Indian films have never stopped singing. But now, they have simply forgotten why. Songs today are often promotional spectacles, chartbusters or star vehicles, detached from the narrative they are meant to serve. At 94, director Singeetam Srinivasa Rao resurrects a nearly forgotten tradition with Sing Geetham, where every lyric exists because the story demands it.
Prataap, played by Ayaan Khan, returns to a village that does not even exist on the map. His father and uncle exploited the village through mining. Initially, he wants to inherit half the business, but later decides to save the village. As the film progresses, the mine owners cut down the village’s last tree, loved by Gauri (Ahilya). She prays to God to curse everyone so they forget how to speak, and the next morning the entire village starts singing.The film does not force the music on the audience or ask them to simply accept that its universe works this way. Here, conversations exist within music; the dialogues themselves are musical, not add-ons.
Sing Geetham is not just about singing. It is about art protecting nature from capitalism, which has caused deforestation in the village. The film may not seem political, but it is. The mine workers sing, the mine owner sings too, yet both carry completely different perspectives on what should happen to the mine. The working class cannot survive without the employer providing work, but they also cannot watch everything around them being destroyed just for the sake of daily wages.
