Balladeer with many a cause

With over 17 awards and an all-India release for a film based on his life, you'd expect celebrations. But then Lokshahir Sambhaji Bhagat, the inspiration behind the character of the upright activist-singer Narayan Kamble in the Marathi film Court, is not just any folk performer, who is swayed by success.

While the film — for which he is also music composer, lyricist and singer — plays out in cinema halls across the country, this balladeer is more concerned about the increasing attempts to curtail freedom of expression in cinema. "This is not only happening in India but across the world," says Bhagat contemplatively.

Bhagat, who uses Maharashtrian folk tamasha as a medium, focuses on the oppressed lives of the marginalised in his powadas (ballads). "My music is derived from the lives of common people. I travel to the hinterland, spend time with people and understand their issues."

His brand of protest music shoots the message straight from the lip; his songs question exploitation and aim at provoking the audience to rise against 'the man'. The lyrics reflect the conversational tone in which his audience speaks and thinks. His song from Court, Know your Enemy, is the best example of Bhagat's brand of lokshahiri:

Time to know your enemy/ Time to know your enemy,
Tough times are here/We're uprooted from our soil,
The era of blindness/Has gouged our eyes...
The good ones are forgotten/ Good for nothings are praised,
The enemy is all destructive/Yet we sing his praise,
Time to know your enemy/Time to know your enemy

For the fiery critic of the state, the call to the people to rise against injustice and loosen the clutches of materialism that distract from real issues is what forms the staple of his music. It is this power of artists like him that prompts the state to label them as "terrorists" and a "threat to the nation" — exactly what the film itself depicts through the arrest of Narayan Kamble, a folk singer who is incarcerated on charges of sedition.

Bhagat, born in a Dalit family in Mahu village in Satara had earlier done a stint with the RSS. However, he was always associated with communities like the Matang caste, the Varkeri sect, etc., and their music while growing up. But it was in 1980-81 after he joined the Avahan Natya Manch that he became familiar with Communist ideology. His political activism as a lokshahir soon began making him a formidable voice in the social revolution in Maharashtra. However, today, the state stares at a vacuum in leftist politics, and the activism too faces a dearth of voices, with Bhagat remaining among a few working for the movement.

Bhagat is delighted that a film like Court — which has echoes of the same ideology and shows the persecution of activists like him against the backdrop of an indifferent legal justice system — has gained acceptance from every section of society, and national and international recognition.

"That a film like Court, which gives voice to those who have always faced oppression, is being accepted by the audience is a huge victory for the film," he says.

Mulling over the positive audience response, he adds, "A viewer too has a conscience. But these days, people chase superficial things. This superficiality has made them lose touch with the truth out there. The honesty that Court was made with and the realism in it has got the audience to grow fond of it… A film like Court will compel the audience to think."

Post the success of the film, the artist, for whom the movement matters more than medium, says he will be wherever he is needed — be it the slums of Mumbai, an adivasi gathering or the silver screen.