The Beatles and Indi
The Beatles and India, streaming on BritBox, is a documentary about the band’s 1968 sojourn on the subcontinent. Seeking direction after their unprecedented, culture-changing success—and on the heels of their ambitious Sgt. Pepper album—The Beatles camped out at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram. Much of their next LP, dubbed “The White Album,” was written during or about their stay in India.
The documentary film’s companion album features performances of 19 Beatles (or post-Beatles) songs by two dozen contemporary Indian pop-rock-whatever musicians. Inevitably, when casting a wide net of contributors for a tribute album, it’s a mixed catch with pleasant surprises as well as why bother moments. Several tracks are simply given a light Indian coating, kind of like sprinkling curry powder on a familiar dish, Karsh Kale & Benny Dayal’s “Mother Nature’s Son” swings back and forth between a faithful reading of the original and an Indipop arrangement. However, on “Tomorrow Never Knows,” Kiss Nuka quickly chucks the raga drone for a chill-room dance club interpretation.
The variety is bracing. Rohan Rajadhyaksha & Warren Mendonsa’s “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide (Except for Me and My Monkey)” is a dynamic rocker that sounds road-tested (unlike the studio-crafted original). Perhaps the truest fusion of India and ‘60s rock occurs on Anupam Roy’s “Child of Nature” (rewritten by John Lennon as “Jealous Guy”), a subtle marriage of Indian and western instruments in an acoustic setting. Maybe it’s no surprise that the daughter of George Harrison’s sitar teacher, Anoushka Shankar, transports Harrison’s “The Inner Light” back to its raga roots.
