Katha Suno Re Logo (as featured in Anand Patwardhan's Bombay, our city)

Vilas Ghoghre

Anand Patwardhan’s, 1985 film Bombay, our city, tells the dark tale of Bombay’s “development” - the stark disparities, class and caste based discrimination, the uprooting of the homes of the poor - Bombay’s slum dwellers who make up more than half the population. Using real narratives from the field, voices from activists and majdur, it rips the veil of middle class and upper class hypocrisy.

It is the story of the city deserting the very people that have built it. Sounds familiar?

"Is this the law?
That today, because we’re poor, they attack us?
The footpath isn’t ours. It belongs to you. to the government right?
So, get rid of us. Remove us. Push us into some corner.
Then make your Bombay beautiful. Make it shine.”

These lines are uttered by a character in the film as the camera pans through scenes of slum demolitions, and the sordid conditions in which the labourers live. The lines are intercut between Vilaas Ghogre’s heart-rending rendition of Katha Suno Re Logo.

Today is the 23rd anniversary of Lok Shahir Vilas Ghogre's protest "suicide" that followed the police murder of 10 Dalits at Ramabai Colony on 11 July, 1997. Anand Patwardhan has also made his film Jai Bhim Comrade public on youtube. The film explores the murky world of the caste system in India, the Ramabai Colony killings, Vilas Ghogre’s life, activism, his songs and his death, and contemporary Dalit activism including the Kabir Kala Manch. The film can be found here. Jai Bhim Comrade, like all of Patwardhan’s films, is a gritty, realistic portrait of a society that the proscenium of progress and development seeks to hide.

The marathi film Court also uses elements from Vilas Ghogre’s story.

Find below the first few verses of Ghogre’s Katha. Make sure you listen to the entire song, and also the songs of other lok shahirs, and the brilliant Kabir Kala Manch; if for no other reason then to remember and pay homage to Ghogre’s story and his unfinished fight for justice.

Katha suno re logo
Ek katha suno re logo
Are hum mazdoor ki karun kahaani
Aur kareeb se jaano

Bhaiyoooo! Beheno!
Bhaiyo! Beheno!

Apni mehnat se bhai,
Dharti ku hui khudai,
Maati ne beej ko boya
Dharti ko dulhan banai

Paseena humne hi bahaya
Bhoopathi ne khoob kamaya
Saukar ke sud ne humko
Saukar ke karz ne humko

gaao se shahar mein bhagaya

Arre daane daane ko saath jod karke
jeene ki kathinai

Aisa kyu hain bhai?
Kyuki….

ye saamanthi raj hain
khaane ko khana nahi

peene ko pani nahi
rehne ko ghar nahi
pehnne ko kapda nahi

Ye Kaisa Raaj hain Bhai!
Ye Jhoota Raj hain Bhai!

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