Mungal Patasar film premieres at Queen's Hall

THE film premiere of Iconography: Mungal Patasar will take place today at Queen’s Hall, St Ann's. The film is the second in the series by Pomegranate Studios, and is directed by Mikhail Gibbings and Teneka Mohammed.

Gibbings said the film series was a historical and archival one which tells the stories of older Trinidadians through their own voices, rather than through posthumous look-backs. The first film featured Roy Cape.

“The main selecting factor with the people we approach are that (the material) existed because there was widespread access to video archival material." He said the filmmakers would know their names, "and what they’ve done, to a certain extent, musically and creatively, but we don’t necessarily know them as people.”

Mohammed said he felt it was important to talk to Patasar because the entire crew involved in the film grew up listening to his music.

“I’m a musician before I’m anything else, and the way I learned to play guitar was sitting in my room listening to Mungal Patasar and playing back his sitar lines on my guitar when I was six or seven.

"So the fact that we now get to sit in a room in his house and have him tell us all his amazing musical stories, it feels like a full-circle sort of thing.

“Filming was a really special experience where we got to spend time with this person who for us was this unreachable, influencing talent, who we didn’t really understand the concept of, because sitar is such an obscure instrument in our current culture, and he’s someone who drove that instrument when nobody was even looking out for what sitar was doing in Trinidad and Tobago.”

Gibbings said there wasn’t much recorded material about Patasar available to the public, even though he is an inextricable part of TT’s culture.

“Everyone knows the name, everyone knows (his tune) Dreadlocks when they hear that first note, but maybe they don’t know where he came from, maybe they don’t know where those first few notes even started. And so it feels really nice that we get to tell that story for the first time.”

He said Patasar’s wife, Roshni, was very welcoming and went above and beyond to accommodate them.

“She gave us such a large amount of archival material, she was one of the key people behind this. We probably wouldn’t have been able to do this documentary without her.”

Gibbings said along with the Pastasars, the surviving members of the band Pantar would be at the premiere, as well as co-founder Harold Headley, who he said was an under-recognised but completely foundational part of TT pan.

“A large part of the reason we wanted to do Pantar as part of this project is that a lot of the band members are less recognised than they should be. Pantar is pan and sitar, it’s a specific camber between those two instruments in music that doesn’t exist anywhere in the work because it couldn’t exist anywhere in the world, as this is the only place in the world where the two instruments exist in the same place. And it’s something that’s since been used together in popular music without a lot of reference to Mungal Patasar. But I don’t know anyone else who could possibly have done that sound first.”

Co-producer Mohammed said from concept to completion the project took approximately a year, which gave them time to decide what story they wanted to tell.

She said Patasar was welcoming and excited about sharing his knowledge.

“He has all this incredible music knowledge and wisdom that I don’t think anybody could break down or understand fully.

"His family was also really nice. The founders of Pantar were really easy to get in touch with and work with, and happy to talk about their experiences working with Patasar.”

She said she enjoyed putting together the story in a fun and light way, and they all shared the experience of listening to his music, and especially Dreadlocks.

“My grandparents would be playing his music all the time, and Pantar’s as well, so growing up listening to his music and then fast-forwarding to sitting in his house listening to him was pretty great. "I tried not to cry during it because it felt so unattainable, because he’s such a big figure in society and a lot of people look up to him. I felt very privileged to be in his space and for him to allow us to share it.”

She said the in-depth conversation fuelled the way in which the film was shaped and Patasar’s story was told.

“The whole idea of Iconography is you’re hearing it from the icon’s perspective, and also keep it simple and honest and as real as it gets. The music industry is a tough one and we wanted to portray Mungal, his openness to collaboration, the pushback he got, especially from the Indian classical society in creating this new music.

“For me personally, being an Indo-Trinidadian, I completely understood what he was saying about the pushback from the Indian society and moving into this kind of jazz-Afro-fusion vibe, so that opened my mind to how he was experiencing these things when he was now starting out.”

Mohammed said there were a few hiccups, but the support of sponsors such as NGC, NLCB and NFM – Lion Brand helped them to push through.

“It shows that people care about what we’re doing and us documenting our culture. I was happy to get the opportunity to do this, and I think it’s important for us to appreciate the contributions the icons made to TT.”

Gibbings said there would be a question-and-answer session after the 45-minute film, and Patasar might also answer questions.

The film will premiere on March 22. Doors open at 6 pm and the film will be aired at 7 pm.

For more info: visit Iconography or Pomegranate Studios on Facebook. Tickets can be bought at the Queen’s Hall box office or at bit.ly/iconographymungaltickets.