CALL OF THE COUNTRY

Meri Jaan Hindustan is Mani Shankar’s unique tribute to Hindustan in the golden jubilee year of its independence. Conceived as a series of eight four-minute music videos, Mani has recorded with some of the biggest names and some of the most promising young musical talents of the country. From living legends Dr L Subramaniam and Ilayaraja, to South swingers MM Kreem, Chitra and Kamal Haasan (singing his first Hindi composition), from rap, rock and folk-funk crowd-pullers Baba Sehgal, Remo Fernandes and Lucky Ali, to the sensations-of-tomorrow Vishal Bharadwaj and Kartik Raaja, all get together to celebrate the spirit of freedom.

All the eight numbers have been recorded, but only four of them have been picturised. The first music video to be premiered on DD1 in April this year was Lucky Ali’s Anjani rahon mein. After a dusty trek through the sands of Egypt, trailing behind a blue-eyed bewitcher in a burkha, Lucky dropped anchor in Hong Kong, a land of grey mists and lonely meals. And at the first opportunity, Lucky shipped away from its shores and headed home. Through anjani roads, from a passenger ship to a barge, exchanging smiles with a just-married couple, from an early morning ride on a truck to a train, sharing toothpaste with a newly-made friend, a wide-eyed Lucky crooning PK Mishra’s gently rambling lyrics and followed by Mani and his camera, discovers an India which is warm and welcoming. The country boy is at his hummable best, Anjani raahon... is worth a sunoh and a dekko.

A popular music director down South and a crooner too, MM Kreem along with National award-winner Chitra takes us on another flight of fantasy. Kho jaane do e-embodies the freshness and free, adventurous spirit of the Indian women of the ’90s as the Siyaram girl Deepti Bhatnagar, and Miss India ’96 Rani Jeyraj take off on another trek across a country of many faces with their fast-clicking Nikons. In fact, it’s easy to identify some of these faces as those of teen heart-throbs, Abbas, Abey Kurivilla, Ajay Jadeja, Neol David, Venkatapathy Raju and Vinod Kambli.

Our sometimes congratulated, sometimes criticised cricketers also feature in Baba Sehgal’s action-packed Howwzzaatt. The king of rap cleverly connects the game of cricket with the independence movement, with the astute observation that the fight for supremacy between nations continues even after five decades, only now the battle is fought not with smoky bombs but with the bat and ball.

Another music video which you must have come across on the National Network, if you’re still tuned on after the English news, would be Theme From the Global Symphony, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of the US-based maestro Dr L Subramaniam. Picturised on Bombay boy Arvind Swamy, it tells the story of a quiet Physics professor, who defied the national enemy with his little wire loop. From signifying a hangman’s knot, the loop goes on to become a key to freedom and at the end of a battle hard won, is even used to fire a Britsh officer’s engine which gets him a congratulatory salute from his erstwhile master. The entire freedom struggle is encapsulated in this exhilirating 5.44 minutes music piece.

Telugu superstar Nagarjuna will soon be seen in a new role — that of an artist spraying his canvasses with a rainbow of paints and passion in a celebration of Apna Desh. Colonial Cousin Hariharan and the melody man of Maachis Vishal collaborate on this clarion call to the nation.

Still to be shot are Ilayaraja’s Apna Josh Hai, son Karthik Raaja’s Sehra Bandh Ke Nikle and Remo’s Zindadilli. All three are brilliant compositions which no doubt will be picturised as imaginatively by Mani. The young music director of Grahan creates an impression with a number which captures the defiance and determination of youth, and in a dramatic improvisation, veers away from standard convention with a rap sequence in the hip-hop Ario style.

Papa Ilayaraja is just as inventive and energetic in Apna Josh Hai. A guts and glory number in the voice of perhaps the most famous Indian, Kamal Haasan, it is a salute to the indefitable spirit. “No problem”, “No tension”, a lot of mast mast celebration... that’s the raja of South film music for you.

Remo’s Zindadilli is also high in spirits. But perhaps in keeping with the more amiable Goan spirit, the mood of the song is lighter and Ilayaraja’s tandav has been tamed down to a love ballad. Only Remo’s not serenading a lady this time but a country. An India he loves. And an India we will love too after Meri Jaan Hindustan. Mani Shankar has proved that patriotism isn’t always straight from the archives documentaries and oft-repeated bhashans. The call of the country can be feet-tapping and fun too.

Roshmila Bhattacharya