Mann of the moment

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 26

His late father, Bhagwant Mann recalls, wanted him to be a doctor, but Mann made the switch to the commerce stream. However, “the artiste in me would keep me restless”.

An opportunity to showcase his talent came in 1989 when Government Shaheed Udham Singh College, Sunam, launched a talent hunt for a zonal youth festival. Playing the role of a newsreader, he presented a bulletin in rib-tickling style and thus began the stage journey of Bhagwant Mann.

The first breakthrough came three years later with his song “Gobi de kachiey vaparne, alooan de bhar sanu tol na”. It was a parody of a popular song of Sardul Sikander. There was no looking back. “My college principal Sulkhanmeet Singh, who helped me at every step, allowed me to accompany artistes abroad,” Mann recalls. “But my examination was round the corner and I took my books along.”

“His focused determination shines through in everything he does,” says his mother Harpal Kaur. “He will do what he wants to, no one can overawe him.”

He had a tough childhood, she reveals. “He had to undergo a number of surgeries and at the time of birth was acutely underweight. A Bengali doctor suggested some home remedies which proved effective and he survived,” she says.

Mann’s village Satoj in Sunam remained under Left influence from 1950s to 1980s, and that could explain his “verse-full narrative” to challenge the powers-that-be. He was 13 when his father, a mathematics teacher, asked him to look after farming besides attending school. “My daily routine was to take and bring back the tractor from the fields,” he says.

“Even then, for all of us in the joint family, he was the best source of entertainment,” says his only sister Manpreet Kaur.

The extensive use of rhyme and rustic wit has been Mann’s defining motif for long. He made ample use of it in the recent Punjab elections to attack the ruling Akalis, improvising the lyrical folk verse “kikli”. It became AAP’s campaign signature and a rage; Mann on his own addressed 374 rallies.

But why politics for a successful comedian? “It was in 2010, as I was writing a script with a political theme when a thought came to my mind that for how long would I be doing just comedy shows. I saw no political party suitable to join because I had taken potshots at all,” he says.

When Manpreet Singh Badal raised the banner of revolt against the Badals, Mann joined him and addressed a rally at the launch of Peoples Party of Punjab at Khatkar Kalan on March 27, 2011. “I went to Canada and USA to mobilise NRI support. On May 14, I was coming out of Chicago airport when I got a call that my father had passed away in Ludhiana. It was the most difficult moment as he was also my best friend,” says Mann.

“That evening, we had planned a rally-cum-show in Chicago and people had turned up in big numbers. Though I was in grief, I didn’t cancel the show. Back home, I requested DMC doctors to convince my mother that the body be preserved. I returned two days later to perform the last rites.”

The following year, he contested the Assembly election on the PPP ticket from Lehra (Sangrur), “got a large chunk of votes, but lost”.

“Due to pressure built by the ruling party, the telecast of my shows was stopped,” he says. “As life had virtually come to a standstill, I spoke to Abhey Sandhu, nephew of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, to take part in Anna Hazare’s agitation. I made a speech loaded with wit and satire and that was the first day I shook hands with Arvind Kejriwal.”

On February 22, 2014, he says, he again met Kejriwal and spoke of merging PPP with AAP. “He told me that Manpreet was not agreeing to it. Manpreet was inclined towards the Congress.”

Mann says he told Manpreet he could not join Congress “because I have been speaking against it loud and clear”. The two parted ways.

A few days later, Manish Sisodia asked him to contest the Lok Sabha election from Sangrur, which he won.

“It was a coincidence that my first audio cassette was recorded on May 16, 1992, and on May 16, 2014, I became an MP. From Sangrur, I went straight to Khatkar Kalan (Bhagat Singh’s village) and put the certificate at the feet of his statue. That day I decided to go to Parliament wearing a turban of ‘basant’ colour.”

When Mann was suspended from the Lok Sabha, payments for which he was entitled as an MP were stopped. “I had to take permission from AAP to hold shows abroad to make some money,” he says.

Besides politics, his other passion is radio. “I can’t live without listening to it.” Mann is also an avid sports follower. “In fact, I also wanted to be a sports commentator,” he says.