Music And Movies

(Komal Gandhar) Late one night I was watching Ritwik Ghatak's movie, 'Komal Gandhar'. Probably the only 'light' movie in Ghatak's oeuvre. The songs which happened till then were good and that was expected in a Ghatak movie. His sense of music is impeccable. Then this song happened, which left  a deeper impact than the other songs. It was a stunning discovery. (Buddha gained knowledge sitting under the bhodi tree. For me it has almost always been sitting in front of the TV late in night after everyone has gone to sleep.) A drama troupe is in some forest type of area and a few of them clapping hands start singing a folk song. Just as they sing a line, their song is interrupted by a female voice cutting through the night. And it cut itself a place in my heart. An absolutely minimal orchestration accompanies the song. The song is carried purely by the tune and the voice which delivers the tune. And what a tune it is. Dripping melody in every line, conveyin...

The transfer of musical ideas between the North and South India is well documented. Muthuswami Dikshitar had visited Kasi and brought along with him lot of Hindustani ragas to the South. The North Indian musicians turned Muthuswami Dikshitar's 'Vatapi Ganapatim Bhaje' into a khayal. (Wonderfully sung by Amir Khan.) Many such transfers have happened. I was aware of many of them but not about the one which inspired Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. One of my good friends had once sent me a link to a Rabindra Sangeeth song, which was actually Tagore's homage to that monumental krithi of Muthuswami Dikshitar, 'meenakshi me mudam dehi'. Tagore had taken this krithi and had made minor modifications to it and had written the Bengali lyrics to it. The song starts as 'basanthi o bhubhanamohini'. Very nice words. Gurudev must have been very impressed by the krithi. And what is there not to be impressed by it? 'meenakshi me mudam Dehi' stands as a testimon...