9 months ago
Rudra Veena Revival Through Unlikely Collaboration
The rudra veena is a very old and special musical instrument that was almost forgotten.
A young sculptor named Kunal Joshi was asked to make two wooden figures for a musician named Bahauddin Dagar.
Joshi didn't know what they were for, but later he found out they were for a special veena.
He learned how to make and fix the veena from Dagar.
Now, Joshi makes veenas for musicians.
A movie called 'The Shape of Sound' tells this story.
The rudra veena is hard to make and play, but Dagar and Joshi are working to keep it alive.
The veena has a deep, magical sound that people love.
Dagar plays it at a special place in Delhi called the Sufi Inayat Khan Dargah.
The movie shows how art, music, and science came together to save this special instrument.
Kunal Joshi, a sculptor, was asked to create wooden figures for a rudra veena, unaware of their purpose.
Bahauddin Dagar, a musician, sought to restore his father's 1960 rudra veena and mentored Joshi in its craftsmanship.
Joshi learned to deconstruct and reconstruct the veena, now crafting five veenas for Dagar's students.
The documentary 'The Shape of Sound' by Madhu Apsara captures the collaboration between Dagar and Joshi.
The rudra veena is a rare and mystical instrument, with few practitioners and makers left.
- Who
- Kunal Joshi (sculptor), Bahauddin Dagar (musician), Madhu Apsara (director)
- What
- Revival of the rudra veena through collaboration between a sculptor and a musician
- Where
- Varad village in Malvan, Panvel, and Delhi
- When
- The collaboration began in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Why
- To preserve the craft of making and playing the rudra veena, which was on the verge of extinction
Key facts
- Instrument
- Rudra Veena
- Sculptor
- Kunal Joshi
- Musician
- Bahauddin Dagar
- Documentary
- The Shape of Sound
- Director
- Madhu Apsara
- Material
- Burma teak
- Legends
- Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, Dattatreya Rama Rao Parvatikar, Shamsuddin Faridi Desai, Bande Ali Khan
- Documentary Duration
- 20 minutes
Quotes
Bahauddin Dagar
A musician and son of rudra veena legend Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.
“The whole project came from my fear that there will be no veena makers left. I needed someone to join my journey to find an avenue out of the crisis by mentoring fresh talent in the art. Kunal was a godsent and some of my other students are learning the craft as well. In fact, Shibu Maity, who has been cooking for my household, is now an expert at filing the bridge.”
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“It was only after my father passed away in 1990 that I started looking at what he gave me and put myself into serious practice. In his second year of college, he dropped out to pursue the veena with greater rigour. I was very young, and there were great expectations from me. Do I have what it takes? That question constantly bothered me.”
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Kunal Joshi
A sculptor from Varad village in Malvan who crafted wooden figures for a rudra veena.
“When I was restoring the tumba of Kanailal’s perfect veena from 1960, I saw that the artisan had left one flower carved but without any detailing. I was taken aback and then it struck me – imperfection leaves us with a path forward. Anything that is perfect tends to be dead.”
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“There are so many more details to pay attention to while crafting the veena, nearly 70-80 parts to put together. The smallest error can be ruinous. But a good instrument produces a sound that can give so much joy, like watching the badmast chaal (swagger) of an elephant.”
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Madhu Apsara
A sound engineer and director of the documentary 'The Shape of Sound'.
“It [The veena] is a quieter instrument, and [its] sound is very tender, so it needs faithful amplification and reproduction to retain the original microtonal clarity. We keep the volume purposely low so that the nature of the instrument is retained. This also quietens the mind of the listener so they start hearing the nuances. We do this even in big concerts. Silence is very important in our music.”
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