We've got the blues

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.

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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