Nepal owes a lot to the tiny hill station, which lies on the foothills of Mt. Kanchenjunga – ‘the queen of hills’ that we know as Darjeeling. It was the talents from this inconspicuous little town and surrounding hills that provided new and very modern ideas in all art forms here in Nepal -be it painting, literature or music, and in turn contributed a lot to helping these art forms evolve and reach to the place where it is at present in Nepal. Ambar Gurung and Gopal Yonzan in music, Parijat and Indra Bahadur Rai in literature and Lain Singh Bangdel in fine arts – they were the talents who migrated to Nepal from Darjeeling and heralded what is known as the ‘golden period’ in the creative realm of Nepal and have been such a big influence to the followers of these area ever since.

But, especially in modern music here in Nepal, more than any other art form, Darjeeling has left an indelible impression. It won’t be an overstatement to say that Darjeeling has had a major impact especially the Western music scenes in Nepal. No one can deny the fact that the town has poured in its talents continuously to replenish the whole repertoire of Nepali contemporary music. Nepal, on the other hand, has been proving to be fertile ground for their talents to grow.

A short documentary film titled ‘In tune with Darjeeling’ screened in Kathmandu on October 27 however attempts to shed light on a different aspect of contemporary Nepali music: the documentary is essentially about the contribution of some of the unsung heroes to local culture in the Darjeeling Hills, Sikkim and Nepal through their music and their huge influence on modern music, mainly western styled music, here in Nepal. This documentary is intended to be a tribute to those individuals and groups, which, the filmmakers say, were long due to them and goes on to trace the roots of the western music in Darjeeling and, in a way, Nepali modern music. And it indeed was a noble endeavour, for by making this documentary its makers have tried to make the new generation aware about bands such as The Hillians, Diamonds, Turquoise and Jades, Forbidden Fruit, Prism (to mention only a few) that essentially brought in the flavours of western music in Nepali music.

However, all the fears of the filmmakers came true as it dearly failed to live up to my expectation and I am sure that many viewers who came to watch it made similar conclusions. The makers of this documentary lacked enough video footages, audios, photographs and facts to make this documentary interesting and worthwhile to watch. And since it was chiefly meant, as its makers said, to put into perspective the major contribution of unsung individuals in Nepal music, absence of these vital ingredients were clearly felt and didn’t made the documentary convincing enough. Instead, the viewers had to bear the constant bombardment of interview after interviews of former members of the bands the documentary holds as ‘unsung heroes’ and few established names in Nepal’s musical scene. At one point, I was unable to make a head or tails of it. For all I gather, the documentary had lost its sense of direction right from its beginning.

But, notwithstanding all the boring lectures and monologues and technical frailties, the documentary makers should be acknowledged for their honest effort to put into light one hidden and often neglected aspect of the Nepali modern music. This documentary is made by amateurs, so there’s little one can expect. But what the documentary lacks in spirit, it makes up by the visible passion of the filmmakers to recapture the glorious past of the Darjeeling’s music scene.

Direction: Tsering Choden, Yubakar Raj Rajkarnikar
Running Time: 30:23 min