Mathura Nagarpati...!!

I’m a huge fan of Nick Hornby's books. I’ve read High Fidelity in my college days and was completely taken by it. Hornby is known for humour, and this one was no different. This book was primarily about music, and the happenings in the life of the protagonist. But the one part that I remember distinctly is that, the hero had a habit of making a top five list for every little things. For instance, he will make a list of top 5 favourite movies, top 5 Favourite dialogues, top 5 sad songs.etc. So, after reading the book I also started doing the same. But like most thing, this lame habit of mine got lost with time. And, thankfully it did. Though I’ve never been quite good at listing my favourites, coz after reaching the top 3, I start floundering.
List or no list. I love music. Starting from Begum Akhtar to Pink Floyd, I have heard them all. Though, I don’t claim to be an expert in the genre, but I’ve a decent idea about few of the ones I like. So when I listened to “Mathura Nagarpati” from Raincoat for the 1^st time, it blew me away. The lyricist of this song is Rituporno Ghosh, a much acclaimed director, actor, trans-drsser and what not. So, when I came to know 6 years back, that he wrote the lyrics in brij bhasha, I was surprised. And I am still very much besotted to this number. The song is written from the point of view of one of Lord Krishna’s wife, she is sadly observing the changes in Lord Krishna, who is the King of Mathura, desperate to leave the place to visit his childhood place, Gokul, to meet his sweetheart Radha. The song questions Krishna's reasoning for doing such an act. And the wife’s struggle, sorrow in knowing that he’ll return to Radha without a backward glance.

Such melancholy, I say!

Here’s the English translation of the song I found on the net.

Subah subah ka khyaal aaj
Early in the morning the thought arose
Wapas gokul chal mathura raaj
to go back to Gokul, in the king of Mathura's mind
Mathura nagarpati kaahe tum gokuljaaon
Oh lord of Mathura why are you going to Gokul
Manohar vesh chhod nand raaj
Leaving this beautiful attire oh son of Nanda
Sar se utaarke sundar taaj
Removing the beautiful crown from your head
Raj dand chhod bhumi par vaaj
Giving up ruling this world
Phir kaahe baansuri bajaao
Why are you playing the flute again?
Mathura nagarpati kaahe tum gokuljaao
Oh lord of Mathura why are you going to Gokul

Kaun sa anokhageet gaye pee kakool
What unique song did the cuckoo sing
Raj paat jaise aaj bhaidhool
That made you leave the throne like so much dirt
Kaun sa anokhageet gaaye pee kakool
What unique song did the cuckoo sing
Birhan laage phir hridaya akool
That the pangs of separation are stirred anew
Raj kaaj man na lagaao
The heart is no longer in kingly matters
Mathura nagarpati kkahe tum Gokuljaao
Oh lord of Mathura why are you going to Gokul

Poor naari saari vyakul nayan
Men and women watched with anxious eyes
Kusum sajaa lage kantak shayan
The flowers strewn on the bed felt like thorns
Poor naari saari vyakul nayan
Men and women watched with anxious eyes
Raat bhar madhav jaagat bechain
As Maadhav stayed awake the whole restless night
Kaahe aadhi raat saarathi bulaayo
Why did he call the charioteer in the middle of the night
Mathura nagarpati?..

Dheere dheere pahunchat jamuna ke teer
Slowly he reached the shores of the Jamuna
Sunsaan panghat mridul sameer
Lonely banks, soft breeze
Dheere dheere pahunchat jamuna ke teer
Slowly he reached the shores of the Jamuna
Khan khan madhav birha madeer
Madhav felt the bittersweet pangs
Use kaahe bhool na paao
Why can?t you forget her
Mathura nagarpati?.

Tumhari piriya ab puri gharvaali
Your love is now a complete housewife
Doodh navan ghivoo din bhar khaali
Getting new milk and busy the whole day
Biraha ke aansoon kab ke,ho kab ke ponch daali
The tears of separation have long since been wiped away
Phir kaahe dard jagaao
Then why awaken the pain again
Mathura nagarpati kaahe tum Gokuljaao
Oh lord of Mathura why are you going to Gokul

Maestros..!!

