Uramili | June 27 & 28, 2014 | Mumbai

We invite you to come and spend an evening with Anushka Meenakshi, a documentary filmmaker, and Iswar Srikumar, a theatre actor. Both are part of a theatre collective in Chennai called Perch. In March 2011 the duo set out on a journey across the country which has now turned into the u-ra-mi-li project, an endeavour to share stories about music and rhythm in every day life.

The first half of the evening will be a 37 minute work-in-progress film that brings together music and rhythms from Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Assam, Mizoram, Tamilnadu, Kerala and Kutch. The film travels through landscapes bringing together rhythms and songs of train singers and cattle herders, songs of embroidery and those of protest. Without any specific stress on identifying locations or people, the film tries to let the visuals and the music create an experience of observing music and rhythm in everyday life across the country.

The second half will be a presentation of raw footage and short edits from the first feature length film of the u-ra-mi-li project. Partly funded by a research and documentation grant from the IFA, 'neihi mozo hanü dizo le (without you I am nothing)'  is a film about the polyphonic music that accompanies paddy cultivation in the village of Phek in Nagaland. This film takes an in-depth look at the form of the work song, and the context in which these songs have thrived.

We hope you will join us for this exciting showcase.