Patna girls' 'thumbs down' for Bhojpuri songs

PATNA: Bhojpuri films may be raking in moolah in a big way, but lewd Bhojpuri songs with sleazy and double- meaning lyrics being played at public places have become a source of major embarrassment for young girls and women alike. Songs like "Haili bob cut wali deli patt patt gali …" and "Lagawelu jab tu lipstick, hilela Ara district …" may be favourites among autorickshaw and truck drivers, but are a nuisance for the fair sex.
"I wear a nose ring and often have to face awkward situation when the autowallah deliberately plays the song, 'Sania Mirza cut nathuniya jaan maare li'," says Ritu, a collegian. Apurba Paul, a Patna University student, adds, "Among them the worst I find is 'Missed call mare ta du, kiss debu ka ho'."
"Despite being a Bihari and a Bhojpuri speaker, I now feel alienated with the Bhojpuri culture as people outside Bihar relate Bhojpuri to obscenity," says Puja Kumari, another collegian.
Mala Sinha, mother of a teenaged daughter, is worried. "When I am with her and travelling in an auto, I become apprehensive about her safety when lewd songs are played. In fact, we both take it as an affront," says Sinha who feels the administration should set up separate check-posts to penalize such vehicles.
The city's womenfolk apart, even men fume at the vulgarity being endorsed in these songs. "These songs should be banned as they are akin to blue films," Bhojpuri Academy chairman Ravi Kant Dubey told TOI. He said such films and songs were taking the entertainment industry in a wrong direction. "I have written a letter to the Union information and broadcasting ministry, seeking formation of a separate Censor Board based in Patna for Bhojpuri cinema," he said.
Eminent sociologist Dr Ashesh Das Gupta talked about the ill-effects of these entertainers on the youth and expressed concern over the negative portrayal of the relationship between brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. "The culture in the Hindi belt allows such 'joking relationships'. The makers of Bhojpuri movies and writers of their songs present such relationships with more masala," he said.
Avinash Chandra Vidyarthi, a Bhojpuri poet who has also served as the associate director of Bhojpuri Academy, Bihar, too expressed anguish over "this degradation". Bhojpuri, he says, is the language of love and affection, but now licentiousness has crept in due to these songs. "Earlier, poetry was a mixture of theme and rhyme, but today the poetry in these songs has only senseless rhyme and no theme," Vidyarthi said and, referring to a Bhojpuri song, asked how could a woman's waist be compared with a lollipop.