Bharoto Bhagya Bidhata has been sung by a motley crew of Bengal's leading vocalists - including Kabir Suman, Rupankar Bagchi, Anupam Roy, Sraboni Sen and Babu Supriyo - all of whom appear in the video. Image courtesy: YouTube/SVF
Never mind the brief but furious debate over Rabindranath Tagore's use of the word 'adhinayak' in the National Anthem, the soul-stirring Bengali original of Jana Gana Mana will leave you wiping away tears of emotion.
Titled "Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata," the video is available on YouTube and belongs to filmmaker Srijit Mukherji's new offering Rajkahini, based on the 1947 Partition of Bengal. Bharoto Bhagya Bidhata has been sung by a motley crew of Bengal's leading vocalists - including Kabir Suman, Rupankar Bagchi, Anupam Roy, Sraboni Sen and Babu Supriyo - all of whom appear in the video.
The ensemble cast includes a smattering of faces familiar to Bollywood viewers - Rituparna Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta from Piku, Saswata Chatterjee who was Bob Biswas in Kahaani - as well several Bengali stalwarts like Abir Chatterjee and Lily Chakraborty.
Watch this compelling version of Jana Gana Mana:
Last July, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh resurrected a discussion that dates from 1911 - the term 'adhinayak' refers to a 'foreign power,' Mr Singh said. It was a continuation of a controversy almost 100 years old. When Tagore wrote the lyrics of Jana Gana Mana in 1911 - truncating a hymn he'd composed for the Brahmo Samaj after the first stanza - it was allegedly put about by the British authorities that it was written in praise of King George V and Queen Mary who visited India that year. Tagore himself silenced the chatter in a letter which clarified that it was God who was being credited for the glory of India and not King George.
On January 24, 1950, Jana Gana Mana was declared India's National Anthem by the Constituent Assembly.