Miscellaneous
Our hunt for Work songs, (songs accompanying various kinds of work) brought us to Bikkapattimandu in the Nilgiris. We had contacted Keystone, a wonderful organization working with tribal communities in the nilgiris, who put us in touch with a few communities we could spend some time and film with. Bikkapattimandu is small village between kotagiri and ooty. There are only nine houses here, all of whom are part of one large family. The people here belong to the Toda community, which has a total population of 2000 in all of the Nilgiris. Their main occupation is buffalo herding which also involves selling milk, butter and ghee. The language sounds completely alien. We were convinced that it was a derivative of some language from the middle east. With a healthy serving of 'zha' and 'sha' and 'zz', the language was hypnotic and unlike anything we had ever heard. We found out later that it actually branched out from early early tamil, way before even languages like malayalam. The Toda women are famous for their embroidery work. The shawl they are wearing and the ones they are making are the most important form of clothing worn at all important functions. The song they are singing is one that accompanies the embroidery. Most of their songs have the same melody, with only the lyrics changing depending on whether they are herding cattle or having a festival. The child of course couldn't resist when he heard these women singing whilst working, and decided to join right in =) FRIDAY RELEASE is an endeavour to share raw footage from the u-ra-mi-li project. We'd like to give you a sample of the kind of stories we have and are looking for; some of these stories may make their way into the final film, others won't. Do tell us what you like, what you don't, what links you see between different kinds of music or visuals, what you've seen before, or what the clip reminds you of. To know more about the u-ra-mi-li project or to contribute, see www.uramili.in