Like the soft hues and warm rays of the rising sun, Vidya Rao’s soothing voice caresses every note. Her face assumes a calm, ruminative expression as she conveys the bhaav of the verses in her dawn concerts at this year’s RIFF in Jodhpur and the Mahindra Kabira Festival in Varanasi.
Her singing is deeply reflective of her persona. The simplicity of her appearance (she prefers handlooms and no make-up) extends to her music too. There are hardly any robust phrases or dramatic crescendos.
Her emotive rendition of the Surdas bhajan ‘Kaun gumaan bhai re Muraliya’ seem to explain this. “A jealous gopi asks the flute, you are neither made of silver nor gold, then why you are so full of pride? After all, you are just a piece of bamboo. But the flute has gumaan (pride) because it has the breath of Krishna flowing through it. It is empty to allow space for the divine to be. Our body is like the beautiful flute. Keep it clean, which means devoid of negativity. Make space within yourself for goodness or the divine,” says Vidya.
An exponent of thumri, she chose to pursue this not-so-celebrated form of Hindustani music, influenced by her inimitable guru Naina Devi. “I developed an instinctive fondness for thumri when I began to learn music, but had to wait to specialise in it. You need certain maturity to internalise its nuances. Thumri did not find a respectable position in the classical music repertoire because of its accent on shringar ras. There’s a complex layering of anger, teasing, pain and longing, most of which are associated with women. Performed by courtesans in the kotha or durbar , it was seen as something too light to be taken seriously,” explains Vidya, who hails from Hyderabad.
After her graduation in Chennai, she moved to Delhi to do her post-graduation at the Delhi School of Economics. Her gender studies in music as part of a Ford Foundation Fellowship drew her to explore the many aspects of thumri.
Artistes such as Naina Devi and Girija Devi accorded it an exalted position with their distinct singing style.
“The words are significant in thumri to denote the mood of the nayika. There is artistry involved in rendering the simple lines in such a way that you can share the many shades of life and love with the audience. Bhaav takes precendence. It does not mean it is not rooted in the classical tradition, but the singer needs to intensify the emotional impact of the poetry.”
Meeting Naina Devi was sort of a turning point in Vidya’s musical journey.
“In her, I found the answers to the questions that I had been asking all along about women finding their own space in a traditional art. She was an interesting person, with an eclectic understanding of bandishes and different styles of music. I cherished every moment of my eight-year association with her. The learning extended much beyond music.”
The valuable lessons came through in the form of a book Heart to Heart: Remembering Nainaji (relleased in 2011) by Vidya, who is also an editorial consultant with Orient Blackswan publishers.
It was the account of an extraordinary life of Nilina Sen from Calcutta, who went to become Nilina Ripjit Singh of Kapurthala and, finally, the unparalleled Naina Devi of the music world.
Born in a bhadralok family of Bengal, Naina Devi (granddaughter of Brahmo Samaj leader, Keshub Chandra Sen) had a liberal upbringing, where music was part of the daily routine. She had to stop singing after being married into the royal family of Kapurthala.
Naina Devi picked up the threads of her musical life after her husband’s death. She shifted to Delhi and became Naina Devi to save her husband’s family of the embarrassment that their daughter-in-law had become a professional singer.
This was also a time of change. The era of royal patronage was being replaced by music schools and classical music became accessible to the middle class.
This certainly had an impact on thumri’s position in the classical firmament. People and Ustads were now more accepting of the form. And young aspirants could express their desire to learn without inhibition.
“Be proud that you are heir to an amazing legacy of songs, so what if it belongs to a misunderstood tradition. Only then can you find yourself in music,” says Vidya, recalling her guru’s advice.
‘Kaun gumaan bhai re muraliya’ rings true.
