Kaansen
Khronicles #6: Revisiting songs from years past, that have been lost in
the chaos of the social media-era content explosion!
Patriotic songs have always had a special place in Indian pop culture - from the original Vande Maataram in the 1930's to the sensational 1997 reinvention by A.R.Rahman. Rahman in particular has added a great deal to the genre through his compositions for The Legend of Bhagat Singh, Swades, and Rang De Basanti. But another album in this genre is arguably his most underrated ever - Bose, the Forgotten Hero. And no song shines brighter in this forgotten album than Desh Ki Mitti.
Desh Ki Mitti came during Rahman's most productive Symphony Orchestra Phase - the early 2000's. The use of the symphony has produced memorable pieces in A.R.Rahman's music throughout his career, but the early 2000's were when he used it in as many different scenarios as he could, producing some wonderful results - Zubeidaa, The Legend of Bhagat Singh, and he even managed to incorporate it into Lagaan, in O Ri Chori, and the Waltz piece, continuing years after in the out-of-the-world Tu Muskura, from Yuvvraj in 2008.
Set to the Amir Kalyani ragam, a piano stringing the song together, and the orchestra providing the drama, the song is anchored in the lyrics of Javed Akhtar - a poem that describes the difficulties of an Indian stranded abroad looking for his motherland in these foreign surroundings during Bose's exile in Germany.
The best piece of this beautiful puzzle comes in the form of Sonu Niigam's voice. Of the few songs that Sonu Niigam has lent his voice to A.R.Rahman, this one shines brightly at the top in large reason because this song needed his voice. Few songs demand one specific singer, and the choice of Sonu Niigam to sing this one was smashingly apt. Anuradha Sriram's accompanying vocals in the background lift the mood of the song significantly. If Sonu Niigam's voice represents the protagonist of the song, Anuradha is the voice of nostalgia that is drawing Bose back to his motherland.
Each component of this song is carefully chosen and used with a level of finesse that matches the best of ARR's music.
Why then has this song been forgotten? Several factors - not having a huge star, not being a very big production, and patriotic movies not necessarily being the flavor of the 2000s (none of the Bhagat Singh movies of the early 2000s worked at the box office). The lack of dedicated visuals for the song probably also played a role - not many people can necessarily picture this song in their heads.
ARR famously doesn't pick his favorite songs - to him, they are all created equally through the same process. And it is a song like Desh Ki Mitti that demonstrates why that is an important stance. Here's a song that is as close perfection as can be, and yet didn't achieve the popularity it deserved, unlike even lesser ARR classics.
