JOIN USPoem penned amid CAA protests released ahead of Bengal polls
When protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) had reached their full throttle in 2019, Bengali actor Anirban Bhattacharya wrote a poem to show solidarity with protestors.
The poem, which was recited by him at a few events, finally got released as a protest video after facing a lockdown-related delay.
The video, titled Nijeder Mawte Nijeder Gaan (Our Opinion, Our Song), is collaboration with theatre director Subhadeep Guha and colleagues from the industry. The video was recorded earlier in March, according to a report by The Indian Express.
The video opens with white bengali font on a black screen that transalate to reiterating that India is a place of love and togetherness and lies and hate will be met with dissent.
Released on March 24 on the Citizens United Facebook page, the video went viral on social media, amassing over 1 lakh views in an hour on its Youtube channel.
With polls approaching in West Bengal, the significance of video is much greater.
“We are under no illusion that a song will change anything. At the most, it will inspire a few people temporarily. Our song is not just against the BJP, it’s against the machinery of fear they have deployed,” Bhattacharya told the publication.
The National-award winner Riddhi Sen and Rwitobroto Mukherjee directed video also takes on burning issues like rising fuel prices and the Babri Masjid verdict by showing newspaper headline-snippets.
“We are at the brink of a crucial election in West Bengal. We have seen actors in the state, who are active members of political parties, change colour not out of any political philosophy that they might believe in but for their own benefit; we have seen actors in Mumbai mime the central government’s lines when they tweeted in protest of Rihanna speaking up for our farmers. There’s a general feeling that actors are spineless in India, and, perhaps, that’s largely true. But the culture of protest still thrives in Bengal,” said Sen.
The line “Ami onyo kothao jabona, ami ei deshetei thakbo (I am not going anywhere, I am staying put in this country)” is a retort to the narratives of “Urban Naxals”, “anti-nationals”, or "go to Pakistan" that protestors are frequently faced with.
Among the prominent Bengali artists making appearences in the video are Rudraprasad Sengupta, Arun Mukhopadhyay, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Anindya Chattopadhyay, and Parambrata Chatterjee.