Chasing Mirages Musical Experiement

Janam Amolak or Chasing Mirages” is a musical inspired by the poetry of 16th-century Indian saint Dadu Dayal. The film conveys an artist’s struggle for meaning in this modern world through a fading art form of Indian folk - Behrupiya (Impersonator). Salim Behrupiya who played himself in this film recalls “Our father didn’t want us to be a part of his legacy as an impersonator and made us settle in different professions but since our childhood, the audience, the reactions, and the laughs attracted us and somehow we all became “Behrupiya”. The incidents depicted in the film are real incidents shared by multiple impersonators. Almost seven thousand Impersonator lives in the Indian state of Rajasthan and continuously faces livelihood problems forcing them to leave this folk tradition. On the other side, Dadu’s poetry speaks about the futility of our desires and often argues to look inwards for fulfilment than the external world. In one line he writes - Our mind is like a deer chasing mirage in this world, seeking only what one desires.