TODAY -
From Manipur protest band comes a rousing 'lullaby'
Gargi Gupta | DNA | New Delhi | Thursday, Aug 15, 2013, 8:48 IST |
"Blood soaked streets/ That's my ground/ That's where I play around/ Sound of gunshots/ That's my song..." So go the lyrics of 'Lullaby' by the Manipuri 'protest' band 'Imphal Talkies' that, since its release in March this year, has become quite a hit online. Ronid Chingangbam, the band's founder, frontman and lyricist-vocalist-lead guitarist, says he's surprised at the response: "I've had people writing to me from all over, from Canada and Sweden, saying they like our music. And here we are sitting quietly in far off Imphal, making music and putting it up on the Internet. It's very encouraging."
'Lullaby' talks about the situation is Manipur: the long-standing insurgency and the army's brutal repression of it, particularly through the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA). Most of the band's songs deal with the experience of living under the shadow of the gun, of people being kidnapped or killed, and women raped. There is anger, of course, in their songs but also pathos and biting satire. An early song is cheekily called 'AFSPA (Toilet session with Netbook and 50RS condenser mike)' and 'Qutub Minar', another huge hit, tells an elaborate story about lifting the 12th-century monument, the icon of Delhi and carting it off in the Assam-Avadh Express to Imphal, in order to place it next to the Samu Makhong sculpture there.
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* This Post is uploaded on August 15, 2013
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