Vasu Dixit Tracks Folk Music Journeys with Documentary and Performance Series PaDa Project

There’s an air of reverence that hangs in the atmosphere where Vasu Dixit is seated or stood around folk and tribal artists in his music documentary series PaDa Project. On the surface, Dixit – the frontman of folk-fusion band Swarathma in Bengaluru but also a filmmaker in his own right – positions PaDa Project videos as his journey to explore India’s longest-standing music cultures, but it’s less like The Dewarists or SoundTrippin than it is about giving the artists their space.

Meeting up with artists from Sikkim, Manipur, Meghalaya, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Dixit’s PaDa Project offers five performances and five episodes (varying from 15 to 20 minutes in length) that explore how deeply connected folk and tribal music is in India across the land. Finding connections to each artist through his own network of musicians, Dixit says his original plan was to cover the width and breadth of Karnataka’s music traditions. Funded by music platform Believe India as part of their corporate social responsibility initiative ‘Shaping Music for Good,’ they suggested that Dixit travel to different parts of India and create five episodes. “I had written to more than a hundred people, and Believe were the people who believed me,” Dixit says and laughs at his wordplay. The docu-series is also supported by non-profit organization Snehadhara Foundation and Ishtar Music.

Conceptualized before the pandemic, Dixit says travel was the only difficulty due to Covid-19 restrictions that were in place throughout filming in 2021. The PaDa Project brings in Karnataka’s singer Mohan Kumar, from the Kadugalla tribe to sing a pastoral tune “Tagaru.” In episode two, Khasi folk artist Dalariti Gratel Kharnaior and her band pay tribute to the village of Kongthong with their folk song “Thymmei.” Dixit wanders further into North East India, meeting Mickma Tshering Lepcha in the town of Tashiding in Sikkim. He performs the reverential “Saawoh.” Episode four introduces us to the charming Madurai folk musician K. Chitrasenan, who leads “Aadi Kaathu” for the harvest season. The final episodes closes with one of Manipur’s most well-known voices, Mangka Mayanglambam, whose inimitable voice modulation is heard on “Lashing Lei.”

All in all, it remained a “dream project” for the artist, who is currently on the lookout for funding for the second season of PaDa Project. “This documentary style is something that comes naturally to me. I let myself just observe, absorb things that are happening around, that’s how I am as a person. And I let the camera also be like that,” he adds. Dixit’s love for folk and tribal music is something he attributes to growing up in Mysuru, surrounded by these music traditions through art performances. He adds, “Athough we were exposed to a lot of classical music, I felt a particular kind of freedom with folk and tribal music, because the way they sing, it’s like very an unabashed, very open kind of singing.”

Watch the episodes for PaDa Project below.

Episode 1 – Mohan Kumar

Episode 2 – Dalariti Gratel Kharnaior

Episode 3 – Mickma Tshering Lepcha

Episode 4 – K. Chitrasenan

Episode 5 – Mangka (Part 1 & 2)