Session 83 summary
A Journey into Tribal Music Cultures
Vasu sang a song which was written by Purandara Dasa and Vasu had set it to tune because he has heard this song since his childhood and there have been various tunes for the same words and most of them had been in the light music genre or the classical music and of course folk music too. But when Vasu read those words and set to tune the most natural thing for him was the folk tune that came in. His band Swarathma, they call their music folk rock fusion- they take folk elements, not folk songs as such but only the elements and then infuse it with modern elements or contemporary elements like rock, pop, etc. Vasu’s influence has been folk music right from his childhood growing up in Mysore, a culturally rich place. He learned kannad classical music from a young age but as a young boy he preferred playing with his friends than attend music class. Growing up as a young boy he didn’t really wanted to do music but in college it was cool to play music, jam with friends, that was how it started and slowly it became his profession. Then he went to NID where he studied filmmaking and as a film and video communication student he learned about fiction, documentary, etc. Initially he was sure that he wanted to make ad-films and as he grew he gradually felt it was not for him, he was also interested in documentary but he was never inspired to take that up as full time. So, he worked as a director in a couple of production houses and then music happened and so he didn’t do film full time as he was doing music more. Over the years he has been doing his music videos himself. He had a pet project that he had been wanting to do for many years. He has travelled to the Kabir Yatra in Rajasthan and then Mumbai Kabir festival, went to Malwa, he has met a lot of folk musicians across the country and he always wondered what is their life and lifestyle and their culture from where their music comes. That has always been an interest point for him to know their life. So, as he interacted more with them, he wanted to/ really wonder how to capture that and keep it in a format that he can share with more people because he believes that there are more people who are as interested if not more than him, about folk and the culture from where folk music comes from. Around 4-5 years back he got the thought/idea of traveling across the country, meet folk musicians and interacting with them, capture their stories. It was more like a personal quest for him to understand their lives and get inspired by them which might directly or indirectly influence his music as well. So, he met a lot of folk artists that is where the thought came from to capture their life and culture and music as well. Around 2019 with the dawn of the pandemic around the world it was difficult to travel and do anything, so he waited a couple of years and then started writing to people who could fund that project. He wrote to around 60-70 prospective funders for the funding of the project, then Believe Digital (Online Music Distribution Company) were very interested in the project. Heena and Warren showered their faith in Vasu to support whatever he wishes to do. Snehadhara Foundation who work in Bangalore with children with special needs and Geetanjali (the person who runs the foundation) gave her full support in Vasu pursuing whatever he wishes to do. So, Believe and Snehadhara came together to support his PaDa project. He named it PaDa project because coming from Karnataka Janapada means folk and folk music, ‘jana’ is people and ‘pada’ is word but also a song, hence janapada refers to ‘songs of people’ or ‘songs from people’. So, Vasu took the word pada which means ‘word’ and also ‘song’, he also made the P capital and D capital which separates PaDa into two words Pa and Da which are two of the seven notes of the music- ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni’. There are different ways to look at PaDa project, Vasu initially wanted to capture at least 8 stories, 8 musicians across Karnataka but when he spoke to Believe Digital, they suggested that why don’t they broaden the boundaries and go across the country and why just restrict it to one place and also explore other places. Vasu wasn’t sure if the budget would allow him to travel to far off places and take care of the stay and everything so he wasn’t really sure, Believe then suggested that instead of doing 8 stories they should only make 4 with the belief that there is more to the project than one particular place or region. They also said to go out and explore more and that was how they decided that Vasu would stretch his boundaries and do 5 episode series. Vasu had met Mohan Kumar who is the folk artist from Tunku which is a small town in Bangalore, he met him through his friend who worked with a lot of indigenous artists. The moment Vasu met Mohan, he fell in love with his voice, he felt that he was very genuine and sweet, and at the same time very hardworking and he decided to start his project with that artist. Around March 2021 Vasu started interacting with him, he went to his place, did a trial shoot with him, did a 4 minute pilot episode which he showed to Believe who really liked the approach. Vasu’s idea was to do 18-20 minute episode each which will capture the culture, lifestyle, occupation and the music of the particular folk artist. He started with Mohan and then he said that he wanted to explore some parts of India that are not yet explored i.e. northeast. As he started exploring and talking to people and then zeroed on Sikkim, Shillong and Manipur and then he went back to south India which is Madhure/Madhura. He has shot all the 5 episodes and has released 3 and editing the fourth and fifth one. Vasu states that, of course knowing their music is one part, knowing where their music comes from, why they do a certain kind of music, the story behind it, is the most inspiring, thrilling and challenging part for him. As a filmmaker he was very sure that he didn’t wanted to be a part of the episode in an active manner, so the story had to be about the artists and their culture by themselves. He didn’t want to interfere them with his questions as it had to be more like how they are sharing it with a friend. He had Naveed Mulki and Samarth who were the cinematographers and cameraperson who captured it beautifully. When shooting a documentary it is not always that one can script it and want it to be the way they want it, they just have to be open, absorbing, observing and then let things happen and see what they can capture best from there. That was the format Vasu went with. Each episode they shot more than 4-5 days, then they actually had footage which was worth more than 5-14 min episode. But in Vasu’s mind he thought that it should be a crisp 18-20 min episode and that was how they planned. They have the main song of each episode, then the story behind the song and another main thing they wanted to capture was the occupation of that particular tribe/folk/region where they come from because each occupation links to a song or in other words a song is developed from the occupation of that particular place. In the first episode it was shepherds, the people who rear sheep and the song that came from that particular land, the second episode which is from Shillong, the Kongtong village, where the people have tune names which was very inspiring and fascinating aspect to capture. So, the songs they have are from that, with artist Dalareti. In the third episode the occupation that they captured was Shamans- the priests who worship nature, energies in nature and not to any idol so songs coming from there are inspired from that particular occupation, with artist Mickma Tshering Lepcha. The fourth episode is from Madhurai, the occupation he captured there was jaggery making which extends to farming, the song he particularly captured there was Wandipat which means the song of bullock carts, when the farmers harvest and go to the market to sell they transport it in the bullock carts and while they are on their way they sing songs so that they are not tired, which will inspire them and also to keep each other awake, with artist Chitrasenan. The fifth episode is from Manipur the occupation which he captured there is weaving and the song is that of a cotton seed/ flower, so the artist Mangka is there who is a big inspiration in Manipur. All the artists Vasu met was through all the artists he knew, it wasn’t like he had a list of 20 people and he shortlisted it, it was never like that it was very organic, he met one person who suggested another person and so on. The PaDa Project is available on YouTube.
What was fascinating for Vasu was that how vibrant the Indian Folk Culture is, there is so much diversity and yet there are similarities and that is the beauty of the country. It is so vast yet it is connected by nature, by occupation, by music and by the sheer rootedness. Music resonates with what is happening around us and we are able to relate to music also. Of course there are challenges of travelling and finding places to stay with their limited budgets and shoot. But these challenges aren’t greater than the stories the musicians bring in.
About the Speaker
Vasu Dixit
Vasu Dixit is a composer, musician in equal measure. His craft brings many nuances of art into one space. Vasu is the lead singer of the band Swarathma and also creates music of his own through the Vasu Dixit Collective (VDC). Vasu’s open-throated voice, his rich vocal style, wide range and deep passion is powered by a free-spirited celebration of life, whether he sings with VDC, Swarathma or on his own. Vasu has also worked as an actor and film director predominantly in the Kannada movie industry.
