'Bhaavnagari | City of Feelings'- Episode 5 of the film 'Chalo Hamara Des'

At the urging of a mystic we enter the ‘bhaavnagari’ - a ‘city of feelings’ where love and loss, freedom and attachment, life and death are held in a delicate embrace.
In this episode of the film Chalo Hamara Des, we venture behind the stage and arc lights, into the family space of renowned folk singer Prahlad Tipanya and find a deeply grounded wisdom in the persona of his wife - Shantiji. She speaks with moving honesty about her husband’s journey and also about her own life, struggles and the spiritual merit she has earned without moving beyond the four walls of her kitchen. She brings home with quiet grace the realisation that life’s greatest lessons can perhaps be learnt, right where we are, without traversing the globe in grandiloquent quests.
A school teacher by profession, Prahladji’s life took a deep and profound turn when he first heard the tambura - the five stringed folk instrument. That became the gateway for him into the world of Kabir, and since then he has been tirelessly sharing the power of Kabir with countless rural, urban and international audiences for over 3 decades. Contact Prahlad Singh Tipanya at [phone] or his senior troupe member and violin player Devnarayan Saroliya at [phone].
The film Chalo Hamara Des (Come to My Country) is a journey in search of the des (country) invoked in the poetry of Kabir, and interweaves the stories of two people from two very different countries, Prahlad Tipanya and North American scholar Linda Hess. Where is Kabir’s country? The answer is elusive, as we journey through song and poem into these two lives, brought together in an unlikely friendship by the cross-cultural resonance of Kabir.
Chalo Hamara Des is one of 4 films on Kabir made by Shabnam Virmani, filmmaker, singer and director of the Kabir Project, located at the Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology in Bangalore, India. Write to her at [e-mail]. See the full film at • Chalo Hamara Des: Jour... . DVDs of film available at www.amazon.in/d...
Film Credits:
Camera & Direction: Shabnam Virmani
Direction & Production Support: Rumah Rasaque & Smriti Chanchani
Script & Editing: Shabnam Virmani & Rikhav Desai
Songs by: Prahlad Tipanya
Sound Recording: P M Satheesh & Rhzude David
Sound Mixing: Fireflys Post Sound, Mumbai
Research & Concept: Shabnam Virmani & Tara Kini
Advisors: Linda Hess, Ashok Vajpeyi, Vidya Rao, Purushottam Aggrawal
Translations: Shabnam Virmani & Linda Hess
Financial Support: Ford Foundation, New Delhi
Produced by: Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology, Bangalore
Collection: The Kabir Project
Year of Production: 2009
This is one of a series of uploads for Ajab Shahar, an upcoming webspace featuring songs, images and conversations around Bhakti, Sufi and Baul poetry from India and thereabouts, currently under construction by the Kabir Project team. www.ajabshahar.org, www.kabirproject.org