Dada Lakhmi Chand (1903-1945) was
a famous ragini and saang artist from Haryana. People call
him the Shakespeare of Haryana for his folksongs. He nailed many bitter truths
of the contemporary society. Further, the folk bard, in an oracular manner,
sang about the harsher truths of the coming age also. Kaka Maharaj, who stays
in a hut by the canal, is an ardent fan of Lakhmi Chand’s raginis. So when a movie based on the life and times of the famed
artist was screened at the brand new multiplex in a mall at the town, I offered
to take him for watching the movie.
He hardly leaves his hut and very
rarely goes to the town. But he agreed for the sake of his folk hero. As I
drove him through the town, he found it changed beyond his expectation. ‘It’s a
new town altogether!’ he exclaimed like a little boy. He was stumped by the
swashbuckling mall and still more by the elevators and lifts. It was all
antipodal to his grass hut by the canal. But I think he graced the worldly
set-up with his naked feet.
Waiting for the show to begin he
had tea with a sense of bewilderment. It was a prime seat in the uppermost row.
The movie was about the life and times of the great folk artist—a little
biographical treat. He but had come expecting a full show of his raginis only. He found it meaningless
and funnily dramatized. So he cozily folded himself in the chair and slept
peacefully even among that ear-bursting din in the cinema hall.
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