When the air went out of Bismillah Khan‘s shehnai, the Indian government in its bottomless wisdom chose to bid goodbye to the Bharat Ratna with a 21-gun salute.
The irony couldn’t have been starker: a magician of melody passing into the netherworld not to the soft strains of the organ he had elevated from its funereal origins, but to the boom and thud of a war instrument.
With war clouds now hanging over the western front, the propaganda machines are slowing whirring into activity to pump up patriotism. And among the feel-good nationalistic videos currently on air is this fine rendition of ‘Jai Hind‘.
Music: Ustad Zakir Hussain
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Tags: Bismillah Khan, Churumuri, Jai Hind, Javed Akhtar, Sans Serif, Shehnai, Ustad, Zakir Hussain
28 December 2008 at 11:11 am
Jai Hind….
28 December 2008 at 10:11 pm
Melodious song in Desh. Reminded me of another masterpiece Bhaje Sargam (again Desh)
the line Sau Raaginiyon Se Sajaa Bharath
sounds so much like
Horuvalu bhoomi bhaara, heruvalu thaayi nova
[thaayi thaayi song sung by Annavru for Hoovu Hannu (1993) now used again in Vamshi (2008)]
28 December 2008 at 10:29 pm
” ….the propaganda machines are slowing whirring into activity to pump up patriotism…”
Which Propaganda machines?
Whose Propaganda machines?
Are you referring to the “SECULAR FORCES” of the nation?
Are you ashamed to refer them as such?
Ir-respective – you seem to be fantastically imbecile to find fault with “an effort” to bring peoples of India together at a time – where all the sane minded individuals & govts. are worried about the potential conflict on the western front.
Ir-respective – who starts it, why it starts, would be mean less, if WE ARE NOT UNITED.
Churmuri – these days you sound like “Churmuri” – all crackling & loud, but yet full of AIR & HOLLOW.
29 December 2008 at 7:43 am
at first look seems like no Karnataka representation! what a way for me to feel “United”!
29 December 2008 at 7:57 am
Suraj – Per the Liberal diktat, any humane, natural and patriotic feeling is “propaganda”.
And by definition, patriotism cannot be “Secular”, because to harness intense patriotism, one has to delve deep into one’s inner most instincts for one’s land, it’s people…not to forget it’s civilization. Secularism is just dead dry Statism.
29 December 2008 at 11:37 am
A 21 shehnai salute by the Jawans would have sounded far less melodious than the gunshots, I assure you.
31 December 2008 at 10:27 pm
[...] Somewhere on western front, the sound of music [...]