The other day Mommy (she is with us for another week) and me sat watching Dhobi Ghat ( movie ), and I just loved it. The whole point of me jotting down this blog today is not centered around the movie but few blink and miss songs played on it. When Aamir Khan was painting away his blues in the movie, in the background one can hear a subtle Tappa, Dadra, Thumari  playing. (For those who have no clue about what I am talking, Tappa, Dadra, Thumari are dominant genre of Hindustani Classical). Though I am very much a novice in Hindustani classical, my knowledge is mostly restricted to Rock n Roll and Country Music, having heard this genre took me to a different planet altogether. While watching Dhobi Ghat I got intrigued by the songs in the back ground. My mum said the singer probably is Girija Devi. Though I am still not sure about it. Ever since that day I am  incessantly listening about it. On Saturday morning, I woke up to my  Mother's version of banshee screaming, she read out the news paper to me saying, Girija Devi is in Delhi for some Music Festival. Pronto, I grapped the phone, asked few people for the passes. It turned  to be the famous Shankarlal  Musical Festival, dedicated to the memory of Pandit Bhim Sen Joshi, and the performance included Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Rahul Sharma, Rajan Sajan Brothers as well as Girija Devi. It took me a second to convince my Dad about joining us ( Dad just had his eye operation, I thought he will be reluctant to go), and Mrinal as usual had no choice but give in to the demands of married life. So sharp at 5:30 we left for Kamani Auditorium and saw one of the greatest concert of my life. Girija Devi sat among her disciple who where 1/4th her age and the audience were simply awestruck by the melody she presented. After seeing her performing for 1:30 hours she has a fan in my for life. The songs included lots of Kajri, (Kajri- means black-rainy clouds explaining the pathos of separated lovers). I am still taking baby steps, so don't hold my words for it, as I am only two weeks old. But would love to get into this deep lost world of Gharanas, and a music which has become so relevant to me in such a short period. Nowadays I love waking up to the sound of Raagas, hope this is not just a passing phase. The evening was more special because I saw it in the company of the three most important persons of my life. My Parents and Mrinal.


Disclaimer: The songs played in Dhobi Ghat may or may-not be Girija Devi's. But it seemed like her, my Mommy felt the same. And I stuck to it, at least it introduced me to this whole genre of music.


P.S. The first picture is of Girija Devi, along with her many students and great grand sons. The second picture is Me along with my Mommy, the fourth picture is of Rahul Sharma and Ram Kumar Mishra, the former is a Famous Santoor player and son of Shiv Kumar Sharma, later, is one of the India's eminent Tabla player. The last picture is of Me & Mrinal.  

Mumpi you were highly missed.

Raaga...!!

I've always been inspired by Nick Hornby's books. Was highly inspired by High Fidelity in my college days. The book was about this guy, his pals, his exs, and his love for music. But the most hilarious part that I remember was, that, he'd a habit of making a top five list for every little things, for e.g, Top Five Favourite Movies, Top Five Favourite Dialogues etc. I've been trying to make a habit of doing something similar for sometimes, but never managed to do so, as I start floundering by the time I reach top 3, evidently this hobby was never my cup of tea. But as far as music is concerned, it is extremely important for me, very much like that chap from the book. I love to sing, though I am no great shakes there and I love varied music, starting from Begum Akhtar to Pink Floyd. And I pretend not to cry when I hear something really nice (a habit that runs in my blood, courtesy my Mum & Sister).

The whole point of blogging today from office at 4 pm, is that I've to write about this very nice song, that came out almost 6 years ago and I am still obsessing over it, it's "Mathura Nagarpati" from OST Raincoat, this acclaimed song is written by Rituporno Ghosh, a Bengali director, who dresses weirdly, and have been flaunting his acting talent lately, might I add, he did a fantastic job in writing this song. The song is written in Brij Bhasha, and it talks about Lord Krishna leaving Mathura, where he's the king and going back to his childhood place, Gokul, leaving his Kingdom, his crown, his wife, to meet his beloved Radha. The song questions Krishna's reasoning for doing such an act. This is written from the point of view of one of his wife, while witnessing the change in him, knowing that he cannot be stopped and will return eventually to Radha without a backward glance, while she will be left behind. This is such a heart wrenching depiction, isn't it?

