Prabhu Tero Naam
Year: 1961
Film: Hum Dono
Composer: Jaidev
Raaga: Dhani

As the afternoon wears on we come to the delightful raag Bhimpalasi. It employs komal g and n, and eschews R and D in aroh, making it an audav-sampoorna raag, while enabling very satisfying samvaad between the purvanga and uttaranga. There are different schools of thought about the origins of the raag, one prominent one postulating that it is a joD raag, and another one thinking of it emerging from the ancient Dhanashree raagang. Irrespective of what the correct version may be, Bhimpalasi has a strong and independent existence of its own, with melodic elegance that is second to none.

Bhimpalasi (also referred to as Bhimpalas) presents a wide canvas and is amenable to rendition in vilambit and drut laya. It is also highly evocative and has been used in a variety of other genres. This private recording of Kishori Amonkar is one of the finest examples of the raag, where she expounds the intricacies of the melody at leisure in the vilambit laya and segues into a delectable chhota khayal in ektaal (Watch on Youtube).

This rare recording of Ustad Wahid Khan playing Bhimpalasi on the surbahar is astounding for its depth and clarity. He was the uncle and guru of Vilayat Khan sahab. His two sons Hafiz Khan and Aziz Khan chose to try their luck in films. The former was the famous composer and singer Hafiz Khan ‘Mastana’. The latter composed music under the pseudonym Aziz Hindi and his son Shahid Parvez is one of the finest sitarists of the present day. (Watch on Youtube).

Yet another fine example of this raag is in the voice of Gajananbuwa Joshi. He sings the canonical ‘ab to badi ber’ followed by  the Punjabi language cheez ‘dholan mende ghar aave’. The prevalence of Punjabi compositions, especially in Gwalior gharana is an interesting historical curiosity. (Watch on Youtube).

The non-classical world is replete with great compositions based on this raag. Let me start off with the famous natyageet ‘prem seva sharan’. This has been sung by many great singers, but the version by Ustad Abdul Karim Khan is compelling (Watch on Youtube). In a sort of musical upping of ante Pt Dinanath Mangeshkar sang the same one tantalizingly in raag Multani - another lovely afternoon raag we will not be able to cover due to the paucity of film songs  (Watch on Youtube).

Lata has a rich bouquet to offer here. Her evergreen Marathi geet- 'madhu maagashii maajhyaa sakhyaa pari' is based on Bhimpalasi. As with many of her songs for Vasant Prabhu, it seems to be dipped in honey, with nary a note out of place. It is a straightforward rendition with no overt classical flourishes, the melody being front and center. (Watch on Youtube). The sweetness of the Naushad composition ‘tere sadqe balam’ (Watch on Youtube) bears testimony to the emotive power of the raag, and Lata is flawless here as well. Roshan is rightly credited with great adaptation of raags for film songs, as evinced by ‘e ri main to prem diwani’ (Watch on Youtube).

A derivative melody of Bhimpalasi is raag Dhani, obtained by eschewing the R and D from the main raag. Also the komal g becomes prominent as opposed to the madhyam-centric treatment typical of Bhimpalasi. This raag is considered to be chanchal, and more suitable for lighter moods. Here is a beautiful drut composition - in Punjabi - sung by the great Jitendra Abhisheki (Watch on Youtube). He is also the composer of this brisk natyageet based on Dhani, which might have been inspired by the traditional bandish. The singer is yet another astounding singer Vasantrao Deshpande - look out for those lightning taans! (Watch on Youtube).

'Prabhu tero naam'- the main song of this episode is based on raag Dhani. It is to Jaidev’s credit to recognize its potential to convey a slightly sad, devotional mood. The composition is clean and almost minimal. It is right up Lata’s alley and she focuses on the emotion and poetry, while keeping the gestalt of the raag intact. She injects these micro-harkats throughout with finesse, a case in point being how she ever so slightly dwells on ‘phala’ in the mukaDaa, expressing what scant hope the protagonist has. In the antara, poignancy takes center stage, witness the tiny breaking off of the voice before ‘murjhaayaa’ in the second one. The despondency returns to the faint hope through a masterfully executed slow taan and the tihai on ‘mil jaaye’, a great confluence of the poetic essence, composition and singing. The song is sublime, and in the dramatic context of the movie, it provides a plaintive counterpoint to the majestic ‘allah tero naam’