death of a real performance artist. jaspal bhatti passes away

Jaspal Bhatti's  death in a car accident comes as a real shock.  Looking at all the news coverage I am not at all surprised to see  that he is not seen  as what he really was. A real Performance Artist. One of the earliest in the  Indian Art Scene. Someone not confined to the closed spaces of the Art World.

 His 'performances'  were events to remember and  they made an impression  on the Street. He connected  to the common admi - the Mango people as they are now being called. And he did it through humour they could connect to. Humour that he used  in all the mediums  he worked with. Mediums that are being used to define him within their own fields. TV star, Film maker. etc.

It was his politics that I admired. A politics that he used humour to project.A politics that took on the politics of the professional politicians.

I doff my pagri .


Popular comedian and film director Jaspal Bhatti, who touched a chord with the masses with his humorous take on problems plaguing the common man, died when his car rammed into a roadside tree in the wee hours of Thursday.


http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/comedian-jaspal-bhatti-dies-in-road-accident/article4030079.ece?homepage=true

Bhatti was known for floating his political parties during elections to highlight the problems faced by the general public.

In 1995, he floated the 'Hawala Party' delighting passers by with his original poker faced takeoff on growing political corruption in the country which was already a hotly discussed topic in the context of the Jain-Hawala Diaries.^[8]

In 2002, Bhatti announced that he is starting the "Suitcase Party" & released his manifesto alloting 5 seats to his family & more seats to be decided based on the suitcase size of the prospective candidates^[9]

In 2009, the comedian announced that he is floating the "Recession Party" & Bhajna Amli, alias Gurdev Dhillon, as his party's face from the Ludhiana. In his trademark satirical style, he kept his party's symbol as opium, drugs and alcohol for which he claimed that there will be no shortage of supply if his party is voted to power.^[10]

India’s leading media critic Amita Malik says of him: "Bhatti has the correct style for TV, an understated, quiet humour which sinks in without shouting, and which mercilessly exposes both corruption in our every day life and the typical people, who thrive on it. The grim fact and the hard truths of our society so bitter otherwise are made so funny through the adept handling of Bhatti, that cleansing laughter is created out of common malpractices."^[11]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaspal_Bhatti