DesiDabba - Boss, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaye

The Films Division masterpiece — “Ek Chidia” has been doing the rounds across the emails recently. The video uploaded on the You Tube conjures up memories of childhood when the kids played langdi tang and gallery while humming the lines of this beautiful song that encourages harmony and unity in diversity— the mottos that best describe India. In a time when the TV News channels are fighting tooth and nail to create an atmosphere that generates news (read chaos, riots, disharmony and sensationalism), the song is something of a reminder of simpler times.

Since the day I received this particular link in the mail I have been trying to find the elder community Didi, who shares wisdom with the aid of simple tools like beads or seeds, mangoes and short stories; the kid who actually truly believes that the elder Didi is the wiser one and listens to her solution; the other kids whose appetite is satiated with fresh mangoes plucked from the trees unlike those dissatisfied bundles of trouble I spot around with designer shoes and garb outside Mc Donald’s always greedily asking for one more Happy Meal.

The simple solution that the animation (though not of the state of the art category) provides to a problem that infects and threats not only India but the entire globe in today’s times is incomparable to anything I have seen so far.

The melody is something that beats the best of the pop songs and the filmi latka jhatkas of today. Its simple and I am ready to wager a fortune that once the tune registers in your mind it is a difficult one to let go. The innocence in the voice of Sadhna Sargam, who rendered her voice to the character of Didi, is of the quality that you can almost touch it if you try hard enough. The music by Vasant Desai complements the simplicity of the narrative without actually ever underestimating the power or the importance of the message.

The illustrations are single line figures without too much detailing, yet aptly defining and demarking each n every character. The regional and religious characters of all the varied segments of Indians are fittingly depicted in the 5 minute animation. Bhim Sain, better known today as the father of the creator of the animated series on Hanuman, did the animations for Ek Chidya which I believe laid the foundation for other Indian animations as well.

The credit of the final product as usual goes to the captain of the ship i.e., the director Vijaya Mule. The conceptualization and execution is something that touches a chord with the audience even today. There is no better way to end the piece than to quote the chorus of the song. But writing just the chorus feels like doing injustice to the rest of the lyrics. So to refresh your memories I present the YouTube video of the song of our childhood and something that I hope passes down to our children one day as folklore or verbal tradition.

Screenplay and direction: Vijaya Mule

Compilation: Vaman Guru

Hind desh ke nivasi: Pandit Vinay Chandra

Music: Vasant Desai

Animation: Bhim Sain