Jakari | Life songs of Haryanvi Women (Ethnographic film)

The documentary “Jakari: Life Songs of Haryanvi Women” is about Jakari a significant genre of folk songs in Haryana. Jakari folk songs are sung by Haryanvi women in a routine manner. These songs are quite different from other genres like ritual songs, seasonal songs, etc. As these are songs about mundane life, they are the most authentic expression of a Haryanvi woman’s tryst with life as a young woman. Jakari folk songs mostly cover the most significant phase in the life of a young woman—from puberty to motherhood. That is exactly the phase during which a woman in Haryana undergoes the most drastic changes and upheavals of life. She enters the age of youth; she gets married and departs for her conjugal home leaving her natal kin behind for ever; in her conjugal home, she has to establish herself as a part of family; and she becomes mother. Different shades of these experiences take the musical shape in the form of Jakari.

As a genre Jakari consists in many sub genres also: songs about conjugal kin, songs about natal kin, songs about love, songs of humour, songs of self-reflection, etc. The documentary focuses primarily on Jakari songs about conjugal kin, humorous Jakari songs and also Jakari songs about self-reflection.

The material collected by Dr. Devender Kumar (Asst. Professor in English, B.H.U) during fieldwork in Ghirai, Juglan, Jalalpur and Shahpur villages in Haryana since 2012 has been used in making this documentary. We present this documentary for the audience as a novel attempt to document, preserve as well as popularise intangible folk culture.