Songs based on classical ragas

Classical Songs of Mohammad Rafi, With Some Thoughts on Gara

Guest article by Subodh C Agrawal

(My friend Subodh Agrawal is a great lover of music, he wields a fluent pen, and knows a good deal about classical music. Being among the earliest ones to be a part of SOY journey, he had accepted my request to write a series on film songs based on classical raags. It is difficult to believe that once upon a time he was an active contributor to the Songs Of Yore. For the last few years, he has been in hibernation, his only excuse being he was not feeling like writing anything. His last guest article for SOY was more than four years ago. I am happy that Rafi’s centenary has woken him up from his deep slumber.

For newcomers to the SOY, Subodh is from UP, worked in Punjab and Delhi, and after retirement, is settled at Chandigarh.

Subodh writes on a serious subject with a light touch which you see in his very first sentence. In fact the subject line in his mail mentioned, Kumbhkarn has woken up! The article was too late to be scheduled in the 2024, but it was too good to be left out. Some more Rafi-fans also had sent me their tributes somewhat late, hence I am pleased to extend the Rafi centenary celebrations. Thank you, Subodh for finally giving this pleasant surprise. – AK)

The birth centenary of Mohammad Rafi (December 24, 2024) has pulled me out of my Kumbhkarn like slumber. I don’t even remember when I contributed my last article to this platform. My apologies to those who expected more from me. Hopefully this article will make up for the delay.

When one thinks of classical songs by male singers in Hindi films, Manna Dey’s name automatically springs to mind – and rightly so. He has given us some of the greatest classical based songs: ‘Poochho na kaise maine rain bitaayee’, ‘Laga chunari mein daag’, ‘Jhanak jhanak tori baaje payaliya’ to name just a few. However, the classical songs of Rafi are no less. His name is not so easily identified with classical songs because of his amazingly wide range. The songs in the list below show that he was not lacking in the skill needed to do full justice to classical ragas.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Khayyam at the Mountain Peak (1): Songs on Pahadi

A tribute to Khayyam (18.2.1927–19.8.2019) on his third Remembrance Day

A reader mentioned some time ago that Khayyam has not been covered on SOY. Then I realised that the only post I have included under his name in the side-roll is devoted to his wife, Jagjit Kaur who sang most of her songs under his baton. This is an obvious omission. Khayyam, though not in the race for top billing, always created top class music right through the Golden Era when hundred flowers bloomed, to the post-70s dominated by the triumvirate of RD Burman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Kalyanji-Anandji.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Film Songs Based on Classical Ragas (13) – An afternoon with ragas: Bhimpalasi and her Sisters

Guest article by Subodh Agrawal

(Subodh Agrawal, a well-known name with SoY regulars for his series on film songs based on classical ragas, is resuming his series after a break of about three years. This was primarily due to logistic issues he faced regarding proper Internet connection and computer. But as he has shown before, whenever he has come back after a hiatus, he has more than made up for the gap. Subodh does it again by choosing Bhimpalasi and her sister ragas for this post. Bhimpalasi is one of the most popular ragas which appeals to connoisseurs and lay listeners alike. The music directors have taken to it in a big way, composing some of their everlasting compositions in this raga. If you watch Mughal-e-Azam, though there are no songs in this raga, you can’t miss the strains of Bhimpalasi permeating in the background for the major part of the movie. Subodh’s presentation is as usual lucid and uncluttered of technical details. Welcome back Subodh and Thank You for this excellent post. – AK)

BhimpalasiClassical ragas are associated with a particular time of the day. Mornings, evenings and night are musical times of the day, and there is no dearth of ragas related to them. Afternoon – at least to me – appears to be the least musical time, but some of the most popular ragas are related to this time. There is the entire Sarang family, which deserves a separate post to itself. In this article I would focus mostly on Bhimpalasi and touch briefly upon three related ragas: Patdeep, Madhuvanti, and Multani. There will be passing references to two others – Dhanashri and Dhani.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Film Songs Based on Classical Ragas (12) – A morning with Asavari/Jaunpuri

