Released 15 August 1988 Writer(s) Piyush Pandey | Recorded 1988 | |
Composer(s) Bhimsen joshi, Ashok Patki, Louis Banks Language Assamese, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kashmiri, Punjabi,Haryanvi, Sindhi, Urdu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Oriya, Gujrati, Marathi Producer(s) Aarti Gupta & Kailash Surendranath with Lok Seva Sanchar Parishad, India | ||
"Ek sur" (One Tune) (languages of India), or "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" as it is better known, is an Indian song and accompanying video promoting national integration and unity in diversity.
Contents
The concept for Mile Sur was developed 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 Bhimsen Joshi. and arranged by Ashok patki and Louis Banks, with lyrics by Piyush Pandey (then an Account Manager and presently the Executive Chairman and Creative Head of Ogilvy and Mather, India). The project was conceived by Suresh Mallik and kailash surendranath and directed by kailash surendranath and recorded by people from all walks of life, including a supergroup of Indian celebrities—musicians, sports persons, movie stars, etc.
The national integration video was intended to instill a sense of pride and promote unity amongst Indians, highlighting India's different linguistic communities and societies—India's unity in diversity, so to speak. 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.
It quickly captivated India, gaining and maintaining near-anthem status ever since.
Languages used
Hindi (Bhimsenji and Lataji's parts, among others), and alphabetically the others were :Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Marwari, Odia, Punjabi, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. (Among the languages present, then in 1988, in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India).
Lyrics
The lyrics of the song is as follows:
Singers
Bhimsen Joshi, M Balamuralikrishna, Lata Mangeshkar, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Shubhangi Bose, Suchitra Mitra
Celebrities featured
Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra, Mithun Chakraborty, Lata Mangeshkar, Sharmila Tagore, Mallika Sarabhai, Hema Malini, Tanuja, Bhimsen Joshi, M Balamuralikrishna, Kamal Hassan, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Revathi, Prakash Padukone, K.R.Vijaya, Wahida Rehman, Shabana Azmi, Deepa Sahi, Om Puri, Arun Lal, Narendra Hirwani, Ramanathan Krishnan, S Venkataraghavan, Suhasini, Uttam Mohanty Chuni Goswami, Pradip Kumar Banerjee (PK), Sunil Gangopadhyaya, Gurubox Singh, Arun Lal, Ananda Shankar, Pratap Pothen, Javed Akhtar
Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara
Twenty years after the tune's debut, it was re-recorded with an updated cast for telecast on January 26, 2010 by Zoom TV. This version, entitled Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, features Indian musicians, singers, sportspersons and film personalities from the current generation. The current version's 16 min 17 sec length exceeds the older 6 min 9 sec version and was directed by Kailash Surendranath who had produced the original version as well. The new version retains music composer/arranger Louis Banks. It attracted criticism in a large part of the population among them were the Sindhi community which were upset over the deletion of the Sindhi lines "Mohnja sur tohi desa pyara mile jadein Geet ashaanjo madhur tarano bane tadein" present in the original. Further criticism arose over the omission of notable personalities such as, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Sachin Tendulkar and Viswanathan Anand. It also failed to capture the soul and essence of the original version, focusing excessively on Bollywood actors, ignoring eminent personalities in other fields.
The new version features the following stars in chronological order: