Songs of Yore completes four years
I have often said I started blogging स्वान्तः सुखाय. AsSongs of Yore completes four years today, I find I have become a little less selfish. Now I do a lot of things that are suggested and driven by the readers. And, you don’t need a preacher to tell you that nothing pleases a person more than knowing that what he does also pleases a lot of other people. So, I have to thank all the readers for making the journey of Songs of Yore so delightful.
Many have mentioned the knowledgeable readers and the high quality of their comments. I am often pleasantly surprised when I meet people who are regular, but silent admirers of SoY. And, what do they tell me? Invariably, that what they especially like about SoY is its readers’ comments. When they say that they don’t care for the delicacy that I also do something in SoY. So, when I praise the readers, I am not being nice, I do it with a tinge of envy.
About the comments section, Anuradha Warrier once mentioned that what she likes about SoY is its adda-like atmosphere. Adda is a very Bengali thing. Coincidentally, SoY has seen a lot of Bengal last year. I covered SD Burman in myriad colours: his own songs and songs composed by him for all the great singers. When I thought I had ‘closed’ SD Burman, a number of readers observed there are some more major singers in his repertoire. Therefore, SDB had a resurrection, and we are going to have a good deal more of him. What distinguishes him from other composers is his enormous variety, and we can never have enough of him.
SoY year straddles two calendar years almost midway; therefore, referring to a ‘year’ may at times be confusing, and you need to distinguish it in the context. Anil Biswas’s Centenary falls this year, and the Bhishm Pitamah had a worthy tribute, by his daughter, Shikha Biswas Vohra. The other guest authors who adorned SoY are Arunkumar Deshmukh, Ashok M Vaishnav, N Venkataraman and Subodh Agrawal – they all deserve our thanks for their outstanding articles, enhancing the quality of SoY.
Talking of Centenaries, 2014 happens to be the centenary of two more great artistes, Begum Akhtar and Khursheed. We had a brief glimpse of their songs earlier, but they deserve full posts, and hopefully I should be able to present them later.
Year-wise review has become an SoY specialty. The comprehensive review of 1953 drew intense participation, even when it was regarded as one of the tepid years. This has been followed by equally intense discussion of the best songs of 1951. We had some usual miscellany, but with more of Anil Biswas, and another of my great favourites, KC Dey, and Venkataramanji’s article on Rabindra Sangeet-Pankaj Mullick, the Rise of the Planet of Bengalis continued on SoY.
Talking of Bengal, we lost Juthika Roy this year (5 February, 2014) in Kolkata. A most charming singer, and one of my greatest favourites, she belongs to what I call the class of singers who did not have a single song which was less than absolutely delightful.
Born in April 1920 to music-loving parents, Education Inspector, Satyendranath Roy and Snehlata Roy, at Shenhati village in Howrah district, Juthika Roy (real name ‘Renu’) was a child prodigy. She sang her first song on the radio at the age of 7, which was a Rabindra Sangeet, Aar dekhona, andhaare aamaay dekhate daao.
With the transfer of her father, the family moved to Calcutta, when her music training started in right earnest from stalwarts like Gyanranjan Sen and Bhishshadeb Chattopadhyay. Gyanranjan Sen helped her get in touch with Kazi Nazrul Isam and Kamal Dasgupta, who were in high positions in HMV. Her first HMV record was of two Bengali songs, which was followed by two Meera bhajans in Hindi in 1935-36. Soon her fame spread and she became a most sought after artiste in music conferences all over the country. She became synonymous with Meera bhajans and achieved enormous popularity during the 40s through 50s. Kamal Dasgupta composed most of her songs, with whom she also sang a number of duets, including some naats and qawwalis.
Naturally, Bombay film world sought her for playback singing, but she steadfastly refused fearing that this would compromise the purity of her bhajan singing. She relented for producer-director Debki Bose to sing in Ratnadeep(1952). Thereafter, she sang only for one more film, Lalkaar (1956). She has also sung in a Bengali film, Dhooli (1954). (This film had a beautiful bhajan in Hindi by Juthika Roy, Prabhuji more jevan jyot jagaao, but YT has removed its link.)
