It was a magical four days. The Auroville Film Institute has a residency with Ustad Bahauddin Dagar was organized from 7 to 10 November 2022. It took place in the Bhumika Hall, Bharat Nivas Auroville.

Dhrupad - the movie (1983)

Ustad Bahauddin Dagar is a rudraveena player. His family has been playing the instrument for 20 generations! His father and uncle (Zia Mohiyuddin Dagar and Fariduddin Dagar) were true masters. There is a wonderful movie about it Dhrupad by the Indian director Mani Kaul. Mani Kaul is heavily influenced, among others, by the Nouvelle Vague precursor Robert Bresson. Mani Kaul's film is a milestone in Indian film history. His film opens with a shot of Ustad Bahauddin Dagar as a young boy. It was a charming idea by the Auroville Film Institute to invite Ustad Bahauddin Dagar to Auroville to learn more about Dhrupad Gayaki and the Rudraveena. Ustad Bahauddin Dagar exudes an incredible humility. He stands on great shoulders, and only started learning the Rudraveena late in life. He gives concerts internationally and is a true guru. He brought two of his female students with him. Among the participants were many music students who had been waiting for this workshop for two years, as it had been postponed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Master class

At the beginning and end of the workshop, Ustad Bahauddin Dagar played the rudraveena. The recordings are linked here. I have been listening to ragas for a very long time without knowing much about them. I learned a lot about the origins, the connection going all the way back to the time of the Vedic scriptures. We learned about the complexity of the instrument, which has been perfected over millennia. Ustad Bahauddin Dagar illustrated the music theory and performance practice on the rudraveena itself. For two days, we learned about riyaz (practice): Early in the morning before sunrise (at 4:30 AM on Wednesday and 6:30 AM on Thursday), the voice was ‚warmed up.‘ This started with kharaj, practicing the lower register of the voice. Singing OM together has a very meditative component, alongside the voice-training effect and lung-capacity exercise. This was followed by complex exercises in rhythm and melody. It suddenly became clear to me how rich this tradition is, and how sad it is that this musical form is still viewed as something exotic. After this workshop, for me it belongs to the cultural world heritage. But it might take a while for it to be recognized as such.

Film - Dhrupad - Spirituality

It was a revelation. Philosophically, I was interested in how rhythm in the raga was described several times as a flight – in the film and in the discussions. That reminds me of Deleuze, his idea that rhythm is an element that connects; things that vibrate in rhythm are connected. A perceived rhythm attracts, starting with mating behavior in the animal kingdom, if not even geologically and cosmologically in the orbits of stars and pulsars. The film by Mani Kaul works with elements of chance; it is non-narrative. The music and the images are in a respectful interaction, the organization of the shots is complex, and within the film's timeline, individual elements reference one another (line of flight). It is clearly conceived musically. It is a film that captures and holds the philosophy of the ragas. It is itself music, thought, spirituality, concentration, and insight. For Deleuze, the Filmstrip itself, i.e. the medium of the film, concrete material thinking. In Manu Kaul's film, it is pure spirituality... immanence.  

© Christoph Klütsch

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