Mumbai's underground Bhojpuri music scene

There’s a concert taking place in Nallasopara, Mumbai — there’s a stage, lighting, speakers and a few thousand people in the audience. The songs sung are of home, of living in a strange city and of the perils of migration and the singers voice merges with the the audience as they sing along.

These scenes are part of a new, about-to-be released documentary, Bidesiya in Bambai, that is looking at highlighting how music is helping the Bhojpuri community in the city find a sense of identity. “Bhojpuri musical performances have become a space for these migrants to talk about complex issues and make themselves visible in a city that doesn’t want to see them,” says director Surabhi Sharma, 40, a documentary filmmaker.

The stars
Unaware to a city that is at constant war with its migrants, Bhojpuri music is a steadily thriving industry that is constantly releasing new VCDs, albums and CDs and spawning new singers and making stars out of ordinary people. The music is produced and recorded in small studios. The bigger stars are called for concerts all over the country while the smaller ones —  from taxi drivers, garment workers to bus conductors — can be found entertaining small groups within Mumbai. Bidesiya in Bambai follows the life of two singers: a taxi-driver chasing his first record deal and Kalpana, the star of the industry.

Bhojpuri music in the city is more of the popular kind, broadly divided into holy songs, risque songs with heavy sexual undertones, and songs that talk about migration (of people going away). Sharma’s film begins with a taxi driver narrating how migration is the focus of many songs but now includes references to a mobile phones.

Even though there are many Bhojpuri singers — the biggest name right now is Kalpana Patowari — majority of them are male. The performances are largely attended by men and are very interactive, involving a lot of banter with the audience. People cheer and yell, there is a lot of recording happening on mobile phones and there are constant calls for encores.

A migrant’s city: 
Sharma’s interest in Bhojpuri music began during her work on her 2008 film Jahaji Music: India in the Caribbean. She has spent the last three years researching Bhojpuri folk music, research that has taken her from a taxi colony in Bandra to under-construction buildings in Nallasopara and Andheri. She has attended concerts held in slums, in single-room houses, on open grounds and during the Chatthh Puja.

It was during her research that the Bhojpuri migrant’s city became visible to Sharma and locations started imposing themselves on her recordings. There was a show in Thane, in a new slum settlement, where local leaders kept trying to boost people’s spirits. “Bhojpuri musical concerts are usually held during difficult times..it’s a way of mobilising support and telling people that things will be all right,” she says.

In Andheri, Sharma filmed a top Bhojpuri singer who was recording an album in her studio at Adarsh Nagar. The place was once the centre of the Bhojpuri music and video production before it was demolished. Despite these setbacks, the music continues.

Music, so central to Bhojpuri culture helps the community connect and create a presence in the city. It is about making themselves visible but with an aggression which would explain the huge turnouts seen during the concerts. There’s no sloganeering, radical speeches or political overtones in the music, and even when the attacks began against the North Indians, the focus remained unchanged.  

Bidesiya in Bambai is as much a story about Bhojpuri music as it is about a constantly churning city. At times the music is the hero, at times the city. It is a look at Mumbai through the lens of the migrant worker and his music.

“Their music is all around us,” she says. “We just have to look hard enough.”