Captive 'thumri' notes

“Pyare rasiya suniho binati hamaare…’ In the matrix of light classical music, such snippets waft in memories of a professional singer and her languorous thumri of a century ago. Today, if and when it is heard, its proponents are far removed from those erstwhile beginnings.

This was amply evident when Suhasini Koratkar, a senior performer of the Bhindibazar gharana, who had also trained in the art of thumri-singing, sang a selection of these numbers as a token offering on the anniversary of her late guru Naina Devi.

Once thriving in the bylanes of Lucknow and Benaras, thumri had become an attractive vortex for female professional musicians and their patrons. The twain were embroiled in a sort of symbiotic relationship that encompassed both fascination for the music as also a suspicion of a romantic engagement with the patrons. Into that milieu had arrived a regal entrant, the late Naina Devi, who learnt, performed and then alleviated the Purab Ang thumri genre, which she had learnt under Rasoolan Bai of Benaras, to bourgeoise tastes. Her disciples therefore had been performers who flocked to her doors for knowledge of the art driven by sheer love for the genre. One such was Koratkar, whose music today is a worthy demonstration of chintan manan thumri.

This form altogether rubbishes the idea that thumri is nothing more than a tailpiece performed to round off a concert appearance and can be sung to the set formula of bol baant or divisional break up of the phraseology, imbibed through a dedicated riyaaz or practice of the formula of phrasal division. A cursory listening to Koratkar’s thumri rendering would not reveal the nuances at first. Though, outwardly it may appear to be draped in the classic languorous style of the traditional thumri, in its depths one can gauge a deep-seated classical root.
“It is the badhat (graduated development) ki thumri that I present,” she explains, “and a characteristic form imbibed from my guru. The raga in them is not a mishran or mingling of differing strains, but a glimpse into the wafted aura of the raga that I try to bring forth through my presentation. It therefore uses notes of the raga to convey the colour of varied moods that I enunciate in my singing. Ultimately, my music culminates in a kind of offering of many hues and moods to the Supreme Being.”

Another of thumri’s charming innuendos that is visible in her presentation is the bonhomie that the artiste establishes with her accompanists. While giving her version of the technique of phraseology presentation according to the principle of bol baant in a thumri, this artiste encourages her accompanists to define the same in their own understanding of it, even while audiences mull over the musical phrase she has just rendered. Her harmonium and sarangi accompanists, therefore, are handpicked performers, who dexterously follow her lead through a mature and knowledgeable representation of it, to give the concert a succinct roundedness.

Having acquired a large repertoire of song numbers, Koratkar is never at a loss for compositions and lyrics suitable to an occasion. Thus, her concerts during this time of the year also become paeons sung to the monsoons with dadra, sawani, kajri and a baramasa finale presented with aplomb at the closure of rendering.

In all of these numbers there comes forth the same penchant for ingenuity, a capacity to evoke emotive responses, and a strict adherence to pure classical ragas instead of resorting to a combination of ragas. Concerts of this calibre are both exhilarating and illuminating for seasoned thumri buffs and casual listeners alike.