Music wafts across the tense Indo-Pak border

An Indian and a Pakistani film maker collaborate on Lyari Notes, a documentary about a music school in Karachi

At the same time that the political temperatures in India and Pakistan rise over border skirmishes and the boat that went up in flames off the coast of Gujarat, a unique cross-border documentary by an Indian film maker and her Pakistani counterpart is taking shape. “Political tensions are one thing… but I think it’s really important to have dialogue and a cultural bridge going,” says Miriam Chandy Menacherry, co-director and producer of Lyari Notes, on the phone from Mumbai. While Menacherry is handling the documentary’s post-production, the shooting is being done by her collaborator in Karachi, Maheen Zia.

Lyari Notes follows four girls who live in Lyari, a suburb of Karachi infamous for violence, and who have been selected to receive free music education at Music Art Dance (MAD) School in the city centre. The school was set up two years ago by Pakistani rockstar Hamza Jafri and theatre personality Nida Butt. The duo launched a free arts programme for children from impoverished backgrounds as an intervention of sorts. “The girls travel from Lyari to the heart of Karachi for their music class, which is an entirely different world and the film juxtaposes the two worlds… It’s also a coming-of-age film because we’ve been shooting the girls for two years,” says Menacherry, whose last documentary, The Rat Race, won the co-production challenge at Cannes in 2010.

The trailer on the film’s website offers tantalising glimpses: of a group of little girls singing and clapping enthusiastically, Jafri reassuring a mother who says she thought music is a sin according to the Shariyat  by telling her, “There is a saying that music nourishes the soul. Every being strikes its own note. To absorb each note and create expression is to be touched by life itself,” and the violence the area’s inhabitants have to endure. In an article about the music school in Pakistani newspaper Dawn, Sadia Tareen, the mother of one of the performers, says: “The people of Lyari are always known for terrorism, but this school has provided a different platform for our children. This shows that they can take part in other activities as well, and excel in them.” The four girls, the film makers say, are feisty and challenge a lot of stereotypes.

The Lyari Notes’ trailer also hints at the practical difficulties of shooting an Indo-Pak film and the film makers confirm that the most basic things that one would take for granted become a challenge. “You can’t courier hard drives from Pakistan to India, so getting the footage across becomes a big drama each time,” says Menacherry. Even transferring money is not easy. Shooting is also not a straightforward process, since Lyari is a sensitive area, with bouts of violence and curfews.

But the upside is that technology also helps the film makers to communicate and “transcend the artificial political borders created between countries.” This thread of subversion was also the inspiration that started with Menacherry getting drawn to the music videos uploaded by young Pakistani artistes with strong political and social commentary. The country’s heavy censorship helped foster a unique underground culture of sharing videos which also attracted a lot of viewers from India. People found ways to circumvent the censorship, such as the ban on YouTube, through proxy servers, et cetera.  But this phenomenon is not new, Menacherry points out. “They’ve had a history of people who spoke out against dictatorships during every oppressive regime and got a huge audience. Even Faiz used poetry as a form of protest. These youngsters are just using technology to continue that tradition.” This led her to Hamza Jafri, and Zia told her about the “Lyari Stars” programme for underprivileged children.

Shooting for the film is almost complete and Zia and Menacherry have just raised £10,000 through crowd-funding. They hope to complete the film by the end of the year and release it in both countries. “I’m excited to see how youngsters in India and Pakistan will receive it,” says Menacherry, who adds that the film’s music is almost like a commentary. One gets a sense of this, especially in the aftermath of the recent attack on schoolchildren in Peshawar,  when we watch the

little girls in the trailer cheerfully sing, “Bread will cost nothing and life will be precious. Pakistan will see that day!”