The Music of Our Lives

Sometimes, towards the end of the year, a piece of entertainment sneaks up on you in the rush, and nearly gets lost. So even as you read the year end lists of best movies and best shows, don’t forget to add a very special show, the second season of Bandish Bandits. A stellar follow-up to the first season, a sleeper hit from Prime Video, it is all heart and soul. Taking forward the story of Radhe Rathod of the Rathore Gharana of Jodhpur, and Tamanna Sharma, a social media phenomenon from Delhi who is a performer more than a singer, the second season blends the beauty of Indian classical music with the variety of other traditions, from Western pop to Indian pop.

Gorgeous music. Terrific performances, Heartbreaking moments. Bandish Bandits is a year-end treat for the eyes, ears and spirit. And it does this while also raising important questions–can women not have gharanas, should classical music not innovate, and does the culture of gurus allow talent to thrive?

Sangeet is all about sangath, collaboration, says Divya Dutta’s music teacher, Nandini, in the music college that Tamanna now studies in to master her skill.

There’s a new reality TV competition in town, the Indian Band Competition, and the Rathods and Tamanna’s college band, Royalty Free, end up competiting with each other.

Not only does this mean that sparks fly between Radhe and Tamanna (both played beautifully by Ritwik Bhowmik and Shreya Chaudhury} but also that we get to listen to outstanding music. There is much talk here about surrendering to the music, letting it guide you, and making the music rather than merely voicing it. Watching it makes you realise how intrinsic music is to our liives, and how little we know about its origins, from the thumri once considered the domain of the kothas to the jasrangi, Pandit Jasraj’s innovation, in which the man and woman sing two different ragas in two different scales. “It’s like two people in conversation with each other,” says an admiring member of the audience. And it is.

It is a show that is all heart and fire. Just like the Bandits. The acting is excellent, from Sheeba Chaddha’s musician mother who has been silenced into submission to Kunal Roy Kapoor’s Anglicised music agent, from Divya Dutta’s soulful Nandini to Rajesh Tailang’s black sheep father and Atul Kulkarni’s abandoned maestro. These are men and women who live for their art, and it is a joy to see that onscreen at a time when music reality TV shows have commercialised this space and made performing fleas out of even little children, creating an entire industry of adolescent aspirational musicians whose talent is usually not equal to their ambition. Sangeet baazaar main bechne ki cheez nahin, says a character. Indeed music is not something to be sold, and Bandish Bandits season two reminds us why.

Bandish BanditsentertainmentOTTPrime VideoRitwik BhowmikSeason TwoShreya ChaudhryWeb Exclusive