Educational Media Reviews Online

According to the Smithsonian Folkways website, “Gaines (GUY-naze) literally translates as ‘singers’ in Nepalese and refers to the Nepali musician caste.” It’s stated on the DVD case of this documentary that the two eponymously-named featured musicians, an uncle and nephew, are of the Gaine caste. But the viewer doesn’t learn that from the film. The lack of any contextualization or narration is a severe liability.

The film opens with a shot of a shanty with a dirty mat in front of it. The larger, rural setting is a green meadow. An older man emerges and stokes a fire. The uncle braids taro sticks with his granddaughter. The two men smoke ganja throughout, and the younger Kale’s daughter disdainfully asks him to blow his smoke the other way. An adolescent girl places leaves on the men’s heads, and they bow to the Lord Shiva. One man is sick with typhoid fever, and the uncle urges him not to drink and waves twigs over his head to heal him. There’s some wonderful footage of insects. Kale and Kaley try to catch eel but lament that the poisons in the water repel them.

It’s only when; however, the men play instruments and sing crouching down in front of the door of a luxurious house that the film fascinates. The shot looks up at the beautifully dressed woman getting her sparkling clean young children ready for school and sending them out the door. The contrast between the protagonists’ and their patrons’ lifestyle is palpable, and the music transfixes. The men ask for money while a two-year child dances outside to their tunes. Where did the child come from? He seems to have wandered into the scene by himself, and his spontaneity steals it. Kale and Kale are always acutely self-consciously aware of being filmed. I suspect that Stephanie Spray’s and Pacho Velez’s previous film Manakamana provided essential background information about Gaine culture that is notably missing here.