I saw Mother India: 21st Century Remix in 2008 and it was honestly one of the best things I saw that year. It’s been off on tour since but will be back in Birmingham on Sunday (11 April) to crown Mother India weekend – a bunch of events happening at the Town Hall and Symphony Hall.

This version of Mother India is:

A reinterpretation of the 1957 Indian cinema classic as a 45 minute silent movie with new musical score will be performed live by DJ Tigerstyle, drummer David Shaw and cellist Matt Constantine with Josh Ford as visual editor.

MI21 is a compact, powerful and sensual take on Mehboob Khan’s Hindi masterpiece – a hugely important film in South Asian cinema, known for its iconic imagery and powerful storyline: the common shorthand is to reference it as India’s ‘Gone with the wind’.

Definitely go and see it. Here – here’s the link to get tickets.

Other things happening as part of the weekend:

• Fri 9 April Arun Ghosh Sextet (Symphony Hall foyer bars)
• Fri 9 April – Pandit Shivkumar Sharma (Mother India Weekend) (Town Hall)
• Sat 10 April – Mid-day Mantra – Sanchita Pal (Symphony Hall foyer bars)
• Sat 10 April – Amaan & Ayaan Ali Khan (Mother India Weekend) (Town Hall)

The first is in association with Birmingham Jazz, the others with sampad and, in some cases, The Drum.

The Mid-day Mantra thing sounds quite good – a variant on the Rush Hour Blues series, I guess. That’ll be happening once a month from now on and will be a freebie.

Mother India weekend at Town Hall and Symphony Hall Birmingham will be a journey through the musical heritage of India over 9-11 April, taking in the mystic heights of classical traditions via Anglo-Indian classical fusion to cutting-edge contemporary Asian remixes.

The weekend’s musical journey starts at the pinnacle of Mother India’s classical tradition, with a rare UK recital by santoor maestro and living legend Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. Then we encounter a younger generation of Indian musicians, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan. These gifted sarod players come from a distinguished classical lineage, but here they take the ancient classical tradition of Mother India on an East-West cross-cultural journey in collaboration with young British cellist Matthew Barley. Finally, we come right up-to-date in a cutting-edge event when young British-Asian artist DJ Tigerstyle explores his heritage and re-visions Mother India, a classic of Indian cinema, in contemporary idiom.

For tickets and more information check out the Town Hall & Symphony Hall website here.

I was really pleased to hear that the musicians will be in the studio (in Birmingham) next week to record the soundtrack and Kala Phool are trying to put together a national tour for later in the year.

Kala Phool are after a film maker to make a kind of video ‘calling card’ for this. However, the bad news is there’s no budget available for the work. I must say I don’t tend to like posting these sorts of requests but I’m making an exception in this case.

If you’re still interested:

• Filming will happen on Fri/Sat 16-17 January at studios in Aston near The Drum
• They need some short interviews with the people involved and some footage of the band in the studio
• There’s plenty of footage from the live shows already
• They’re looking for something like the video of The Bays and Heritage Orchestra at the Liverpool Phil
• The finished piece will be needed by the end of January

If you can help then email Indy Hunjan at indy@kalaphool.com or call her on 07977 449052.

In a nutshell, a version of Mother India (seminal 1957 Bollywood flick) has been re-visualised and re-scored and will be officially launched at The Drum (who co-commissioned it) on 2 August at 7.30pm.

This looks pretty much essential and I’m gutted that I’m not going to be around to see it.  Instead, I’m going to torture myself by going through a few links.

This version of Mother India (or MI21 as they would have us call it) has been re-cut and remixed by Josh Ford, with the score re-interpreted by (ex-world champion) DJ Tigerstyle accompanied by Matt Constantine (cello) and David Shaw (drums).  The Renderghost (great name) has been involved too.  The music sounds fantastic and you get get a sneak peak on the Kala Phool MySpace.

The organisers assure us that, although it’ll appeal to a contemporary audience, it’ll stay true to the source material.  After the screening there’ll be a panel discussion to round things off.

This project has been co-commissioned by The Drum and is launching in Birmingham (although it has been shown at Drop Beats Not Bombs) before touring nationally and, perhaps, internationally.

For more info, see the MI21 eflyer on Scribd (you can zoom in if the text is too small).