Duniya Gangai

How important is a family song? I am amazed at the lackadaisical attitude shown towards the concept that was introduced by Bollywood. Yaadon ki Baarat is a milestone in Indian cinema not because Vijay Arora managed to get to romance Zeenat Aman, but because it made famous this hardly remembered, much-unabused style of music. So much so that even I had forgotten about it until an African film director reminded me of the great tradition. In the award-winning "Abouna", a movie set in Chad (which has an uncanny resemblance to Bihar), in the final scene, a son sings (as well as his vocal chords let him), "Duniya Gangai..Duniya Gangai". Just when you begin to cringe with embarrassment at his untrained voice, his mom (who has gone into a harmless coma, where she hardly talks), joins in. And just as melliflously flows the Duniya Gangai. The movie ends there. As I walked out of the auditorium and for the millionth time posed the question at myself, "What is art?", from a corner of my southern cerebral hemisphere, a voice called out and asked, "Why the hell did the movie end there?". And then it struck me! I had just revisited the endangered art of family songs. The mother had taught her son this song so that whenever there was a serious change in the way their lives existed, he could sing this song and hope that status quo was maintained. It happened in Yaadon ki Baarat, it happened in Abouna. Chad and India have nothing in common except Bihar. But the universal tradition of a family song has united the two nations. Here's hoping for better bilateral relations between Chad and India, with the blessings of the family song.