Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

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Since this is a song blog so it is natural that I visit song sites viz YT etc daily. I had vaguely noticed a video about a movie called “Parmanu” in the past in YT and I had not taken much notice, seeing that I am not interested in new movies.

Three days ago (friday), I saw that video again. I got interested and clicked on that link. I found that it was the trailer of the movie. From the trailer I found that this movie was based on the tale of Indian nuclear tests carried out in 1998. The trailer also mentioned that the movie was releasing on 25 may 2018.

We were already in june 2018, which meant that the movie must have been released already. But I did not have much information about it. But then how could I, as I was not much interested and aware about new movies.

Seeing that the movie was based on a real life happening, and that too a very important happening in the history of India, and also the world, I suddenly became very interested in the movie. The movie was released two weeks ago and I did not read anything about it on newspapers or online, so I guessed that the movie may not have done well at the box office. I wondered whether it was still playing in a movie hall near me, as they say in movie advertisements. When I checked up, I found that the movie was indeed playing in three nearby movie halls. It was friday, and I decided to watch it in the mall where it was being shown in noon show (13:30 PM). I was familiar with this mall because it is a favourite place for my wife whenever she visits me. 🙂

It was friday and the show timings coincided with my lunch break time. So I decided to forego my lunch that day and instead decided to watch the movie.

The nuclear tests of may 1998 are fairly well known to most regulars of this blog who all must have been well into their twenties or more at that time. But since I am very interested in such matters, I may have more in depth information on this topic than most people.

The real tale in brief is:

After the collapse of Soviet Union in early 1990s, India finds itself in a precarious position. Friendship with Soviet Union assured them of security in the past but that security umbrella had vanished. India found themselves increasingly bullied by USA and China, and Pakistan, an ally of USA and China stepped up its efforts to destabilise India through actions that self respecting Indians found highly provocative and humiliating. Forget Pakistan, even other tiny neighbouring countries began to needle India.

Public sentiment of nationalist Indians was that India needed to sent a strong message to the world that India could not be regarded as a pushover. So as soon as the nationalist government of BJP won vote of confidence in Parliament, it authorised nuclear testing. Three years ago, P V Narsimha Rao’s government had also contemplated it, but USA got wind of it and put intense pressure on India and that plan had to be dropped.

This time in 1998, Vajpayee government was determined that tests must be carried out. Learning from 1995, it was decided to carry out the preparation for the tests in secrecy so that USA did not get any clue and became aware of the fact only after the tests were carried out. Indians actually managed to carry out all their preparations in secrecy. USA, despite its spy satellites could not detect any unusual happenings. So this real tale, where preparation work was going on in plain sight (so to say) in a desert still spy satellites could not detect that, provided great plot for a thriller cum suspense movie. American CIA is considered a top notch spy agency, and they failed to detect what was going on- this makes for a great real life spy tale. And that is what this movie “Parmanu”(2018) is all about.

In real life, the push for the test had come from the political leadership and then the plan was carried out with great secrery and precision by real life people viz APJ Abdul Kalam, then scientific advisor to PM (and later President of India), R Chidambaram (Secretary Atomic energy commission) were the chief co ordinators. Nearly 80 scientists from Different departments, viz BARC, AMDER, DRDO etc were involved. 58th Engineers regiment, led by Gopal Kaushik were present at site, so that it looked like it was an army settlement. Work was mostly done during night, and equipment was returned to the original place to give the impression that it was never moved.

Bomb shafts were dug under camouflage netting and the dug-out sand was shaped like shaped dunes. Cables for sensors were covered with sand and concealed using native vegetation.

The movie uses the real life happenings as the base material, and then mixes it with imaginary incidences and stories to come up with an interesting movie that I found a nice watch.

In the movie, the idea that India, instead of being pushed around, needed to assert herself by acquiring nuclear capability, is put forward by a junior IAS officer, Ashwath Raina(John Abraham) in 1995. But his idea is implemented in a bothched up manner and USA gets wind of it. The plan has to be abanadoned and Ashwath is held responsible for the fiasco and he is dismissed from service.

