“The piece will focus on physical experience, taking the
audience into the heart of a West Bengali soundclash, and
to the rural locations they take place in.
I’m not interested in a talking head style explainer film, but
rather something more visceral, recreating the sheer power
of the speakers and the bass running through your body,
the emotion and the moment of being lost in the sound”
– Lewis Khan
“I’m interested in the fact that this is a rural phenomenon,
and with a musical genre that is completely unique.
I’ve grown up with Caribbean soundsystem culture in
London, so it’s interesting to see certain elements of that
present here such as the soundclashes and the style of the
physical speakers themselves. Yet it’s in the departures
from that Caribbean style and in the the hyper-local niches
and specifics of the Bengali style that I plan to focus on in
this piece, celebrating it as truly a culture of it’s own”.
-Lewis Khan
In recent years, the soundsystem culture of West Bengal has sparked curiosity in audiences globally. What was once a hyper-local scene is
now being frequently broadcast outside of the region due to the proliferation of smartphones and internet access. Fans worldwide are
captivated by what is posted online – massive Soundclash events with huge (often precarious) soundsystems, ecstatic crowds and, above all
else, the genre-bending, cutting-edge electronic music.
‘Soundcheck’ will showcase the soundsystem culture of rural Kolkata in a way that audiences outside of the region have yet to experience.
Direction: Lewis Khan
DOP: Ritam Sarkar
Live Sound Recording: Dibakar Saha
First AC: Swastik Kargupta
Producer: Roy Dipankar
Executive Producer: Sam Murray
Cinema equipment service: Eskay, Cherrypix, Edit FX (Kolkata)