I came across its English translation on net. It goes like this:

Subah subah ka khyaal aaj
Early in the morning the thought arose
Wapas gokul chal mathura raaj
to go back to Gokul, in the king of Mathura's mind
Mathura nagarpati kaahe tum gokuljaaon
Oh lord of Mathura why are you going to Gokul
Manohar vesh chhod nand raaj
Leaving this beautiful attire oh son of Nanda
Sar se utaarke sundar taaj
Removing the beautiful crown from your head
Raj dand chhod bhumi par vaaj
Giving up ruling this world
Phir kaahe baansuri bajaao
Why are you playing the flute again?
Mathura nagarpati kaahe tum gokuljaao
Oh lord of Mathura why are you going to Gokul

Kaun sa anokhageet gaye pee kakool
What unique song did the cuckoo sing
Raj paat jaise aaj bhaidhool
That made you leave the throne like so much dirt
Kaun sa anokhageet gaaye pee kakool
What unique song did the cuckoo sing
Birhan laage phir hridaya akool
That the pangs of separation are stirred anew
Raj kaaj man na lagaao
The heart is no longer in kingly matters
Mathura nagarpati kkahe tum Gokuljaao
Oh lord of Mathura why are you going to Gokul

Poor naari saari vyakul nayan
Men and women watched with anxious eyes
Kusum sajaa lage kantak shayan
The flowers strewn on the bed felt like thorns
Poor naari saari vyakul nayan
Men and women watched with anxious eyes
Raat bhar madhav jaagat bechain
As Maadhav stayed awake the whole restless night
Kaahe aadhi raat saarathi bulaayo
Why did he call the charioteer in the middle of the night
Mathura nagarpati?..

Dheere dheere pahunchat jamuna ke teer
Slowly he reached the shores of the Jamuna
Sunsaan panghat mridul sameer
Lonely banks, soft breeze
Dheere dheere pahunchat jamuna ke teer
Slowly he reached the shores of the Jamuna
Khan khan madhav birha madeer
Madhav felt the bittersweet pangs
Use kaahe bhool na paao
Why can?t you forget her
Mathura nagarpati?.

Tumhari piriya ab puri gharvaali
Your love is now a complete housewife
Doodh navan ghivoo din bhar khaali
Getting new milk and busy the whole day
Biraha ke aansoon kab ke,ho kab ke ponch daali
The tears of separation have long since been wiped away
Phir kaahe dard jagaao
Then why awaken the pain again
Mathura nagarpati kaahe tum Gokuljaao
Oh lord of Mathura why are you going to Gokul

P.S. Hear it first thing in the morning. This song creates longing and a sad, poignant pain.

Masterpiece

I liked Sanjay Leela Bhansali's music in Guzaarish. The delicately inter woven ballads and the free flowing lyrics that he produced is magical. Though none of the song figures in my "Top Five Favorite Songs" but they have touched a cord somewhere in me. As far as Bhansali's movie is concerned I am not really a big fan of his theatrical movie display, extravagant sets and black and blue screenplays. But I do admire him for being an artist who is blessed with an innate sense of beauty. My personal favorite movie of his would be BLACK. I can see that movie nth times for it's dialogues (particularly  the scene where Rani is giving interview for college and also the last scene of the movie where she explains the meaning of Black). The intensities in his songs are so profound, maybe that's because of the sort of person he is. He is extremely gifted from direction, to music, to production, to lyrics, he has left his mark on every movie he made, one small example would be the lyrics of this song called Tera Zikr from the movie Guzaarish.
It goes like this.

"Ke tera zikr hai
 Ya itr hai
 Jab jab karta hoon
 Mehekta hoon, Behekta hoon, Chehekta hoon"

It's an old form of Hindi poetry writing, if you look at the lyrics the first line relates with the third line. And the second line relates with the fourth line. The song is a poetry in itself. God knows how many of the masses has taken a notice of this. I have been basking in this song since yesterday. Art at its best.

Devil may care...!

I am stuck in bed nowadays courtesy my knee who couldn't handle a small scratch, resulting in my confinement to bed with my knee bandaged. Hubby dearest is having a gala time teasing me about my limp. Neways but that gave me a chance to be idle tusser all over again , & I am busy browsing anything I can lay my hands on be it books, films, net, TV. But the reason for my being here is that I again saw "As Good as it Gets" & I've fallen in love all over again with it. What I am wondering about is how one rate a movie. Some times it's the director who takes the credit , some times the story, it could be anything. But my reason for liking this one is Mr Nicholson, I absolutely adore the man and probably for all the wrong reasons. I like him for his leering sarcasm, his cynical laughter, his most uncanny sense of humor, his habit of mouthing most unconventionally rude and obscene dialogue with elan. How many of us can repeatedly offend someone & still be liked by all. That man sparkles talking vulgar & to me that makes him even more devilishly cuddly. My reason for liking Melvin Udall is Jack Nicholson not his OCD. My reason for liking "As Good As It Gets" is Mr Nicholson uncanny way of talking and what inputs he add to the character.