Monday 24 October 2011

The Dewarists - I'm in love



Finally there is some original content on TV to watch. Something beautiful and mesmerizing and breath taking.


What intrigued me first was the word Dewarist as i had never heard of this word. So what did it mean or was it a term used for a certain clan and after seeing the promos i really couldn't connect the word to the content and therefore had to look it up.


Dewars happens to be a Scottish Whiskey brand. The origin of the word comes from the movement Dewarism started by the company and subsequent campaign based on that movement. The meaning of the word Dewarism below - 


DEWARISM: noun (u) A social, political and economic doctrine, based on the writing of Tommy Dewar, expressing the conviction that the journey of life can be enjoyed without giving up on the achieving of success.
Sir Thomas Dewar, a famous whiskey distiller and philosopher, believed success in life could be obtained without arduous work, as described in his concept of Dewarism.
Source: Urban Dictionary

You can read further about Dewarism and Dewars on Wikipedia. 

So Hence from there comes The Dewarists - People who represent this philosophy. The Dewarists was a movement that began in late 2010 as stage performances and collaborations of artists who stood and reflected the philosophy of Dewarism. And finally was culminated into the TV series now on Star World. They have an extremely good lineup - Vishal Shekhar, Imogen Heap, Zeb & Haniya, Shantanu Moitra, Swanand Kirkire, Indian Ocean, Mohit Chauhan, Parikrama, Agnee and many more....

The first episode was shot in Rajasthan and with Vishal and Imogen Heap. To me that episode was all about sounds. Imogen's obsession with experimenting with anything that produces any sound to me was an interesting way of discovering music and if you listen to the song then you would notice the variety of sounds in the song. 

The second episode with Zeb and Haniya and Shantanu Moitra and Swanand Kirkire to me was more about lyrics, the mood and fusion of languages. It was beautiful. 

What i like about this series is that its absolutely original in every sense. original content which one dies for these days on Indian Television and original songs being produced in the short journey of collaboration between these artists. Its part biography part collaborative, the entire episode and therefore is informative as well as entertaining. Also it to me is serving the purpose of a travel show as well as each episode is being shot in a different cities and locations. The show represents the flavour of that city as well shows various moods, people, places of that city. I am completely in love with the way the episodes are shot. The DOP must be mind blowing because it just seems like an hour long display of amazing paintings, its so beautifully shot.  

The Dewarists has an amazing sense of freshness that is immensely appealing. 

If i had to compare other musical programmes to this, then this would definitely stand higher above MTV Coke Studios India and MTV Unplugged India ( Unplugged of course has a few episodes of certain artists which are very good no doubt). Coke Studio India to me was a disaster after being used to Coke Studio Pakistan. I felt that somewhere the commercial mixed with the original there and therefore the collaboration got highly diluted bringing about a sad output. Somewhere the pressure of being Coke Studios probably led to that as the artists were trying to hard to emulate the way it should be done rather than concentrating on being natural. The Dewarists in spite of having their bit of commercial artists in it as well seems to infuse the best in them. 

It is a must watch for all music lovers because its a different and fun journey you would be going on. The songs created on the series are available for download from the Dewarists website and also if you have missed the episodes then you can watch the episodes on the Dewarists Youtube Channel. ENJOY!! 

P.S. - All the referred websites are linked in my post so you can click on them and go check it our directly instead of searching for it.

Image courtesy: Google

3 comments:

"A"ustin said...

\m/ Oh YEAH!

sriramnivas said...

A musical programme of its own kind....will find time to check it out.

From: sriramnivas.wordpress.com

Dj said...

ABsolutely! Dewarists on sunday is what keeps the monday blues away for me.. ANd luv it that the songs are free downloads. Zeb and Haniya - "Whistles!!!" Imogen Heap and VIshal - exactly what u said!

Cheers!
Dj