Tunes from the Dunes

Rajasthan - the land of dal-baati-choorma, camels, romanticism, sacrifices and valour, expanses of sand and the raga Maand! Welcome on the journey with me, exploring Rajasthani flavours in Hindi film music…

The popular folk song, ‘Kesariya balam’, in Raga Maand:

Though not based on Raga Maand, but based on Raga Maru Bihag instead,  this song is so magical in its effect – the lyrics, the raga and the santoor by Pt. Shivkumar Sharma: ‘you are love’!

This one is based on the raga of the land, Maand, and the chilli-santoor-anklets create a wonderful prelude to the very beautiful ‘moon-moonlight’!

When I heard this one, at first I thought it was based on Raga Maand but on repeated ‘listens’, I found flavours of Raga Bhoopali, too! A bit perplexed by the complexity of this composition, I dug around to find that this is based on Raga Vihangini created by Pt. Mani Prasad of the Kirana Gharana. Interestingly, Pt. Dinanath Mangeshakar was the most prominent disciple of Pt. Sukhdev Prasad, father of Pt. Mani Prasad, (therefore, his ‘guru-bandhu’) and it comes as little surprise, then, that Hrudayanath Mangeshakar used that raga for this composition.

I choose this piece from the movie ‘Lamhe’ because Rajasthan is the abode of Lord Krishna at Nathdwara and not to forget, the venerable Meera, too.

When I visited the place it was a different experience for me! I found that, unlike in the south, worship in the temples of Rajasthan was a very inclusive experience with people breaking into bhajans with a harmonium et al.

This also seems appropriate with the festival of ‘holi’ coming up soon!

I end this journey with this wonderful song from the movie ‘Dor’ which was set against the backdrop of Rajasthan.