Miss Use
A Survey of Raunchy Bhojpuri Music Album Covers

Public Performances to Recording Studios

In orthodox folk cultures, performing for public entertainment is looked down upon as an undignified practice by the upper castes and women are especially shunned from these spaces. The vast repository of women songs therefore remained absent form the public domain for very long. Professional troupes that perform for public entertainment consisted largely of lower caste men. For example, the ‘birha’ (a popular narrative song tradition) is performed largely by the ‘Ahirs’ (low caste cowherds). Even ‘nautanki’ (musical folk theatre) performances consisted of lower caste all-male troupes with women’s roles being played by men in drag. However ‘nautanki’ troupes were drawn from different castes and across religions. In time even women became part of these troupes.

The ‘nautanki’ is a free form entertainment act. It was in these ‘nautanki’ performances that culturally subversive trends began. The ‘nautanki’ became a secular and democratic space where religion and caste lines were freely transgressed under the spell of heady entertainment. It also became notoriously famous for its raunchiness and ribaldry. It was in these permissive forums that traditional songs of sexual expression first started to take on taboo connotations as subtlety and caution was thrown to the winds.

This male monopoly over public performance was broken around early to mid 1900s when women from the ‘mujra’ (song and dance performed by female courtesans) tradition entered the ‘nautanki’. The ‘mujra’ that originated in Mughal courts and then moved to the ‘kotha’ (mistresses’ house) has been a waning tradition since the patronage of the kings and feudal lords disappeared. After the adoption of the Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act in 1959, many prostitutes and ‘nautch’ (dance) girls, forced to leave their profession, joined the ‘nautanki’ troupes. These ‘tawaif’ (courtesan) women, well schooled in the arts of singing and dancing, thus became successful ‘nautanki’ stars.

#4. BHOJPURI MUJRA This album title directly refers to the ‘mujra’ tradition that merged with the ‘nautanki’ and became the precursor to the raunchy Bhojpuri music album.

Raunchy Comes to Town

#5. BALAM PARDESIYA     #06. SHAHAR KE TITLI #07. RUPAIYA BOLELA BHAI These three albums tell the story of the migration of Bhojpuri men to cities where they encounter a different value system. #05: ‘Balam Pardesiya’ (Beloved Immigrant) is an album with songs about lust and longing for the lover who has left for the city in the train. #06: ‘Shahar Ke Titli’ (City Butterfly) refers to the fickle urban woman. #07: ‘Rupaiya Bolela Bhai’ (Money Talks, Brother) proclaims the city culture where money rules over values. Featured on this cover is the top model Sushma Reddy in the yellow sari.

Of the various oral traditions that got recorded and distributed, it is the raunchy genre that really took root in the city. Albums with folklore, ceremonial and festival songs, specially the ‘birha’ albums, have languished without a fertile context. Devotional song albums are the only other prominent market category. The sexually expressive genre, however, really came into its own in the metropolis.

Since the urban Bhojpuri demographic comprised largely of single young adult male wage labourers, it was their tastes and needs that have largely dictated the market trends. The young Bhojpuri man in the city, indulging in his new found social and economic independence, was more prone to demand the raunchy album as he explored taboo ideas and chased big city dreams. For the Bhojpuri youth, this sexually energized media, in his native dialect, became a force against the alienating emanations from the giant city hoardings featuring sleek models and bold English text. At the same time, these albums also connected him to the city culture of unlimited desires and uninhibited craving.

The raw raunchiness of the Bhojpuri songs has even caught the fancy of people outside the diaspora, their sexual themes being of universal appeal. It is this genre of music that has now come to define the migrant Bhojpuri culture in the city.

The other reason that has pushed a rich folksong tradition into a predominantly sleazy genre is the B-grade rating of the vernacular media in the city. Vernacular media often shares the same space in cities as the peripheral entertainment industry of cheaply made porn films, horror flicks, cheesy music albums, pirated foreign films, etc. This B-industry shares a common pool of talent and facilities - music arrangers, editing studios, publicity designers, etc. – and hence the rub-off was inevitable. Also the production budgets and distribution channels automatically align the Bhojpuri music album with Malayali porn film on the shelves of small music shops in informal city markets.