Video | A documentary on the music of various Naga tribes: “Songs of the Blue Hills” – Nagaland

The movie is directed by Utpal Borpujari. The Nagas comprise a range of ethnic communities spread across several states of north-eastern India. Like ethnic communities the world over, folk music and dances form the core of Naga culture. This feature-length documentary is the first-ever film to present such a wide range of Naga music and musicians together. The idea is to take the viewer in a journey through contemporary forms of Naga folk music through twenty songs that feature fully or partly in this film.

Source: Songs of the Blue Hills – YouTube
Address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVxWARJhrXc
Date Visited: Thu May 05 2016 12:02:53 GMT+0200 (CEST)

Filmmaker Utpal Borpujari’s documentary, Songs of the Blue Hills, seeks out lost Naga folk songs and finds their revival among younger musicians | To read the full article, click here >>

Delhi-based Borpujari’s feature-length documentary takes one through the music of various Naga tribes. The film by the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, which was shot and completed last year, is in the competition sections of international film festivals at Gothenburg and Washington this year and is being screened at Eyes & Lenses: Ethnographic Film Festival, Warsaw and Ladakh International Film Festival. “I have always been interested in tracing the roots of music. This endeavour was to understand and find more and see what it would throw at me,” says Borpujari. […]

The arrival of the British over a century ago was culturally helpful in some parts of the nation (they facilitated many musicians such as Gauhar Jaan find fame by allowing them to record), while they banned folk music of the Naga tribes calling it spirit worship. “I’m a Christian and we were told that we would rot in hell if we would sing our folk songs,” says Guru Sademmeren Longkumer, a veteran Naga folk musician, in the documentary. But he secretly documented some music over a period of time and created collections. However, reading them was not easy since the Ao tribe had their script written on leather strips. “Dogs ate them,” he says.

“The Nagas have faced many socio-political issues. Most tribes would remain within themselves and not have anything to do with other tribes or the rest of the world. Since the songs were orally passed down, many got lost in the process,” says Borpujari, 45, who has included almost 20 songs from the Naga folk culture in the documentary. He met bands such as Purple Fusion and Tetseo Sisters, who are reviving their legacy by combining folk with pop, blues and jazz. “Some veteran folk musicians have a problem with musicians wearing cowboy hats and ‘mixing’ their music, but younger musicians believe that this is one way that their legacy can be revived,”
says Borpujari. […]

Source: Naga folk songs reborn, as younger musicians revive music | The Indian Express
Address: https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/naga-folk-songs-reborn-as-younger-musicians-revive-music/
Date Visited: 15 November 2021

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