A dash of sarcasm, a hint of humour, a short jig and a flash of anger. These are some of the ingredients of videos — skits and songs — content creators, working for different political parties, have been using to reach out to the relatively younger voters. The idea is for voters to consume their content, and drive their narrative in Telangana’s native tongues.
To add to the allure, local stars such as Adnan Sajid, the actor who essayed the role of the bumbling gangster Gullu Dada, and Aziz Naser, who played the role of Jahangir, a neighbourhood impish wise guy in the wildly popular The Angrez, have been roped in. Interestingly, both appear to be on different sides of the political spectrum.
It is the quintessential matchmaking scene. Mr. Naser, wearing pink sherwani, wishes to snatch a few minutes away from the family meeting to speak to his potential bride only to be interrupted by her terrorising father Ishrat Ali, played by D.C. Srivastav.
Thus begins the premarital interrogation on the man’s political awareness. The show of one-upmanship ends with the prospective groom checkmating the father of the bride as he retorts: “Pichhle dus saal ka kaam dekho aur aakhaan kholo [open your eyes and see the work that was done in the last 10 years]. Needless to say, he wins the girl’s heart. Then comes the Bharat Rashtra Samithi punchline: “Humaara kaam hai humari pehchaan, car [BRS election symbol] hai apne Hyderabad ki shaan”.
It isn’t just the BRS that has employed literary devices such as humour and sarcasm. The Congress has jumped on the bandwagon too. A lorry driver, played by Mr. Sajid, in a video shot along a highway sings with his cohort: “Khheton mey dhhaan ugaane waale/Shehron mey rickshaw chalaane waale/Seenon pe apne goli khaakar CM tum kumko banaae waale/Bhul gaye na Anna bhul gaye na”/ marchipoyavaa nuvvu maaripoyava” [Those who grow rice in the fields, those who drive rickshaws in cities, those who took bullets in their chests and made you CM, you have forgotten them haven’t you Anna. Have you forgotten, have you changed?]. Anna here is a reference to Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao. The Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project, the now closed Nizam Sugar Factory and the Singareni Collieries find a humorous mention.
While humour and irony are present, parties have not shied away from the serious issues. Another video is more sombre. A woman wearing a hijab asks: “Ye rojanna mammalni vote bank lekka kakunda manushulu lekka chooshila?” [Did you ever see us as human beings, you only saw us as vote banks] and maintains that riots and curfews were commonplace in the past. She then proceeds to say her vote is for Telangana Chief Minister “Maa KCR” [Our KCR].
