As Beatles comes alive, so does the India connect!

Rashi Aditi Ghosh/Zee Research Group As the ultimate English band ‘The Beatles’ completes 52 years of its musical journey today, the influence of the “Fab Four” from Liverpool on the world of music still resonates as it were yesterday. The Beatles are said to be the best-selling band in human history, with EMI Records estimating sales of over one billion units. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), as of 2012 they have sold 177 million units in the US, more than any other artist. The music and philosophy of India had a key effect on The Beatles` music. The saga of the Beatles’ journey will remain incomplete without mentioning their India connection. Merely eight years after their formation in 1968, the Beatles came to Rishikesh to attend an advanced transcendental mMeditation training session at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The band has often revealed that they wrote many songs during their visit to Rishikesh and many of their songs actually have Eastern musical flavour in them. Their creative collection of songs, including the beloved titles such as ‘Dear Prudence’ and ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ were penned and composed during their Rishikhesh visit. Ironically, the Beatles tour to India did not really turn out to be as purifying and transforming as the way they had expected. After spending several weeks at the Maharishi’s ashram in India along with many other celebrities, it was rumored that the Beatles began to feel that Maharishi’s organization was taking advantage of their name, fame and wealth. Apart from the controversial issues, the Beatles showed their inclination towards Indian music and they got fascinated by the Sitar. “Better be late than never” but lately the influential charisma of The Beatles has mesmerized the Indians on a high note and thus Bollywood ,without being much late, have finally started developing a taste for raw music. Many new era Bollywood movies like ‘Rockstar’, ‘Rock on!’, ‘Delhi Belly’, ‘Peepli Live’, ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’, ‘Life in a Metro’, ‘Wo Lamhe’, ‘Gangster’, ‘London Dreams’ etc. have reinvented and rejuvenated the long lost taste for raw band music. While the Bollywood’s western connection and influences remain intact, the growing trend of ‘made in Indian’ band music and their culture is carving its niche in the industry. Indian music lovers as of now are simply mesmerized to Bollywood’s new experiment on band music and we all know how we loved Ranbir Kapoor’s Rockstar stint and the much talked Bhaag Bhagg D.K Bose. Many composers like AR Rahman, Pritam, Amit Trivedi, Sneha Khanwalkar, Ajay-Atul ,Palash Sen (Euphoria band) and Rahul Ram Bandhave (Indian ocean band) have successfully connected the youth with band music without distracting them from the Indian flavor. Indians now feel the Beatles connection with more and more band music and technologically driven synthesizers and electrical guitars.