As a student of Hindustani classical music for the past nine years and a synaesthete, I have always found synergies between visuals, sounds and raags emerging effortlessly. During my first semester in Film and Video Communication, the Introduction to Sound course gave me the opportunity to translate this personal tendency into a sound design project. 
 

Dhaani is a raag whom I visualised as a female dancer, in a story I penned down in my Riyaaz Journal. “She is golden, the  warm, rich golden of Nataraja sculptures, a flicker of nostalgia for past lifetimes, the lingering memories of echoing riverside stone temples and childhood friends you fall in love with,” I had written. The story itself emerged from a bandish I'd learnt in the same raag. This became the seed for an exploration that involved writing a script, casting for a narrator and dancer, and eventually creating an aural piece that would evoke vivid visuals within the listener.
 

INITIAL INQUIRIES 

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The initial aspiration was to tell a story through sound; I wanted to translate a personal, reflective piece of writing into a sound design project that would evoke visuals within the listener, and to share some of my synaesthetic experiences which transcend and merge colours, stories and music. 

Since my sound design project was concerned with music, I had to be sensitive to the rhythm and pitch of all sounds. Many discoveries were technical, as this was my first time working with a Digital Audio Workstation. Everything was a novel experience: working with a script including music, dialogue, ambient sounds in a multitrack session; collaborating to translate the dialogues to Hindi, casting for the dancer's sounds and narration. I was also told that we only have subconscious memory of sound, much like colour, which pleases the synaesthete in me.  As filmmakers,  I found, everything we include or exclude must be intentional, and that the lack of resources shouldn't limit our storytelling. The process of conceptualising and creating Dhaani led me to learn new things and fall in love with the medium of sound. 
 

SHIFTS IN PERCEPTION 

Initially, the story was written in English, in a poetic, reflective style. The idea was to have the dialogues spoken in English, as with the script, but when this was actually recorded, I felt the need to translate it to the language the story felt most apt to: Hindustani. A blend of Urdu and Hindi, it lent the necessary mellifluous aesthetic to the narration, which brought out the essence of Dhaani better than anything else.

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SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

 

Riyaaz, my creative and dedicated practice of Hindustani music, the source of many good things in life. My Guruji, Pt. Nagalingaiyyah Vastradamatha. Hitesh Chaurasia, my guide for the project. Friends and muses, Medha Bhagwat, Krishna Raj Soni, and Sahil Nigam, who became enthusiastic and awe-inspiring collaborators.

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HINDSIGHT
 

Working on Dhaani was one of the most beautiful experiences during the pandemic period for me. It was the long-awaited realisation of the potential for which I had chosen FVC, and the opportunity to express myself through sounds and music through a classroom assignment was a dream come true. Even remotely, the collaboration was one worth cherishing, and being at home and close to my music greatly aided the process. 
 

For my first venture into sound design, I had achieved something I was proud of. Looking back, there are quite a few technical things I have gotten better at with time and practice; however, the story of Dhaani remains close to my heart. 

FUTURE POSSIBILITIES 
 

Dhaani lent me confidence in my affinity for sounds and music, and there are many more such stories and ideas in my riyaaz journal which call for countless other synaesthetic explorations, into which I will carry the learnings from this project.