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)
Classical 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.