Moving away from the contemporary, Shahani engages with the musical form of Khayal, as represented by one of its foremost schools, the Gwalior gharana. The form came into being around the 18th Century, adapting the more classical form of Dhrupad with folk literatures and performative styles often drawn from peasant and tribal cultures. In the film a student moves through, sometimes watches, and otherwise actually enacts, several musical legends such as the folk sagas of Heer-Ranjha and Nala-Damayanti, historical sagas such as the story of Rani Rupmati and Baaz Bahadur (Queen and King of Mandu) etc. The music comes from legendary musical figures from Gwalior (Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, Sharatchandra Arolkar, Jai Balaporia and Neela Bhagwat). Shahani also uses the dance of Birju Maharaj, India’s leading Kathak dancer and the veena maestro Ustad Zia Moyuddin Dagar. Shahani explores the link between cinematic sequence and forms of musical improvisation in a visually stunning narration condensing legend, history and poetry, emphasising hybridity in all cultural practices.