Where is the protest?

A stray Twitter thread brought attention to what many are calling a missed opportunity A few days after the music of Ranveer SinghAlia Bhatt starrer Gully Boy released to rave reviews about its representation of Mumbais underground rap culture twitterati were discussing how the song Azadi a 2016 mashup by artiste Dub Sharma of Kanhaiya Kumars rousing speech at Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University JNU in 2016 has come back in a watered down versionLines related to Bhrahmanvad and Manuvad Sanghwad Se AzadiArre Poonjivad Se AzadiArre Samantvad Se AzadiArre Brahmanvad Se Azadi have been removed In an interview with Anupama Chopra in which she questioned the films lead actors Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt about the controversy over the missing lines the actors had a response that has attracted even more criticismWhile Singh said Im pretty apolitical Bhatt said As actors we are here to make movies be a good person and hopefully not run in with the law Is Gully Boy then just a vanilla version of Mumbais rich rap culture which has artistes question everything from demonetisation to why we dont have the right to eat what we want Four musicians from across genres plug in their earphones and offer us their verdict of the films soundtrackUrge to change society is missingSambhaji BhagatDalit activist and lok shahirI have heard the films music laughs Its very nice It has a sense of creating a change in life Theres a certain mentality that gully boys in Mumbai have Unka ek sochne ka tareeqa hota that has come through in the songs What is missing however is the urge to change society But this is cinema and the motto of cinema is to entertainRap originated in the West from a people who had been ignored and boycotted This form of music was their own voice By the time it came to India it was already an old form We lost the point behind it Rock for instance was also protest music but later its meaning got diluted Even street theatre ended up becoming about safaai karo machchar hataoGully Boy lyrics react to life in the zhopadpatti When you go through that life I have the reactions are strong But because these people have written the rap for a film its commercialised Where the gully boy had no voice earlier they do now I welcome the movie and the songs for this But yes the protest that should have been there is missingPicSayyed Sameer AbediRich actor cant do poverty rapRAKTamil rapper from AndheriThe soundtrack takes you through the journey of a Mumbai underground rap artiste For instance in Sher Aaya Sher by Divine you get a sense of a man who has made it and feels like a lionDivine did poverty rap and talked about that struggle but how can someone who was born rich Ranveer get a sense of that slang The vocals neednt have been been done by Ranveer Singh they could have given another rapper that platform but I understand the decision mustnt have been easyYet Azadi disappoints The real rally slogans by Kanhaiya Kumar are missing The songs barely touch political issues They dont look at government an atmosphere where you cannot express yourself or eat what you want Mumbais gully rap is about tackling social issues Look at Swadesi hip hop band their latest song is about the destruction of Aarey and its tribals The songs should have had that representation which they dontI rap in Tamil and some of my songs focus on how the government is forcing Hindi in South India I also talk about Pongal which is not a recognised holiday everywhere in the country even though Mahavir Jayanti is How is that fairNo talk of division communalismMayank SaxenaFounder of Morche Par KaviI listened to Apna Time Aayega and Meri Gully Mein I loved both songs I found them cool because I was not expecting anything revolutionary but the songs do talk about the aspiration of a guy from the slums They talk about the deprivation and aspirations that someone from the fringes have faced Whats close to Mumbai slum rap is that the lyrics also talk of the struggle of their parentsBut all songs cant represent all discourses No song in the album talks about division or communalism For instance Aamir Shaikh of Bombay Lokal who has been featured in the movie has written songs about fascism communalism His rap also talks about the murders of MM Kalburgi Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar and Gauri Lankesh His most recent track is on love jihad These are clear songs which give a voice to the struggle a person is facingAzadi in its original version was a compilation of slogans raised in JNU by Dub Sharma It used to be my ringtone for a year and at that time as a journalist I was accused by my colleagues of being antinational But in the movie they have played it safeThe truth is that this makes the release of the film easy However the argument is that making cinema is an expensive business and whats the point of making something if only a few people see it or engage with it These must have been logical concerns for the makers So the Gully Boy makers have pushed the envelope a little bit but stopped short of saying anything that would prevent the film from releasingCovers Indias rappers not state of the countryKabeer ShakyaPoet and member of rock band Dhamma WingsThere are a few arguments here I have heard Apna Time Aayega and what the movie as it seems from the songs is doing is to present Mumbai or Indias rap culture It does little else Its only going to be about rappers in our country and not what is going on in the countryFor instance theres a line nahin mere baap ki yeh khud ki kamayee hai reveals more about the diss culture in which rappers take each other on through their music than anything elseIf one looks at the real rappers of the country they tackle casteism and politics For instance when the BhimaKoregaon incident happened in Pune a few rappers I know went and performed at the protest That is how rap is used At TISS where I was once felicitated I talked against casteism our life getting stuckyour casteist mentality always skwe will eat what we wantwe will speak words we wantwe will free all the women that you dont wantWe are Indians so we will fight The movie is a big platform if real issues had got represented it would have been goodIts not completely apolitical however There are a few lines desh sudharega nahin for instance There is a comment on politics in the line par woh har nukkad pe comment hota hai Jingostan is good Thode issues cover kiye hain but its not clear what and who is being addressed here Of course one will get a better sense after seeing the movie and we must keep in mind that this is a commercial filmCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates