All Entries Tagged With: "Indian Classical Music"

In Hindustani Classical music, there is a patrician group of Ragas which get picked routinely for the deeper, more austere and certainly more complex forms of Dhrupad, Dhamaar or Khayaal forms of singing. Clearly these dhrupad or khayaal is not for everyone. It is for the discerning listener and are capable of being handled only by a handful of artistes. There are several ragas relegated to a group in the Kshudra Prakriti (trans: Lighter nature – think of these as the pop version of Hindustani Classical) which is usually far more intertwined in the folk traditions of singing. These ragas are used more frequently while singing Thumri or its lighter form Daadra – both of which are romantic compositions. The seasonal song forms of Chaiti, Hori, Sawani are from UP, Kajri (songs of longing sung during monsoon). The form called Tappa is usually from Punjab, while Tarana is usually sung at the end of a concert, Geet and Bhajans are purely devotional. Mahatma Gandhi made the devotional song Vaishnava Janato almost synonymous with his own name. Based on Raga Khamaj this bhajan gets a modern interpretation from Pandit Jasraj, Shankar Mahadevan and Jaspinder Narula in this video.

Born on June 27, 1939, RD had composed music for more than 350 films until he breathed his last on January 4, 1994. He signed Bhoot Bungla (The Haunted House)in 1965 as his first film as a music director. This is also the film where for the first time Kishore Kumar the singer and he worked together. But Chhote Nawab (The Young King) also a film directed by Mehmood in 1961 is the one that RD Burman made his debut with. The song Ghar Aaja Ghir Aye (lyrics by Shailendra) is brilliant composition in Raga Malgunji (a Raga that combines elements of Raga Khamaj and Raga Bageshri). I will always rank this as the best ever Hindi film song composed in Malgunji.