Chattai Weaving Life On The Streets

Aham Bharatam Mother Free is a grand cinematic journey through India’s diverse landscapes and rich civilisation. From the majestic peaks of the Himalayas to the sacred origin of the Ganges, from the frozen glaciers of the Gaumukh to the vast Indian Ocean in Kanyakumari, the film showcases the voices and lands of the Adivasis, the first people from Sambalpur, and the vibrant tribal community in Bastar, Chhattisgarh. It traverses the Maratha land, where farmers unite to celebrate the turmeric festival and revere Saint Vithhal in a sea of white.

The journey continues to the ghats of Banaras, where eternal prayers on the banks of the Ganges persist. We witness Tamil Nadu’s ancient martial art, Silambam, showcasing the Shakthi within women. We marvel at the timeless architectures, that have lived through centuries — the Brihadeswara Temple from the Chola Dynasty to the Ajanta Ellora Caves, the Taj Mahal, the temple in Konark, the caves in Khajuraho, and the monasteries in Ladakh. Every moment reveals the story of a community, of an India that has been together and that continues to stay together, embodying the spirit of unity, love and empathy.

The film reverberates with the energy of the rhythms that are unique to India and that resonate deeply with her people. From the primordial OM and the divine sounds of Sanskrit shlokas, bells, conches, nagadas and cymbals, to the classical Hindustani music, the sounds of shehnai on the ghats of Banaras, and the ancient wisdom of the Sangam Era in the Tirukkurals in Tamil — Aham Bharatam Mother Free is woven with the diverse sounds that unite the nation and bind her people together.

This film is the story of India’s civilisational journey in continuum, narrated through the extraordinary people of India who form a part of her rich heritage and traditions. On the ghats of Banaras, Swami Sivananda (now 126 years old) personifies the timeless wisdom and discipline of a yogic life. He’s a man who is older than the Republic of India. We walk the dry earth in Sambalpur where we meet the first people — the Adivasis through their poet, Haldhar Nag. His words in their native language, Kosli, inspire his people to keep growing. In the meanwhile, in a faraway land in central India, another Adivasi community adorns the universe on their head in the form of their traditional head gear, in which the feathers represent air, the conches represent water and the horns represent the earth. They are the Bison Maria tribe of Chhattisgarh.

Up North, in Bhaini Sahib, a small town in Punjab, the air echoes the sound of classical music emanating from every household. Down south, the tradition of the guru-shishya pratha is in continuum – where Manu Master imparts the ancient, tantric art of Bharatnatyam to his disciples, and a school in Karnataka perpetuates Sanskrit through its students. Life and death form a never-ending cycle. On the banks of Ganges in Haridwar, generations of handwritten ancestral family records are preserved as a tradition by teerth purohits. Deep in the heart of India, the community of Ramnamis continues to devote their mind and body to worshipping Lord Ram, by tattooing his name all over themselves.

Aham Bharatam Mother Free is a journey, punctuated with deep and diverse emotions from every nook and cranny of the nation. It’s a continuous story of humanity that runs in the soil, water, and air that India breathes. While celebrating diversity, the film presents India as one civilisation that continues to grow. Stringing it together is Sri Aurobindo’s ode to the eternal poem of freedom, Vande Mataram, penned by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, brought to life by the voice of (late) Om Puri. The powerful chant of ‘Om Purnamidam…’ by Carnatic singer Soumya Gurucharan, completes the picture of India in continuum.

Aham Bharatam Mother Free is envisioned by Bharatbala and brought to life by Virtual Bharat, to immerse viewers in a deep, diverse, and a living-breathing heritage, called India!