For better or verse
Books of poetry may not be burning up the bestseller charts in India (or elsewhere). But away from literary circles and the printed word, poetry has found several new forms of expression. In the cities, “spoken word” performances are increasingly popular and Preeti Vangani is among the stars of the form. Her performance of her poem Validation went viral on YouTube. While Preeti’s verses are deeply personal, touching on her illness and pain, noted activist Ramneek Singh chooses to tackle violence in his home state of Jammu and the injustice of Section 377 through his free verses in Hindi. Then there are Tamil rappers like the South Dandies Swaraj whose pieces talk about contemporary, urban issues, including sexual violence.
Other traditions of the performance of poetry include ‘Tamasha Theatre’ by noted theatre personalities like Sunil Shanbag and Sapan Saran, who take up classics by Nissim Ezekiel and Dalit poet Namdeo Dhasal and turn them into a power-packed performance on stage, to the accompaniment of much music and histrionics.
And alongside all the new age forms, traditional vocal renditions of poetry continue to exist as well — Sambhaji Bhagat (the balladeer who was the real-life inspiration for the National Award winning film Court) performs Marathi powadas that vigorously take on communalism and sexism. We take a look at all the forms of poetry these individuals are exploring, and find out, if, in the land of Kabir, Kalidas and even Gulzar, poetry is still valued.
FREE VERSES IN HINDI (RAMNEEK SINGH)
Ramneek Singh clearly recalls the moment when he came across the name of a childhood friend on a list of “disappeared youths” in Kashmir. They had studied together in Jammu; the friend had left for Kashmir to pursue his degree, never to return. Ramneek still does not know whether his friend is dead, alive, or has simply “disappeared”. The incident prompted him to write his best-known poem Jhelum. Another of his poems, Samvidhan, takes on the injustice of Section 377. “I don’t think the government has any right to tell me what to do in my bedroom,” Ramneek bristles. “I write poems on conflict, oppression, current affairs — basically anything that gets my goat.”
In 2012, on a trip to Mumbai, he was introduced to performance poetry and began experimenting with free verse. “Performance poetry (was) liberating,” he says. “It gives you a chance to speak your mind, without worrying about rhymes or metres. It is so expressive.” He presents his poetry in Hindustani, because “why not?” “I believe that poetry can be performed as an artiste plays a violin… who are we to draw the line? Veteran poets do not like to acknowledge us because we aren’t conventional. But I think poetry should accommodate every kind of expression.”
RAPPING FOR CHANGE (THE SOUTH DANDIES SWARAJ WAY)
When the members of the Tamil-English-Hindi rap group South Dandies Swaraj tell you that their influences include Jay Z, Kanye West and Eminem and also Ilaiyaraaja, A.R. Rahman and M.S. Viswanathan, you get an idea of the kind of music they create.
Formed about seven years ago when Suresh Agalian Bose (aka Sean), Ranjit Shankar (aka Kushmir) and Rahul Prasad (aka Tamil) passed out of college, the South Dandies have tasted a certain amount of success, being featured in Timbaland Productions and Apache Indian’s show Respect Recycle and having contributed the track Ragamuffin Mix to the film Quick Gun Murugan. For the past two years, they’ve been hard at work on an album called Namma Kacheri (Our Fest, in English).
The South Dandies, however, aren’t just your regular rappers. The themes they choose to rap about include sexual violence, prostitution, poverty, and the struggles of the common man.
Says Sean, “As somebody who has been through, and understands, the common man’s struggles, this is my tribute to them. It’s my way of saying that someone feels their pain. There are some major issues that our society needs to deal with and as a young voice in the country, I try to connect to them with my music.”
While the South Dandies prefer to rap in Tamil (with a smattering of English and Hindi thrown in), Sean says they’ve never felt that the language barrier would limit their audience. “We are very proud to be Tamilians,” he tells us. “If people don’t understand our verses, we explain them.”
The Dandies are also clear about emulating only the positive aspects of rap and hip-hop culture. “We’re heavily influenced by rap, but that doesn’t mean we merely imitate it. There is an assumption that rappers do dope. I find that immature. They (rappers in the West) talk about their lifestyles through rap; I believe we should talk about our problems through rap. We will continue to rap about how we see our city, our people and our country. We tell a story so that things might change.”
PERFORMANCE ART (WITH PREETI VANGANI)
When you think of a video going viral on the Net, you might hardly imagine it to be a rendition of poetry. And yet, that’s precisely what happened when Preeti Vangani, a senior brand manager with a corporate firm, uploaded a video of herself reciting a poem she wrote, called Validation. Within days of uploading the video on YouTube, it clocked over 50,000 views. Preeti, who has been performing her poetry at open mic nights in her free time, was ecstatic. “It was only in 2012 that I discovered performance poetry,” says Preeti. “Back then, you would have 30 people gathering for an evening of poetry, now you’ll find a lot more.”
Preeti feels performance poetry is growing and will be as common as stand-up comedy, and ascribes its popularity to its “unexpectedness” and the fact that “you don’t have to be a student of English Literature to write verses”. Preeti’s poems are deeply personal; if Validation was about what one feels growing up as a woman, then Joint Words chronicles her battle with pain and arthritis. “I do not write for an audience, I write for myself,” she says. “But it is reassuring to find that people resonate with what you go through.” She adds that with at least 10-12 poetry events being held every mSonth, we are “headed towards a movement”. “And of course, the Internet has made poetry democratic once again.”
A DASH OF DRAMA (WITH TAMASHA THEATRE)
For noted theatre personality Sunil Shanbag, performing poetry was not new. He had used poetry workshops to train actors; indeed, performing poetry comprises a major part of an actor’s theatre training. “When we started working on performance poetry, we realised that since poetry has many layers, is so nuanced, you need mediums like word, movement, music or a combination of these three to express it,” says Sunil, who along with Sapan Sharan, has put together a production called Blank Page — 55 minutes of poetry, theatre, movement, with verses written in English, Hindi, Marathi and Kashmiri. The works of iconic poets like Nissim Ezekiel and Namdeo Dhasal are also included among these.
“The poems explore themes such as conflicted relationships, political resistance, identity, and the intense act of writing itself,” says Sunil, and explains why seeing poetry performed trumps reading written verses: “I think any live performance that is well performed, be it theatre, music or poetry, will trump over the written word. Even when a poet is to perform his/her poetry, it gives those words a whole new meaning because of the poet’s interpretation or tonality.”
A TRADITIONAL CALL FOR ACTIVISM (WITH SAMBHAJI BHAGAT)
I have known many bhais in my lifetime. I have seen chota-mota bhais and big bhais. But they aren’t the ones you should be worried about. You should be concerned about the ‘big brothers’, the ones who can’t be seen, who’ve ruined lakhs of lives. These are not simple criminals, they are cultural criminals who hurt all of humanity,” says the feisty activist and balladeer Sambhaji Bhagat, who was the inspiration for the National Award-winning film Court.
Sambhaji has spent 35 years performing his mix of music and poetry at villages and street-sides, to inspire people. He is part of the Kabir Kala Manch, a cultural organisation formed in the wake of the Gujarat riots, to promote an anti-caste, pro-democracy message. He calls the poetry “a need of our times” — and has been imprisoned several times in his attempts to perform it. “It isn’t easy; I have been jailed," Sambhaji admits, then says wryly, “But there is a lot more to write about once you are out of jail. When you go in, it is only then that the best poetry comes out.”