Revealed through fascinating anecdotes correspondence legend and gossip are the highs and lows of the artistes' lives as they loved and lost and moved on from mehfils to gramophones; we witness too the passion music provoked in the lives of its connoisseurs. Making our way through Benares Calcutta Bombay and New York we meet Hira Bai and Anjali Bai - a mother-daughter duo known as much for their singing as for their beauty and intelligence; the gifted Allarakkhi Bi a friend to Anjali Bai; the famous singer Husna Bai Allarakkhi's mother; and their descendants who attempt to salvage what remains of the old music for new listeners on foreign shores...
Mrinal Pande's Sahela Re is a heartfelt ode to an era when music was sacred. Translated masterfully by Priyanka Sarkar it will stay with you like the unforgettable memory of a precious song...
When Vidya a music scholar sets out to write a book on the history of Hindustani classical music she uncovers the remnants of a time and a tradition fast receding: when singers embodied the ragas in their purest forms; when patrons were worshippers not followers.