Visually challenged musicians use everyday objects and natural resources including brooms, stones, twigs and food grains, to create an instrumental version of Jana Gana Mana, as inspiring for its rarity as for the resilience of its makers.
Flautist and jaltarang player Prashant Baniya, Yogita Tambe, who has mastered over 25 instruments, singer and harmonium player Manashri Soman and Sangeet Visharad Jayesh Baniya who experiments with sounds of the kharata zhadu. Pics/ Ashish Raje
When four young, visually challenged artistes, wished to explore the sounds that evoke peace and unity, they listened to the reverberation of everyday objects. The best have made it to a 52-second instrumental version of the national anthem, titled Jan Gan Man Natural Instrumental. By choosing a song written in Bengali by India's first Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in 1911, they embraced the spirit of cultural unity that the composition espouses. But, their tribute on India's 71st Republic Day today, becomes more fitting because of their choice of untreated objects as instruments—twigs, bamboo sieves, coconut shells, pebbles, water in bowls, food grains, and a stone silbatta (mortar pestle). Although written way before Independence, the song envisages India as a joyful union of dissimilar cultures, languages, race and religion. The video urges us to appreciate the diversity in both, human interactions and acoustic opportunities.
"We chose organic recyclable material, all in perfect harmony with nature. There is nothing synthetic or plastic about what we have made music from," says Manashri Soman, 27, who features in the video released by Mumbai-based Shreerang Charitable Trust, which works with differently-abled persons in the arts. Soman is a 2004 Bal Shree awardee, sightless since birth, featured in a novel and documentary film (both titled Manashri) for her exceptional courage to lead a rockstar life despite the physical odds. A Sangeet Visharad in music, Soman is a singer and harmonium player. She juggles her musical passion with a day job at a bank. She says, "We cannot watch the video, of course. But Indians everywhere will see how we have explored the spirit of the anthem through the prism of untapped sounds."
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Like Soman, Yogita Tambe, 33, has followed her passion for music. A music teacher, she has been honoured with the Outstanding Creative Adult Personality with Disabilities title by the President of India for her rare mastery over 25 musical instruments. She performed a record musical marathon by playing 50 instruments in 49 minutes at a concert held in Dadar two years ago. While known for her command over the tabla, dholki, nagara, dimdi, halagi, dholak, tasha and damru, this time, Tambe has experimented with unconventional sounds, including that of rice grains splattering on a bamboo sieve. A post-graduate in history, Tambe says the discovery of varied natural sounds brought her closer to India's cultural diversity. She has a theory about the use of stones and gravel in music. "In today's cacophonous world, stones symbolise pelting and violence. We wanted to challenge this association. We were keen to show the positive naad nirmiti that stones can give birth to," says the Limca Book of Records 2019 holder.
(Left to right) Sandesh Kadam, Prashant Baniya, Aditya Naik, Yogita Tambe, Sumeet Patil, Manashri Soman, Jayesh Baniya, Prashant Ohol, Yash Khade and Aarti Kadwadkar
Part of the group are Ulhasnagar-based siblings Jayesh Baniya, 26, and Prashant Baniya, 33. They call the making of Jan Gan Man Natural Instrumental an unmatched experience, recollecting the two days they spent at a recording studio in Vasai and a month prior of collaborating over the harmony they'd create using dried flowers, mud diyas, marble tiles, earthen pots and musical anklets. "We are lucky to bring so many alternative sounds together with conventional instruments like the ghatam, piano, flute and harmonium," says Prashant Baniya, a flautist and jaltarang player. His brother Jayesh, employed with the Central Railways, also a Sangeet Visharad, has concentrated on the sounds emerging from the kharata zhadu (long-handled broom). "It was a cathartic moment to discover the musical use of commonplace, working-class product which is perceived as 'tuccha' by the higher classes," Jayesh adds.
While the video rests on the drishti or vision of four vision-impaired artistes, the idea first came to visual artist, social activist and founder of the Shreerang Trust, Sumeet Patil, also a Bal Shree awardee. Patil's artistic pursuits over a 15-year-long career have often made it to the news. Art director on 19 movies and 50 plays, Patil has found novel ways to challenge social norms. A 2015 calendar he designed devoted to crows was appreciated as a myth-busting celebration of the black, ordinary bird often considered inauspicious.
In December 2019, when members of Shreerang were chatting about their resolutions for the new decade, Patil suggested the idea of building a narrative around the national anthem which would inspire a feeling of community oneness. "The last leg of 2019 witnessed a tense political and social climate in Maharashtra and across the country. We thought, as individuals and citizens, we should add positivity, a sense of cohesion," Patil says.
Shreerang has an impressive roster of music directors, arrangers, video editors and recordists, who provided backstage help to the four faces of the anthem video. The rhythm arrangement was handled by Sandesh Kadam and Nila Madhav Mohapatra, and overall music direction by Navi Mumbai-based siblings Prashant Ohol, 30, and Nishant Ohol, 28. While Prashant has mastered the piano, Nishant is an expert guitarist. The duo, much-feted for their music in the Marathi film, Net Practice, are classically trained. Their expertise is evident in the seamless inclusion of 40-odd sounds, some in their most raw form captured in natural locations, others in synthetised notations arranged in the studio.
"It was uplifting to see the sounds come to life. We are certain the track will resonate with viewers who catch it across cinema screens," says Patil. The Jan Gan Man Natural Instrumental is being currently promoted by Mukta Arts Limited across 1,000 single screen theatres and 48 multiplexes across India, as per the mandatory practice of playing the national anthem before a film screening.
40
Number of natural sounds incorporated in the video
Watch Jan Gan Man here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIJAkq-UNdY
Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre is a culture columnist in search of the sub-text. You can reach her at sumedha.raikar@mid-day.com
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