12 maggio 2020

A brief history of Bella Ciao

Vi segnalo l'articolo A brief history of Bella Ciao (the song Shah Rukh Khan is so sick of) di Sankhayan Ghosh, pubblicato oggi da Film Companion:

'I heard it [Bella Ciao] (...) in the various Indian iterations, during the CAA/NRC protests [proteste contro il Citizenship Amendment Act]. In the #OccupyGateway gathering, one of the protestors stood and sang the new lyrics, written to fit the issue at hand, (...) and the others, seated, sang after him. (...)
Unsurprisingly, I am hearing Bella Ciao more and more without the context. Baba Sehgal has done one, called Kela Khao, so silly that you can't be offended by it. Ayushmann (...) Khurrana plays the tune on his piano. (...) Actress Kriti Kharbanda also attempted a piano cover and uploaded a video. (...) 
Then you had Shah Rukh Khan. (...) In his segment shot from home for a fundraising concert for the COVID-19 outbreak, Khan sang that he is sick of hearing Bella Ciao. (...) He meant it as one of the typically Quarantine things, equating it to activities such as working out and watching TV shows on streaming. Given the significance of the song - a symbol of common people speaking up against an oppressive regime - this appeared insensitive to some. (...) The lyrics for Khan were written by Badshah. (...)
Bollywood has been guilty of bastardising Bella Ciao even before it had become so popular in this part of the world. Lalit Pandit (of Jatin-Lalit) plagiarised the tune in "Love ki Ghanti" from the movie Besharam, starring Ranbir Kapoor. There is also a Telugu song called "Pilla Chao" from the Mahesh Babu film Businessman. They are cringeworthy'.

Video Wapas Jao (Bella Ciao Hindi Version), Poojan Sahil featuring CAA-NRC Protests, 23 dicembre 2019
Video Bella Ciao Hindi at #OccupyGateway #MumbaiWithJNU, 6 gennaio 2020
Video Bella Ciao piano cover by Ayushmann Khurrana & Kriti Kharbanda, 2 maggio 2020
(Non riesco a scovare in rete il video della versione interpretata da Shah Rukh Khan).

Aggiornamento del 26 agosto 2021: Netflix India propone Jaldi Aao!, versione di Bella Ciao rivisitata dal produttore musicale Nucleya e interpretata, fra gli altri, da Shruti Haasan, Anil Kapoor, Rana Daggubati, Radhika Apte e Vikrant Massey. Il video è stato realizzato per promuovere la quinta stagione della serie La casa di carta. Oggi The Hindu pubblica un'intervista concessa da Nucleya:
 
'Nucleya is all smiles as he gushes over Jaldi Aao: The Money Heist Fan Anthem, which he composed ahead of the new season of Spanish-language crime series La Casa De Papel or Money Heist dropping. The track and video (...) has picked up more than 5 million views since its August 23 upload on YouTube. (...) The anti-fascist protest song is from the early 20th Century, and is sung by Italians every year on April 25 to observe Liberation Day, the anniversary of the end of the Nazi occupation in 1945. Over the years through history, there have been many iterations. During the 2020 lockdowns, Italians took to the empty streets and their balconies, belting out the song as a collective and comforting experience, building upon its status as a revolutionary anthem. (...) It was important to Nucleya that Jaldi Aao retained that recognisable melody while adding various elements to it to make it more Indian audience-friendly. “That composition has that [revolutionary] feel to it because of the original song’s lyrics, but we wanted it to sound fresh. I think we did a pretty good job,” he laughs. (...) The rebooted song has a mix of Tamil, Hindi and Telugu lyrics and singing styles to suit the different Indian regional fanbases. As a composer, the core melody had to work with these new elements to make the song feel less forced. Nucleya explains, “The core structure and melody stay the same throughout but what changes is the voice, which gives Jaldi Aao the flavour it needs. For example, at the Tamil part, everything goes deeper with full South Indian drums, and towards the end of the video, there’s a scene where drums are played in the streets of Mumbai and it feels very Maharashtrian. The melody, though, stitches everything tight together”.'