A vocalist's poetic journey
GAUTAM CHATTERJEE
|
Yatindra Mishra's book "Girija - A Journey through Thumri" is now available to English readers.
|
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Girija Devi who turned 77 recently. PHOTO: K.Gopinathan.
Now living in Kolkata, the celebrated vocalist Girija Devi, who turned 77 and celebrated her birthday recently in Varanasi, will be performing the ganda ceremony for her young disciple Malini Avasthi with a musical evening. Birthdays and formal occasions may come and go, but history remains as the cherished memories of her admirers.
And recently Yatindra Mishra's new book "Girija - A Journey Through Thumri" was released to glorify her towering presence in the Indian light classical music scene.
This book, which unfolds the manifold artistic aspects of Padma Bhushan Girija Devi, was written by Yatindra Mishra in Hindi in 2001. This is its English version by Madhu B. Joshi.
Rare pictures
Each part of this book narrates poetically the voyage of this famous vocalist. There are verses dedicated to her, besides intimate and rare colour plates from her life.
And a long dialogue with her completes the unwritten bandish of the writer in thisbook. A hand-written portion by the artiste is also included here, with several chaitis, kajris and dadras composed by her.
In an exclusive interview, Girija Devi explains why Siddheshwari Devi was the empress of thumri.
"Fearless and temperamental in her own way. And very, very independent. She had a rich voice, the type we call `paatdaar'. She sang what she wanted to sing. No one could dictate to her. She had a style uniquely her own. To date she remains unsurpassed as far as pukaar is concerned. Once she sang a new composition for radio. Later, she asked me how I liked it. I told her she had not sung it quite right, She laughed and agreed."
Rare celestial plane
She regards Amir Khan as the stalwart of Indian classical music and says: "Kumar Gandharva was some rishi living out his penance in this mortal world, he really belonged to the rare celestial plane. He was peerless. The way he presented the bhaav of a composition - pure, luminous, like a pearl! I don't think I will live to hear another singer of his calibre". There are other thoughts: "People have this tendency to identify an artiste with a form that she or he has taken to newer heights. Even an all-time great like Pandit Omkarnath Thakur had suffered this. Audiences always demanded bhajans from him. I am also a competent khayal singer, but thumri happens to be the most popular form and so they have chosen to call me the queen of thumri. If you ask me, when it comes to thumri, no one can surpass Siddheshwari Devi," asserts Girija.
Readers can go through the entire ambience of musical mood of Hindi and Poorabi in this book, which unfortunately has some mistakes too, like "Onkarnath Thakur" in place of Omkarnath Thakur.
In the glossary, it says that "Kaushik Dhwani is a lesser known evening raag, it supposedly originated in Punjab in northern India. It is mainly used in semi-classical compositions." In fact it is a well-known raga, popularly used in khayal as Bhinna Shadja, while in Carnatic music it is known as Divya Hindol.
The book is published by Rupa.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
