Concert of Dhrupad music
Italy
OriginalItaly6:42English enGalerie Gisela CapitainDocumentary
What this film tells
Two musicians — one Indian, one Hungarian — speak about sound before a Dhrupad concert. Tuning as alignment, tradition as living thought.
Why it matters
Dhrupad is one of the world's oldest living musical traditions — and it is disappearing. Passed down through an unbroken chain of teacher and student, it has survived centuries not by being recorded, but by being embodied and transmitted in person. Concert of Dhrupad Music documents a quiet, radical act: two musicians from outside India dedicating their lives to this tradition. Not as appropriation, but as deep listening — and perhaps one of the most honest forms of cultural exchange we have left.
What this film tells
Two musicians — one Indian, one Hungarian — speak about sound before a Dhrupad concert. Tuning as alignment, tradition as living thought.
Why it matters
Dhrupad is one of the world's oldest living musical traditions — and it is disappearing. Passed down through an unbroken chain of teacher and student, it has survived centuries not by being recorded, but by being embodied and transmitted in person. Concert of Dhrupad Music documents a quiet, radical act: two musicians from outside India dedicating their lives to this tradition. Not as appropriation, but as deep listening — and perhaps one of the most honest forms of cultural exchange we have left.
Harkeerat Mangat (*1990, Canada) is an artist and musician. He is a senior vocal student of Pt. Uday Bhawalkar from Pune, India and a Meisterschüler of the Christopher Williams photography class at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Mangat has had solo presentations at the Bonner Kunstverein and Raketenstation Hombroich. His works have been exhibited in the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada, Kunsthalle Wien, Austria and the Kunstsammlung NRW in Düsseldorf Germany. He is currently based in Vienna where he is writing a master’s thesis in Cognitive Science.
Balázs Virágh is a Hungarian-born, internationally recognized performer of Indian classical music, specializing in the pakhawaj, a North Indian percussion instrument. He has pursued his studies of indian music for over 15 years. He started his studies with Tibor Mótyán, then Pt. Rajesh Gangani. He is the disciple of Pt. Mohan Shyam Sharma, and is currently mentored by one of India’s leading tabla masters, Pt. Yogesh Samsi aswell.
In 2023, he founded Hungary’s first Indian music school, the Ganapati Music School, where he teaches Indian rhythmic music to a wide audience and introduces other musical genres through collaborations with international and local artists.
As a scholarship recipient of the Government of India, he studied at the Sangeet Natak Akademi Kathak Kendra, where he graduated with distinction under the guidance of Pt. Shashikant Pathak.
Essays — Portraits
Before the music begins, there is tuning — an act of alignment between two instruments that is already part of the performance. Harkeerat Mangat and Balázs Virágh make Indian classical music with the precision of cognitive science and the playfulness of two friends who find their shared obsession "totally hilarious and absurd."
Read articleCredits
Key creative roles and featured participants connected to the film.
Crew
Community rating
How would you rate Concert of Dhrupad music ? Your vote shapes the collective score.
No ratings yet
Rate this film
—
Conversation
Sign in to join the conversation.
Loading comments...