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Last evening while I was surfing the channels I stumbled upon this song after a very long time in DD Malayalam. I don't remember when I saw that song last but I had started singing it along as if I had been singing it for years. That song evoked a lot of memories of the past where the life seemed to be simple and beautiful. I got so nostalgic that I almost felt choked towards the end of the song. The song which took me back in the time machine rekindling all the sweet memories, the song which I am waxing eloquent is - "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara..." which used to be aired in DD frequently. It was an unofficial national anthem of that times.

Today I searched for the same in YouTube and I realised that I am in the august company where lots of people had felt the similiar way while catching up that song again. While I saw that song on TV initially, I was in the late 7th standard. I watched that song in a black 'n' while BPL TV set but the magic woven by the song gave thousands of colours to visualise. Whenever I saw familiar faces I felt closer to that song. e.g. Kamal Hassan, Revathy, Dr. Balamurali Krishna, Jeetendra (believe me, I was under the impression that he is a bigger star than Amitabh because DD used to air lot of Jeetu's movies) and when I heard that Tamil was properly represented by Dr. BMK's verses I felt ecstatic with the bonus visuals of Kamal Hassan and Revathy (never mind Dr. BMK and K.R Vijaya & Revathy were Andhrite and Malayalee respectively). Since I had just started learning Hindi then, I was trying to pick words from that song.


[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gstRrEmTcBc]

For whatever so reasons I watched that song, "Mile Sur.." weaved such a magic that transcended across the length and breadth of the country, I too was mesmerised by its sheer magic. There can never be any other creation that beautifully binds the diversities of India with the thread of unity. Within the 6:10 minutes of its running duration "Mile Sur.." captured the essence of 25 (then) states with a reasonable representation from all of them. Also it reinstated the fact that two things had been the religion of India - Movies and Cricket, so it derived its cast majorly from that disciplines. Bollywood was represented by Shabana Azmi, Deepa Sahi, Waheeda Rahman, Sharmila Tagore, Tanuja, Hema Malini, Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra, Mithun Chakraborthy whereas South Indian Film Industry had Kamal Hassan, Prathap Pothen, AV Ramanan, K.R Vijaya, Revathy. The personalities from other fields were - Kirmani, Srikanth Krishnamachari (Cricket), Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Prakash Padhukone (Tennis), Mario Miranda (Painter), Mallika Sarabhai (Dancer), Lata Mangeskhar (Singer). These are the names I could remember.

Oh!!! (sigh)... The life then was so simple, calm and beautiful. There were not much technical advancements still the life was smoother. Not all the houses had TV, so the whole street invited itself to the homes that had TV sets and watched the Sunday evening movies. We had ample time to speak, play and gossip with the people. Around 86-89, there was a Chettiar house and one TV service shop owner's house and they were the only houses which had TV in Koothappakkam, Cuddalore. Their houses were jampacked on Sunday evenings and the privileged ones (read as who were known) get the sofa seat / chairs whereas self invited people get floor seats and peeping through windows. Gradually all the houses started having their own TV sets and nobody bothered to visit other's homes on Sundays. Slowly slowly we lost touch and now many houses have more than one TV set so that the homemakers can catch up with their favourite serials without interruption. The houses are getting segmented by that and I read somewhere an intresting quote "The family that watches TV together stays together".

Fact File

It was created in 1988 by Lok Seva Sanchar Parishad, and promoted by Doordarshan (then India's sole TV broadcaster) and India's Ministry of Information. The song was composed by Louis Banks[1]and late P. Vaidyanathan, (a classically trained musician), written by Piyush Pandey (then a Accounts Manager and presently the Executive Chairman and Creative Head of Oligvy and Mather, India). The conception of the project was by Suresh Mullick and recorded by a group of people from all walks of life, including a supergroup of popular Indians - musicians, sports persons, movie stars, etc.

Mile Sur was telecast for the first time on Independence Day 1988, after the telecast of the Prime Minister’s speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

Lyrics:-
This song has the lyrics from the languages in the Indian constituency - Hindi, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Bangla, Assamese, Oriya, Gujarati and Marathi. (Among the languages present, then in 1988, in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, Sanskrit is missing in the song.). All the languages had only one line meaning - when my tune and yours meet, it becomes our tune. Even if the directions were different, the rain converges into river and then to the sea and our music is also like that.

Mile sur mera tumharaa, Thoo sur bane hamaraa.... sur kee nadhiyaan
har disha se behkee saagar mein milee. Baadalon ka roop leiker
bharse halke halke... Mile sur mera tumharaa.. thoo... sur bane
hamaara.. Mile sur mera tumhara...

Chaain taraj tahin nyay taraj
ek but baniye saayen taraj

Tera sur mile mere sur de naal
milke bane ek nava surtaal

Mile sur mera tumharaa....tho sur bane hamaara..

Mohnja sur tohi desa pyara mile jadein geet ashaanjo madhur tarano bane tadein
Sur ka dariya bahte saagar me mile badlaan da roop leike barasan holle haule

Isaindhal namm iruvarin suramum namadhakum..
Dhisai veru aanalum aazi ser aarugal Mugilai mazaiyai pozivadu pol isai
...Namm isssaiiii.... Thik thakida thathikakidA....thaka thimi thaka junu

Nanna dhwanige ninna dhwani-ya, seridante namma dhwaniya..
Naa swaramu nee swaramu sangammamai, mana swaram ga avatarinchey

Ninde swaramum ningalude swaramum otthucheiyum Namudeya swaramai....

Tomaar shoor moder shoor srishti koroor koi ekshoor[2]...
Sriishti karoon woi katha

Toma mora swarer milan srishti kare chalbochatano

male sur jo taro maro, bane aapno sur niralo

majhya tumchya julta tara madhur suranchya barasti dhara
Sur ki nadiya har disha se behke saagar mein mile...
Baadlo ka roop leke barse halke halke..
Oh...Mile sur mera tumhara tho....sur bane hamara...
Mile Sur mera tumhara
tho sur bane hamara tho sur bane hamara
tho sur bane hamara

Some magical moments for me were -

1. The helicopter shot of Taj Mahal with the BGM followed my mellifulous (on screen) redition by Shabana Azmi in while Salwar
2. The Delhi metro segment
3. The scene where the frame of Goa changes to cartoon
4. The serpentine shot of Konkan express

Recently somebody said that DD is planning to reshoot the song with the latest generation stars across various fields and only Amitabh Bachchan is retained from the original version. Katrina Kaif is to feature in the new version. I don't know how much true it was but I too wish that it should be taken to the next generations as the current generation cannot identify with the starwalts of the "Mile Sur.."