Assamese artiste dies in poverty

GUWAHATI, FEB 5: Mohan Barman, more popularly known all over Assam as Mohan Bhaira, (bhaira in Lower Assam parlance is a comedian), who lived for exactly 100 years entertaining the rural masses with his drum and peculiar antics, passed away on Tuesday in abject poverty. He breathed his last in his native village in Koihati in Nalbari district.

A recipient of the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Mohan Bhaira was accorded a public felicitation in Guwahati only a fortnight ago on the occasion of Shilpi Divas, the state artists’ day, following which he fractured his right leg and had to be hospitalised. Last month he was in the news when Koihatir Dhuliya, a film on his illustrious life and on the “dhuliya” art form of Assam, which was screened at the International Film Festival of India, drew wide acclaim.

Mohan, who came from a poor family, picked up the traditional Assamese dhol at the age of 12. He not only made it his way of earning a livlihood, but also trained a group of young men who wentaround rural Assam entertaining. The drum-beats and his antics, comic dances and social farces entertained crowds, but hardly brought him enough money to subsist. However, Mohan refused to give up. His contribution towards preservation of the age-old art of the “dhuliya”, however, attracted the government’s attention and he was selected for the Akademi award 20 years ago.

He was forced to pull along in his old age with a sum of Rs 1,500 a month which the Assam government offered him since 1995.