Imagine a world without the Beatles, cigarettes, Coca Cola or even Harry Potter! This is what Danny Boyle introduces in his new movie Yesterday. The main character Jack Malik (played by Himash Patel) is a struggling singer who’s managed by his childhood friend Ellie (Lily James). Ellie believes in Jack’s talent and is his number one fan. She is also secretly in love with him. The world suddenly goes through a massive electrical glitch that lasts for twelve seconds and causes Jack a traffic accident.
He wakes up realising that the Beatles songs had been wiped out totally from the memories of the people and the computers. He takes an advantage of this situation and starts passing their songs as his own. He becomes the most famous singer in the world but can’t stop feeling guilty.
Moreover, he discovers that his true love is for Ellie and has to fight hard to win her back. The movie is a Rom-Com written for the screen by Richard Curtis, famously known for movies like: Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually. It has all the elements that makes Rom-Coms fun to watch: great friends, a peculiar but supportive family and the eternal message that love does exist and is always around you in different forms.
Along with the rest of the cast, Ed Sheeran did a good job playing himself in the movie. What made me like this movie in particular is the subtle messages that Danny Boyle was sending through it. Even if there was no electrical glitch in the world, would the newer generations know the Beatles? Or understand the message and values passed through their songs?
Moving from one scene to the other, the director kept reminding us of how technology (and the music industry) play essential part in making (or breaking) an artist. Although talent plays a major part in this environment, artists are treated like profitable products that could be disposed once something more exciting comes up. Intensive market researches are done before an album is released to decide the songs, the image of the singer and the cover preferred by listeners.
Another important question that the movies asks: is it okay to re-introduce classic songs through new famous singers?
In the Arab world, this is something that’s been done for ages — and thanks to it — old songs were never lost or forgotten. Thanks to Fairuz, we got to hear songs that were sung in Andalusia more than five hundred years ago. Or songs by Sayed Darwish at the beginning of the last century. Mohammed Muneer — the famous Egyptian singer — used to include either a classic song or a song that came from the Egyptian heritage, which helped to re-introduce or revive those songs in people’s memories.
Even in talent shows on TV, singing something classic is a requirement (though it’s a useful means of introduction to many, yet I can’t help but cringe once they start). But of course, this doesn’t mean that all of the new generation are ignorant of the classics.
Many youngsters listen to classic singers from the forties through to the nineties. Even the teenage girls sitting next to me in the movie were die-hard fans of the Beatles. Whatever song was played — and there were seventeen of them in the movie — the girls would sing along. Even when Jack was getting stuck in writing the lyrics, the girls would cry out the missing words. The movie has a nice twist at the end that I won’t reveal, so that you could watch and enjoy it the way I did.
Rasha al Raisi is a certified skills trainer and the author of: The World According to Bahja. rashabooks@yahoo.com
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