Miscellaneous
The sun sets by around quarter past four. By seven the group starts trickling in and settles around the bamboo bon fire. Bamboo burns different from most wood. It burns fast, and with a faint whistle as all the sap comes frothing out from the other side. The burnt bits slowly bend backwards and gently curve towards the sky and give it a last glimpse. Then they fall noiselessly to the ground. Around the burning bamboo sit a group of farmers. These men and women have gathered together at the house of the person whose land they worked on today. As payment or rather as a token of thanks, this person cooks them a feast. You might remember a few of these farmers from our earlier videos. Where they thrashed and winnowed and carried heavy bags of paddy up steep hills and sang. The songs during work are more like grunts and wails, sounds of pain and exhaustion wrenched out of their bodies in the form of polyphonic harmonies. The focus is on the work. In the evening however, they relax. They chat a while, exchange stories, laugh, flirt and holler every now and then, as you see towards the end of the video. it's a sound of joy, of abandon, a sound that tells all those who are afraid at night to not worry and sleep well as there is someone else who is awake . 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 contribute towards the Uramili Project, please visit www.uramili.in