Mile sur: The unofficial Indian anthem

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: one such shot in this film. It so seamlessly breaks the string of stars at the moment of moving into a crescendo. Lata Mangeshkar donning the national flag as a dupatta was the nightingale’s own idea. And Bachchan, Mithun and Jeetendra in one shot was a casting coup.

Mile Sur was telecast for the first time during the Independence Day Prime Minister’s speech telecast from the ramparts of the Red Fort. It’s always a difficult task to better a great first film. But Mile Sur seemed to have done exactly that. I had just joined Ogilvy that year and I keep two memories of that film from my personal interactions with Mullick sa’ab. The formation of the flag by the children at the end is a subliminal cue to show that the spirit of unity would be carried forward by the next generation. And the presence of Mullick sa’ab’s family, the Ogilvy employees, in one of the last frames has a touch of Hitchcockiness to it.

Bhimsen Joshi told Piyush that while he has been known in the classical world, this film took him to the masses and he, humbly, thanked Mile Sur for it.

And even today when the film is played at a sales conference, the film is accompanied by cheers all the way. Every Indian audience is diverse and so there is always some person or group in the hall connecting with some celebrity and language on screen.

It is the unofficial anthem of India.