'Dum Maaro Dum' vs. 'Dum Maaro Dum'

'Dum Maaro Dum': R.D. Burman's original

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_v9oQhVE2E&feature=player_embedded

In the early 1970s, 1971 to be precise, when actress Zeenat Aman mouthed the cult song "Dum Maro Dum" in Dev Anand’s hit film "Hare Rama Hare Krishna," she broke the mould of a conservative Indian actress by portraying a chillum-inhaling, head-swaying, pot-headed hippie in Kathmandu.

And she did it without breaking out her butt or her bust line.

Even though she was covered from head to toe, she oozed a seductive sexiness that remained etched in the minds of viewers and voyeurs alike.

There were no synchronized moves, just gentle hip swinging and a mood as light as the stoner atmosphere the song portrays.

Even today, legendary composer R.D. Burman's song is a hit, heavily rotated on music channels and radio stations, and played at many a big fat Indian wedding.

'Dum Maaro Dum': Pritam's remix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxVoPuu_fyY&feature=player_embedded

Four decades after the release of "Hare Rama Hare Krishna" comes director Rohan Sippy’s film adaptation titled "Dum Maaro Dum," which released in Mumbai theaters on April 22.

The remix of the title song, composed by Pritam Chakraborty, was launched with full force during the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup on March 12, into a stadium of 45,000 people in Nagpur.

Sadly, it reinvents this classic yesteryear's track with a extremely dated club vibe, cookie-cutter choreography, mindless new lyrics, and Deepika Padukone, an actress who has made better moves off-screen by dating a liquor baron’s son, than the ones she’s displayed in the video of this song.

Her metallic garb looks like it has been shredded while trying to make her way through the throngs of hectic clubbers. And the blatant bareness of it all leaves you wondering how Zeenat Aman managed to pull off sinful, dressed like a saint -- which is the very essence of this definitively Indi-cool song.

The remix will still be a hit, however, and is being played by DJs at clubs across the country as we speak.

Mumbai-based musician Ankur Tewari puts it this way, "Comparing the two versions of the song would be like debating the difference between an iPhone and an analog phone. The new, glossy version comes with fancy applications and startling features, with an emphais on slickness, while the original version provides the same function, in a more plain and honest fashion."

"A lot has changed since the time when R.D. Burman composed the original," Tewari says. "Those were the days when people first heard songs and then saw them. Nowadays, it’s just the opposite."