Theatre director, actor, and writer Devroop Sharma’s powerful Aadmi Bada Achha Hai joins the work of dissenters who are using poetry to get an urgent message across to anyone who cares to listen. At a cafe in Mumbai, he recites in Hindi, “He lies very firmly, every lies seems to be true; so what if he is a little inhumane? He is an innocent child. Par aadmi bada achha hai (But he is a very noble man).”
It becomes clearer in his next stanza (video above), whom Sharma is targeting: “He comes once every five years, decorates new dreams, he amuses us all through his poetic mannerisms, buries the past under the carpet, wins our trust, also the elections, and then goes absconding for the next five years. Par aadmi bada achha hai.”
Sharma’s light, biting tone layered with sarcasm and contempt works well in the performance produced by UnErase Poetry. The pleasant background music, coupled with his superficially enthusiastic performance, theatrics in place, offers a contrast to the scathing criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The criticism touches all possible spheres: Modi’s foreign travel, demonetisation, cow-worship, the Jan Lokpal Bill, Hindu-Muslim divide, intolerance, hyper nationalism, and self-promotion – and of course, the promise of “Achhe Din”.
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