BENGALURU: It’s a busy Sunday evening on Church Street, with people jostling for space as they flit between the various shops and cafes. And it is outside one such shop at the beginning of the street that 22-year-old Mohammed Shakeel sets up his musical corner, complete with a Yamaha F310 guitar, amplifier and microphone.
Come 7 pm and the honks of cars fade into the background as Shakeel’s softly-sung Bollywood tunes fill the air instead. A little further down, Raja Krishnamurty and Arun V M occupy a spot outside the Metro station as they give people passing by a taste of Latin American and tribal African music with their ukulele and djembe. While this is the scene on Sunday, if you visit the lane on Saturday, you are likely to find Rahul Kondi sitting on the steps outside Blossom Book House with typewriters and sketchpads. Strike up a conversation with him and you might earn yourself a custom-made poem as well.
But why are these artistes taking to the streets? Explaining the concept of busking, Kondi, a user experience designer, says it is a practice of performing arts in public spaces. “Art shouldn’t be kept behind walls, that art is not sought but encountered,” adds the 25-year-old, who busks at Blossom Book House every Saturday and is joined by a group of three to 10 others. “I first considered doing this at the airport but it was too overwhelming. Instead of giving up, I decided I’d start with a familiar place — Blossom Book House on Church Street,” he adds.
A popular concept in many countries, busking seems to be slowly making inroads at home too, and Shakeel, Arun and Krishnamurty claim to have started doing this only three or four weeks ago. The idea, says Krishnamurty, was to introduce a new concept and use public spaces as a platform to do what one loves. Agrees Arun, who adds that spaces like Rangoli – The Metro Art Center charge Rs 6,000 a day but public spaces don’t have any such strings attached. “We aren’t begging or using our talent to collect funds. We just want to do what we love and maybe inspire others too, particularly from lower income backgrounds, to also find a place to express their art,” he says. While Krishnamurty is a full-time performance artiste with a band called Agnii, Arun is an engineer who often joins Krishnamurty during his weekend performances.
For Shakeel – a digital marketer who wishes to pursue a two-year music production course at Nathaniel School of Music – the idea came from Allie Sherlock’s YouTube videos. The Irish teen shot to fame with her public singing, inspiring Shakeel to try the same. While the aim is to just sing, the funds he earns through his performances – Rs 13,000 in the past two weeks – help him pay his rent and support his younger brother too. “I’m also trying to collect funds for the music course, which is around
Rs 2.7 lakh,” he says.
Audience response, Shakeel adds, has been good, with close to 15 people always stopping by to hear him sing. Krishnamurthy Kukkikatte, a retired government employee, who chanced upon Shakeel’s performance said the musician couldn’t have found a better spot to do this. “Talent needs to be encouraged. I’ve seen street performances in Montreal, Quebec, Brisbane and San Francisco before, so it’s great to see it here in Bengaluru too,” he adds. The sentiment was echoed by students and residents of Koramangala Nishti B and Daiti B, who believe they have now found a new excuse to come to Church Street again.
Permission pangs
Though largely appreciated by most passersby, these artistes claim there have been instances where police authorities or security officials of establishments around have shooed them away. During CE’s visit, a guard from a hotel on the street had rudely asked Krishnamurty and Arun to move a couple of metres away from the establishment. Shakeel’s performance too was interrupted by a police personnel who said the gathering crowd was obstructing the flow of traffic on the street. “We like listening to this music too but the artistes need to get the right permission in place for this,” he said. While Kondi says he hasn’t faced any such issue, both Shakeel and Krishnamurty now plan to do the needful in order to continue playing on Church Street.