In 1998, new government takes over. It is decided to carry out nuclear test. Himanshu Shukla, The Principal Secretary to PM (played by Boman Irani) locates the dismissed officer John Abraham again. His plan that his bosses during the previous government in 1995 had not gone through is explained by him. He informs Principal secretary that the major part of his plan, viz evading detection during preparation work, was not even understood by his seniors during 1995 and that is why that attempt had failed.

Ashwath assembles the leaders of his five teams from five different departments. They are given code names inspired from the five Pandavas of Mahabharat. Himashu Shukla gives Ashwath Raina the code name of Krishna. 🙂

It turns out that one of the five leaders viz the incharge of security is a female called Captain Ambalika Bandhopadhyay (Diana Penty). She is bemused when she finds the codename of Nakul being assigned to her. 🙂

Scientists are seen working at the time when satellites are not watching them. Every day their password is changed and the vehicle carrying them is allowed to pass only when they give the password for the day. The passwords seem to be set by an old Hindi movie songs lover, because they are mostly lines from old Hindi movie songs, such as “lag ja gale ke phir ye haseen raat ho na ho”. 🙂

Avoiding detection by CIA satellites, as well as keeping the project hidden from the prying eyes of CIA and ISI agents forms the bulk of the movie and is presented in an interesting manner. There are many roadblocks, interruptions, near mishaps etc and quite a bit of suspense. Even though it is just a movie and we know what actually happened, the movie still manages to keep you in suspense about what is going to happen next. 🙂

The movie ends as the nuclear tests are carried out successfully and Indian PM announces it on TV.

These tests were gamechangers in world geopolitics. What followed in the aftermath of these tests were far more interesting and significant. In my opinion, all the aims of India that were sought to be achieved by these tests were achieved spectacularly.

Here are my take on the developments that took place after the tests:-

1. There may be people who may point out that economic sanctions were imposed on India. Indeed that was the case. But Indians were prepared for that. Indians overwhelmingly welcomed the tests. As for the sanctions, Indian government did not react at all, which was as good as cocking a snook at the sanction imposers. As it is, India was already being kicked around and bullied by USA for last several years, and Indians had learnt to manage without USA. USA in the past had denied India supercomputers, cryogenic engines etc and Indians had subsequently developed them on their own. USA had very little leverage with India at that time and Indians were in no mood to listen to them, seeing that US was a blind supporter of Pakistan.

2. Reaction of Pakistan:- While most western countries condemned the tests and some of them imposed economic sanctions on India, Pakistan’s reaction was classic. Pakistanis expressed great ire and vowed to match India. Unlike India, who prepared for their tests in secrecy, Pakistanis openly prepared in full view of USA spy satellites at their Chagai site. USA pressurised Pakistan to desist from carrying out the test, but domestic pressure got the better of Pakistani rulers and Pakistan detonated six bombs on 28 may and 30 may 1998.

Pakistani public rejoiced just like Indian public had done. Comically, the same Pakistani public came out protesting against the same government a few weeks later when it became clear that Pakistani economy, unlike Indian economy, was unable to withstand economic sanctions of USA and it had reached the stage of virtual deathbed.

USA, realised that their sanctions, instead of hurting India, had ended up dealing a death blow to the economy of their “ally” Pakistan. So US president Bill Clinton, in an act of obscene hurry waived off sanctions of both countries on 9 november 1998. It was mainly to save Pakistan economy rather than to save arms race in the region, which was purported to be the reason for the waiver. In addition to waiving off the sanction, US officials were also authorised to support loans to Pakistan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. 🙂

So, USA as well as Pakistan were badly rattled in the wake of Indian nuclear tests and they were forced to take extraordinary steps to deal with the situation while for most Indians it was business as usual.

So, knowing all these real life facts and then watching the movie made it quite an enjoyable experience for me. I know that there are more takers for movies like “Veere Di Wedding”, but this movie “Parmanu” deals with a very very important date in Indian history. I personally feel that 11 may 1998 was as red letter a day in Indian history as 15 august 1947 and 26 january 1950. This date is now observed as National Technology day in India. In my opinion, it should be regarded as National Self respect day. It is on this day that many Indians gained self respect by doing what they needed to do in their national interest. And as I have explained above, they were prepared to pay the price for asserting themselves, and as it turned out, they emerged far far stronger after the event. It sent a clear and firm message to the world that was urgently needed to be sent.

