Folk Fountain

“I am trained in classical music,but right from my childhood days,whenever I sang,I would be asked to round off my khayal-thumri-daadra routine with some folk songs,” says Malini,on the eve of a concert on Saturday. “UP’s folk music and dance have solely been at the mercy of government. While Doordarshan and Akashvani have been airing regularly programmes based on the state’s colourful folk culture,the government has made no effort to promote the same for a wider audience. As for private players,even Bhojpuri cinema has not rendered any great service,belting out vulgar songs and dances.”

Coming to her aid in her quest to discover the folk jewels was her husband,culture secretary Avnish Awasthi’s administrative job,which took the family to different districts across the state.

“Everywhere we went,I would study the language,literature and songs that had been passed down the generations in the region,thus grew my repertoire,” says Malini,adding that the emerging trend of nucleus family was a deterrent in the way of heritage being inherited by the young.

Malini is listed as Grade-A artiste of the All India Radio as a ghazal singer. “In ‘Junoon’,the programme on national TV,I chose to sing items like sehra,which is a product of the bylanes of Lucknow’s Chowk,and these folk songs are replete with Urdu words. I use my education and experience to full advantage to give UP’s folk songs the dignity they deserve,” says the disciple of Padmashree Girija Devi and Ustad Rahat Khan. In another show,in which she was a judge,she came down heavily on any participant bordering on sleaze,as most Bhojpuri singers are wont to.

Malini has been associated with Muzaffar Ali’s Jahan-e-Khusro programme held in Delhi for the past four years and would be performing there on February 28,sharing the stage with Sufi singer Abida Parvin from Pakistan.

She aspires to establish “in about 15 years” a centre for promotion of folk music that would keep the magic of Braj,Awadhi,Bundelkhandi and so many other genres so that “the melody of Holi,Phaag,Chaiti,Daadra,Tappa continue to enthrall generations to come,the way they have the older lot.”

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