Through Baul music, I explored my inner world: Parvathy Baul

With an ektara in her hand, a mini drum-like instrument, a duggi and her multiple metallic anklets, mystic musician, storyteller and Baul folk singer Parvathy Baul captivates the Chennai crowd at her recent performance in town. In an interview with Chennai Times, she talks about her art form, Joyguru, the film based on her and more.
‘Baul music has a touch of ancient ragas’
Baul music is the music of the yogis of Bengal.This music is transmitting the wisdom of the bauls, the yogis who took the path of music and through their songs they left us their teachings and wisdom. There are so many different sections in this stream of music; it has a touch of the very ancient ragas but sometimes it is also very folk-like because of the use of vowels.
'India has always been dynamic and never static'
Experimenting with this kind of music solely depends on the way it is done, doing something to explore and push your boundaries to expand yourself, is okay. But If one ends the depth of the tradition, and does not understand why people sang it a certain way, then it doesn’t come from a place of respect. Doing it for the sake of it leaves both the musician and the music with no depth or meaning at all. To do justice to music is by exploring and by breaking the limits. We should always explore because our traditions in India also have always been dynamic and never static.
‘Something else will come along, but the tradition will remain’
Even when radio and TV came out, we had questions about them taking over our space. Then again with Yatra, the folk opera, they did vanish but were brought back eventually as with Yatra, they missed the group singing and the music. People get tired of things and move on to the next, but some things bring a sense of comfort, what live musicians can do, AI can’t do. Something else will come along, but the tradition will remain. The musicians, the people who dedicate their lives to music will live.
A message for the next generation of musicians
I feel patience is very important and for musicians to not lose heart in the sense that many musicians get frustrated. They think, “I'm not getting it. I'm not finding it, how do I survive, how do I do this,” so they try to take shortcuts. But there are no shortcuts to music, it is a sadhana. It is a vidya given by Saraswati, something for us to cherish. So, when you love your divine, you have to fearlessly dedicate yourself to music. Like how a sanyasi renounces things to be a sadhu, similarly, we have to dedicate ourselves to our music."
On Joyguru, a film based on her
A thorough yet slightly fictionalised account of the music icon’s life will be portrayed in the film Joyguru written and directed by Bengali filmmaker Soumyajit Majumdar. The film is also slated to launch sales at the Cannes film festival this year. Talking about this she says, “Soumyajit has done an incredible study on me for two whole years. He sat with me for hours at a stretch and shadowed me even when I was travelling everywhere in the world for shows.”
“He then came up with an incredible script which he made me listen to. I think it will be very beautiful and it's not about this heroism about someone. It's more about what the tradition says, what the young people must listen to from the tradition, the film has been made from that inspiration,” she explains.
On performing in Chennai
I have been here many times and Chennai is a special place because it is the cultural capital and with children coming from all over the country, so it’s a mixed crowd but it's pretty nice performing here.
On her music choices
I love listening to my masters, Sanatan Das Baul and Shashanko Goshai Baul. There are not many recordings of Chinta Manidashi just a few songs, but I listen to her songs over and over because there is just something so special about it. Some classical musicians that I listen to often are Mallikarjun Mansur, Bhimsen Joshi, and Bengali musicians like Ramkumar Chattopadhyay and Pannalal Bhattacharya.
Through Baul music, I explored my inner world. Baul has brought me more understanding and inner realisation and vairagya (Sanskrit word for detachment).