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After being silenced by a life-threatening illness at the peak of a promising career in classical music, Pt. Kumar Gandharva retreats to the quiet environs of the sleepy town of Dewas in Madhya Pradesh. Much later when he storms the classical stage in the early 1970s with a powerful and unique expression of Kabir, we know that the seeds of this were sowed in his consciousness in his years in Dewas. This fiercely nirgun Kabir that speaks through Kumarji’s voice is initially met with suspicion and scorn by many, as it challenges fundamental assumptions of the category of ‘classical’ and indeed of the ‘spiritual’ itself.
In this episode from the film Koi Sunta Hai, we travel to Dewas to find the kind of folk voices that Kumar Gandharva may have heard during his illness in Dewas. We meet Kashi Ba, a fruit seller who embodies the wisdom and songs of the nirgun tradition with great panache. A pattern starts to emerge, between Kabir, Kumar Gandharva, and singers like Kashi Ba - a fiercely independent nature, an urge to question convention from within the tradition, and the eternal quest to forge a personal bond with the universal.
Interweaving the folk music traditions of Kabir with the life and music of the late classical singer Kumar Gandharva, the film Koi Sunta Hai searches for that elusive sound, that ‘jhini si awaaz’, Kabir urges us to hear. Where does it resonate, that subtle sound? Journeying between folk and classical, oral and written, rural and urban expressions of Kabir, the film finds moments of both continuity and rupture between these disparate worlds.
Koi Sunta Hai is one of 4 films on Kabir made by Shabnam Virmani, filmmaker, singer and part of the Kabir Project, located at the Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology in Bangalore, India. Write to her at thekabirproject@gmail.com. View the film at www.cultureunpl..., and get DVDs of the film at www.amazon.in/d....
Film Credits -
Camera & Direction: Shabnam Virmani
Script & Editing: Shabnam Virmani & Rikhav Desai
Editing Support: Aarthi Parthasarathy, Parmesh K
Direction & Production Support: Smriti Chanchani & Rumah Rasaque
Songs by Pt. Kumar Gandharva, Vishnu Khuprao Deshmukh “Kabir Baba”, Babulal Ranaji, Vidya Rao, Shubha Mudgal, Prahlad Tipanya, Dhulichand
Music of Kumar Gandharva licensed by HMV & Inreco
Sound Mixing: Fireflys Post Sound, Mumbai
Research & Concept: Shabnam Virmani & Tara Kini
Still Pictures of Kumar Gandharva: Avinash Pasricha
Motion Graphics: M M Pradeep
Poetry Translations: Linda Hess, Shabnam Virmani
Advisors: Linda Hess, Ashok Vajpeyi, Vidya Rao, Purushottam Aggrawal, Tara Kini
Financial Support: Ford Foundation, New Delhi
Produced by: Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology, Bangalore
Collection: Kabir Project
Year of Production: 2009
This is one of a series of uploads for Ajab Shahar, an upcoming webspace featuring songs, images and conversations around Bhakti, Sufi and Baul poetry from India and thereabouts, currently under construction by the Kabir Project team. www.ajabshahar.org, www.kabirproject.org