Jai Ho to be screened in LS
Saubhadro Chatterji / New Delhi July 24, 2009, 0:54 IST
After the Budget, it’ll be time for some Bollywood entertainment in Parliament.
The Lok Sabha secretariat has arranged for a special screening of Danny Boyle’s
highly-acclaimed film, Slumdog Millionaire, on August 3 for the MPs.
But the icing in the cake will be the presence of its Oscar winners—music
director A R Rahman, lyricist Gulzar and sound engineer Resul Pookutty—at the
special screening. This will be the first time when Rahman and the two other
Oscar winners will be felicitated by Parliament for their achievement. The
three had won the much-coveted US Oscar awards on February 23. The Congress,
meanwhile, had used Rahman’s award winning tune, Jai Ho, as its campaign song
during the run-up to the Lok Sabha election.
“As per the information available to us, A R Rehman and Resul Pukutty will be
present during the special screening in Parliament. We are inviting Gulzaarsaab
too,” Lok Sabha secretary-general P D T Achary told Business Standard on
Thursday.”We will felicitate them before the film is screened.”
It was actually Pookutty’s idea to bring the Oscar winners to Parliament. When
Achary contacted Pookutty, currently stationed in the US, about the
secretariat’s plan to show the film for the Parliamentarians, Pookutty
suggested bringing Rahman there. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha
Speaker Meira Kumar and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi are expected to be present
at the function.
The Lok Sabha secretariat had shown films for the MPs earlier as well but this
will be the first time when a commercial film will be screened because of its
worldwide fame. Last year, the secretariat screened Shyam Benegal’s Bose: the
forgotten Hero for the MPs. Benegal is currently a nominated MP of the Rajya
Sabha.
Earlier, stalwarts like Lata Mangeshkar (then a Rajya Sabha member) had
performed at the special programme held on 50 years of Indian independence in
1997. A few years ago, shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan was also felicitated by
the Parliament.
Will Rahman perform like Khan or Mangeshkar? Achary doesn’t see much hope: “He
is not coming with his musical troop. We can’t ask him to sing just like that.”