Rajan Parrikar Music Archive

Banditji Porn

Sweet.

In a glaring case of mistaken identities, the Delhi Police arrested Pandit Jasraj instead of Sudheendra Kulkarni in connection with the ‘cash for votes sting entrapment’ case. Both Kulkarni and Panditji had been travelling on the same flight to Delhi and the classical vocalist was mistaken for the former Advani aide and picked up as soon as he entered the tarmac after alighting from the plane.

All the salacious details here.

Ramashreya Jha “Ramrang” – Three Years On

On this third anniversary of Ramrang‘s passing, I present video excerpts from a recital given on June 27, 2007, at the Nehru Centre in Bombay. Aneesh Pradhan is on the tabla, Sudhir Nayak accompanies on the harmonium, Ram Shankar offers tanpura and vocal support.

Raga Ramdasi Malhar
 
 

Raga Tilak Malhar
 
 

Videos courtesy of: Aneesh Pradhan and Shubha Mudgal.

Additional videos of Ramrang are archived at my YouTube channel.

 
 

Raga Dhanakoni Kalyan

Recently a friend of mine inquired if the ghazal Rang pairahan ka by Mehdi Hassan is based on any Hindustani raga.

The melodic contours here ally with Raga Dhanakoni Kalyan, a recent raga conceived by the late C.R. Vyas. The swaras are drawn from the melakarta Vachaspati. The raga is developed by eliminating the dhaivat entirely and deploying elements of the Kalyan raganga. The rishab is either omitted or rendered alpa in arohi movements.

Click here for an excerpt of a classical rendition of Dhanakoni Kalyan by Jitendra Abhisheki.

Noodling around on YouTube I found another ghazal Ek khalish ko by Mehdi Hassan that co-opts the same theme. I am curious to know if Mehdisahab hit upon the melodic idea independently or if he absorbed it from someone else.

Also – Raga Krishna Kalyan composed by Ramashreya Jha “Ramrang” treads along similar lines (see Volume 4 of his Abhinav Geetanjali series), except that the rishab is freely deployed there in both arohi and avarohi directions.