JALANDAR: Themed on Iqbal Bano’s rendition of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s ghazal ‘Hum Dekhenge’, a song has been produced in Punjabi and Tamil. In Punjabi, it has been titled Hai Sada Haq (it’s our right) and in Tamil, it is Nee Ajanthey (fear not).
What is more remarkable that even the Punjabi version has been sung by two Tamil singers – Vedanth Bharadwaj and Bindhu Malini.
In the 4.24-minute song, images and video footage of farmers’ protest, including those when they were crossing barricades, have been used.
Uploaded on YouTube by Vettiver Collective, the song is a ‘Justice Rocks’ initiative by #Madrasis4Punjabis, a hashtag created to convey solidarity from the deep south of India to protesting farmers from Punjab and Haryana. The producers said, “We share your pain and resonate with your concern…”
Nityanand Jayaraman, a freelance journalist who conceived this idea, said that they wanted to convey a message of solidarity from people of Tamil Nadu to the farmers of Punjab and wanted the latter to understand.
“We feel very strongly that the protesting farmers are correct in demanding scrapping of farm laws. It is also being projected as if it only concerns Punjab, the farmers are Khalistanis or terrorists. This is very dangerous way to deal with the people who have difference of opinion and are protesting. It does not affect just farmers of Punjab, but farmers of Tamil Nadu also. In fact, farmers of Punjab are speaking out for the farmers of the entire country,” Jayaraman said while speaking to TOI over the phone from Chennai.
“Their protest has touched our hearts and we felt that rather than doing in the form of a letter, it should be done as a song. We also thought that people who are protesting may not understand English or Tamil and then decided to translate and sing it in Punjabi,” he added.
He revealed that he spoke to young Tamil songwriter P Kadirmozhi who agreed to write the song in Tamil. “She did her own research about the farmers’ protest before penning it,” he said. “The song was then translated into English by Kavita Murlidharan and then into Punjabi by Rivi Ghuman who also helped the singers in proper pronunciation with her voice notes and also explained the meaning,” Jayaraman added.
“What amazed me was the discipline the protesting farmers have showed. They showed courage, tenacity and then their commitment to remain peaceful even as they faced negative propaganda also. We wanted to tell the farmers that their protest has reached far south,” he said.
Explaining his reason to associate with the project, singer Vadanth Bharadwaj said, “We identified with protesting farmers’ cause and when a protest is backed up with any form of art its reach is better and is more digestible.”
Asked that how they could sing in Punjabi so well, Vedanth said he and his cosinger Bindhu Malini were singing in several languages. “We have sung Kabir and Guru Nanak also. At our performances we sing from Bhakti and Sufi tradition,” he said.