Monday, October 03, 2005

Amar Bhoopali

No Maharashtrian can call himself one, until and unless he has listened to "Jyothi Kalash chhalake" from "Bhabhi ki Chudiyan" and "Ghanashyama Sundara" of the movie "Amar Bhoopali".

Raga Bhoop or Bhoopali (Mohanam), is immensely adored in Maharashtra and some lovely pieces have been wrought as a result of this attachment to the raga. Till recently, even the layman of Pune would have told you if a song is in Bhoop. No wonder, when I heard the full version of the song for the first time (I had only a part of it till now), there was no need to ask for tears.. they obliged on their own!

The movie Bhabhi Ki Chudiyan had Late Sudhir Phadke as the music director. One of the most creative musicians of the Ghatiland, he was both an excellent music director as well as a beloved singer. I simply cannot forget the softness of his mellifluous voice.

Bhoopali is such a great raga that I, being only an aspirant to be an amateur, cannot dare comment on the lakshanas of this raga (in fact, I can only recognise it!) ... but you can find them here:
http://www.sawf.org/newedit/edit08052002/musicarts.asp

You will be surprised to know that though Bhoopali is a fairly common raga, very few compositions in light classical exist (atleast in Hindi cinema)

Lets what other songs are there in Bhoopali:

Marathi:
1) "Kusha Lava Ramayana gaathi" from album "Geet Ramayan"--Sudhir Phadke.
2) "Ghanashyama Sundara" from "Amar Bhoopali" --music by Vasanth Desai.
3) "Dehachi Tijori" from "Aamhi Jaato amcha gaava"-- music by Sudhir Phadke.
These three can be found at http://www.geetsargam.net/bhakti_geete/
4) "Vimoha Tyaguna" from "Samadhi Saadhana"--Sudhir Phadke. (My fav!)
I have this one.

Hindi:
1) "On Namah Shivay"--Bhairavi(1995): This is a pure beauty. A tarana (thillana) of similar notes exists in the Hindustani. Laxmikanth Pyarelal (confirm plz!) have done a really commendable job. The raga can be as majestic and royal as it can be and at the same time, can be sweet and tender.

2) "Jai Jagadeesh Hare"--Anand Math (1951): Jayadeva's Geetagovindam is set to music by Hemath Kumar. This is partly Bhoop... only the part sung by Hemanth Kumar is in Bhoop, the part sung by Geeta Dutt is very beautiful, but I couldnt figure out what raga (sounds typical bongish)... Nevertheless, everytime I listen to it, the sheer power of the composition engulfs me and goosebumps and tears are a norm.

12 comments:

Aakarsh said...

Kedar, Bhairavi was by L-P..it was one of their beautiful albums. Infact, many people write them off as total commercial composers who dished out maximum trash...they did,but they composed some awesome songs too which no one could dare to. Infact, Lata once told in an interview that L-Ps recorded few songs for a film, which was later shelved. the songs, according to Lata, are their classical best..lying in cans somewhere unfortunately.

Gandaragolaka said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Gandaragolaka said...

Well, to give you just one more example that I know of, regd L-P, the other song from Bhairavi that I like... "Moha maaya ko" is in a rare rare raga called "shyam kalyan". There is only 1 other Shyam Kalyan, and even that not a filmy-classical song.

Sketchy Self said...

thanks kedar,
the lyrics to this piece are here:
http://www.geetmanjusha.com/hindi//lyrics/1282.html
written by pt.narendra sharma, they illustrate how pure hindi can be amazingly poetic without any urdu showing up. This is the first time i've heard of some of the words in there.

palamoor-poragadu said...

Arey... I gave you my precious Bhairavi cassette and you still cannot 'confirm' it was Laxmi-Pyare??
For 10 days all i did was search for this album. Finally found it in a decrepit, almost closed out store inside old malakpet. He sold it to me for a priceless 7 Rs!!

Each and every song in Bhairavi is excellent but 'Om namah shivay', 'moh maya' and 'chal ri pawan' are my top picks.

'Om Namah Shivaay' by otherwise screechy Kavita Kri.. (sorry Subramaniam) stands as one of the best classical piece I have heard in Hindi. Having listened to the soothing and mellow, Carnatic Mohanam for a loong time, it was nothing less than shocking to know Mohanam had a 'fire' side to it. (ya, the closest and only imagery i could get to when listening to Om Namah... was a raging fire)

As my father says, RD is hyped too much as against L-P who were far ahead of their generation. Rightly so! All ruling singers of today got a break through him. KK, Alka, Paudwal. What say about 'Milan' and 'Utsav', for a sample.

Sketchy Self said...

not to forget their (debut??) Parasmani - rafi's memorable "salaamat raho", the duet "woh jab yaad aaye", and the other asha-lata duet "hansta huaa noorani chehraa". These were guys who knew their music, but had to "obey" the trends of the age as dictated by the likes of Bappi-da. They had one of the most long-lived careers in the industry.

Random Walker said...

Emito...vedhavadhi emi ardham kaadhu!

Gandaragolaka said...

prc... umm....problem?

Abe O Vidya! The cassette is in Hyd.. and I am unfortunately stuck in Bang. and I only have the mp3 here (I recorded it on a CD in MSU).

Anyways, I had listened to "Om Namah Shivay" before I was bitten by the classical-bug, but boy what a feeling it was, upon my realisation that the song is in Bhoopali!!

Chandu... clearly, Hindi is reduced to being a news-readers' (belaroos ke bhootpoorv vritth mantri ne aaj kanpur ke vishvavidhyalaya mein bhaashan dete hue kahaa ki...) and railway announcers' language (yaatriyonke liye ek vinathi... krupaya aapke aarakshit sthan par hi ....). To tell you the fact, I myself had lost faith in Hindi.

We need to dig up more songs like these...

T.Padmhasini said...

Add one more to the list 'Uska mukh ek joth hai' by Abida Parvin. Awesome. Chinmayi won many of her girlhood competitions with 'om namashivay':) A la jawab rag.

I'll listen to the list you have given and come back. Thanks.

T.Padmhasini said...

Gandaragokalaji, your description of the reduction of Hindi is hilarious. We need to smile and laugh in between and you made me do it now. Thankyou.

Gandaragolaka said...

Thanks Padmasaniji (I am sure I am quite sure you need to address me using "gourava vaachakams"... just "Kedar" may be enough for me).
I am still an aspirant of the classical music (planning to start learning soon).

Gandaragolaka said...

lots of errors in that earlier comment:

what I intended was this:

Thanks Padmasaniji (I am not quite sure you need to address me using "gourava vaachakams"... just "Kedar" may be enough for me).
I am still an aspirant of the classical music (planning to start learning soon).