If you are a millennial urban reader, a memory or mention of Bhojpuri music might feel unrefined at the start. Sadly, the loud, brash, electronically manipulated sounds that make up for the commercial form are a misrepresentation of a culture that is far more subtle, poetic and contextual in history. Simit Bhagat’s In Search of Bidesia seeks to archive and preserve a culture behind that was majorly passed down as an oral tradition, before it vanishes from popular memory.

Bhagat’s documentary film that was released in 2019 has since gone on to win the Best Music Documentary at the recently concluded Royal Anthropological Institute  (RAI) Film Festival in the UK. Screening in the city tomorrow, the film documents the tradition of migrant songs (bidesia songs) from the regions of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Bhagat reveals that they date back to the 18th and 19th centuries, when Indians from the regions were transported as indentured labourers to British colonies. “The songs are connected to indentured migration. They reflect the emotions of women whose husbands have migrated to far-off lands, and who are awaiting their return,” he says.