Raaga Based Song of the Day #2

Raaga Based Song of the Day: Unake khayal aaye to aate chale gaye…
Raag Gara, Tal Kaherava.

Yesterday we started with a new series on this blog. The first post in the series was titled ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #1’ and the song was a Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar song from the 1970 Shakti Samanta movie Pagla Kahin Ka: Tum mujhe youn bhula na paoge. It is in Raag Jhinjhoti, Tal Kaherava.

This blog has a number of posts on Raaga based songs in Hindi movies titled similarly; for example: ‘The Best Raaga Based Songs in Hindi Movies – Raag Bhairavi – Part -I’.

Today we shall take up a song in Raag Gara, Tal Kaherava.

At this juncture, now that I have already told you the basics of Raagas and Thaats, permit me to tell you about Tal or Taal. Tal has been derived from the word Tali or Clap, and is the Indian system of rhythm. Not surprisingly, Tal, Rhythm, Clap existed many centuries before the word Raag came into existence. And that shows the importance of rhythm in Indian music system.

If you recall four days ago I gave you the song: Zara sun haseena ai naazneen in Raag Pahadi, Tal Rupaktal in which I mentioned that the first beat (Sam) is khali (represented by wave of hand). Now, you can connect with basic concepts of Tal, which are Tali (or bhari), khali, vibhag (ang), matra, bol, theka, lay, sam and avartan.

Tali has since been replaced by tabla nowadays but the term is still used as Clap.

Tali is the pattern of clapping, khali is wave of hands, vibhag is the measure of number of beats, matra is the beat, bol is the syllabic stroke of the drum, theka is the pattern of bols and vibhag, laya is the tempo that may be slow (vilambit), medium (madhya) or fast (drut), sam is the beginning of the cycle and avartan is the basic cycle.

Kaherava (also written as Kherwa, Kherawa and Kaherawa) is the most popular 8 beat Tal in Hindustani music, with two vibhags of four matra each, first vibhag being clap, second being wave (khali), which makes it:

Clap, 2, 3, 4, wave, 2, 3, 4.

Theka is:

Dhaa Ge Naa Tee Naa Ka Dhin Naa.

Raag Gara belongs to Kafi Thaat. It is traditionally sung in second half of morning although Bhatkhande didn’t specify any time of the day for this Raaga. Gara is one of the family of Raagas derived from folk melodies and entered classical music in concert with Thumri. The closest resemblance of the raag is to Jaijaivanti, a raag devised by Shri Tegh Bahadur, the 9th Guru of the Sikhs.

Some of the popular Hindi film songs in Raag Gara are: Aise to na dekho, Deewana keh ke aaj mujhe phir pukariye, Hamsafar saath apna chhod chale, Jeevan mein piya tera saath rahe, Kabhi khud pe kabhi halaat pe rona aaya, Mohe panghat pe (as Gara additive), Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram, Tere mere sapne ab ek rang hain, and this one that I am giving you.

This is from the 1971 movie Laal Patthar having the only negative role of Hema Malini. Laal Patthar was remake of a Bengali film of 1964 of the same name. The negative role played by Hema Malini was that she was the mistress of a zamindaar played by Raaj Kumar who goads him to doubt the character of his young wife played by Rakhee on the basis of her having a childhood lover Vinod Mehra.

How captivated Raaj Kumar was, in the movie, by Hema Malini can be made out from this song.

The song was penned by Hasrat Jaipuri and composed by my favourite music duo Shankar Jaikishan. Its rendition by Mohammad Rafi is representative of him being the best in all genres of music.

Please enjoy in Raag Gara, Tal Kaherava: Unake khayal aaye to aate chale gaye…..

un ke Kayaal aae to aate chale gae
diivaanaa zi.ndagii ko banaate chale gae

jo saa.ns aa rahii hai usii kaa payaam hai
betaabiyo.n ko aur ba.Dhaate chale gae

is dil se aa rahii hai kisii yaar kii sadaa
viiraan meraa dil thaa basaate chale gae

hosh-o-havaas pe mere bijalii sii gir pa.Dii
mastii bharii nazar se pilaa ke chale gae

There is much more in store for all of us in our collective learning of Raaga Based Songs and we shall take it slow and easy and enjoy our journey as much as we can.

Please stay tuned!