Band of politics

A few days after the grisly gang rape of a student by six men in Delhi last year, Rohit Sharma, member of the Mumbai-based band Swaang, called up fellow band member Ravinder Randhawa and told him that he felt a sense of responsibility towards what had happened. “Mujhe lagta hai un che main kahin na kahin hum bhi shaamil the (I feel that even we were among those six),” he said.

What followed was a compelling response to the gang rape. “We decided to write a song because we all felt a sense of collective responsibility,” says Randhawa, a screenplay writer, who has worked on the movie Aarakshan.

Un che main shaamil tum bhi the,
Yeh kaam toh hai humdardon ka.
(Even you were amongst those six,
This is the doing of well wishers)

These powerful lines from Maa Nee Meri implicate not just the rapists but everyone who has validated and perpetuated the culture of rape.

Swaang, a motley group of actors, writers, music directors, musicians and producers working in the Mumbai film industry, was formed five years ago. The collective now has to its credit about 15 songs, some of which use the work of revolutionary poets like Paash and Gorakh Pandey. The band takes it name from a folk form of theatre prevalent in northern India that uses songs and dialogues. The band mixes narration (poetry) and music and hence the name Swaang. They first entered the spotlight after the release of Maa Nee Meri on SoundCloud and then YouTube last December.

One of its members is actress Swara Bhaskar of Tanu Weds Manu and Listen Amaya fame. Both Ravinder and Swara were students of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and were actively involved in theatre during their university days. At a concert at JNU recently, many students who had not heard of Swaang before warmed up to them immediately. The song Lazy Lazy Legs, a sardonic take on armchair activism, got a roaring applause.

“In many ways, Lazy Lazy Legs is reminiscent of my days at JNU,” says Randhawa. “We’ve all been part of those drunken nights where we debate endlessly on issues only to carry on with life as usual the next day. That’s how the line ‘lazy lazy legs leke hum jaye kahan’ came about.’”
Asked if singing progressive songs meant the group is left-leaning, Swara is quick to agree. But three other band members — Sharma, Pankaj Badra and Randhawa — don’t. Sharma, a professional music composer, says his father was in the CPI (Marxist) and Badra, an actor from Shimla, was a part of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI). While they all have had some initiation in left-wing philosophy, they assert that they follow different ideologies but agree on the basics. “We may not necessarily be defined as Leftists, but we won’t ever write a communal song or something blatantly pro-rich,” says Randhawa.

And how do they take out time from Bollywood for their progressive politics?
“Maa Nee Meri was a guerrilla work of art because of the time, effort and money we put into it. It was a completely independent effort,” says Bhaskar, adding that the group finds it easy to find time to jam together because they are friends.

The band feels that while Mumbai may not have as vibrant a protest culture as Delhi, the city’s been very receptive to Swaang, especially after Maa Nee Meri.

Listen to Swaang's Maa Nee Meri: