‘Net’ loss to offline traders of Holi songs

PATNA: On a sultry Monday afternoon, 28-year-old Sunny sat idle awaiting buyers of Holi CDs and DVDs at his Bakarganj store. He would once attend “a swarm of customers” in the run-up to the festival of colours. “Online streaming and downloads have written an obituary of sorts of the offline music trade,” he complained.Four shops away, Rahul showed Holi discs lying unsold at his shop. “In this era of 4G when almost everything is available online, the sale of music albums has nosedived. The scenario will further worsen if you go by the current trend,” he regretted.The year 2017 so far has been a “ghaata wala saal” for the likes of Sunny and Rahul, who have lost 80% of their business. Till, say, five years ago, they sold 5,000 and odd Holi CDs and DVDs a day. Now, they hardly sell 100 pieces.‘Holi ke din dil khil jaate hain’, ‘Holiya mein ude re gulaal’, ‘Rang barse bheegey chunar waali’, ‘Jeeja ee kaun phagua’, ‘Dharti kahe pukaar ke’ and ‘Overload pichkaari’, among others, remain “timeless chartbusters”, but they are now downloaded, not sold.MBA student Shreya, in town to celebrate the festival with her family, says the fact of downloads from legal or illegal file-sharing websites is old news. Online streaming is the in thing. “I wonder why people still waste money on CDs and DVDs when they can download from and listen to and watch songs online. From ‘Holi aayi re Kanhaayi’ and ‘Mal de gulaal mohe’ to ‘Balam pichkaari’ and ‘Go pagal’, I can play any song within seconds on my smartphone or laptop,” Shreya told TOI.Unlike Shreya, however, old-timers find it difficult to embrace the all-digital age. For, most of them are, what they call, “technologically backward”. An excited yet nervous Krishna Singh, whose daughter gifted him a tablet recently, said it would take some time for him to learn the ropes.“I am planning to do away with all my purana Holi cassettes and CDs that have been gathering dust in a box for long. Now, I do not have to worry about storing my favourite songs safely,” said the 62-year-old, happiness writ large on his face.BHOJPURI SONGS: THEN & NOW: Holi, once part of every second or third Hindi movie, seems to have been edged out of the Bollywood productions now. Bhojpuri cinema, on the other hand, uses elements like ‘masti’, loosening of constraints and unabashed flirting to sprinkle the screen with a splurge of Holi colours.“Drivers, rickshaw pullers, domestic helps and others pay anywhere between Rs 100 and Rs 200 to get Bhojpuri discs and DVD players on rent during Holi and other festivals. Many a time, college students participating in folk dance competitions also buy CDs and DVDs for the purpose,” said Ricky, who has been running a cassette-CD shop on Boring Road for three decades.The obscenity offends old-timers no end. “I remember dancing to the beats of Holi songs, including Bhojpuri ones, in my school and college days. They evoked multiple feelings – ‘milan’ (union) and ‘birha’ (seperation) or ‘sukh’ (joy) and ‘dukh’ (grief) – simultaneously,” sexagenarian Krishna Singh reminisced, ruing people’s choices have now changed for the worse. Many others wondered why the authorities concerned look the other way when these vulgar songs sell or play.