A Terrible Beauty

As a call from the periphery of sanity, the film is a series of dream narratives, and accounts of spiritual possession as experienced by women 'petitioners' at the shrine of a Sufi Saint in North India.

Veer Ras is a tradition of singing for centuries, which has almost disappeared from the public sphere. No one completely understands Veer Ras in Partapur and barely anyone knows how to sing it, except Hengji Patidar and Velji Mali. My interest is in remembering the orality of songs and when they become obsolete. This piece was made during the Sandarbh International Artist Residency in Partapur, Rajasthan in the winters of 2015.