Immortalising Nazrul's ghazals

"Can you explain what a ghazal is?" questioned Arjumand Banu. While I was looking for words, she explained in simple words, "Ghazals originated from Persian poetry based on love. It was Kazi Nazrul Islam who introduced Bangla ghazals that created a massive impact in the music scene. The songs with an exclusive pattern and melody took the music lovers by storm. This was in the year 1926. Nazrul was then hardly 27." There is no end to learning, I thought to myself. That day is firmly etched in my mind.

It was in the same year ('74) that the virtuoso singer Angurbala visited Dhaka. She was the first to record two of Nazrul's ghazals Eto jaal O kajal chokhey and Bhuli kemoney in 1929 for the Gramophone Company that stirred the music aficionados to great heights. Never had they heard such songs with such passionate lyrics and tunes. Surely Nazrul's genius was unparalleled.

As I hurriedly entered the gates of the radio office at Shahbagh Avenue, I met the eager eyes of the other artistes who had flocked to the big auditorium to hear the living legend.

Angurbala was about 70 at that time. In a simple white cotton sari and a gold bead necklace she looked frail as she took the stage. Placing her hand softly on her right ear she sang, “Jarey haath diye mala ditey paro nai, keno money rakho tarey, Eto jol o kajal chokhey, Ey bashi bashorey, Choiti rater and a few more songs, mostly from the genre of ghazals. Her voice wasn't stereotypically melodious. It was raspy, yet powerful--age was catching up, according to many. However, the applauding audience marvelled at the authority and style with which she presented the songs. Nazrul exponent Shiddeswar Mukhopadhyay accompanied her on the harmonium and Madon Goplal Das from Bangladesh was on the tabla.

In between her presentations, she spoke of her days at the Gramophone Company when Nazrul was signed as an exclusive trainer.

Eminent artistes such as Sachin Dev Burman, KL Saigal, KC Dev, Tulsi Lahiri, Pronob Rai, Abbassuddin Ahmed, Kamol Das Gupta, Juthika Rai, Angur Bala, Indu Bala, Kamala Jharia and many others involved with the recording company directly recorded songs under the guidance of Nazrul and gained immense popularity and turned into legends themselves. It was however, Dilip Kumar Rai, an eminent singer and son of DL Rai,who had first popularised Nazrul's ghazals.

Angurbala continued in the same vein. In her words, " When I recorded for the first time for the gramophone, I was dead nervous. There was a myth that artistes were cut into pieces and put inside the machine from where they performed. After a lot of persuasion, I agreed to sing in a closeted room, which resembled a gas chamber you might have seen on TV. I was equally thrilled when I heard my own voice immediately after I performed in front of a long pipe, which I later came to know was a microphone," she went on in front of the crowd, which burst into laughter.

Angur was equally proficient as an actress on stage and talkies. It was a time when women were not allowed to cross the boundary of their household, not to speak of performing in public. Angur was attached to the Minerva Studio. Here she donned the role of Bibek (conscience) in many theatres and acted in Maan Bhanjan, Shobhoda, Shajahan, Tulsi Das, Atmadarshan and Nartaki among others. In the play Kinnari, she essayed the lead role.

Angurbala had recorded about 300 songs for the Gramophone Company of which 50 were Nazrul songs. "The most interesting experience was when I met Kazi Shaheb for the first time," went on the legendary artiste. Recalling those eventful days, Angur said, "We waited impatiently to meet him. We thought that he would be a bearded man, dressed up in alkhella, with a toopi on his head. However, we were charmed to see a completely different person attired in a gerua panjabi, a yellow silk turban and strings of beads around his neck. A creative genius of his stature never seemed distant.

"Kazi Shaheb would compose tunes focusing on the speciality of the artiste. Sometimes he would just explain the notations and then say in his usual manner 'Angur, it's now up to you to add the sweet angur (grape) flavour of your voice.' That is how I remember Nazrul," reminisced Angurbala.