UP’s Famous Folk Singer Malini Awasthi Lashes Out At Sanjay Leela Bhansali And Makers of Mirzapur For Defaming Poetry And Singers
The strong and loud voice of Malini Awasthi, a famous singer from UP, resonates across the country. Whenever she comes on stage, her voice mesmerizes the audience. Malini Awasthi is a well-known face of the Bhojpuri industry. She has taken folk songs to great heights in her voice. 57-year-old Malini sang the song ‘Sundar Sushil’ in ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’. Apart from this, she has sung songs for Bollywood films like ‘Bam Bam Bole’, ‘Agent Vinod’, ‘Ishq’. Now Malini has taken a class of directors who made web series like ‘Mirzapur’ and ‘Heeramandi’.
Malini Awasthi
Malini said about the web series ‘Heeramandi’ and ‘Mirzapur’, “We grew up thinking that where the sun does not reach, the poet reaches there! But today on the OTT platform, poets and artists, with what perspective are they being shown! This is a very serious subject. Be it Mirzapur or Hiramandi… everything is far from reality. What can be said about the story, the imagination, but it would not be right to remain silent on what has been shown here. No artist and no poet should remain silent in the face of this insult going on in the name of fiction. It was not enough to tell the baseless story of crime under the guise of carpet, defaming Mirzapur, the pilgrimage of Maa Vindhyavasini, that now the art world has been entangled in this filth.’
Malini Awasthi
She further said, ‘In the third season of Mirzapur series, the poet has crossed the limits of indiscipline and vulgarity in the name of poetry under the guise of the distortion of society, not only this, he is also a murderer, a heartless poet who considers murder justified! Similarly, in Hiramandi, a cheap character has been served in the name of Ustaad who is a market maker. I thought that Sanjay Leela Bhansali understands art, but does he really understand it!! The Ustaads who spent their lives in brothels while training these singers, used to make them practice for years, teach them, make them work hard, and sacrifice their lives to make these singers reach the top. Only then could a star emerge, but in the eight-hour long series, not a single courtesan was seen learning to sing, nor was any Ustaad seen training.’
Malini Awasthi
Malini was born on 11 February 1967 in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh. She is now 56 years old. She graduated from Bhatkhande University, Lucknow, and is also a gold medalist in Hindustani classical music. After this, Malini again won a gold medal in MA in Modern History from Lucknow University. She was a student of Padma Vibhushan Vidushi Girija Devi, the great Hindustani classical singer of Banaras Gharana. Apart from Bhojpuri, Malini also sings in Awadhi and Hindi languages. She also presents Thumri and Kajri. The Government of India has awarded her Padma Shri in the year 2016 for her contribution to Bhojpuri music.
