Indus Blues

Indus Blues is a 2018 Pakistani documentary film produced and directed by filmmaker Jawad Sharif. The film is about the dying folk and classical musical instruments of Pakistan and the struggle of musicians and craftsmen to keep their art alive. The film was premiered in August 2018 at Regina International Film Festival in Canada and nominated for the Best International Documentary Film Award. The official trailer was released in October 2018 in Pakistan.

The film has won several awards in the international film festival circuit including the Grand Jury Prize for the Crystal Award at Guam International Film Festival 2018 and the Best Documentary Feature and Best Cinematography Awards at the Jaipur International Film Festival. The film was selected for the CPH:DOX Documentary Film Festival 2019, Denmark

Synopsis
The film starts with a showcase of classical folk music as it travels in Pakistan from Moenjodaro to the Makran Coast. The soundtrack for this part of the film includes instruments such as Boreendo, Alghoza, and Banjo. Moving to Sui, Baluchistan for Suroz, Cholistan for Raanti, Gilgit-Baltistan for Chardha, Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for Sarinda, and finally to Lahore for Sarangi.

The cast of the film consists of the musicians and craftsmen narrating the sorry state of affairs and surviving in a society that is intolerant to their art and craft. They recount their experiences and the treatment they receive from people around them, reminding them that they are social outcasts who are looked down upon. They reveal that religious bigotry plays a major role in marginalizing them which has resulted in the lack of patronage and economic problems for these artists. Owing to these factors the fate of the last custodians of the art and the future of the indigenous musical instruments and their craftsmen in Pakistan remains in peril.

Cast
Mai Dhai - Folk Artist Krishan Laal Bheel – Folk Artist Faqir Zulifiqar – Boreendo Player Artist & Musician Ejaz Sarhadi – Sarinda Player Sachu Khan – Suroz Player Zohaib Hassan – Sarangi Player Sattar Jogi – Murli Been Player Mumtaz Ali Sabzal – Banjo Player Gulbaz Karim – Chardha Player Akbar Khan Khamisu – Alghoza Player Ustad Ziauddin – Sarangi Craftsman Ibrahim Hajano – Alghoza Craftsman Muhammad Jan – Suroz Craftsman Shafqat Karim – Chardha Craftsman Nighat Chaudhary – Classical Dancer Saif Samejo – Folk & Sufi Artist Arieb Azhar – Folk & Sufi Artist Faqeer Juman Shah – Folk & Sufi Artist

Production
The film took four years to complete with only the post-production taking up to two years and was shot across Pakistan from Gilgit-Baltistan to Sindh and the Makran Coast. Jawad Sharif also has stated that "Independent cinema will send the message that our TV Dramas could not."

Reception
Omair Ali wrote for Wire.in that "As much as the documentary shows the joy that the music brings, it is situated in the bleak atmosphere of a conflict-ridden society, where the musicians are forced to talk of their relatives wounded by mortar shelling, or confronted by villagers accusing them of immoral practices. The pleasure of music, of older, generous traditions is – in the documentary – a small pool of cool water in an increasingly thirsty land."

Dr.Nazir Mehmood wrote in the Daily News about the film:"Now ‘Indus Blues’ has taken up the challenge to document near-extinct music and musicians. This is groundbreaking in the sense that, prior to this movie, no other director or producers had ever attempted to highlight the issues faced by our folk musicians and instrument-makers, and how they are trying to keep their art and craft alive."