While we are on the topic of montages, it would be worthwhile to visit two contemporary efforts by AR Rahman - *Vande Mataram*<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6PHJg9D_Sk&NR=1>and *Jana Gana Mana* <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftD3gDA-5S0>, both conceived and presented by Bharatbala.
Watching the *Jana Gana Mana* video is like revisiting your ancestral town after twenty years. The same faces, but aged and tired. The same Bhimsen Joshi, the same Hariprasad Chaurasia, the same Lata Mangeshkar, but with many more lines creasing their faces. Some cherished old faces missing, notably Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Allahrakha and Ustad Zakir Hussien and many new additions like Bhupen Hazarika, Hariharan, and the most pleasant surprise - Asha Bhosle. Interestingly Asha Bhosle was completely missing from all the videos of the earlier era, a sad reflection on how late in life this great singer actually got her due. Finally the nation sees the legendary Mangeshkar <http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5JCT863J4cY/SKeiZnFKsYI/AAAAAAAAA0U/_2YClPGKbko/s1600-h/LataAsha.bmp>sisters singing together on the same platform in the same frame. And the biggest surprise, they even pause for a microsecond and smile, yes smile at each other! (A historic occasion given all those rumours over the decades that sibling rivalry prompted the sisters to sing all duets looking in opposite directions). The new age montages highlight the sharp difference in the eras. These videos are shot like epics. They are marked by sweeping locales, jazzy camera angles, glossy finish and flamboyant, larger than life orchestration of all the elements. Quite typical of our times. Yet despite the grandeur, they somehow seem to be missing something somewhere. They are missing the feel of 'real' India that the old montages had to offer. In the videos of yore, the locales were lush and real. The prosperous fields of Punjab, the stunning Taj Mahal, the boatman on the Hooghly, the Calcutta metro, the Dal Lake these were the visual elements that made us intimate with the living and breathing India. The moonscape of Ladakh in the *Jana Gana Mana* video on the other hand is impersonal and forbidding. It has a stark beauty, without doubt, but that is not a representative of *'dravid, utkal, banga'*that our national anthem alludes to. The visual montages used in *Vande Mataram* look more out of central Asia than they do out of India. The video just does not get 'it', in my opinion. Ofcourse, the disclaimer is that I am an old fogey when it comes to aesthetics and I tend to automatically put myself in reverse gear. Older an effort the better it is. However, I must admit, that when Lata Mangeshkar starts to sing *Jana Gana *Mana my hair stand on the end. I am extremely thankful to YouTube and it's denizens for uploading these valuable videos and giving me a chance to revisit cherished childhood memories again. I leave you with the videos and I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did. Jai Bharat! http://desicritics.org/2008/08/17/053136.php -- regards, Vithur ARR -- The Sweet Cube always
