Bashir Momin Kavathekar


Lokshahir Bashir Momin Kavathekar, popularly known as B.K.Momin or Momin Kawathekar is a Marathi language poet, writer from Pune district of Maharashtra. He was conferred with the 2017-18 Vithabai Narayangavkar Jeevan Gaurav Puraskar by Government of Maharashtra for his contribution in the field of folk art, literature and culture.
He has been closely associated with Maharashtra's traditional form of theatre Tamasha for almost 50 years– supporting the various Tamasha Troupes by providing them with folk songs like "Lavani", "Gan Gavalan", "Bhedic" and short plays called "Vag Natya". He has acted in dramas and short plays. For the last two decades, he has been mentoring young generation of artist/performers. His use of folkloric narrative styles has helped in popularizing and making his work understandable & accessible to common man & communities.

Biography

Early life

Kavathekar was born in March 1947 at Kavathe Yamai, a small village in drought prone western Maharashtra; to a Muslim weaver family. The village has a legacy of various artist performing ‘Jagaran Gondhal’, ‘Bharud’, ‘Tamasha’ . As a kid, Kavathekar has grown up watching these artist perform at village functions, during their rehearsals prior to the stage- shows and hence, his interest grew gradually.

Education

Kavathekar has completed his education from a Marathi Medium school. Due to non-availability of the higher secondary school in the village, all the students from the Kavathe has to walk to a village ‘Loni-Dhamani’ located 10km away. Due to health issues, he gave up the school after completing the 9th standard and started helping his family in the business.

Professional life

Kavathekar has written his first song at the age of 11 years. This song was presented in his school function and received appreciation from the audience. This encouraged him to continue & explore his writing skills. At young age, he joined the Tamasha troupe of ‘Gangaram Kavathekar’ where he got exposure to the expectations of the rural audience, their preferences for entertainment and the difficulties faced by artist/troupes/operators. He performed on-stage roles in short plays. During free time, he used to pen down couplets/ short folk songs/ Lavani etc. which were sung on the Tamasha shows. However, his folk songs & short plays received appreciation from audience and his work become popular amongst the rural areas. Popularity of his songs earned him fame and various Tamasha Troups/Operators started flocking down to Kavathe to obtain new songs/ Vag Natya. He got associated with the other Tamasha Troupes such as ‘Kalu-Balu Kavalapurkar’, ‘Raghuveer Khedkar & Kantabai Satarkar’, ‘Aman Tambe’, ‘Lakshman Takalikar’ and ‘Datta Mahadik Punekar’. However, he never charged any royalty/ fees from these Tamasha operators for the songs/lyrics or Vag Natya he used to provide them. With the advent of Television/ Radio/VCR/ Cable, the Tamasha as a ventures started to face difficulty due to dwindling earnings. During this phase, he worked on digitalization options and came up with couple of Musical Audio Albums. He also guided many Troupes/ Owners to adapt the new technological changes for marketing purpose
. He has also written songs for the upcoming Marathi Movie "VIP GADHAV" which features noted comedian Bhau Kadam aka Bhalchandra Kadam as lead actor

Accomplishments

Kavathekar has written more than 4000 folk songs which were /are being used by local artist over the years. His collection of songs include a variety such as ‘Lavani’, ‘Gan’, ‘Gavlan’, ‘Poems’, ‘Devotional Songs’, ‘Songs on social issues/ reforms’. His use of folkloric narrative styles has helped in popularizing and making his work understandable & accessible to common man & communities. He has written a Play/ Drama based on historic incidents/personalities.
He has written short stories/ street plays/ songs on the social subjects like ‘Praudh Saksharta Abhiyan – National Literacy Mission Programme’, ‘Gram Swachchta Abhiyan – Cleanliness Drive by Govt’, ‘awareness about AIDS’, ‘ill effect of Dowry’ etc. and presented/performed them across rural Maharashtra.
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Drama

Some of these were also performed / broadcast on the Radio from All India Radio/ Aakashvani Kendra, Pune.

Awards and recognitions

Kavathekar' formed a small troupe who performed street plays as part of awareness campaign against social evils like prevalence of dowry, epidemics like AIDS, blind following of superstitions & resulting exploitation. He actively participated in the various initiatives of Government like ‘Praudh Saksharta Mission / National Literacy Mission’, ‘VyasanMukti Abhiyan - campaign to minimize addiction of alcoholism’, ‘Gram Swachchata Abhiyan - a predecessor of ‘Swatch Bharat Abhiyan'. As a recognition for his contribution to the social cause, he was honored by Government with ‘Vyasan Mukti Purskar ’.
He formed and headed an organisation of folk artist with objective to work for their development. He tried to address the issues such as scholarship for the children of artiste, Pension for the elderly artiste and pursued with Government Agencies to ensure the pension funds are released on time. He used to organise health check-up camps for the folk artiste in the Pune District. He advocated for documenting the contribution of folk artiste so that the art and culture is preserved and made available to next generation.
For the last two decades, he has been mentoring young generation of artist and performers thereby aiding in the development of the art and preserving the traditional art forms prevalent in Maharashtra culture