Her bhajans charmed the greatest public figures of the time. Gandhiji started his evening prayer meetings with her bhajans. Sarojini Naidu was one of her big admirers, and she facilitated her meeting with Bapu and singing for him in Calcutta. On the 15th August 1947, when Panditji was driving to the Red Fort to unfurl the National Flag, Juthika Roy was singing at the AIR, Delhi. Her programme ended when Panditji was still on way to the venue. A frantic message was sent to the AIR that Panditji wanted her to continue singing.
A true legend, she delighted millions of music lovers for a number of years with her sweet voice. Let me present some of my most favourite Juthika Roy songs as a tribute to her.
1. Baadal dekhi jhari Shyam main, Meera bhajan
Among my top favourites I find it impossible to rank any song as no.1 or no. 2, when anything she sang sounds no less than mesmerizing. I start with this Meera bhajan, by no means her best known, but deeply moving.
2. Bairan ho gayi raat piya bin
Nothing can be more heart-wrenching than saawan ki barsaat if the beloved is away. ‘Bairan ho gayi raat’ on the harmonium following Juthika Roy’s plaintive singing creates a magical effect.
3. Prabhuji daras bina dukhan laagey nain, Meera bhajan
Another Meera bhajan in a melancholic mood.
4. Main Kanhaiya pe tan man lutaaney chali
From plaintive let us move to the joyous when the devotee is on way to surrender her everything to the Lord. The Sufi saints felt the same joy in similar words: Main to piya se naina lada aayi re/ Main to tan man ki sudh budh ganwa aayi re.
5. Tan man pe Manhar ne rang diyo daar
When the devotee went to surrender his tan man to the Lord, He drenched the body and soul with His colour. Sufi saints again had similar blissful experience of getting drenched in the clolour of the Divine Lover, Aaj rang hai....mere mehboob ke ghar rang hai ri, or Laali dekhan main gayi main bhi ho gayi laal.
6. Ghunghat ka pat khol re tohe piya milenge, Kabir bhajan
Now I come to one of the most famous bhajans, sung by many singers. There is a common misperception and I, too, erroneously believed until very recently that it was a Meera bhajan, but it is by Kabir. If you carefully listen to the words, Kabir’s style of conveying deeply philosophical message by everyday metaphors is unmistakable – Lift your veil of ignorance and illusion, and you will get your Divine. Expressions like शून्य महल and अनहद बोल are quintessential Kabir. A very well-known version is sung by Geeta Dutt in Jogan (1950). Juthika Roy gives it her distinct touch of emotion.
7. Jogi mat ja mat ja, Meera bhajan
Now I come to what should arguably be the best known Meera bhajan, which is a favourite of singers from films to light classical to classical. Pt Omkarnath Thakur became identified with this bhajan in Bhairavi.
8. Chupke chupke bol maina
No list of Juthika Roy songs can be complete without this teasing romantic song in which the lady asks the maina to tell her when her lover would come. She also beseechs her not to disclose this secret to others. A signature song of Juthika Roy.
9. Ghar aao preetam pyara, Meera bhajan
Prem and bhakti merge at some point. A lovely Meera bhajan pleading with the Lord to come to her home. No one could do it better than Juthika Roy.
10. Piya itani binati sunat mori, Meera bhajan
I said in the beginning that it is impossible to rank her songs. Whether you take song no. 1 or 9 or 10, each will be of matchless beauty.
11. Main to Ram rattan dhan payo from Ratnadeep (1952), Meera bhjan, music Robin Banerjee
In her first and rare film singing on the insistence of Debki Bose she maintains the same purity as she had in non-film bhajans.
This bonus song is my discovery in the Internet era. I was not aware until very recently that the ‘Living Meera’ also sang naats with Kamal Dasgupta. Kamal Dasgupta’s name may not be very familiar to the later generation, but he is among the great legends of the gramophone era. He is the composer of most of the iconic non-film songs of Pankaj Mullick, Jagmohan, Talat Mahmood, Hemant Kumar, and of course Juthika Roy. He migrated to Dacca in the mid-60s where he embraced Islam, taking the name of Kamal Islam, and married the singer Firoza Begum, whom he always loved.
Acknowledgements:
1. Swaron Ki Yatra by Anil Bhargav
2. Transcript of her interview for Vividh Bharati on Anmol Fankaar
2. Transcript of her interview for Vividh Bharati on Anmol Fankaar