Chal Chitr: Ek Chann-Channata Safarnama¹

Pehla Padav ²

Concentric circles 

stare at me,

from the pits 

of venerated hollowness 

of the camera lens. 

I run from shutter clicks 

that construct my waist and hips

with an authoritarian yearning 

of personified perfections,

a delusion inherited 

in the trauma-bonded culture 

of the colonizer’s tricks.

Dusra Padav 

Chalte Chalte ³  

I chanced upon 

Mangeshkar’s mellifluence 

making me 

dervish dance 

to the 

metaphysicality of Pakeezah’s 

ghunghroo. 

Teesra Padav 

Concentric circles 

spinning me into lost times,

suspended

in Geeta Dutt’s frolic and verse. 

Tabdeer se bigdi hui 

meri taqdeeer ⁴

delivered me into 

the plasma 

of Guru Dutt’s 

black and white universe. 

Chautha Padav  

(My) self swelled 

stepping out

of hallucinatory item songs, 

that made my body metamorphose 

into Tandoori Chicken ⁵

for the erratic pleasures 

of drunken men. 

(My) breath berated 

the four cornered glass 

with no knobs or axe 

to cut through 

the captured closet 

of heterosexual talkies.

(Mirror’s) burning blaze

charred my shedding skin 

melting the cages of kaanch ⁶

as I finally found 

myself 

in the “Fire” ⁷

of desirable representation. 

© Radhika Pradhan, 2024

Notes 

 1. “Chal Chitr” is literally translated to a moving picture. In most Indian homes, people did not used the word cinema.               Rather, they used the phrase – let’s go for a picture. The title alludes to this cultural colloquialism. “Chann-Chann” is           the sound of the ghunghroo. “Safarnama” is literally translated to a travelogue.  

2.  First stop in the journey.

3. “Chalte Chalte Yun Hi Koi Mil Gaya Tha” is a song from the movie Pakeezah (1972). The song was written by Kaifi Azmi              and sung by Lata Mangeshkar. The song is performed in the movie by Meena Kumari (Pakeezah), whose ghunghroo is        mentioned later in the stanza. 

4. “Tabdeer se bigdi hui” was sung by Geeta Dutt in the movie Baazi (1951). Directed by Guru Dutt, Baazi is one of his                marvels.

5. This line alludes to the song “Fevicol Se” from the movie Dabangg 2 (2012). This is an item song performed by Kareena         Kapoor Khan in which she is found comparing herself to Tandoor Chicken, asking the men to consume her with                 alcohol. 

6. Hindi/Urdu word for glass. Meant to be broken glass.

7. Fire (1996) is India’s first sapphic film directed by Deepa Mehta as part of her trilogy (Fire, Earth, and Water). The film          stars Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das.