Cinema India 2004 opens [previous knot in the 2004 Indian Film Festival in Atlanta thread]

with Sumantra Ghosal's engrossing 2-part documentary on Ustad Zakir Hussain The Speaking Hand: Zakir Hussain and the Art of the Indian Drum. Lots of great performance extracts (although unfortunately none of Shakti even though John McLaughlin's name pops up in the acknowledgements), but no mention or appearance of Taufiq or Fazal Qureshi. It was something special to see Ustad Zakir Hussain's father, another tabla maestro, Ustad Allah Rakha, who passed away in 2000. Excellent subtitles too (although they inevitably missed out on some of the regional flavour of the original dialogue). My favourite moment would be Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma talking about a 11-beat cycle taal called chaar taal kii sawaarii, immediately followed by an extract of the performance -- a little learning along the way. Noticed Ram Madhvani credited as a producer. Is this the same Ram Madhvani responsible for Let's Talk?