MTV Desi has posted a dilatory yet strangely hypnotic video clip of their launch. The fetching Niharika Desai speaks a single line in an Amrikan accent.
0:04: Hard Kaur raps ‘Glassy’
1:07: Psychedelic Bollywood tabla clip (can you ID the movie?)
2:53: Talvin Singh beat-boxes a tabla tal
3:00: Skinny uncle type says, ‘the boogie-voogie blaster’
3:04: Niharika yells, ‘We’re live!’
3:05: Eerie, screaming glasses man
3:11: A clip from Indian Cowboy, I think
3:31: Running sadhu, naked and in ashes
4:01: Bhangra troupe dances under the Williamsburg Bridge to the MTV theme (reverse fusion, cheeky!)
4:31: Tim Kash says, ‘Our first video of the night’
4:35: Clip of Karmacy’s ‘Blood Brothers’
4:39: M.I.A. massacres the word ‘desi’ (says ‘dessy’ instead of ‘they-see’)
Interspersed are some random Green Day and Madonna filler clips.
As Abhi posted earlier, you can also watch Rabbi’s ‘Bulla Ki Jana’ video. It has a beautiful, washed-out humanist palette and wiggly English supertitles in black marker on clear plastic.
The images would be postcard-trite in a Red Cross ad. But with the handsome Sufi Sikh dressed all in white, the track comes across as spiritual, a folk bhajan with a bass track and synth. It feels less snarky than earnest, less ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ (Buggles) than ‘Fragile’ (Sting).
The video begins with sunrise and ends at sunset; it’s a tour of Indian landmarks (Gateway of India; Marine Drive; Churchgate Station; Harimandir Sahib; Hawa Mahal; the giant Shiva statue in Murdeshwar, Karnataka; Khajuraho; the Charminar in Hyderabad — thanks, Ashvin; painted elephants in Rajasthan; a desert plant that evokes The Joshua Tree; an arrack shop for authenticity 
) and places of worship (a temple tank, a gurdwara, qawwals in a masjid). The lyrics (‘I know not who I am’) are a subtle reference to second-gen culture clash. This is pop manipulativeness with a light touch — kudos to the director.
If any of the links don’t work for you, just go to the main video page.
