The Other Song | |
---|---|
Directed by | Saba Dewan |
Written by | Saba Dewan |
Produced by | India Foundation for the Arts |
Release date |
|
Country | India |
Language | English |
The Other Song is a 2009 documentary film directed by Saba Dewan that journeys across Varanasi, Lucknow and Muzzafarpur, India. The film traces the lost traditions and the culture of tawaifs (courtesans of North India), particularly, through a song by Rasoolan Bai, Lagat karejwa ma chot, phool gendwa na maar and its lesser known, earlier version Lagat jobanwa ma chot, phool gendwa na maar recorded in 1935 Gramophone recording. [1] [2]
Saba Dewan spent eight years, researching and gathering information from personal and institutional archives for making The Other Song. The movie went on to become a pioneer in a space where little or no research has been done. The film has a distinctive narrative style and captures rather poetically the story of a tradition and a community lost in history, through interviews with patrons, collectors, musicians and the last of the tawaifs themselves, interspersed with, kothis and musical instruments, galis and temples, that dot the landscape. [3]
The film spans between personal stories as it interacts with historical events, ultimately, leading to the decline of a great art form. Weaving the past with the present, the film shows the downfall of art from and the community during the Indian Independence, as the identity of the country was being shaped more and more by the upper-caste, Hindu ideas about chastity, mother-figure, the Goddess or Bharat Mata. This new identity celebrated by the Indian bourgeois, stigmatized and punished the tawaifs and their art form for being a symbol and an expression of sexuality and eroticism. [3] The narrative balances music and silence through Hindustani or classical Indian music, such, as thumri, dadra and folk songs, the domain of the tawaifs expertise and traces its slow suppression and disappearance by contrasting it with the silence. The silence is abruptly broken in a particular scene where a group of boys celebrating with loud Hindi-film music during an immersion procession, symbolizes the growing masochistic and chauvinistic sense of society and nation that led to the demise of the tawaif tradition as it was a digression from that identity. [4]
Macenet Award ‘Best Documentary’ Busan International Film Festival, 2009 [5]
Owing to India's vastness and diversity, Indian music encompasses numerous genres in multiple varieties and forms which include classical music, folk, rock, and pop. It has a history spanning several millennia and developed over several geo-locations spanning the sub-continent. Music in India began as an integral part of socio-religious life.
Bihu is of three types and it is an important cultural festival unique to the Indian state of Assam – 'Rongali' or 'Bohag Bihu' observed in April, 'Kongali' or 'Kati Bihu' observed in October or November, and 'Bhogali' or 'Magh Bihu' observed in January. The festivals present an admixture of Tibeto-Barman, Austroasiatic and Indo-Aryan traditions entwined so intricately that it is impossible to separate them—festivals which are uniquely Assamese to which all communities of Assam had contributed elements. The Rongali Bihu is the most important of the three, celebrating spring festival. The Bhogali Bihu or the Magh Bihu is a harvest festival, with community feasts. The Kongali Bihu or the Kati Bihu is the sombre, thrifty one reflecting a season of short supplies and is an animistic festival.
A tawaif was a highly successful courtesan, dancing girl or female entertainer who catered to the nobility of the Indian subcontinent, particularly during the Mughal era. Many tawaifs were forced to go into prostitution due to a lack of opportunities by the time of the British Raj.
Mahendra Kapoor was an Indian playback singer. In a long career spanning decades, his repertoire included popular songs such as Chalo ekbaar phir se Ajnabi ban jayen hum dono (Gumrah) and Neele Gagan ke tale (Hamraaz). His name however became most closely associated with patriotic songs including Mere Desh Ki Dharti in Manoj Kumar's film Upkaar. He considered Mohammad Rafi as his Guru. In 1972, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India. He lent his voice to actor Manoj Kumar in most of his films and had a lengthy association with director-producer Baldev Raj Chopra.
Ravi Shankar Sharma, often referred to mononymously as Ravi, was an Indian music director, who had composed music for several Hindi and Malayalam films.
Sabiha Sumar is a Pakistani filmmaker and producer. She is best known for her independent documentary films. Her first feature-length film was Khamosh Pani , released in 2003. She is known for exploring themes of gender, religion, patriarchy and fundamentalism in Pakistan.
