Of pure renditions

Evocative vocals

On the eve of the launch of her 23rd music album, versatile artiste Shoma Ghosh once again gave her listeners a gem of an offering. Veering away from the pre-determined choice of semi-classical offerings by well-known lyricists, she has crafted a virtual musical cameo that every music lover would cherish.

While haunting memories of Meena Kumari are etched in viewers’ memories for her roles on the silver screen, few know that this diva was also an accomplished ghazal writer and her works are virtual personal outpourings that only an accomplished musician like Shoma could effectively vocalise.

The album Chand Tanha holds the significant genre of Urdu poetry — nazms which she has presented in mellifluous tones with a pliability that has enabled her to take the notes of the taar saptak or the upper octave with as much ease as that of the lower base notes. Analysing her own involvement with the project, Shoma admitted that this exercise was something “that comes from my soul”.

Steeped in music

Shoma began her musical career as a disciple of the Bageshwari Devi of Varanasi, from whom she mastered the intricacies of thumri, tappa, dadra, hori, and the like. She was later groomed in the Senia gharana style under Pt Narayan Chakravarty. Today, listeners are quick to point out that in Shoma’s music one can find a still stronger wafting of the shehnai strains of the late maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan who had adopted her as a ‘daughter’ and had strikingly recalled that in her voice, he had caught a glimpse of the music of the late Rasoolan Bai, removed by seven decades of time.

Speaking of this distinguished musical journey, Shoma recalls the observation of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore who had rightly pointed out that the simple things cannot be expressed simply. In fact, her determination to pursue her music on the lines of the Benaras gharana emanated from this very thought. The gharana attracts by its simplicity and attractiveness. This simplicity is not a childlike innocence but the efflorescence of years of mentoring and practice, incorporated in talim or education that brings out such purification.

“To reach that level, the composition is not a derivation from a raga, but a delightful amalgam of ragas, the essence of the raga. It should be marked by an awaiting, as if I am singing a single line being expressed through the music,” she surmises.

Unlike the current trend of adhering to a single genre of specialisation, Shoma has created waves by presenting herself as a multifarious performer of several genres. While some of her afficionados swear prowess in the thumri and related semi-classical mould, others are equally vocal about her mastery over the ghazal oeuvre. Shoma herself has a ready explanation culled from years of study of the performances of the all-time greats of our tradition, such as Gauhar Jan. “These divas could entertain their patrons with five different styles of singing without anyone questioning their choice. The role of a real singer is to be versatile and not constricted, because ultimately the role of music is to be entertaining,” she explains.

Deeper understanding

Mapping out her findings after a close study of the thumri greats of yore, Shoma has been able to decipher the intimate differences that mark each style of musical rendering. “The same composition, when sung as a thumri by me, is rendered with studied gaps in the singing. When it comes to presenting a kajri, my voice takes on a lilt and the words are meaningfully truncated, emulating the ripples on the Ganga’s waters.

In hori, it is the rise and fall of each cadence that is important, whereas in a ghazal rendition, the music is totally different, as if on a spring. In music today, there are guitar, piano and drum beats replacing the erstwhile sarangi for creating the melody aspect. But overall, it is the soul of the music that is sanctimonious and must be maintained,” she says.

These experimental and innovative combinations, interspersed into her stage performances, have given Shoma the approving nod by none other than the famed music doyen Naushad, when he had sat through her live concert and who she had given her promise of broadcasting our heritage through newer ways of enlivening the music element even while keeping its essential soul pristine and unblemished. “It was a fusion with no confusion. I believe that to attract listeners, being a stickler for grammar won’t work, but we must caress our music like we do our children.”