It is 4 am, but the man who changed the drift of Indian cinema music is enjoying a minute of silence and serenity on a boat. He turns on the tampura app on his phone, closes his eyes and begins to hum. And, filmmaker and fan girl Sruti Harihara Subramanian captures the moment.
A search for rare sounds across the country has brought him to Northeast India, where they met Manipuri singer Lourembam Bedabati Devi. The footage is part of the documentary aired by Amazon Prime Video, called Harmony with AR Rahman, that released on Independence Day.
Rahman was fascinated by Loktak, especially its aerial view of the floating islands, which his drone captured. “He is a man of few words. It was evident he was enjoying the untouched beauty of this village,” says Sruti.
Shot in four States across India — Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur and Sikkim — the show has Rahman and Sruti, the director, travel across Shornur, Navi Mumbai, Imphal and a bamboo forest and monastery in Sikkim. The filmmaker recalls how they plunged deep into the thick Dhoni forest in Palakkad, Kerala, where they shot with Sajith Vijayan. The Malayali instrumentalist plays the mizhavu, a rare percussion instrument played for the koodiyattam, a classical form of Indian theatre from the region.
- Ima Keithal, stands for mothers’ market and is one of Asia’s largest all-women markets. You can choose from fresh fruits, vegetables, assorted meat, fish, to local herbs, jewellery, rice and bamboo products. The market dates back to the 16th Century.
- The bazaar in the early days consisted of makeshift carts selling goods from 5 am to 10 am. Now, it is open all day.
- The vendors speak a variety of dialects, as they are from tribes and regions across the State.
“We were a little tense because they expected elephants to walk into the forests any minute,” recalls the filmmaker, breaking into a nervous laugh. Sruti followed the artistes with her camera to the picturesque Malampuzha Dam and the catchment areas and the premises of the Kerala Kalamandalam, one of the prominent cultural institutions in the State. “I got all nostalgic when they served me the typical kanji and jackfruit thoran at a temple in Shornur,” she reminisces with a smile.
Lilting notes
Sruti also gushes about the experience of shooting in a bamboo copse, where Mickma Tshering Lepcha from Sikkim introduced Rahman to the traditional bamboo flute, Pangthong Palith, that originated from the Lepchas, an indigenous tribe who live in the mountains. One scene in the documentary has the local musician cutting bamboo to make the flute.
In Navi Mumbai, they spent time jamming with Ustad Mohi Bahauddin Dagar, an exponent of the rudraveena and the dhrupad genre of Hindustani classical music. About Rahman, Sruti says, “Rahman gets excited by the little things. He had a great time shooting with his drone.”
Hopping across different bazaars was one of the fringe benefits. The director says they had a ball at Ima Keithal, a 500-year-old market in Manipur run by women. “A sweet made of jaggery and peanuts was our favourite.” The maestro also joined in the fun. He picked up clothes for his wife and local reed mats called phak. “Most of us took one phak each back with us,” chips in Sruti.
The perks of visiting a new place as a film crew is that you are no longer just a tourist, but a part of that community, says the documentary maker, who has done a similar travel documentary featuring musician, Kailash Kher. They interacted with the locals, dined with them in their homes. “At Sikkim, even though there was local thukpa, momos and noodles, I loved their regular chai served with salt!”
They also dropped in at the homes of local musicians, which helped understand the ethos of the place better. For instance, in Sikkim, the musician’s father was a shaman. “He was chanting mantras. We captured that in the film, which added a unique quality to the work. At Vijayan’s house, we got to taste steamed bananas. In Manipur, when we visited Seijang village, the neighbours streamed into the house and offered us vegetable salad as a token of friendship. It was as if they were all relatives of the musician — after a point, it was difficult to figure out who was the relative and who the neighbour.”
(The five-episode show by Kavithalayaa Productions is available on primevideo.com)