Bhupen Hazarika: The Roving Minstrel

When Bhupen Hazarika sings, you can hear the voices of the lonely boatman on the Brahmaputra, the women picking tea leaves and the joyous rhythms of Bihu. For the last fifty years Bhupen Hazarika has worked ceaselessly to use his music as an instrument of social change, introducing Assamese culture to the rest of India and taking it to the world. Singer, lyricist, composer, film-maker and journalist, Bhupen Hazarika’s creative spirit has moved through myriad fields. But at heart he remains an eternal ‘jajabor’, the dreamy-eyed nomad, wandering the land singing of the hopes and dreams, the sadness and joys of common people.