Ek ? Anek ?

On the eve of Republic Day, we sat down to try and put together a list of songs that speak of our unity. Maybe our mood is driven by nostalgia for a sense of unity that seems to be evaporating, if ever it totally existed.

The first few on our list are a blast from the past, apologies for the poor picture quality on these:

The first, of course, the ‘Ek Titli, Anek Titliyaan’ broadcast on Doordarshan during the 80s and 90s.

‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ – another regular feature on Doordarshan’s menu in the 90s, and it’s new avatar released today – ‘Phir mile sur mera tumhara’

On those lines, also ‘Baje Sargam’ (Desh Rag) from DD days

The ‘Hamara Bajaj’ ad – Buland Bharat ki Buland Tasveer

Rabbi’s contemporary version of ‘Jinhe Naaz hai Hind pe’ from Guru Dutt’s epic ‘Pyaasa’.

To add to the list of songs, we tweaked the theme to include facets of patriotism too. Though some recent songs crept into the list too, many of these were re-interpretations of old songs or from new movies about our history.

‘Bande mein tha dum’ from ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ – I know it sounds blasphemous, but I think it’s quite a good attempt to re-interpret the song and the Mahatma for a younger audience; and The original ‘Vande Mataram’ from ‘Anand Math’

‘Yeh jo desh hai tera’ from ‘Swades’

‘Desh mere desh mere meri jaan hai tu’ from ‘Legend of Bhagat Singh’

‘Sarfaroshi Ki Tammana ab humaare dil mein hai’ from the movies ‘Rang de basanti’ and ‘Legend of Bhagat singh’, the latter being one of the rare instances of Bollywood music doing justice to great original poetry.

‘Ae mere watan ke logon’ – this composition and Lata Mangeshkar’s melodious voice can bring tears to your eyes. This song has a lot of history associated with it; it was composed to commemorate Indian soldiers who died during the Sino-Indian war, check this link for details and for the lyrics.

‘ Jab zero diya mere bharat ne’ from ‘Purab aur Pashchim’, very corny picturisation though; another song from the Manoj Kumar stable – ‘Mere desh ki dharti’ from ‘Upkaar’, though I prefer ‘Jab zero diya...’

That’s all for this post. Stay tuned for some poetry along similar themes next week.
p.s. In case of any errors in this post, do post a comment so I can correct it. Also, do add to the list of songs here if you can think of more.

Jai Hind !

Songs in this post were remembered by,
Zen and friends.