The country teems with musical forms that are yet undiscovered by the masses. Just ask folk-rock musician Vasu Dixit. Famous for his part in bands like Swarathma and Vasu Dixit Collective, he asked fellow musicians to introduce him to tribal music of their land — and realised he had opened the floodgates.
Now, Vasu’s documentary series introduces the Internet to tribal and folk music from Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Each musician covered in the PaDa Project, brings forth a new form of singing, or a lesser-known instrument, or something that is utterly unique to his or her village and culture.
“In Shillong we went to a village whose people name their children based on a particular tune. They literally hum the tune to call their children. There is a word for this kind of nickname; it translates to ‘tune-name’,” says Vasu.
