Continuum

People, you never know who you will bump into on cyberspace. Just when I thought that the age of Kundanlal Saigal and Pankaj Mallik was done with (in the media, anyway), along comes Dr. Sangita Nerurkar to completely bowl me over. Making the YouTube your alter-बसेरा  throws you in league with a wealth of individuals who share your passion for vintage film music.

I plead guilty to stifling an occasional snigger when I listen to valiant attempts made by amateurs uploading their singing of the classics on the tube, but always immediately kick myself for not having the courage to do so myself. This is one way that admirers of an unique musical tradition show their passion and their love for it, and short of listening to the great Radio Ceylon in the days of yore, or singing along as a song unfolded during one of the numerous re-releases of a film in those days, I have known of no other greater public display of feeling for a five-minute track. But I digress......

....if only to drive home the point that a song recorded more than half a century ago and still loved, can be re-recorded today with exactly the same enunciation, the same feeling and, more importantly, have its beauty realized once again by someone from a newer generation.  Dr. Nerurkar's soprano might jar those who will not have anything but K L Saigal's deep baritone (Lata's much under-rated Shraddhanjali suffered in that way, all those years ago), and yet she reins in her resonance even as she plunges to the lower notes. It is here that she matches the timbre in her voice beautifully with that of the great Bengali female singers of the New Theaters era. The magic in her voice is undeniable: so is her fascination for an age in popular music that is long past her own. Thank you, Doctor: you just did me a random act of kindness.