Big Deal

What is this big deal with the US of A. Is it the stuff dreams are made of? Or is it the zenith of the average Indians desires. Well its nearly that, otherwise what could explain our film-makers fetish with this country. My first brush with NY was through the movie 'Ruksath'in the late 80s. Since then scores of movies have used the Manhattan skyline at night as an opening visual or at the end during the credits. And to come to thing of Mr. Karan Johar - his movies have to be set in New York city, no less; with at least a song picturised on The Brooklyn Bridge. I mean, give me a break from this visual travesty - there are far more beautiful places in this country to outlive the USA fetish. And please leave Brooklyn bridge in its state - not sure how long it will be able to bear the weight of Mr Johar's troupe. Somehow we Indians can never be happy with ourselves, our land, our language, our success our even our culture. Why does one have to live in this country to be successful - Cannot one be succesful back home (Maybe he would be 1/40 times succesful - going by the current dollar to ruppee exchange rate), but the potrayal seems to be that you have to stay in NY city or be a cook in Australia to be called a succesful, eligible "bachelor" (Not to forget a 40 something father of two, who plays a "College student", has to play basketfall and soccer in college in every movie to prove that old age is second childhood)

All this would have probably made sense 30-40 years back but not now what with the reverse brain drain and all that jazz....

Somehow this indo-angleic, "Yo Man" syndrome syndrome has crept into our music industry as well. Weird lyrics, weirder music, nasal singing, and a lot of noise passing as rythm is passed off as song these days. The other day heard a song my colleague was humming :"hey Shona"... Music was hummable, lyrics were insipid, but what intrigued me was the title of the Hey Shona. What is that supposed to mean????

I can understand the Bong Connection of Mukherjee's out here - ('Shaan'tanu Makherjee, Rani Mukherjee)but was trying to dig deeper into this. is it 'Eshona' (Come Here in Bengali), Heshona (Dont Laugh) or Hey Shona (Shona being the most commonly used sub for SweetHeart in Bengali - I guess the fetish of the yellow metal got a lot to do with this). Anyway whatever be the 'bi'-lingual meaning of this; would request Mr. Johar to have a few cups of 'Koffee'and leave the Brooklyn bridge as it is....