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CHORDS AND NOTES
AHILYA BAI
Music Today, Rs.55
This album of songs from the film Ahilya Bai represents art as it embodies history. Mostly composed by eminent musicologist and scholar Ashok Ranade, the songs form an aural tapestry of life during the heyday of Ahilya Bai, a woman from the `dhangar' community whose marriage to Khanderao in 1733 launched her into the Maratha aristocracy. Widowed young, she took up responsibilities of governance, and her sphere of influence in the Holkar state gradually increased. Her rule was characterised by peace, charitable works and encouragement to art and spirituality, an era that epitomised the spread of Maratha thought and culture across the north of the country in the 18th Century. The album thus contains a blend of Hindustani classical and folk styles. The first piece, Narmada Stotra, is sung by classical vocalist Kalapini Komkali. Preceded by the voices of the bhajan mandali of the Maheshwar ghats, it flows into the sonorous tones of Kalapini's Bhairav raga rendition. These verses of Adi Sankaracharya have been set to music by Bhuvanesh Komkali. While the traditional folk songs like Sumbaran, Neemda ki Chhaya and Gondhali are full of verve, with strong voices and rousing percussive support, the lyrical and classical touches provided when singers like Kalapini Komkali and Madhuri Purandare render the lyrics add plaintive melody and mood to the pieces.
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