Vile Parle rap cypher features in documentary Unreleased

Every Saturday evening, rappers gather at Dubhashi Ground in Vile Parle to perform verses shaped by the neighbourhoods they represent.

The Vile Parle Cypher is the subject of *Unreleased*, a documentary by Mumbai filmmaker Imran Shamsi that began streaming on YouTube in August. Founded by Kuldeep Jaswant Singh Chandaliya, who performs as Deep/Psy, the open freestyle rap and hip-hop community has held about 70 cyphers.

Chandaliya says he started the gathering after he and others struggled to find space and visibility at sessions elsewhere in Mumbai. “We began this cypher because whenever we attended sessions across the city, we didn’t get any priority,” he says. “Our videos wouldn’t be recorded or posted.”

A ground-level stage

At the Vile Parle sessions, performers are filmed on smartphones and their videos are posted on the collective’s Instagram account, @vileparlescene. Participants have travelled from places including Assam and Nepal to take part.

The documentary follows performers whose verses address work, family, uneven opportunities and the places they come from. Some participants work as gig workers or daily-wage labourers, and the cypher gives them a live audience and a way to share their work beyond their neighbourhoods.

Shamsi, who runs the cultural media platform STRT91, first came to make a short Instagram video and stayed for eight hours. He says the performers’ accounts of setbacks in their lives, rather than rap bravado alone, held his attention.

Identity in a pin code

Performers use their localities as identity markers. In the documentary, Shamsi describes this as a way to represent the problems and pleasures of an area through music.

The film also follows Chandaliya as he deals with his mother’s illness. One of his lines is: “Here, homes are sold to buy a mother’s medicine.”

Shamsi plans further screenings of *Unreleased* and hopes to develop a series featuring rappers from across the country. He says the title refers not to an unfinished work, but to voices that have not been heard.