Music is an integral part of Indian culture. Hence, musicians are spread throughout the length and breadth of the country. A lot of them have become a part of the popular culture after showcasing their art through films, musical performances, reality shows and, in recent times, social media reels.

But there are countless musicians who are excellent practitioners of their respective art but remain unknown to the masses. These are the folk artistes found in plenty of villages in the country. Filmmaker Debjani Banerjee’s documentary Time River is a moving tribute to one such community of folk artistes.  

The film focuses on Uttam Das and other folk and baul singers of Gourbazar village in Paschim Bardhaman district in West Bengal. The film is a glimpse into their world as they peacefully live their lives while practicing their art, mostly based on God and His philosophy.

Time River doesn’t follow the conventional method of storytelling seen in documentaries where a voiceover narrates the subject along with the use of text. Instead, Banerjee simply uses the audiovisual medium to establish her subject and lets it unfold naturally. The method works very well as one is transported to Gourbazar in the initial few minutes itself. The portrayal of nature plays a major role in it.

Uttam Das and his co-artistes’ narration of their lives and work appears honest and without any pretense. It becomes quite clear that there wasn’t any script and they were made to speak as they wished.

As Uttam Das and others are folk artistes, it was vital for their song performances to be top-notch. The performances are sure to move you even if you don’t understand the language and rely only on subtitles (like this reviewer did).

The film also excels when it comes to the technical aspects like the cinematography (Subal KR), editing (Banerjee and Subal) and sound designing (Dibakar Saha and Archisman Mukherjee).

Time River also subtly touches upon the issue of the village’s natural resources being in danger of being destroyed in the name of ‘development’.

It is not possible to find a major negative point in the film. The only aspect that could also have been covered is how Uttam Das and other folk artistes are managing their lives financially.

Overall: Time River is a moving tribute to the village folk artistes of Gourbazar.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Director: Debjani Banerjee  

Producers: Debjani Banerjee, Subal KR and D Banerjee

Also read: Duet review: Sidhant Gupta excels in this artistic glimpse into a man’s grief-stricken world

This blog is one of the Top 30 Indian movie blogs on the web as per FeedSpot. See the full list here –https://bloggers.feedspot.com/indian_movie_blogs/