Colour Me Red

Sometimes gigs change the basic concept of music and turn into culverts to the otherworld. At a festival dominated by metalheads,rock lovers and EDM enthusiasts,the chants from homebodies in the dust-swathed arena of the Buddh International Circuit were Dukhda yaar manaaya,sending the 4,000-odd crowd into a tizzy. “Manganiyar Seduction”,at the Dewarists Stage of the Bacardi NH7 Weekender on the final evening,in Rumi’s words,“opened our wings”. We tasted sacredness. Created and directed by theatre-person Roysten Abel,it turned out to be the best act of the festival. By far.

The seduction came from a fragment of what Amsterdam’s red light district has to offer — small glowing rooms where prostitutes pose amid red lights and velvet curtains. Taking this as an ocular muse,Abel created a burlesque theatre-like setting and stacked 38 Rajasthani musicians in a four-tier grid structure. Each of them opened the curtains one by one to create music from their all-pervading,unifying traditions . Manganiyars are pre-dominantly Muslim artistes who also sing in praise of the Hindu saints. The idea was to seduce the soul.

Daevo Khan on khartaals,who was the conductor of the show and the only one outside the red structure,opened with the clinking sounds of four wooden clappers paired with a slow alaap,pitched higher,from a vocalist seated in one of the boxes. Soon came Dukhda yaar,its intricate rhythm from the dholak and dhols were paired with sounds of algoza and vocals. The jugalbandi,the flirtatious musical conversations between musicians,added to the illusion created by Abel.

Soon enough,everything drowned and all we heard was the sound of percussion,reverberating through the arena. The thumping drums resonated through the body and there isn’t an iota of exaggeration in that. What appealed was the idea of blurring boundaries in the brothel-inspired spectacle. It isn’t often that one sees a juxtaposition of sin and spirituality,purity and profanity,all at once. It’s unfair to compare any other act from the festival with “Manganiyar Seduction”,none had the kind of impact this one did. This was star-quality sorcery

and we left the venue with our senses stimulated.