The Art of Listening

At Bhaini Sahib, he found a treasure trove — 8 mm and 16 mm films, a large number of audio cassettes dating back to the 1970s-80s — but with no way of knowing what was contained in those reels and tapes. “I went through them and saw that over the years, musicians such as Ustad Alla Rakha, Ustad Vilayat Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar had travelled and performed at Bhaini Sahib. Satguru Ji’s foresight resulted in history being recorded. I started digitising whatever I could,” says Taranjeit, adding, “Watching those tapes, I realised that this was not just about performances, but something larger was at work here. In 2007, I decided that the documentary would be about the relationship between Satguruji, Bhaini Sahib and music.”

The documentary begins with a brief history of the Namdhari Sikhs, especially of Satguru Partap Singh. “The Gurbani is written in different raagas, and he brought singers and musicians to the village to learn how it should be sung. Satguru Jagjit Singh Ji was brought up in that environment,” says Taranjiet. When he became the spiritual leader of his people, Jagjit Singh Ji carried forward his father’s legacy and invited notable musicians to the village. “He understood that listening is learning, and that while music helped one practice discipline and focus, it was also a way to look inward. Post-Independence, there is no one who was a patron of Hindustani classical music in the way he was,” says Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma in the documentary. Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra agree, they owe a great debt to Jagjit Singh Ji. “Panditji was working at the time, he was yet to become famous. Satguru Ji asked him to leave his job and gave him a monthly stipend so that he could focus on his craft. Later, Pandit Sajan Mishra joined his brother in Delhi from Varanasi. Soon after, they had their first performance on AIR,” says Taranjiet.

Throughout the two-hour-long documentary, musicians like Hussain, Sharma and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan mention how Jagjit Singh Ji was an accomplished singer and musician himself. “Especially dhrupad,” says Taranjeit, “it’s slow in tempo, one pays attention to the words, the cadence, in a way that khyal does not.” “He played the dilruba with such mastery, in a way that was unique to him,” said Sharma at the premiere.

Taranjiet hopes to do a limited release of the film in cinemas in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. “Those are the places where most people will know about the history of Satguru Ji. We’ve also done a five-part series, each is 55 minutes long, from the film and we hope to release it online in October. In addition, the musicians featured in the documentary will be screening the film at their respective institutions, starting with the Ustad Alla Rakha Institute of Music in Mumbai,” says Taranjeit.