Sarangi is a 1974 short film by Inka and Dr. Kurt Keil, shot on Super 8 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Presumed lost for decades, the film resurfaced when its reel was discovered in a film canister at a flea market in Austria. UTKRĀNTI PRESS digitised the footage and made it publicly available, helping to preserve and reintroduce this valuable visual record of Nepal's Gaine (Gandharva) musical tradition. The film opens with a brief German introduction that translates as:
“In Nepal, in the high valley of Kathmandu, lives the Gaine caste. They sing songs about their homeland and accompany them on a wooden fiddle—the sarangi.”
The Gaine, also known as Gandharva or Gandarbha, are a small traditional community in Nepal renowned for their roles as traveling musicians, singers, storytellers, and bearers of news. For generations, they journeyed from village to village performing songs that recounted local history, heroic tales, social events, and current affairs, accompanying themselves on the sarangi, a four-string bowed instrument that has become one of the most recognizable symbols of Nepali folk music. Before the spread of newspapers, radio, and widespread literacy, Gaine musicians served an important communicative function. As they traveled, they gathered information from different regions and transformed it into songs, sharing news and stories with audiences elsewhere. In this way, they acted not only as entertainers but also as historians and messengers. The Gaine community has a particularly strong association with the sarangi. Traditionally, the instrument was played almost exclusively by its members, and its distinctive sound became closely identified with Gandharva cultural identity. Within Nepal’s traditional caste hierarchy, the Gaine were categorized among the Hill Dalit communities and experienced longstanding social discrimination and economic marginalization. Although caste-based discrimination has since been legally abolished, many members of the community continue to face social and economic challenges. Today, the Gandharva population remains relatively small, numbering fewer than 10,000 people according to recent census data. Most are concentrated in the hill districts of central and western Nepal, including Kaski, Lamjung, Tanahun, Baglung, Gulmi, and Surkhet. By documenting Gaine musicians and their music, Sarangi preserves a glimpse of a cultural tradition that once played a vital role in connecting communities across rural Nepal through song, storytelling, and the distinctive voice of the sarangi.
Kurt Keil's visual storytelling presents a rich cross-section of life in the Kathmandu Valley during the 1970s. His camera moves through a diverse social and cultural landscape that appears to encompass elements of the Hippie Trail era, including scenes of hashish shops—possibly around Kathmandu's famed Freak Street—as well as the everyday activities of artisans, traders, and religious practitioners. Potters, weavers, fortune tellers engaged in palmistry, and a variety of devotional and ritual practices all form part of the film's visual tapestry. At approximately 5:48, a sequence filmed on the banks of the Bagmati River at Pashupatinath appears to show a woman making religious oblations while performing the Surya Mudra, a gesture discussed in relation to Dhuni-Tap. The film subsequently documents a traditional Newar goat sacrifice before concluding with imagery associated with Vajrayana Buddhism at Boudha, offering a glimpse into the religious plurality and ritual life of the Kathmandu Valley. What gives the film its underlying coherence is the presence of the Gaine musician, whose song accompanies much of the footage. Functioning as a narrator, storyteller, and guide, he appears to foretell the scenes that unfold before the viewer. As the camera moves between sacred rituals, street life, craft traditions, and religious devotion, the musician's performance binds these disparate images together, recalling the historical role of the Gaine as singers, chroniclers, and interpreters of the world around them.