Indian classical dance, or Shastriya Nritya, is an umbrella term for different regionally-specific Indian classical dance traditions, rooted in predominantly Hindu musical theatre performance, the theory and practice of which can be traced to the Sanskrit text Natya Shastra. The number of Indian classical dance styles ranges from six to eight to twelve, or more, depending on the source and scholar; the main organisation for Indian arts preservation, the Sangeet Natak Academy recognizes eight: Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Kathakali, Sattriya, Manipuri and Mohiniyattam. Additionally, the Indian Ministry of Culture includes Chhau in its list, recognising nine total styles. Scholars such as Drid Williams add Chhau, Yakshagana and Bhagavata Mela to the list. Each dance tradition originates and comes from a different state and/or region of India; for example, Bharatanatyam is from Tamil Nadu in the south of India, Odissi is from the east coast state of Odisha, and Manipuri is from the northeastern state of Manipur. The music associated with these different dance performances consists many compositions in Hindi, Malayalam, Meitei (Manipuri), Sanskrit, Tamil, Odia, Telugu, and many other Indian-Subcontinent languages; they represent a unity of core ideas, and a diversity of styles, costumes and expression.
Dance in India comprises numerous styles of dances, generally classified as classical or folk. As with other aspects of Indian culture, different forms of dances originated in different parts of India, developed according to the local traditions and also imbibed elements from other parts of the country.
Jaddanbai Hussain was an Indian singer, music composer, dancer, actress, filmmaker, and one of the pioneers of Indian cinema. She along with Bibbo and Saraswati Devi was one of the first female music composers in Indian cinema. She was the mother of Akhtar Hussain, Anwar Hussain, and the well-known Hindi actress Nargis, and maternal grandmother of Priya Dutt and Sanjay Dutt.
Khamoshi: The Musical is a 1996 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama musical film. The film was directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali in his directorial debut. The film stars Nana Patekar, Salman Khan, Manisha Koirala and Seema Biswas. The film was a debut of Sanjay Leela Bhansali as a filmmaker. A box office bomb when released, the film has over the years gained cult following and cited as one of the best films of Hindi cinema.
David Abraham Cheulkar, popularly known as David, was an Indian Hindi film actor. In a career spanning four decades, he played mostly character roles, starting with the 1941 film Naya Sansar, and went on to act in over 110 films, including memorable films such as Gol Maal (1979), Baton Baton Mein (1979) and Boot Polish (1954), for which he was awarded the 1955 Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award.
Kaagaz Ke Phool is a 1959 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film produced and directed by Guru Dutt, who also played the lead role in the film along with Waheeda Rehman. It is the first Indian film in CinemaScope and the last film officially directed by Dutt. It marked a technical revolution in Indian cinematography and is widely considered to be ahead of its time.
Mujra is a dance performance by women in a format that emerged during Mughal rule in India, where the elite class and local rulers like the nawabs of the Indian society used to frequent tawaifs (courtesans) for their entertainment.
Rasoolan hussain was a leading Indian Hindustani classical music vocal musician. Belonging to the Benaras gharana, she specialized in the romantic Purab Ang of the Thumri musical genre and tappa.
Saba Dewan is an Indian documentary film maker based in New Delhi. Her films are based on sexuality, gender, identity, communalism and culture. Her notable works include Dharmayuddha, Nasoor, Khel, Barf and Sita's Family (2001). She is best known for her trilogy on stigmatized female performers, Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi (2006), Naach and The Other Song (2009). She has written her first book "Tawaifnama" which has emerged from her trilogy on dancing girls. It is a well researched book on "tawaif (courtesans) living in banaras and Bhabhua. It is multi-generational chronicle first published in 2019.
Manmohan Krishna was a popular Indian film actor and director, who worked in Hindi films for four decades, mostly as a character actor. He started his career as a professor in Physics and held master's degree in physics. He anchored the radio show Cadbury's Phulwari, a singing contest. Many people don't know that Manmohan Krishna sang his first song, 'Jhat khol de' in Afsar (1950), a Dev Anand film with music by S.D. Burman.
Suman Ghosh is a film director, and a professor of economics at Florida Atlantic University.
The Cinema of Manipur is the film industry based in Manipur, India. It includes not only Meitei language movies but all the films made in different languages of the different communities in Manipur. The Manipuri film industry was born when Matamgi Manipur by Debkumar Bose was released on 9 April 1972. From Aribam Syam Sharma's Paokhum Ama, the first colour Manipuri film (1983), M.A Singh's Langlen Thadoi, the first full-length colour Manipuri film (1984), Oken Amakcham's Lammei, the first Manipuri digital film (2002), to Priyakanta Laishram's Oneness (film), the first Manipuri gay-themed film (2023), Manipuri cinema, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022, has grown in both its form and culture.
Anwar Ali, also known Anvar Ali, is an Indian poet and lyricist writing in Malayalam. He is also a literary editor and critic, translator, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker.
The 14th Busan International Film Festival was held from October 8 to October 16, 2009, in Busan, South Korea.