I remember the day and the moment clearly—July 2nd, 2007. It was the day after the screening for Scary Cow Productions; the amazing San Francisco film collective to which I belong, and without whom this project would not be possible. Every three months, the members of Scary Cow—filmmakers of all experience levels, backgrounds, and trades—get together and produce shorts from start to finish. At the beginning of the round, we all gather, and whoever has an idea for a project they want to do gets up in front of the group and makes their pitch. Everyone becomes part of at least one team—most people are involved in several projects at a time, often playing a variety of roles. For three months, we work work work, and at the end we screen all the projects at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco. We then vote on the films we liked best, and the three films who receive the most votes are rewarded a budget for the next round.
So far, Scary Cow has had two complete rounds. The first round, I went to the screening and was completely blown away. The second round, I acted in a couple of the projects. It was definitely my intention to be more involved in the third round, but I had no plans for making a pitch of my own.
After the Round 2 screening, I was feeling unusually buoyant and inspired. It was wonderful to see so many people’s creative work all in one place, at one time, and on one large, beautiful screen. Something started to happen, though I had no idea at the time exactly what.
Meanwhile, Salman had been organizing a contest for people to make remixes and music videos of “Naachoongi”—track 1 off the Infiniti album. I had thought about trying to direct a video myself, but didn't feel I had a strong enough idea to really create something good. Also, “Naachoon gi” was not the song that spoke to me most clearly. Then, all the sudden, it hit me.
The morning of July 2nd, I was taking a walk through my neighborhood. The images flashed strongly in my head—the sand dunes, the ocean, the dance. The story started to crystallize—of a girl walking through the desert in bare feet with ghungru (ankle bells) in her hands. She finds her spot, puts on her bells, and starts to do pranaam (the opening prayer sequence Kathak dancers do each time before they dance). The dance starts out slowly and builds speed throughout the course of the song. She dances for a while on the sand, but eventually feels the need to move on. She then walks from the dunes to the ocean and starts to dance on the beach. The dance intensifies until it builds to a climactic frenzy, which happens during the interlude of the guitar solo. Finally, when she has danced all there is to dance, she is seized by a stillness. She stares out into the vast expanse of ocean and, as if possessed by a force outside of herself, begins to walk hypnotically into the sea. She immerses herself in the water ceremonially like a baptism. The last shot we see is the pile of ankle bells sitting on the shore without its owner, being washed by the waves.
This was the moment when “Sagar” the music video hatched. Since then, it has grown and strengthened and soared. Stay tuned for the next installment of its miraculous unfolding!
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