(yet another) RDB Overkill

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Note: this is an excerpt from another article I improved upon for a very close friend of mine. While my opinions are slightly jaded in this regard, I still agree with the spirit of the article. The original article in its entirety may be accessed at http://celestabeats.blogspot.com/2006/02/national-anthem.html
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On the Day of Reckoning, when St Peter stood at the Gates of Heaven and asked "What have u done 4 ur country?", thus spoke Gandhi "I secured India it's freedom"; and I shalt say "I stod up 4 the national anthem before the screening of Basic Instinct II:Risk Addiction"

I suppose as a statement on generation gap(vis a vis patriotism), that pretty much sums it all; it also gives new meaning to the term: respecting the national anthem. It is a measure of our times that 50’s fervour has been replaced by pop patriotism and AR Rehman is the new age Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.

So in this surfiet of patriotic songs, the question that springs to mind and begs attenion is, "why have a National Anthem?" In a world where patriotism is the new fashion statement(thanks to RDB) and every year brings a new challenger to the crown(be it border, lakshya, swades, or now RDB), is the national anthem truly relevant? Doesn’t ‘Lose Control’ or ‘Yeh jo Des Hai Mera’ connect more easily with the masses than Jana Gana Mana?

In such a skewed scenario, does enforcing the national anthem on us (as the Maharashtra govt does every time we go to a theatre) really work? And if not, why have one?

Was it made to evoke the feeling of respect towards our motherland? But how could a song do that?? Well, this one does it good (and I'll help you see how).
History tells us that no hero has gone unsung (Ofcourse you do remember the theme of Indiana Jones!).

As a musician who has tinkered with his craft, I can attest to the fact that a verse having a melody has a much greater recall value than a verse without melody or even a melody without verse . Proof of this fact may be found in how the lyrics “Choli ke peechhe kya hai” transformed a cacophony of clucking hens into the morning raga of UP and Bihar. Quod erat demonstrandum, I think.

Recently I asked ran a National Anthem Awareness Index(don’t get confused by the fancy words, it was just an informal survey). Most of the respondents weren’t confident that they could recite it without mistakes, and ever fewer knew what it meant. The general consesus was that it's just a bunch of Sanskrit words supposed to be sung in a melody, when asked to.

But is it that simple? The song which supposedly brought tears into Nehru’s eyes evokes little more than a yawn now. "Nothing Else Matters" has become the new anthem of a generation which has revelled in the benefits of liberalization and forgotten the desperate times which made Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram the rallying points of the masses.

Today’s generation feels at home discussing Hotel California, and its alleged links to the Satanic cult. Bono and the Edge are the new poster-boys and Bhagat Singh elicts little more than a yawn. Do I have issues with that? Not really, because Bono is a good musician. But truly, is youth music the exclusive preserve of rock and pop? Is it just the head banging and screaming till your vocal chords go bust? Or can it mean more, can it extend to going beyond the words to the meanings and emotions which empower the words.