After Bhuban Badyakar of Kacha Badam fame, it is the turn of ‘Guava Dadu’, a yet-unnamed man, to have his moment in the sun. A recent video of him singing and selling guavas is trending and netizens are drawing parallels between him and Badyakar.
“Yeh Hari Hari, Kachchi Kachchi, Peeli Peeli, Paki Paki, Meethi Meethi, Gaddar Gaddar, Taaza Taaza, Namak Laga Ke Khaj Khaja,” the man is heard singing, as he tries to attract buyers.
The 27-second video was first shared on YouTube and then made its way to Twitter and other social media platforms.
Looking deeper, using music to sell wares is nothing new for the salesmen of Bengal, at least on screen. In Tarun Majumdar’s Sriman Prithviraj, Rabi Ghosh sings Haridaser bulbul bhaja (composed by Hemanta Mukhopadhyay and sung by Tarun Banerjee) to sell dalmoot.
Next, in the ever-popular comedy Bhanu Pelo Lottery, Bhanu Bandopadhyay sings Putul nebe go putul to sell figurines of Netaji, Chittaranjan Das, Vivekananda and others.
Then, in the 1963 classic Akash Pradeep, starring Bhanu Bandopadhyay, Biswajit Chatterjee, and Sabitri Chatterjee, among others, a character sells paan singing, Nin na, ekta paan nin naa, babu.
While this is not an exhaustive list, this filmi strategy of attracting customers through songs seems to have taken hold in real life too, with the likes of Badyakar and ‘Guava Dadu’ benefitting. Here’s hoping we get to hear more such musical sales pitches from the people who need it the most.