Phir Miley Sur

I have always felt about authors that their first successful book is usually their best. The sequels are mostly an attempt to cash in on the fame from the original, trying to milk every possible penny that the original thought or concept was ever worth. The same applies to movies too - how many times you may load and reload 'The Matrix', can the sequels ever get more original than the original?

'Phir Miley Sur' is another case in point. For someone who can still recite (right or wrong) the original lyrics in most of the languages it was sung, in almost the same sequence that it was played, and recall most of the 'Icons of India' who contributed to the original, Phir Miley Sur was a huge disappointment, to say the least. The original composition had a message, a meaning, a sequence, the right representation, and a passion in rendering the message through. The duplicate is just a lame commercial excuse of a copied message, with no representation and absolutely no passion.

To start with, did you ever know who produced the original; honestly, did you even care? It was the messsage that mattered then, and the fact that it was on the lips of everyone who had seen or heard it once. The makers of 'Phir Miley Sur' of course are all over the TV, appropriating credit and free fame to cash from the original. What else explains a full day coverage of 'Making of Phir...." on Zoom, when they did not even put enough thought into getting the representation right?

So what was wrong with the representation? Firstly, there is more to India than just Bollywood. If it was only the tunes of Bollywood that met, it made sense, but the spattering of 'icons' from other walks of life makes one feel that the rest of India is miniscule in comparison. And whoever said India was the World's largest democracy, with a growing industry; a sporting nation, rich in art, culture and scientific research?

Amitabh Bachchan, who probably is the only link between the old and new forms of 'Miley Sur', obviously does not need to justify his Icon status, but watching Abhishek And Aishwarya romancing to the song, sounded like a retake of the silly Lux ad they air these days. May I ask what special Aishwarya or Abhishek have done to represent the country? Or for that matter Priyanka Chopra, Shahid Kapur, Karan Johar or Deepika Padukone? Both Khans - Salman and Amir - had positive messages to give, but none that no one else could have given. And the third Khan, Shahrukh, should be thanked for agreeing to shoot in a Mumbai backdrop and for not insisting on a Swiss locale for integrating India. Ideally, the three Khans (with the fourth Saif, who was conspicuously missing) could have shared screen space to proclaim aloud 'bury your hatchets, think integration'.

Can we forget the role of industry in the nation's growth? Where are the NRNs, Nandans and the Premjis that a host of Indians look up to? Or can you forget cricket which binds the nation like even Fevicol can't? It was disappointing not to see a Tendulkar, a Sourav or a Dravid, that a plethora of young and old try to emulate in cricket and outside of it. And did we not forget Vishy Anand, Leander Paes, Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal, Major Rajyavardhan Ratore, Abhinav Bindra et al. What about the likes of Abdul Kalam who still ignite the sparks in the minds of the nation's future. Politicians are a different brood, but could not the Icons of the major parties stand together for once, to give a message of unity?

Fine, the makers got the representation they could best muster. But could they have not got these 'representatives' to show more passion than drama? For the likes of Aish-Abhi, Deepika, Shahrukh and Priyanka this seemed to be a platform to continue showing their dramatics; their expressions sorely out of tune with the message. Compare this with a non-glamorous Bala Murali Krishna or a Lata Mangeshkar or a Kapil Dev, who in spite of being non-actors, did complete justice when it came to showing their passion.

'Phir Miley Sur' - the name itself sounds so sore. So the tunes meet again? What tunes? The musical improvization at every nook and corner, and the drama in expressing it, make it so much out of tune with the simplicity of the original, that one begs to scream 'where is the Sur?'! And have we been out of sync all these years till someone decided to bring us all together again? Did anyone ever hear the original being called 'Miley Sur'? There was no need to brand the song those days, it was the message that mattered; what has changed now?

I may seem to be romanticizing the past, but the makers of the sequel seemed to have grossly missed the point in understanding what originally touched the hearts of millions of ordinary Indians like me.