From the mid-nineteenth century Indian labourers arrived in the Caribbean on boats, bringing a few belongings and their music, the beginnings of a remarkable cultural practice. More than 150 years later musician Remo Fernandes travels to the Islands to explore collaborations and create new work.

Jahaji Music is a record of a difficult, if unusual and complex, musical journey. It is an attempt to make meaning of aspects of contemporary culture in Trinidad and Jamaica, even as we witness the nature and possibilities of artistic collaboration. The film endeavours, through it all, to weave a story of memory, identity and creativity.

Duration: 1 hour 52 minutes

Excerpt http://www.tehelka.com/story_main34.asp?filename=hub220907firstlook_cinema.asp

Director’s Note http://www.upperstall.com/jahaji_music.html

Review http://shubha.underscorerecords.info/2007/10/18/jahaji-music-by-surabhi-sharma-a-film-on-chutney-soca-music/

here are some great sites for chutney. chutney was originally created in trinidad as a way to 1. get girls to dance LOL 2. old men singing when they were drunk –> two types of chutney emerged 1. new type chuntey like “RUm till i die” by aadesh sumaroo which is in english and 2. older type chutney with closer ties to callipso (had more meaning to it) usuually in hindi –> sundar popo, all the yankaran’s, like rakesh yankaran and anand making really good music that even ppl in india could appreciate and lastly babla and kanchan who were two indian artists who frequented trinidad cause they loved the ppl and the island and made many hits, sadly kanchan died in 2005 from some disease, i saw her last concert in toronto, now babla and his daughter dont come to TnT as often but their daughter still has the “chutney” in her … anyway theres a lil brief history

now guyana does play in … recently they have some good artists come out, but two of the biggest names is Terry gagraj and Devanand Gattoo, now the guyanaeese chutney is usually a little harder to understand and may be more well … not hindi really …

anyway here are some great sites to search

1.http://www.chutneyzone.com/ 2.toronto-lime.com

It didn’t matter if the source of the music was an antique hi-fi system with massive speakers rattling so much that it made all my mothers ornaments fall off the cabinet or whether it was my dad playing the guitar with my uncle and I singing and drumming away on empty buckets whilst everyone else, men, women and children were clapping their hands and dancing around (sounds really sad I know, but what fun it was back in those days).

I too don’t understand the lyrics, but who cares. With a rhythm like that it’s no wonder why it’s so popular. Even my grandmother (who I called Nani by the way)used to sway her head from left to right with the beat (or maybe she was trying to say “NO-STOP THIS NOISE”).

Until recently, we believed that chutney music originated in the “poor” indian community in South Africa and was always considered to be a home grown type of music. But it seems more like someone copied the rhythm and added their own words into the mix.

But whichever way you look at it there’s no beating the wonderful sounds of CHUTNEY.