An album that accompanies a documentary on the Fab Four features desi indie biggies reimagining their songs
(From left) Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr. Pic/Facebook
Anyone who’s even remotely been a fan of The Beatles — possibly the most iconic band in music history — will know the life-changing experience they had while in India. Their music can in fact be divided into two time frames — before India, and after. There is even a theory which says that Sexy Sadie, a song from The White Album, is a scathing indictment of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, their spiritual guru in Rishikesh who they were ultimately disillusioned by. Of the ‘Fab Four’, it was George Harrison who was taken in the most by our country (Within you without you, a sitar-based track that he composed, encapsulates this influence). But even when it comes to the other three members — John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr — their time in India left an indelible mark on not just their music, but their psyche as well.
A new documentary called The Beatles and India now digs deep into the details of the time they spent here in the 1960s. As part of it, there is also an album that has been released where Indian indie stalwarts reimagine hits by the band, giving them a desi twist. The musicians include the likes of Warren Mendonsa, Karsh Kale, Nikhil D’Souza and Lisa Mishra. “The album accompanies the documentary,” D’Souza tells us, adding that a UK label called Silver Screen facilitated the whole process. It is a one-of-a-kind effort, regardless of whether you like the music or not.
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Lisa Mishra, Karsh Kale and Nikhil D’Souza. Pic/Koumudi Chouhan
And some people might very well not. They might feel that Lennon and Harrison are turning in their graves, considering that they are no more. But the point of this album is not to have judgments made about the songs. Its essential purpose lies in amplifying the story of the time that The Beatles spent in India. The tracks, quite literally, give a voice to that tale. D’Souza, who sang India India, says that he had a lot of freedom allowed for his reinterpretation. “We could take it wherever we wanted to,” he reveals about his collaboration with UK-based Jonathan Quarmby, who he produced the song with. It’s a collision of two worlds in the 21st century, just like it was a collision of two worlds in the 1960s when sitar legend Ravi Shankar and Harrison formed a union that bridged musical borders. This album, inherently, takes that unison forward.
There are people in India who look up to the indie stalwarts that feature in it. Some of them are kids who have not grown up in the era of Beatlemania, when hysterical teenagers would fling themselves at the lads from Liverpool. But if, through this record, they discover the music that possibly the most iconic band in music history created, then that will be a purpose well served.
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