Saturday 23 March 2019

The Great Thumris of Bollywood


Thumri is a com­mon style of light classical music.  The text is romantic and devotional in nature, and us­ually revolves around a girl's love for Krishna.  The language is a dialect of Hindi called Brij bhashaIt arose in pop­ular­ity du­ring the 19th cen­tury. It was made popular among the common people by Hindi films.
Thumris have been used in films right from the very early days of talkies. Rajkumari had sung a number of Thumris in the 30s. K L Saigal had sung a popular thumri, piya bina nahi aawat, way back in 1935, in Devdas. And who can forget, Saigal’s Baabul Mora Naihar, in 1938 movie Street Singer. 
Thumri is basically sung in a slow tempo, later a fast version of Thumri emerged called Lucknowi Thumri and another form Punjabi Thumri also emerged in Hindi films. There were many songs and singers in the 40s and 50s where Thumri became popular.
One name that truly epitomizes the Hindustani classical music of the 20thcentury is that of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Often touted as Tansen of the 20thcentury, this musical genius blended the best of classical music and created a unique style of his own. Some of the famous Thumri are ‘Yaad Piya Ki Aaye’, ‘Aaye Na Balam’ and ‘Prem Ke Phande Men’.
Begum Akhtar was another great singer who was known as the Queen of Ghazal but was also a great Thumri performer.
Here I am giving a few of the Thumris from the Hindi films:
Song of Street Singer 1934


Song of Devdas 1935


Song of Bharthari 1944


Nirmala Devi


Song of Shabab 1954


Song of Naubahar 1954


Song of Musafir 1957


Song of Kala Pani 1958


Song of Rani Roopmati 1959


Song of Mughal e Azam 1960


Song of Mughal e Azam 1960


Song of Dil Hi To Hai 1963


Song of Dooj Ka Chand 1964


Song of Pakeezah 1971


Song of Amar Prem 1972


Song of Swami 1977


Song of Mein Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki 1978


Song of Kudrat 1981










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