Guest article by Subodh Agrawal

(I had once hesitantly asked Subodh whether he would be writing on Asavari and Jaunpuri in his series on articles on film songs based on classical ragas. The reason for my hesitation was that these ragas might be too light for a connoisseur like him. Therefore, I was extremely happy to find his article on my favourite ragas without any extra nudging from me. The beautiful Ragamalika painting on Asavari Ragini, used as the thumbnail with the article, located by his daughter, is from the Victoria & Albert Museum, London collection, available on their website, which I have downloaded with their permission with grateful thanks. As credited by the V & A Museum, this is by an unknown artist from Hyderabad from 18th century.

Subodh decodes the similar ragas Asavari, Jaunpuri and Dev Gandhar with his characteristic clarity. About the painting, he pointed out a unique feature: In all the paintings on Asavari, snake figures very prominently for some unknown reason. As you enjoy this post, the experts are also called upon to throw light on the snake-Asavari connection.  Thanks Subodh for another excellent piece. – AK)

Asavari Ragini, courtesy @Victoria & Albert Museum, LondonIndian ragas have different times of the day assigned to them. One begins with Lalit at the crack of dawn, and goes on to the Bhairav family. Asavari and its clones Jaunpuri and Dev Gandhar belong to late morning. The original version of Asavari used all four komal swaras – much like Bhairavi. It then ceded popularity to the modern version of Asavari, which uses shudh ‘re’ but komal ‘ga’, ‘dha’ and ‘ni’. When Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande grouped north Indian ragas into ten thaats, he chose Asavari (with shudh ‘re’) as the key raga of the thaat named after it.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Film songs in classical ragas (11) – The evocative duo: Mand and Shivranjani

Guest article by Subodh Agrawal

(When Subodh came back after a long hiatus with his post on Bihag, he had promised us that he would now be more regular. He keeps his promise with another excellent piece on Mand and Shivranjani. ‘Kesariya balam’ has made everyone familiar with Mand. As for Shivranjani, the readers may recall a scene in ‘Bheja Fry’ when Vinay Pathak and Milind Soman go in raptures discussing Shankar-Jaikishan’s special fondness for this raga. It is Subodh’s creativity to find a connection between the two ragas. I have to also especially thank his wife Renu for the beautiful painting ‘Rajastahani flute player’ which I have used as the thumbnail for this article. Incidentally, the readers must have noticed that 2017 has turned out to be a Festival of Guest Authors, with entire January and February taken by guest articles.  Our venerable Arunkumar Deshmukh has already acclaimed it as SoY’s growing popularity among serious music lovers. – AK)

Rajasthani flute playerThere is not much in common between Mand and Shivranjani as far as their structure goes. The reason I have clubbed them in this post is the mood they both evoke – like a spirit calling out to another across the divide that separates this world from the other. Both strongly evoke longing and the pain of separation. Another raga that evokes the same mood is Pahadi, and I had once thought of clubbing the three in one post. However, Pahadi is a great favourite of Hindi film music directors and one full post (third in this series) dedicated to that raga could barely accommodate a fraction of great songs in it.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Film Songs Based on Classical Ragas (10) – Bihag and its family

Guest article by Subodh Agrawal

(Subodh makes an appearance as a guest author after about two years, of which I am responsible for a few months in scheduling his article. He makes up for it by presenting a selection of film songs and classical pieces which best represent Bihag and its variants.  As he explains, Bihag is the raga of love in its myriad forms: Happy, sad, expectant, despondent etc. His writing is as usual sure, fluent and crisp, and demystifies the raga for the lay listeners. Thank you, Subodh for another excellent article in your series, hoping, as you are assuring us, that we would now be getting offerings from you regularly. – AK) 

