A tribute to the late Suresh Mullick

It was 1988 when Mile sur mera tumhara was broadcast on Doordarshan. It quickly became a cult song that reflected the theme of national integration. Conceptualised by veteran adman, the late Suresh Mullick, Mile sur mera tumhara was one of the three films in the ‘Freedom Trilogy’ that consisted of ‘Freedom Torch’, ‘Mile Sur’, and ‘Desh Raag’.   

Former colleagues and friends of Mullick have compiled a tribute to him, with anecdotes that recount their fondest memories of Mullick during their time together. The tribute, which is available to view as an online link as well as PDFs, can be viewed here.

"This collection of tributes, anecdotes and observations on Mullick has been long in coming. Finally, a nucleus of those present at the 2008 Ogilvy Alumni meet, in Mumbai, resolved to get the project going again. A group comprising of R Sridhar, Farida Sabnavis, Anil Uzgare, Roda Mehta, Suguna Swamy and a few others got down to work. What follows is their collective effort. It reflects the sentiments of Suresh’s friends, wide-eyed admirers, and fellow countrymen who were his colleagues at S H Benson and Ogilvy & Mather over a span of 38 years," says S R (Mani) Iyer in the introduction. Iyer was the former managing director of O&M and Mullick’s long-time partner.

"The amazing thing is the outpuring of contributions from all who knew Suresh. He was a writer, art director, artist, typographer, cameraman, musicologist of exceptional talent in all genres, humanist and an irreverent and brilliant wit- so I guess his genius touched everybody he met in some way or the other," commented Suguna Swamy, creative consultant, Ogilvy & Mather, Chennai.

Those who have contributed to the tributes include Anvar Alikhan, S R (Mani) Iyer, Ranjan Kapur, Piyush Pandey, Suguna Swamy, R Sridhar, Geeta Rao, Kailash Surendranath, Vijay Bhat, Prasoon Joshi, Louiz Banks, Farida Sabnavis and Madhukar Sabnavis among others.