Review: JioCinema’s Equals is a delightful survey of India’s undernourished musical traditions

Warsi Brothers, a Qawwali group, in a still from the seven-part documentary film Equals, streaming on JioCinema.

In a scene from JioCinema’s seven-part documentary film Equals, Alwar-born and -raised Jumma Jogi positions his craft in the context of his life. He has experienced love, heartbreak and crippling loneliness. He wells up sharing the story of his first marriage, cut short by tragedy. His music, though, isn’t defined by the vacuum this loss represents, but the socio-political lens that hardship can sharpen. He sings of politics, corruption, and the existential angst that life’s harshest lessons commence with. The only response to such overwhelming despair and disappointment, Jumma argues, is laughter. Much like the fusion of folk and modernism, the mixing of song and satire sounds like an awkward marriage. A marriage that Coke Studio might have set the stage for, but one that Equals is willing to unknot and learn from. It is not just a snapshot of the artist at work, but also a glimpse of the map s/he has taken to get there.

The premise is straightforward. Equals is an episodic documentary that foregrounds folk traditions, through men and women who practise under-acknowledged and, in some cases, disappearing artforms. Artists are paired with urban bands and musicians who give these musical traditions an urban, or rather, a chic, twist. Be it the thumri, or baul music, these are caches that Indian audiences have heard in the form of collaborators, supporting acts, or eerie background scores but never quite experienced in its entirety. We might have even heard them as part of inexplicable social media trends, but that line of curiosity has rarely translated to knowledge. We hear, delight, chime and move on. Equals, intends to change that consumerist gaze to a more learned view of art. See the artist, accommodate his or her life, before witnessing the becoming of their work.

The core of Equals, as the name suggests, is to position folk traditions alongside comparatively opulent and urban forms of music. To that ungainly union, these world-weary artists bring a degree of simplicity. Each episode concludes with a raw performance, which is, maybe, too fixated on updating heritage than actually preserving it. Unlike the verbosity of an academic lens, however, this upgrade feels ethereal, accessible and thankfully, enjoyable. Here the artist is the form, the narrative and the sentiment that aural odysseys are birthed by. Music, as a singer explains in one of the episodes, is an allegory of life.

Created by Abhinav Agrawal and directed by Suruchi Sharma, Equals isn’t all chatter and soundbites by brooding individuals. The documentary places these folk artists in their milieu, attaching their art to the socio-economic landscape it has been groomed in. We get to see the walled town of Alwar, the ghats of Varanasi where these maestros have learnt, performed and, maybe, risen to native recognition. Beyond the waves of internet virality, there is this sea of artistry that neither gets the recognition, nor the dignity it deserves. To which effect, the docu-series also accepts the fact that relevance can only really be attained by adaptation. To make remote, stolid musical traditions malleable you ultimately need the softening touch of something vague but recognisable. In exchange for that authenticity, this docu-series offers you an intimate viewing point.

Equals joins this rare but welcome catalogue of docu-series on streaming (Prime Video’s Cinema Marte Dum Tak being the other) that might help bridge the gap between underappreciated crafts and the men and women who practise it. Women, thankfully, aren’t forgotten here. The first episode featuring Sucharita Gupta, is an endearing, somewhat poignant study of spirituality. And, it hints at the mischief a woman can draft through her art. It’s fascinating to see a casual conversation between her and her co-collaborators bloom into ideas, before turning into a lyrical melody. It’s not scholarly by any stretch of the imagination, but just about self-serious enough to warrant 30 minutes of attentive viewing.

The burden of documentation and preservation has largely been shouldered by state-backed institutions in the past. Prasar Bharti’s documentaries have filled a gap but barely attempted to resuscitate or re-energise the form they have set out to study. That funereal approach has thankfully been replaced by streaming’s intent and craft. The camera doesn’t just lazily sit on a tripod anymore, but roam with a sense of purposefulness. Moreover, an earthiness radiates from these artists, who might not own much but know how to give their own selves entirely to something. It takes a bit of doing. More than doing, it takes this incorruptible skin of humility. Humility that maybe disintegrates with fame, popularity, greed and vanity. Obscurity might just be the price of sacredness. Survival, however, you can’t put a price on.

Equals is now streaming on JioCinema

Disclosure: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.