Thursday, September 4, 2008

Pandit Narendra Sings Raaga Bachana

In a rare gem of a recording, discovered by our diligent audiophiles, the famous Pandit Narendra sings the complex Raaga Bachana.

Said to have been composed by Mian Tansen himself, the raaga is sampoorna in both the ascent and the descent. It was recently made famous by Pandit Ranbeer Maharaj, disciple of Pandit Birju Maharaj and a well known exponent of the "Raas Leela - Adhunik" style of dancing, who danced to it in chaste classical style.

Now, without further ado, we present the Panditji himself. The listeners are requested to excuse the poor quality of the recording and the absence of accompanying musicians. The former, because Panditji is given to an unfortunate affliction called "the giggles" which makes serious musical renditions difficult for him and the latter because Panditji's son Vyaas, though an accomplished keyboard player, refused point blank to aid him in what he termed "monkey business".

The present generation, we tell you!



Boomp3.com

21 comments:

Lavanya said...

Wah Panditji! Wah!

Lavanya said...

I am so going to download this clip btw, this going straight to my top-rated playlist in the iPod.

=D

Rada said...

Ah! Such clarity of diction! Such marvellous control over the high notes!

A true genius this! :-)

Anonymous said...

Pandit ji, repeattu!

Preeti said...

In the ipod it is!

Partho said...

Panditji, where's your next concert?

Anonymous said...

Encore! Encore! Ripit pliss! Byoootifull vaayis!!

Narendra shenoy said...

Thanks everybody! (sniff) This is so touching!

A word of explanation is in order, perhaps.. Why, you must be asking yourself, should Narendra sacrifice prose and resort to music to tell people the travails of his soul?

Well, I heard this Bachna Aye Haseeno song some 7 times in the course of the day. Thrice, sung by children in talent shows, twice on the telly courtesy elder son and once each rendered by wife and younger son. This is my revenge. "Murder that song I say!" I said to myself and hence my contribution to the musical wealth of our nation.

But what poetic justice! Fate was lurking around the corner, sandbag in hand, hefting it to give old Naren's Occiput the standard knock. I posted this at around 9.30 pm and I was watching the movie itself at 10.30 pm.

I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find that the movie actually had a story, and pretty snappy dialog. Even the music was snappy. And Bipasha Basu has lovely eyes. Among other things. Very watchable.

Nandini Vishwanath said...

"Among other things." LOL

Varsha said...

I suppose this compilation carries an ancestral line?
This rocks!

Usha said...

You amaze me with such a vast reserve of talent Narendra! I mean, it is so unfair that one person should be gifted with so many talents. So when is the album release?

Anonymous said...

Narenmaam,

Raag Vihag, perhaps Sir?

Bihag, it seems! farging corrupt middle indic eastern bastiges. make b out of v.

regards,
Wavy B
1 800 HINDUSTANI
Live in Karnataka like the Carnatic do.

Anonymous said...

sorry wrong answer.

baby v

Anonymous said...

sorry wrong answer.

baby v

Superficial Gibbering prater said...

Naren Ji,

Excellent rendition..

Btw wat poetic justice in the lyrics ..

The lines u sang read ,"Bachna..Bachna..." It sounded like Bachao..Bachao :)

Prolly u can introduce a section called "one song a week" to keep the rich tradition of indian music
alive..Wat abt "Rubaro.. " from RDB,the next time :)

Anonymous said...

Namaskaar

Panditji has instructed me to thank you jointly and severally for your kind comments. The Raag, says Panditji, is Jaijaiwanthi though it might well have been Vaijayanthi because Panditji's speech was a bit slurred on account of his sucking on Strepsils in order to prepare his next composition for this vast and erudite audience, a devotional number steeped in the mystic traditions of this great people or peepul as the case may be.

Anonymous said...

Narenmaam,

Lack of musical knowledge inspired that mishtake. Confused between "Raman Shamanam" and "Thumak chalat ramchandra"

In any case, our bleddy Dwijavanthi(TM) was stolen by (you) northern rascals !!! We want our Dwijawanthi back, I say!!!

No wonder you call it Jayjayvanthi. Successful dacoities are a victories.

- Baby V.
(Angry at her musical ignorance.)

rads said...

WOW! Really? OMG, Really? :O
Awesome :)

Anonymous said...

I want to see video of this too. YouTube beckons!

Anonymous said...

Jai-jai-want-tea. I'm glad I found your blog :)

Anonymous said...

Echoing BabyV:

Me wants Dwijavanti back too !!

But hey Naren .. wah Taj Boliye. Very nice rendition indeed.