Yaman Kalyan, the early evening Raaga. One of my favorites and also the first that I learned and practically the only one which I can sing somewhat beautifully. After thinking about the flaws in my singing and the lack of variety, I started hunting for the same bandish sung by some great maestros. YouTube was a boon, while searching anywhere else was really a difficult task. After listening to vocal as well as instrumental by some great names like Kishori Amonkar, Lata Mangeshkar, Pt. Sanjeev Abyankar, Ust. Rashid Khan, Hariprasad Chaurasia and Ravi Shankar, I apparently found myself addicted to all! But the greatest dilemma was to select ONE from these great to follow the style. Yes, its is the same raaga, same swaras and mostly the same compostion, but each empire has its own emblem. Lata's sweetness and beauty, Kishori ji's genius, Abhyankar ji's melody and calmness while Rashid ji's dazzling Taanas in his Tarana. Select either of these? Instead of comparing and choosing I'd rather repeat CET, than committ such a huge crime (*wait let me think if I'll do it* :P).
But the point is, all these as eternal heavenly creations. I never really thought about it until one day when I was at my friend Mihir's place apparently for studying Physics which in fact never happened. :P . Two music buffs coming together was just the perfect occasion for a much needed break from CET (ya as if we studied till death :D). But seriously, it was huge fun. Mihir himself is a great flutist. After mere one year of learning the instrument he has great understanding of swaras and taala (though he needs his electronic tabla to count the beats for him :P).
He played and I sung many Raagas - Bihag, Desh, Yaman, Bhairav, Miyan ki Malhar, Ahir Bhairav, Puriya Dhanashree, Puriya Kalyan and many many more. Now I don't know what swaras make up the Aroha or Avaroha for these but once Mihir took me in the mood, I could feel the Raaga and by recollecting any composition previously heard I could make up some beautiful places. But finally it was Mihir who kept up the show, who's only audience was his Dad. Yaman and Desh were the raagas we played and enjoyed the most.
Then we had dinner, where Mihir made me listen a beautiful tarana by Ust. Rashid Khan which was indeed enchanting. But it was someone else who kept lingering on my head since then and who's Yaman, I dare to say that, I TRY TO COPY!
It was none other than the Swarabhaskara himself - Pandit Bhimsen Joshi.
Bhimsen ji started off the 20 min long journey, of what I can say mesmerizing beauty, with a vilambit bandish (I guess that its called so) and finished off the spell with a drut bandish in teen taal. It was none other than - Ae Ri Aali Piya Bin!!!! :O
IT IS THE BANDISH I SING, and listening to the Bandish sung by BHIMSEN JOSHI himself, I kept cursing the day in a way, because I knew, that henceforth every time I sung the bandish I would know the way I am tearing apart and insulting the composition which can be a heavenly enchanted trip to euphoria!
Now that my CET is over (and I don't feel much like writing about it) and I am back home, I had ample of time after my tiring day at badminton. With the only task allowed to me being sleeping and just sitting, by my body which otherwise protested by giving out signals of pain from every possible part, I kept listening again and again to Bhimsen ji's wizardry. Disappointed with myself of not being even worth of a speck of dust he would step upon, I thought I should give up singing the bandish.
I googled to find out if any video existed which showed Bhimsen ji flying kites, or counting stars in air or slicing watermelons while singing Yaman (as that is what he mostly does when he sings :P) but there were none. I was surprised to find out that the bandish I have is really a unique and a rare one and I thought that BJ's (that is what Vivek my room mate calls him, he has this funny habit of calling everyone with their initials) fans out there in the world deserved to feast upon this bandish too. SO before I uploaded it on YouTube I made a video of it.
6 FREAKING HOURS OF HARD WORK (yes) I finally have saved the file. Giving effects to each picture, deciding proper time for each transition, fishing for proper info about him, trying many colours for the text per picture so that the contrast made it legible and minute changes in clip length upto milli seconds, deciding when text appears or vanishes off, the animations, making pictures look really old and as if they are a part of video clip, making it look as if Bhimsen ji himself is singing, taught me that movie editing is not a piece of cake. I think of this as a tribute to the maestro, in my own terms. And finally I have done it. I hope you like it.
But the point is, all these as eternal heavenly creations. I never really thought about it until one day when I was at my friend Mihir's place apparently for studying Physics which in fact never happened. :P . Two music buffs coming together was just the perfect occasion for a much needed break from CET (ya as if we studied till death :D). But seriously, it was huge fun. Mihir himself is a great flutist. After mere one year of learning the instrument he has great understanding of swaras and taala (though he needs his electronic tabla to count the beats for him :P).
He played and I sung many Raagas - Bihag, Desh, Yaman, Bhairav, Miyan ki Malhar, Ahir Bhairav, Puriya Dhanashree, Puriya Kalyan and many many more. Now I don't know what swaras make up the Aroha or Avaroha for these but once Mihir took me in the mood, I could feel the Raaga and by recollecting any composition previously heard I could make up some beautiful places. But finally it was Mihir who kept up the show, who's only audience was his Dad. Yaman and Desh were the raagas we played and enjoyed the most.
Then we had dinner, where Mihir made me listen a beautiful tarana by Ust. Rashid Khan which was indeed enchanting. But it was someone else who kept lingering on my head since then and who's Yaman, I dare to say that, I TRY TO COPY!
It was none other than the Swarabhaskara himself - Pandit Bhimsen Joshi.
Bhimsen ji started off the 20 min long journey, of what I can say mesmerizing beauty, with a vilambit bandish (I guess that its called so) and finished off the spell with a drut bandish in teen taal. It was none other than - Ae Ri Aali Piya Bin!!!! :O
IT IS THE BANDISH I SING, and listening to the Bandish sung by BHIMSEN JOSHI himself, I kept cursing the day in a way, because I knew, that henceforth every time I sung the bandish I would know the way I am tearing apart and insulting the composition which can be a heavenly enchanted trip to euphoria!
Now that my CET is over (and I don't feel much like writing about it) and I am back home, I had ample of time after my tiring day at badminton. With the only task allowed to me being sleeping and just sitting, by my body which otherwise protested by giving out signals of pain from every possible part, I kept listening again and again to Bhimsen ji's wizardry. Disappointed with myself of not being even worth of a speck of dust he would step upon, I thought I should give up singing the bandish.
I googled to find out if any video existed which showed Bhimsen ji flying kites, or counting stars in air or slicing watermelons while singing Yaman (as that is what he mostly does when he sings :P) but there were none. I was surprised to find out that the bandish I have is really a unique and a rare one and I thought that BJ's (that is what Vivek my room mate calls him, he has this funny habit of calling everyone with their initials) fans out there in the world deserved to feast upon this bandish too. SO before I uploaded it on YouTube I made a video of it.
6 FREAKING HOURS OF HARD WORK (yes) I finally have saved the file. Giving effects to each picture, deciding proper time for each transition, fishing for proper info about him, trying many colours for the text per picture so that the contrast made it legible and minute changes in clip length upto milli seconds, deciding when text appears or vanishes off, the animations, making pictures look really old and as if they are a part of video clip, making it look as if Bhimsen ji himself is singing, taught me that movie editing is not a piece of cake. I think of this as a tribute to the maestro, in my own terms. And finally I have done it. I hope you like it.
