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 bhasha. It 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

The Raga based Bollywood Songs- Raga Pahadi Part-1

I must appreciate the Musicologist and bureaucrat KL Pande who compiled 14000 Raga based Hindi film songs in a book in 7 volumes. The most interesting thing he noticed that The use of ragas in Indian cinema kept changing with films and composers. “In the ’30s and ’40s, there was extensive use of Raag Kafi and Khamaj as these correspond to serious moods of mythological films. You won’t see a lot of sweet-sounding ragas such as Bhairavi and Pahadi. They appeared in the ’50s and ’60s with the advent of composers like Shankar-Jaikishan and Lakshmikant-Pyarelal,

In this blog I have selected a few songs based on Raga Pahari. This Raga is the most popular Raga used in Hindi film songs.

Song of Anmol Ghadi 1946

Song of Dulari 1949

Song of Baazi 1950

Song of   Albela 1951

Song of  Udan Khatola 1955

Song of Chaudavin Ka Chand 1960

Song of Aarti 1962

Song of Shola Aur Shabnam 1961

Song of TajMahal1963

Song of Dosti 1964

Song of  Kashmir Ki Kali 1964

Song of Waqt 1965

Song of Mamta 1966

Song of Aradhana 1969

The Great Raga Based Songs of R D Burman

R D Burman has been credited with revolutionizing Bollywood music. He incorporated a wide range of influences from several genres in his scores. The sheer breadth of his music, allied with a unique ability to not only make folk and classical music accessible to the modern listener, but present them in an original, yet contemporary manner for young listeners.
 While we mostly associate a more western sound with RD, I think of him as a composer who simplified the most complex Hindustani classical music and made it accessible to the masses. Here are some great Raga based songs created by him.
The first film R D Burman gave the music was Chhote Nawab released in 1961. The first song he composed in this film was  Ghar Aaja Ghir Aayi Badra in Raga Malgunji sung by Lata Mangeshkar.

Song of Chhote Nawab 1961

Song of Chandan Ka Palna 1967

Song of Amar Prem (1972)

Song of  Parichay (1973)

Song of Kinara 1975

Song of Mehbooba (1976)

Song of Khoobsurat 1980

Song of Kudrat (1981)

Song of Agar Tum Na Hote (1984)