Bihag_Tere sur aur mere geetLet me begin with a few words of apology and explanation. The last article in this series appeared about two years back. Readers of SoY and AK have often egged me to get back into action, but I have not been able to respond. Most of last year was lost to my habitual laziness. I thought of starting again with the New Year but then a series of problems with my internet connection alternating with problems with my own health took care of most of this year. Fortunately, I have recovered fully now and the internet also seems to be in a good mood for the past couple of weeks, so here is my much belated post in this series.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Film Songs Based on Classical Ragas (9) – Pilu

Guest article by Subodh Agrawal

(Pilu is one of the most popular Ragas in Hindi film music.  Naturally, many songs based on Pilu have appeared on SoY, and some interesting discussion has taken place about KL Saigal being mesmerised by SD Burman’s ‘Ami chhinu eka’, and speculating which of his song it was similar to.  Now, our expert Subodh writes a formal article on the Raga, in which he discusses the best film songs based on this Raga and some fine classical pieces.  It comes after a long wait, which I can ascribe to Writer’s Block.  Let us hope that 2015 would see more from him.  – AK)

Raga_PiluI have been rather lazy about writing this article. The list of songs was ready months back, but I just couldn’t get down to writing. What spurred me into action is the realization that it is nearly a year since the last article of this series. My apologies to AK and to the amiable readers of SoY whose comments are something I always treasure.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Film songs based on classical ragas (8) – In the royal presence of Darbari

Guest article by Subodh Agrawal

(It has now become routine for Subodh to surpass the outstanding.  He is coming back after a long gap.  But if the outcome is this superb piece, we don’t mind his prolonged preparations.  It is interesting to note that while the raga itself has gravitas, the word ‘Darbari’ meaning a ‘courtier’ lends itself to some pejorative connotation, giving rise to some interesting trivia and anecdotes.  Subodh’s explanation of its difference with ragas in close proximity, such as Adana, is scholarly.  Continuing a great beginning to 2014, I present this guest article by Subodh, his 7th in the series on the film songs based on classical ragas.  –  AK)

DarbariDarbari – along with Bhairavi, Yaman and Pahadi – is one of the most commonly used ragas for film music. Having written about Yaman and Pahadi earlier and having enjoyed the experience, I was looking forward to doing this post on Darbari, but my enthusiasm waned considerably after I compiled a list of songs in Darbari in preparation for this article. The songs are good, some of them are great, but few of them really do justice to Darbari. Let me cite just three examples: O duniya ke rakhwale from Baiju Bawra, Dil jalta hai to jalne de from Pehli Nazar and Teri duniya mein dil lagta nahin from Baawre Nain – all three are very good songs but the mood they depict is not what Darbari is meant for. As the name suggests, Darbari has a royal aura about it. There has to be a certain gravitas about it. In my humble opinion it is not meant for the kind of wailing and whining these three songs represent. Composers would be better off using a raga like Todi for such songs.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Film Songs Based on Classical Ragas (7) – Desh and Tilak Kamod

Guest article by Subodh Agrawal

(Subodh returns, after some gap, with an outstanding article on Desh and its close variant, Tilak Kamod.  Some of the most iconic songs, such as ‘Dukh ke ab din beetat nahi’, ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Baje sargam har taraf se goonj bankar Desh Raga’ are in Desh. He also includes the concluding portion of Tagore’s dance drama ‘Shyama’, which is one of the most poignant and beautiful compositions in Desh you can find anywhere. The classical pieces he has included  are recognised landmarks in these Ragas.  He combines his great taste in music with a precision in writing he has acquired from his training in Physics and Mathematics in IIT. – AK)

Raga DeshFor my sixth article in this series I have opted for one of the most pleasing of the ragas – Desh. Along with it I also include its closely related cousin – Tilak Kamod, because Tilak Kamod would perhaps not merit a separate post by itself, and the two go together quite well. Both these ragas have strong roots in folk melodies. Because of this they are often dismissed as minor ragas, which – in my opinion – is grossly unfair.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE