ABSTRACT
In the early wintry days of January 2020, as the streets of Calcutta were bustling with regular protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens-both draconian political moves stripping migrant refugees of their ‘citizenship’- the author set out to find out about the enigmatic kobiyaal Anthony Firingi. The last gleam of the setting sun on the Hooghly hastened the onset of dusk over the quiet provincial town except for the news of unrest around the country blaring from televisions in the neighbourhood. In the 1980s, the boom in low-cost audio and video technology allowed several regional, marginalised performers and performance genres to gain access to media channels and new audiences. Several empirical and theoretical studies have focused on film audiences and the affective role of music in films. Jostein Gripsrud distinguishes two trends in the study of film and film audiences.
