As the government’s irrigation scheme goes seriously wrong and drought sets in, villagers revitalise a musical tradition of mystical love in search of alternative forms of survival.
Bio: Surabhi Sharma studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, and made her first film in 2001. She completed a BA in Anthropology and Psychology from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai University. Attached material:
- Trailer of the current project
- Showreel: Trailer of three films
- Film: Jari Mari (DVD)
Synopsis:
Bassu Khan lives in a village named 1 PB, a dot on the map of the shifting sands of the Thar desert, Rajasthan, India.
P stands for Pugal, one of the oldest villages in the area. B stands for the branch that gets water from a grand canal. 25 years ago the government pushed the dream of ample water to a people used to an arid landscape. It was not a mirage but a shimmering line stretched across the dunes, the biggest irrigation scheme in the world. The state made pastoralists and nomads settle down in clusters to cultivate farms surrounded by miles and miles of sand dunes.
Bassu Khan belongs to a community of Mirs, traditional musicians who sing the sufi poetry of 17th century poets. They are witness to devastated economies brought on by flawed policies and destructive developmental remedies. With irony and grace they describe the harshness of their lives. The system sees them as poverty affected and offers road building as a livelihood, jobs that will make them incapable of playing musical instruments for months. Defeated in the desperate clamor for these jobs they have begun turning to music and poetry, their traditional livelihood. They have begun music camps where older musicians rehearse and pass on music to youngsters. They are preparing for a series of concerts in the area.
The film begins with musicians struggling to reclaim their music, and ends with a contemplative gaze on the music blowing through the stark landscape.
TREATMENT:
The landscape burns white in the afternoon. I sit in the cool, dark shadows, in a mud hut with thick walls, listening to Bassu Khan, Nazre Khan and Abdul Jabbar make extraordinary music.
Bassu lives in a village named 1PB. It is a dot on the map of the shifting sands of the Thar desert, India. Bassu belongs to a community of Mirs, traditional musicians who sing the Sufi poetry of 17th century poet-saints.
P stands for ‘Pugal’, one of the oldest villages in the area. And B is short for ‘Branch’ that gets water from a grand canal. 25 years ago the government pushed the dream of ample water to a people used to an arid landscape. It was not a mirage but a shimmering line stretched across the dunes, the IGNP, the biggest irrigation scheme in the world. The state made pastoralists and nomads settle down in clusters to cultivate farms surrounded by miles and miles of sand dunes.
The story of water in a desert unfolds parallel to a community trying to reclaim their dignity and identity through music.
Bassu opens a thick notebook crammed with handwritten lyrics of Sufi poetry (Qalams) by 17th century poets. Qalams of divine, mystical love set in the backdrop of the splendorous desert light. Bassu belongs to the community of Mirs who have inherited this rich legacy of music through generations. Not content with the repertoire available to his elders, Bassu diligently tunes the radio and fills the pages of his register with the Qalams of Baba Farid aired on Radio Pakistan. Pakistan celebrates Baba Farid, India seems to have erased his memory.
Another couplet is sung describing the bounty that the desert can offer in spring. These songs are sung amidst a description of the harsh summers in the desert. Conversations flow out of a song, a comment could lead back into another song. The landscape comes alive through this flow. And gradually the life of a community that revolves around the absence of rain and prolonged scarcity, gets detailed.
Walking along a path next to a branch of the canal carrying water to villages, Abdul speaks of everyday life. The eternal wait for meagre rain is a living memory for generations of pastoralists in this sandy terrain.
As the nomadic shepherds were ‘re-settled’, dependence on the canal became a way of life. The cropping patterns are new - cultivating crops that need more water has become routine. Traditional bushes that grew wild and whose leaves could be cooked when food supplies were low have almost disappeared. When water is not released into the canal because of politics or scarcity, the villagers are gripped by a drought like situation.
Bassu sings Baba Farid’s words, oh brown cloud, bless our region with rain and life. His uncle plays the bagpipe, Abdul accompanies on the tabla. They are classified as ‘drought affected’. Poverty alleviation programmes kick in. Families manage to get one, maybe two members, to work for minimum wages, building roads, a job that will leave Abdul incapable of playing music for months.
Abdul and his community decided to opt out of these schemes and try and go earn money through their music. There is a hectic preparation of a series of concerts that the musicians are organizing, after months of being in a music camp meant for the elders to practice, and for youngsters to learn.It is not easy, given the severe money crunch all around. This is the only way of keeping the music alive, and of ensuring the livelihood of a people.
On weddings or market days when huge number of people would congregate the day would end in the Mirs giving a call with their bagpipes. The men would gather around and form themselves into a circle and dance the Jhumar. There are accounts of 50, 100 men dancing like water on the sands of the desert, through the night. This tradition seems to have withered away. People like Abdul, Nazrein are trying to revive this beautiful tradition.
Riyaz is their nephew, a powerful singer and inheritor of this soulful music. He was amongst the most enthusiastic participant of the music camp. Some interest was generated with the music camp, and the older musicians have been invited for programmes with decent monetary benefits. Riyaz is getting restless, the younger musicians have to wait their turn. He would rather move out to the city and try his luck there, even if it means leaving behind his music tradition to embrace popular music that has no history, and one that demands that he eschews his distinct identity.
As the waters in the canal run dry again, will Riyaz leave for the city? Will the other musicians have to go back to road building?
Music in a village named 1PB from surabhi sharma on Vimeo.
Centuries old music in a desert village without a name, only a number. Nomadic shepherds were made to settle down in numbered clusters on the banks of a grand canal. Some villagers struggle to keep their music alive, a few are desperate to move out to the city, to popular music without history.
Filmography:
Jari Mari: Of Cloth and Other Stories is a feature length documentary film that seeks to understand the process of ‘informalisation’ of Mumbai’s work force, and focuses on the lives and work of women in the extensive but largely invisible garment industry.
The film won awards at Film South Asia, Nepal; Karachi Film Festival, Pakistan; and The Festival of Three Continents, Argentina
The film was screened at the New Asian Currents, Yamagata and was a part of the Travelling Film South Asia package.
The film has been screened extensively at many European and American Universities, Museums and Foundations.
Aamakaar (The Turtle people), completed in 2003, is the story of a fishing village community’s struggle to retain control over its local natural resources.
The film was awarded the first Ramsar- Medwet Award at Eco-Cinema, Greece and was awarded at the Indian Documentary Producer’s Association.
The film was screened on YLE, Finland.
Above the Din of Sewing Machines (2004) portrays the lives of women in Bangalore’s garment industry.
This film was funded by Oxfam-India.
The film was used extensively by European and American campaigns against sweatshop production of branded garments.
Jahaji Music: India in the Caribbean, was completed in 2007.
This film was made possible with a grant from Prince Klaus Foundation.
This was the opening film at SIGNS, Kerala. It was also screened at the Singapore International Film Festival.
This film has been screened extensively at American, Canadian and European Universities.
Pregnancy, Prescriptions and Protocol. (2008) documents a remarkable community health programme run by a hospital in a tribal area in south Gujarat , India
Notes from a Global City Bangalore
This film was funded by the EU and Oxfam India
The film is being used extensively by European and American campaigns against sweatshop production of branded garments.
Bidesia in Bambai, (Work in progress) got research funding from Ford Foundation India.
Surabhi Sharma has directed and scripted fiction telefilms and Science Programming for children.
She is also a guest lecturer at the National Institute of Design and at the Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Science.
LINKS OF PREVIOUS WORK:
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