A 29-year-old Mumbai artiste questions the government's actions that contradict the promises it made, with his debut music video that's creating abuzz online
Aamir Aziz
Shots of a guitarist on the skywalk near Bandra station dissolve into those of kids at the Mahim mela. Then, a minute into Aamir Aziz's debut music video, the grimmer frames creep in — communal violence, Gauri Lankesh's murder and lynching in the name of the cow. This is followed by frames of PM Narendra Modi.
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And some of the accompanying lyrics are, "Jaanwar ke bahaane qatl kiye gaye insaan hain/Aur kehte hain Dilli mein aise bahaanon ki ik bohot badi khaan hai [Human beings are killed for the sake of animals/ And they say that Delhi has a quarry of such excuses]." The message is clear, and comes at a relevant time.
Stills from the video of his latest release Achhe Din Blues
Surprisingly, the folksy Achhe Din Blues isn't the project of a budding musician, but an outlet for Patna-born Aziz who quit his engineering job to move to Mumbai to become an actor two years ago. And picking up the guitar was a result of him wanting to do more than shout slogans at protests he would participate in as a student in Delhi. "The number of lynchings rattled me. People were authorising themselves to kill others. I wanted to be literal about it because you don't require a metaphor to feel the irony and horror of it," explains Aziz.
Stills from the video of his latest release Achhe Din Blues
But speaking out also invited a backlash from the right wing, visible in the comments the video has received since its release last week. "The fear of people finding out your identity and being pulled up for no reason is there. And just my name would be sufficient. People might say, 'He's biased because he's a Muslim writing these songs.' But it's the truth. I'm just trying to put forward the irony of the numbness that has spread," Aziz concludes.
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