Talkin' about a revolution

By Anshuman Bhowmick

His parents named him Proko. But his missionary teachers, finding the name familiar, went ahead and rechristened him Stephen.

That's Rewben Mashangva for you. Arguably the most significant musician of North-East India, this 50- year-old from Imphal is a cult figure among the agas. He has been credited with preserving and promoting the music of the Tangkhul Nagas . Young Oinam Doren spent about five years with this champion of indigenous folk tradition to come up with the film, Songs of Mashangva . Shot in Imphal, Kohima , Shillong, Kolkata, Jodhpur, Ukhrul and various little known villages of Manipur, this.documentary is an eye-opener for many.

As Doren and his unit travel to Mashangva's home in Chotihar village, we get to see how the church and its machinery have changed the musical ethos of an agrarian community. Mashangva grew up in Christian compound, singing gospels at Sunday masses, listening to western music on the radio and gramophone.

Credit goes to his carpenter father for initiating him into the fading tradition of folk music. Himself a a bamboo trumpet player, Mashangva's father made a wooden guitar for his son, complete with wooden pegs and strings imported from Myanmar.

Over the years, Mashangva visited folk singers in the distant Ukhrul villages, learnt to play the tingtelia -the folk fiddle of the Tangkhul Nagas, collected hundreds of songs rooted in agrarian life, refashioned them to suit mod­ ern sensibilities, crafted new instruments that had the potential to share the stage with world musicians and performed in every possible venue that share a concern for his 1,000-year-old tradition. As he laments the loss of indigenous music in states like Mizoram, he prepares his son Saka to take over his musical mantle once he comes of age.

The father-son duo performing Song of the Hornbill at the Hornbill Festival, Kohima, is the most moving footage that the film presents. Throughout the film, Mashangva and other experts express discontent with the Christianization of cultural space in the bordering North-Eastern states. "Our folk traditions are disappearing due to restrictions imposed by Christianity," he says. The burgeoning number of researchers preparing theses on ethno music might want to remember that.

Having premiered in Leipzig, the 62-minute-film won the National Award in the Best Ethnographic Film category last year. It was selected for Indian Panorama at International Film Festival of India, Goa 20 11. The long-awaited DVD version is just out. Followers of Indian performing arts just cannot afford to miss this one.