Popular radio jockey (RJ) Malishka on Thursday released her new song mocking potholes on Mumbai roads, comparing the streets to the moon’s surface. Two years ago, Malishka had released a song on similar lines, ‘Mumbai, tula BMC var bharosa nai ka ’ (Mumbai, don’t you trust the BMC), which went viral and earned her the wrath of the Shiv Sena, the ruling party in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
In 2017, Malishka, who works as an RJ with a private radio station, released a video that criticised the state of the city’s infrastructure during the monsoon. Shiv Sena corporator Kishori Pednekar released her own version to counter the song.
In her latest video, Malishka is dressed in red as a married woman waiting for the moon to rise on Karva Chauth. She is seen performing a puja for the potholes, comparing them to the moon (or moon’s cratered surface). She has used several Bollywood songs referring to the moon. The song has notched up over 22,000 views on YouTube so far.
This time round, though, the Shiv Sena is dismissive of the song. Sena leader Yashwant Jadhav said, “We are not paying attention to her. We will continue working for Mumbai.”
At the beginning of the season, BMC commissioner Praveen Pardeshi had invited Malishka to the Disaster Management control room to show her how much work had been done towards monsoon preparedness. This does not seem to have deterred the release of the new video, though.
Meanwhile, the BMC released another app to report potholes. It tweeted on Thursday, “Mumbai, we’ve found a ‘hole’ — some solution to pothole woes! See a cavity? Report it with the new MyBMC Pothole Fixit app which identifies its location & keeps you updated on the resolution of your complaint. Together, let’s smoothen the road to progress.” A few months ago, the BMC had said citizens could file complaints about potholes on the MCGM app 24/7 or send WhatsApp messages to civic engineers in all wards.
