I am a die hard fan of Indian Integrity and the whole concept of “Unity in Diversity”. And nothing better could represent the sole soul of the nation than “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara”

I am apalled, aghast, disgusted after seeing the new representation of India in “Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara”.

Here goes my review of the same:

Strengths

  1. Amitabh starting the video – gave it a powerful start. Shankar Mahadevan and gang followed it well with a good rendition

Weaknesses

  1. Are you trying to show India without The Taj? I mean, seriously? In the 17 min long video, you could not devote a few seconds to the most recognizable structure in India?
  2. No Lata!? Without her voice, can a video on India be complete? Her beautiful voice gave us goose bumps in the earlier version and we are super lucky to have had her around during the re-make – and the makers missed out on that!!?? Sad!
  3. No Sachin or Dravid? Basically no representation whatsoever of Cricket, the most loved religion of India!
  4. Too much of Mumbai in the video.. How about the ghati of Kashmir or the Backwaters of Kerala or the tea-gardens of Assam or the beaches of Goa?
  5. Deepika and Ranbir looked rather stupid merely acting and not adding any value to the video. From the looks of it, they seemed like they were doing yet another film and not a video on National Integrity!
  6. Really poor representation of WB – They could have roped in Sourav – the prince of Kolkata!
  7. And no one better than Gohil to represent Gujarat? They could have got Mallika Sarabhai back! Or roped in Prachi Desai or Paresh Raval.
  8. The fusion of Shiamak Davar and Kuchipudi was done in real bad taste
  9. Aamir’s portion badly shot and a novel touch to the tune of the song has made it disastrous. His portion did not add any value at all to the whole theme.
  10. Sonu Nigam looks disgusting… he looks like a firang bozo! His portion was sadly easily editable!
  11. The video was trying hard to give enough footage to all the stars involved – Just one line given to every one of them would have sufficed – ensuring little digression from the theme! In the earlier version, all the stars were shown, not as stars, but as aam aadmi. Most were just there, contributing their bit in an unobtrusive way!
  12. Not an iota of mention of Chandrayan? One of our bigger scientific achievements of the decade!
  13. Many portions of the song seemed completely out of tune!
  14. They could have used the famous child stars in portions involving kids.

The video frankly seemed like it was trying hard to satisfy the vanity of each of the stars involved! They could do with some serious editing! It started with a good intention, which was not successfully met. Wished they had concentrated more on showing the real “India” and less of pomp and show!

To cut a long story short, the 17 min long video no match for its short and crisp 6+ mins old counterpart!

I give it a thumbs down! Wats your take?

[PS Prepared with some creative inputs from Praveen]