folk songs

The most unconventional song in “laga chunari me daag” is “ehe thaiya motiya heraail ho raama”(this is the spot where I lost my pearl) . Though Shantanu and Swanand had tried their best to revive a most popular form of music of UP & Bihar, I felt that something is missing in the song. first thing I felt that this is a “chaiti” not “thumri” so it should be sang with the same energy and enthusiasm that the form of the song demands. “Chaiti” is a festival folk which in villages used to sing in the time of reaping of their grains. It has different moods depend on the situations for example, the villagers used to sing in two groups and counters each other’s comments. The other situation is when a woman misses her husband or a remembers her maayka. Obviously a sad situation but the fragrance of festival overcomes it and song becomes a little lighter. If we hear the same “chaiti” which was sung by Mukesh in the movie “Godaan” we could feel the difference. Ravishankar’s classical strength and the mood of the song has come out so nicely in the song that we can feel the culture inherited into the song. I am not questioning Rekha’s ability. She is absolutely a fresh air in our music industry and the team must have much knowledge of music than me. But the “ras” which I get while hearing the original Chaiti’s by Manoj Tiwari or Bharat Sharma is somehow missing in this version. Now another form is “Bideshiya”. we have seen a part of this in “Hazaaro Khwahishe aisi” in the song “Piya gaile calcuttwa” which I think Sanjay Upadhyaay has sung. It’s not the style of bideshiya in which the song came out.The movie has another brilliant thumri. “Gadar” has also a humming thumri. The song “namak Ishqa ka” I feel is very artificial song. Though I liked the style and mood with which Rekha sung it. it’s awesome. In the similar manner the rajasthani folk “kesariya baalma” has used many a times in our hindi cinema including recent one “Dor” but I don’t think that it has ever come close to the mood with which the Rajasthan’s local orchestra artists sings it. Bihar’s folk singer Sharda Sinha has sung twice(as far as I know) in our mainstream cinema.First in “maine Pyaar kiya” & the other was “Hum Aapke hai kaun”. The song “kahe tose sajna” is used beautifully in “maine pyaar kiya”. It’s an absolutely brilliant song.
The other folk song which is missing in our hindi mainstream cinema is Punjab’s folk “heer”. It’s very rarely used and if used never conceived it . The North east music is also remains untouched. The songs of “Raincoat” were obviously not folk but classical. The film has a nice Sohar (song that used to sing in the time of birth of child). There are enormous kinds of Indian folk and classical songs which has not been given importance in our film industry. Shabha Mudgal has found some precious songs which were written in the pre independence era. but it’s only a pinch of sand. With such a vast variety of culture and music available we are yet to reach those songs, but with Shantanu and Swananad we could hope for some brilliant songs to come out.

-dipankar giri-