Hummingbird News Desk
KOLKATA, 1 JULY: An elderly man, who was seen playing violin on the streets of Kolkata recently, was honoured by the Kolkata police. Commissioner of Police has gifted him a violin and assured him to do something for him so that he can maintain his livelihood decently.
Community Policing Wing of Kolkata police has also assisted him financially.
Bhagwan Mali, a resident of Malda was seen playing violin in Kolkata streets. He and his wife Sarita arrived Kolkata to take care of his then-pregnant daughter, got stuck in Kolkata due to lockdown imposed for coronavirus. With no place to stay and no work at hand, he did what fed him throughout his life, played the violin.
A 2-minute video which was shared in social media, went viral.
The musician has recreated classic Bollywood songs such as Diwana Hua Badal from the 1964 movie Kashmir Ki Kali and Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh from Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai. The user who shared the video wrote, “Watch this old man’s talent from Kolkata.”
Posted on Monday, the video has garnered over 87,300 ‘views’, along with thousands of ‘likes’ and ‘retweets’. Along with the video, the user, Arif Shah, said, “He’s an artist who is struggling and was entertaining people in Kolkata during the lockdown.”
Sharing the information, music director Savvy Gupta wrote, “His name is Bhogoban Mali, he resides somewhere around Girish Park what I came to know..,One-time help won’t work for these artists if someone can do something for the long run that will be a real help I guess. Not only for him for all the talented artists like him.”
Film director and MLA from Barrackpore, Raj Chakraborty and the Kolkata Police took notice of him and appreciated him.
The Kolkata Police tweeted their appreciation for Mali. Soumen Mitra, Commissioner of Police, met Mali and gifted the violin. “Meet Mr. Bhagwan Mali, who is a very talented musician. Few weeks ago, a video of him playing his violin in the city streets, had gone viral on social media. Last week, he was financially assisted by our Community Policing Wing. CPkolkata gifted him a new violin,” the tweet read.
Mali and his wife, who still reside under the Posta flyover, look forward to finding a house in Kolkata. Mali is all praises for Kolkata Police as he never imagined of receiving such appreciation when he was stuck in Kolkata due to the restrictions.
Several users shared the video, praising the musician’s talent. Many viewers even asked if there was some way to extend help to the struggling artist.
Image Courtesy:#KolkataPolice & Internet
Tags: #Violin #Instrumental #KolkataPolice #BhagwanMali