Bohurupi — meaning 'of many forms' in Bengali — is an age-old performing art tradition from Bengal, where travelling artists transform themselves into gods, demons, animals, and characters from everyday life. Once a popular form of rural entertainment and social commentary, bohurupi has gradually been pushed to the cultural fringes, fading from urban visibility in the face of modern media and economic precarity.
'DAKINI', Kolkata-based bassist, composer, and filmmaker Debjit Mahalanobis' directorial debut, is a cinematic and sonic exploration of this vanishing folk art form. Merging elements of fantasy with the deep, resonant sound of the double bass, DAKINI reimagines the bohurupi tradition through a contemporary lens. In DAKINI, Mahalanobis turns his lens toward this vanishing tradition, fusing it with elements of fantasy and experimental soundscapes.
The film represents a bold cinematic and sonic exploration of the bohurupi tradition's expressive potential. At its heart beats the deep, resonant voice of the upright double bass — an instrument rarely heard outside stage settings in India, and almost never in folk contexts. By pairing this Western classical instrument with a folk performance form, Mahalanobis creates a liminal space where past and present, rural and urban, the real and the mythic coexist.
Central to the film's story is Kamal Mete, a third-generation bohurupi artist from Birbhum, whose captivating performances form the spiritual and narrative core of the project. Mete plays the titular Dakini — a mystical, otherworldly figure from Bengali folklore, often associated with fear, transformation, and feminine power. In DAKINI, Mahalanobis and Mete collaborate to blur the lines between documentary, ritual, and dream. Mete's shapeshifting embodiment of the titular Dakini blurs the lines between performer and character, and tradition and reinvention. Through Mete, DAKINI becomes not just a document of a disappearing art form, but a ritual act of continuation and renewal, offering a rare glimpse into a world of disappearing everyday magic.
Mahalanobis — Bengal's only full-time professional upright bassist — is known for pushing the boundaries of the double bass within Indian music. A self-taught musician, he draws from Hindustani classical, jazz, Santhal folk, and electronic music, creating genre-fluid compositions that have earned him a distinctive place in India's contemporary music scene. His previous work includes the score for Netflix India’s Taranath Tantrik (2019), along with a series of experimental music videos and collaborative projects.
With DAKINI, Mahalanobis extends his solo practice into a collaborative, interdisciplinary space. Inspired by Santhal musical traditions and grounded in the textured sonics of the double bass, the short film pays homage to a folk art form on the brink of extinction. At once an elegy and invocation, DAKINI is a haunting tribute to Bengal's shapeshifting storytellers and the power of transformation itself.
Follow Debjit Mahalanobis here.
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