Tapta's Bande Maatram in Nepal

By: taptamusic.com *

With big applause and appraisal from the crowd thronging from all over the world, Tapta's Bande Maatram was screened at the recently concluded International Music Video Festival at the Sixth Edition of Film South Asia 2007 in Kathmandu on 17 October 2007.

Organised by Himal Foundation, Kathmandu the video festival was part of Film South Asia'a festival of documentary films. Remarkable music videos from Pakistan, Nepal, and India were included in the video festival.

Lokrakpam Jayanta of Tapta in New Delhi

The week-long festival was held in Kumari Cinema multiplex in Kathmandu, Nepal. In addition to mass turnout of local crowd, the event was bulged with immense art enthusiasts and artistes from South Asian countries.

Bande Maatram stole the show with the video's unique patriotic theme.

'People really appreciated the video and responded in a heartfelt way. As you know, the political situation in Nepal also has some parallels with that of Manipur', said Paromita Vohra, a Mumbai-based independent filmmaker. 'Though Bande Maatram has no English subtitle, the concept of the video was vividly narrated before screening', she added.

The music video festival was divided into five categories, namely,

* Early Worms: The First Big Music Videos;
* Bawdy Politics: Sexuality in Music Videos;
* Patriotism and Its Discontents;
* Moving the Picture: Music Videos as Film Promos; and
* Message in a Video.

Remarkable music videos in the festival included Lucky Ali's O Sanam (dir by Ken Ghost); Silk Route's Dooba Dooba, (dir by Ravi Udyadar); and Chandrabidhu's Brohma Jaane, (dir by Abhik Mukhopadhyaya) in the Early Worms segment.

Tapta's Bande Maataram was under the Patriotism and Its Discontents category, which also includes A R Rahman's popular patriotic song Maa Tujhe Salaam.