stars(Amitabh, Mithun, Jitendra, Kamal Hassan, Hema Malini, etc), sportsmen(Prakash padukone, Kapil Dev, Arun Lal), musicians(Balamurali Krishna, Lata Mangeshkar) and most importantly, the common man. I for one, loved this song, It always brought tears to my eyes. My dad recorded this song on VHS for my sister and me and we might have seen the video like a million times and never get bored of it. 22 years later, the producers, Kailash and Arti Surendranath wanted to bring about a new version with the young generation. They released it today on Republic day. Here's my two cents on the video.

The Song:

The original song was so catchy. The lyrics were simple. They were translated to every language and the tune was similar and cohesive. The new version has almost the same lyrics as the old one but there is no rhythm. The song is a scrambled attempt and it does not have the same effect as the older version. It feels like some song in the current movies, jarring at many places.

The Video:

Let's talk about the original video here for a second. That video had lush fields of Punjab, shikaras on dal lake in Kashmir, elephants from Kerala, trams of Calcutta, in simpler words, the video had the whole essence of India captured on celluloid. What did I think of the new video? Let me break my thoughts down to the good, the bad and the ugly parts.

What's Good:

I liked the fact that these celebrities were included; Shobhana, Anoushka Shankar, Bhupen Hazarika, Baichung Bhutia, Yesudas(I just love him!), Amjad Ali Khan, Zakir Hussain, Shivamani & of course Mahesh Babu(My fiancé's favorite actor!), Salman Khan with the kids, was very heartwarming.

What's Bad:

That they chose Shilpa Shetty, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor,Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Karan Johar etc for the video. What have they accomplished?  Only the three Khans and no other major actors and actresses were included. The locales are not depicting the regions represented in the song. Major letdown.

What's Ugly?

This one will be a long category. I did not like the fact that Rehman was in the video and Illayaraja wasn't. None of the older actors were included. Amitabh was the only actor from the older version who was featured in the newer version. Southern states were very poorly represented. Surya and Vikram from Tamil Nadu, only Mahesh Babu for Andhra Pradesh, Yesudas, Vijay Yesudas & Mamooty for Kerala, Kavita Subramaniam & her husband were the only people I recognized from Karnataka. Was that clearly the best they could do? The North Eastern part of India was not present in the video at all except for Bhupen Hazarika's singing. I totally abhored the fact that there was not a single cricket or hockey player in the video. It looked like a high profile music video, instead of a national integration song.

Last Thoughts:

I appreciate the thought behind the video. In these times a national integration song sounds like a good idea. However, I am not completely on board with their idea of having only younger people in the video. They should have picked better celebrities to represent different states. The song did not impress me. I wish they used the same song with new people, it would have helped keep the charm of the older version alive. A very shoddy video is what they have come up with. I have added the links for the older and newer versions. Check them out. You need to see the newer version to appreciate the older one.


Old Version
New Version Part One
Part Two