My favourite dialogue from the movie has to do with self respect as well:

ab ham dar ke shaant nahin baithhenge
kar ke shaant baithhenge

As I mentioned earlier, I quite loved the movie. This movie is not to be watched as one watches a normal masala movie. It has to be watched with the knowledge that we are watching an event that was a major and glorious turning point in the history of India.

I do not recall too many songs in the movie and whatever songs were these appeared to be just few seconds long each. But when I checked up, I found that the movie had as many as six songs in it. It appears to me that full songs are released in audio form and only small snatches of these songs are used in the movie.

Here is the theme song of “Parmanu”(2018). This song is sung by Keerti Sagathia and Jyotica Tangri, Vayu is the lyricist. Music is composed by Sachin Jigar.

The movie as well as the artists make their debut in the blog with this song. I have no idea who they are. I request our knowledgeable (in this case young) regulars to tell us more about them.

This song is the first song from 2018 to appear in the blog. And quite a befitting song from 2018 it is too.

Full song

Song-Shubh din aayo(Parmanu)(2018) Singers-Keerti Sagathia, Jyotica Tangri, Lyrics-Vayu, MD-Sachin-Jigar

Lyrics

he ae ae
sun hudas
sooraj ugiyo
aur chaaru mer huyi jhilmilaahat
aayo mhaara paavna aa aa aa aa
ke swaagat kara behisaab

hey ae ae
sajti raahen mangal gaawen
man upji phulwaari re
saaje gaaje baaje goonje
sapnori ye kilkaari re
ban upwan abhinandan karta
chhaayi ghata paniyaari re
shakkar phaanko
jhaanki jhaanko
hui jashan ki ye taiyyaari re
man harshaayo
ghan barsaayo
dhan sukhwaalo jee re
ee ae ae ae

aayo re shubh din aayo re ae ae
aayo re shubh din aayo re ae ae
aayo re shubh din aayo re ae ae

shubh din aayo
man’ne bhaayo
nayo nayo so rang le aayo
shubh din aayo
man’ne bhaayo
nayo nayo so rang le aayo
honthon pe muskaan gulaabi
laayo re
honthon pe muskaan gulaabi
laayo re
he ae
aayo re
shubh din aayo re ae ae
aayo re
shubh din aayo re ae ae
o o o
aayo re
shubh din aayo re ae ae

hey
hey
hey
hey
hey
chanda laavo deepak laaj
jagmag taare laijo jee
jagmag taare laijo laijo
jagmag taare laijo jee
jagmag taare laijo laijo
jagmag taare laijo jee

khushiyaan baantoon dil mein sabke
shaakar misri bhar do jee
arre ghoomar rasiya meethha meethha
gaayo re
aayo re
shubh din aayo re ae ae
aayo re
shubh din aayo re ae ae
aayo re
shubh din aayo re ae ae

kesariyo rangeelo aayo
sooraj so chamkeelo aayo
kesariyo rangeelo aayo
sooraj so chamkeelo aayo
o din ye pyaaro
kismat waalo aayo re
din ye pyaaro
kismat waalo aayo re

hey hey
hey hey
hey hey
hey

padhaaro re ae ae
padhaaro jee ae

mangal gaao
shubh din aayo
bali bali jaao
shubh shubh din aayo
misri baanton
shubh din aayo
jhoomo naacho
shubh shubh din aayo
arre lok bulaao
shubh din aayo
rang udaao
shubh shubh din aayo
phool sajaao
shubh din aayo
khushi manaao
aayo ae ee
shubh din aayo
shubh din aayo
shubh din aayo
shubh din
shubh din aayo
shubh din aayo
shubh din aayo
shubh din
shubh din aayo
shubh din (aayo re)
shubh din aayo
shubh din aayo
shubh din
shubh din aayo
shubh din aayo
shubh din aayo
shubh din
shubh din aayo
shubh din aayo
shubh din aayo
shubh din
jee