Very busy morning,
made all the more busy by oversleeping an hour. Nothing to do but catch up all the pieces bit
by bit. Truncated visit to the gym. The sun up much higher than it normally would
be. Usually when I’m in there the sun hasn’t
risen and I turn out the lights. The
natural light slowly fills up the space.
By contrast this morning, only one hour later, the bright light felt
garish, overexposed. Testifying somehow
to my transgression.
Something came on the mix that I didn’t recognize. The accordion made me think of some French swing,
but then what is that absurd yelling? Who is that?
Ahh, the Bhangra beat. It can only
be “Indian Film Sound Track” music. But
what precisely? I looked and the title
was indecipherable: “Dekha Na Haay Re”
but I saw that it was from the classic 1972 film, “Bombay to Goa” starting
India’s towering lead man from the time Amitabh Bachchan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amitabh_Bachchan
I tried to find out what the lyrics mean. First stop of course Google translate but the
romanized Hindi (I assume it is Hindi) translates into romanized Hindi. If you flip it you get actual Hindi calligraphy. Then I looked on line to find
out if someone had posted the lyrics translated into English but came up
short. If you're out there and you know what “Dekha Na Haay
Re” means or want to hip me to the fact that it is actually Marti and not
Hindi, please do so below.
Watching the video, one might surmise it means, “I think you
are so pretty, that I’m not afraid to act ridiculous.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAJpRg5lcYo Bachchan dances around the inside of a bus,
flirting with a exceptionally well coiffed young lady while seemingly trying to distract a villain who has dropped a gun.
He’s a good looking gentleman, but it’s hard to imagine that purple
shirt staying pressed let alone clean after crawling along on your back on the
floor of long haul bus in India. Ahh, but they're selling dreams of an India that might be.
I assumed the man singing the song was the remarkable
Mohammed Rafi who claims to have been recorded over 25,000 times, (which is
simply imponderable when you think about it, seeing as how the great man passed
at the age of 55.) I can remember
driving around in Delhi with a colleague and it seemed that there was at least
one, or maybe more stations that simply played his and his golden voice female
complement, Lata Mangeshkar’s songs, 24/7.
Apparently they had a bit of a falling out and both, literally, argued over the
Guinness Book of World Records title for most recordings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Rafi
But a quick check on line suggests that while Rafi was
probably recording somewhere that day, the man on the mic was that other giant of Indian
popular singing, and playback signing; Kishore Kumar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kishore_Kumar Whereas Mohammed Rafi was a Punjabi born
near Amritsar, Kumar was a Bengali from Madhya Pradesh. Both gentleman moved, of course, to Bollywood
in Mumbai to make their names for themselves. Kumar "only" recorded sining in some ten languages, where as that irrefutable source Wiki suggests that Rafi sang in twenty.
It would appear that Mr. Kumar has a bit of the 'Ginger Baker' in him. Where the infamous Cream drummer had a sign saying “Beware Mr. Baker” in front of his African farmhouse, Mr. Kumar similarly forewarned his guests with a “Beware of Kishore” sign. And where as Ginger made good on his claim by breaking the nose of the young director who created the film with the same title as the sign, shoving his cane in the directors face, mid-shot, Mr. Kumar was not to be outdone. A man who came to pay him did so, Mr. Kumar took the money and when the person offered his hand to shake on it, Mr Kumar put it in his mouth and bit it, offering “didn’t you read the sign?”
It would appear that Mr. Kumar has a bit of the 'Ginger Baker' in him. Where the infamous Cream drummer had a sign saying “Beware Mr. Baker” in front of his African farmhouse, Mr. Kumar similarly forewarned his guests with a “Beware of Kishore” sign. And where as Ginger made good on his claim by breaking the nose of the young director who created the film with the same title as the sign, shoving his cane in the directors face, mid-shot, Mr. Kumar was not to be outdone. A man who came to pay him did so, Mr. Kumar took the money and when the person offered his hand to shake on it, Mr Kumar put it in his mouth and bit it, offering “didn’t you read the sign?”
All of this to say, that not only are people like Amitabh
Bachchan, Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, and Lata Mangeshkar super stars in
India, but they are well known and adored globally, particularly in the developing world. Bollywood is a remarkable force for Indian
soft power projection. China has a much harder time making content that plays
well outside of China, particularly among its neighbors. Even during the
depths of the Cultural Revolution there in 1972, China did, of course, make
content. “The Red Detachment of Woman”
was never going to play in U.S. cinemas, (though it was popular in Maoist
cells) but more to the point, the content, the stars it promoted, etc. was only grown for domestic consumption.
The glaring exception to this was right across the
boarder. Bruce Lee was a global
phenomenon that, importantly, managed to penetrate American consciousness, for
example, in a way that Bollywood never did.
Hong Kong cinema has however largely declined and Beijing, to my
reckoning, has not figured out to absorb the soft power mantel of Hong Kong’s
early success. To my simple thinking, it is the power of Indian rhythmic sensibility that works to somehow make
the music, the aesthetic, “cool.” But
“Enter the Dragon” didn’t necessarily have a funky soundtrack yet it was
extremely cool.
Will the mainland
Chinese film industry begin to see its aesthetic finding resonance in
developing countries, in first world countries? Will Chinese cinema or pop music win the hearts of minds of any neighbors, any time soon? How long before we have a Chinese pop star that is popular beyond the
Chinese speaking world?
Before I sign off, allow me to reference our new U.S. ambassadorial nominee to China. The Times had a piece today
that six-term Montana senator Max Baucus is the pick to be the next ambassador
to China after Gary Locke leaves. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/19/us/politics/obama-said-to-pick-montana-democrat-as-china-envoy.html?hp
OK. Locke’s predecessor
Jon Huntsman spoke fluent Mandarin. Gary
Locke was ethnically Chinese and the “Wang-six-pack” crowd, here in China loved the
guy, because he was down-to-earth and carried his own bags. I dug into the article and tried to find out
what it was that might qualify the senator to steward this pivotal post of
international relations. Please, you read the
article. All I could surmise is that he
is the fall guy for Obama Care, who will absolutely not win reelection in
Montana. The Dems want someone who will,
so he is being handed a plum. That all
makes sense, for domestic politics and I do hope the Dems retain the Senate,
but I gotta tell you, sitting here in Beijing, I’m still sniffing for the
sizzle. I suppose I have more to learn
and I hope he’s a bright, measured maverick of a gent, keen on learning about
this civilization. I can only imagine
the Chinese web sphere is going to be underwhelmed as well.
Good luck with your nomination Max. This certainly will be a “whole new
adventure” as you suggest. This will certainly be a 面目一新[1] from Washington. Start studying. There’s a lot to acquaint yourself with.
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