springtime kishore kumar in the city’s east

At the Jio Mall in Bandra Kurla Complex, Thailand is selling Indians on the idea of traveling to it. With martial arts performances, photo ops with exotic dancers, and awkward addresses, Thailand is selling affluent Indians on the idea of traveling to the magical islands of Koh Sumui and Koh Phangan, the sultry beaches of Phuket and Pattaya, and the bustling metropolis of Bangkok. Come visit, Thailand’s saying, through the medium of Nikhil: Come Experience Amazing Thailand. 

On the car ride here, a different India – one from five decades ago – streamed in through your ear cavities. Kishore Kumar was singing Ek Ajnabee Haseena Se. Rajesh Khanna was romancing the much younger Zeenat Aman in Ajnabee. R.D. Burman was composing playful ditties as Anand Bakshi was writing creepily about seventeen-year-old girls. The Indian film industry’s first traintop song was being sung by Kishore and Lata Mangeshkar: Hum Dono Do Premi. It’s a different country from the one in which Nikhil is enthusiastically mouthing generic orientalisms.