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Conclusion: Jai Who?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2013

Ajay Gehlawat
Affiliation:
Sonoma State University
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Summary

Riding on Slumdog Millionaire's wave of success, the award winning Indian composer A. R. Rahman launched his “Jai Ho” world tour in 2010. This tour, whose Hindi title (meaning, “Let there be victory”) stems from Rahman's Oscar-winning song featured during Slumdog's end credits sequence, kicked off in June at the Nassau Coliseum in New York and went on to several cities in the US, the UK, Canada and South Africa, featuring twenty-three playback singers from India, along with multiple dancers and musicians. As was the case with Slumdog, this tour was a highly successful event, with many of the concert tickets selling out days in advance. Though it traveled around the globe, one place the Jai Ho tour did not go was the Wagah border between India and Pakistan, near Amritsar. Nevertheless, “Jai Ho” plays at the ceremony that takes place every day, just before sunset, at this border. During this highly orchestrated event, featuring goose-stepping soldiers armed with bayonets, the large crowds (at least on the Indian side) seated in bleachers cheer and sing along to many of the songs broadcast through a loudspeaker system, while several Indians dance before the viewing stands and soldiers. The irony of a song composed by a Muslim being used to celebrate India's fractious border with Pakistan should not be overlooked. Indeed, one wonders what the film's Muslim protagonist, Jamal, whose mother is killed by rioting Hindu fundamentalists, would make of such a scene.

Type
Chapter
Information
The 'Slumdog' Phenomenon
A Critical Anthology
, pp. 201 - 204
Publisher: Anthem Press
Print publication year: 2013

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