Experiments with Folk

Folk music is generally regarded as a hand-me-down, leaving litlle place for improvisation. However, singers Utpalendu and Uttara Chowdhu...

Folk music is generally regarded as a hand-me-down, leaving litlle place for improvisation. However, singers Utpalendu and Uttara Chowdhury have proved that folk songs too can be rendered with innovation. On Utpalendu8217;s shoulders has fallen the mantle of the legendary folk singer Nirmalendu Chowdhury, revered as the initiator of the Bengali renaissance into folk traditions. What Utpalendu has done thereafter is to carry forward the art with his brave new experiments of presentation, adaptation and inspiration. Uttara, a Rabindra Sangeet exponent earlier, has now blended the more savvy Rabindra Sangeet style into the fabric of folk renditions, so that an evening of their music is an experience in creative blending, with elements of music and drama.

Intrinsically the success of this duo relies on their strong musical talents. Gifted with powerful voices that can create results through discreet modulations, tremulations and over and above all this, a vibrating sense of rhythm, they have exploited these elements to the maximum. That is the reason why they have been a global success even though the phraseology and lyrics remain rustic Bengali and barely comprehensible to the urban Bengali speaker of today. All their numbers are sung to a raunchy beat with a strong percussion support in tow. The flute and the keyboard, bring up the rear, giving their music body and depth.

Coupled with this well composed singing is a theatrically presented commentary in which Utpalendu does most of the talking with Uttara playing the consenting partner. These introductory explanations preceding the numbers at a performance in the Capital helped the audience grasp the mood of the rural composers. As the subjects ranged from from the spiritual to the humorous and even erotic and common place, in sum total, these songs provided a glimpse into the socio-economic situation prevalent in rural Bengal at the turn of the century.

The highly appealing egalitarian philosophy of of poet philosopher Lallan was sung with a ring of spontaneity. The lesser known lyrics of Fakir Hussain of Bangladesh gave the listeners a chance to link up these singing traditions with the more prevalent forms of Baul and Bhatiyali music. The songs of the boatmen, commonly known as Bhatiyali compositions, were sung out with pathos, reaching to the upper octave in a charming vocal tremulousness. Only, the passages of rhythm that interspersed seemed forced.

What carried the evening to its joyous limits was the inclusion of humour and parody that relied on the plight of the unfortunate bride, ignorant of the culinary arts. Another number provided good-humoured banter on the scrutiny the bride has to face at the hands of the her sister-in-law when they ask Kamala Sundari to entertain them with a dance. In a yet another number, the defiant damsel refuses to wet her tresses and yet wants to create bewitching coiffures. The finale, a song in praise of the humble bottle gourd, better known as lau or lauki, is a humorous rhapsody which made the audience go into raptures.

Several of these humorous numbers have been sung countless times after the tradition of Nirmalendu Chowdhury. But Utpalendu Chowdhury has made a difference. Instead of blurting out the songs as an imitative memorial to his late father and guru, he had reserved it for the finale. To be sung only when audiences cheered and asked for them. Such a gesture rang of theatricality but not without gimmickry. The number that he sang, filmi style, sans accompaniment about coming back soon, marked by intense waving and bouquet-swinging, was a gesture that he has obviously perfected after his many stage tours within and outside the country. Having a repertoire that can sway listeners anyway, such conjuring tricks seemed to be a degree misjudged. Of course, audience, to the last listener, would have them back on the Capital8217;s stage soon enough, dramatic promise or otherwise!