Opinion Magical mystery tour

After George’s discovery,Indian instruments and themes became part of the experimentation found in Beatles albums from the mid-1960s. George used sitar licks to great effect for the song “Norwegian Woods”,on their 1965 album Rubber Soul. “Within you,without you”,from Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967),packs in a sort of half-baked eastern mysticism along with the sitar — “And the people-who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion/ Never glimpse the truth-then it’s far too late-when they pass away.” Sandwiched between the carnivalesque “Being for the benefit of Mr Kite” and the music hall jauntiness of “When I’m sixty-four”,eastern mysticism comes close to pastiche in Sgt Pepper’s,part of the fantastic,theatrical world of the album. Sometimes the pastiche is unintended. In the otherwise beautifully worded “Across the Universe”,John Lennon insisted on inserting the lines “Nothing’s going to change my world/ Jai guru deva,om”. Then the World Wildlife Fund decided it would be just right for its new environmental awareness album,changing the first line to an insinuating “No one’s going to change my world”. Birds twitter and waves crash in the background in the WWF version,as the Beatles make a mystical plea for gambolling panda cubs.

The adventure with eastern mysticism often careened wildly off track,curiosity and a certain schoolboy enthusiasm turning into bitterness and hostility. In 1972,fresh from the break-up of the Beatles,John is almost disparaging about “the Indian involvement”. At his abrasive best,John mentions “a little yogi” who handed them a booklet and ran away; he doesn’t remember the yogi’s name because “they all have that ‘Baram Baram Badoobalam’ and all that jazz”. The Indian encounter seems to have gone wrong during the Beatles’ much-documented visit to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in February 1968. Photographs at the start of the trip show the Beatles garlanded and grinning,wearing bright Indian clothes. John had gone there hoping the Maharishi would “slip him the word”,prepared to spend the rest of his life in enlightened exile. He came back in two months with the dream of enlightenment collapsing around him,disillusioned with a sadhu who seemed to care too much for money and publicity. “Sexy Sadie”,written on the way back from India,lashes out at the Maharishi for his alleged advances towards Mia Farrow’s sister,also at the ashram. Of the four,only George would continue his eastern explorations after that visit. For the others,the sheen had worn off the Indian experience.

India signalled a departure from the Beatles’ Liverpool roots and became part of new approaches to their music. As a site of fantasy,hope and finally,disillusionment,it would be a powerful influence on the music they made in the late ’60s — just as they were working vital changes in India. As Beatles LPs made their way into the country,the hair of their young male listeners curled over the ears,clothes took on technicolour hues,the high-heeled shoes the four had worn in their early days were suddenly in great demand. For some,listening to the Beatles was a contraband pleasure. Some parents,who had grown up in pre-Independence India,were suspicious of this new,radical music from the West.

It didn’t help that Bollywood took to the Beatles as well. In Janwar,released the same year as Help,Shankar Jaikishan’s “Dekho ab to” borrows unabashedly from “I want to hold your hand”. Two years later,Jaikishan lifted the tune of “I’ll Get You” for a song in the movie Around the world. Bollywood characters changed as the Beatles became popular. The brooding,sombre leading men of the 1950s were gone. The new,rebellious hero of the ’60s and ’70s wore neon trousers and had softly curling hair; he sang and played guitar to get the girl.

But the vamp was Helen,whose pale imitator had been spotted in Help. “Dekho ab to” has Shammi Kapoor in an implausible Beatles wig,wriggling vigorously with Asha Parekh at a nightclub. The turbaned musicians in the background have been replaced by four mop-tops in grey suits. The scenes from the two films could have been inverted images of each other. There is no telling where the circle of illusion begins or ends,to be mystical about it.

ipsita.chakravarty@expressindia.com