Gaanmela

Purabi Dutta is one of the most authentic NazrulGeeti singers we have ever had. She had the rare fortune to sing to Kazi Nazrul Islam himself. She has been a disciple of the great classical singer Pandit A. T. Kanan, as well as of the legendary singers AngurBala Devi and Biman Mukhopadhyay. Purabi Dutta has also shown expertise in other disciplines of music, such as Geet, Bhajan, Ghazal, Adhunik and, of course, Rabindra Sangeet. Her musical journey started at a very tender age with her father, and she has been in touch with the greatest musicians of India, late Pandit Nikhil Bannerji, Malavika Kanan to name a few. Purabi Dutta shares with Gaanmela her memories, thoughts and achievements. (Listen to the FULL Audio Coverage of the interview at the end of the post).

Purabi Dutta - Nazrulgeeti Singer

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Listen to the exclusive Audio Coverage of Gaanmela Interview with Purabi Dutta:

Interviewed and write up by Gaanmela Journalist: Shrabanti Basu

GaanMela: When and how did you start singing NazrulGeeti?

Purabi Dutt: We had a musical environment in our family, and I started taking music lessons in early childhood from my father. When I started singing at the All India Radio (Akashvani), I sang Bhajan, light classical (RaagPradhan), Modern Bengali (Adhunik) songs. It was much later, not before 1968-1970 – when NazulGeeti became popular, that I started singing NazrulGeeti. I got my trainging in NazrulGeeti under the guidance of Chitto Ray, Manindra Chakraborty, Biman Mukhopadhyay and Angurbala Devi.

GaanMela: Why did you decide on singing NazrulGeeti?

Purabi Dutt: I took lessons in Indian classical music from my father and later from Pandit A. T. Kanan. Many Nazrul songs are rich in their classical component. Once I got more exposure to NazrulGeeti, I realized that it was a proper medium for me, where I could implement my classical training and dexterity. I also had the opportunity to record a few songs of Nazrul from the HMV music company at that time. Once the records were released, I earned my reputation as a NazrulGeeti singer.

GaanMela: After people started knowing you as an eminent NazrulGeeti singer, did you continue with the other types of songs, that you had previously sung?

Purabi Dutt: I definitely did. I still sing songs on six different categories on the air, Geet, Bhajan, RaagPradhan, Adhunik, RabindraSangeet and NazrulGeeti. I have also records on Tagore songs.

GaanMela: You have had the golden opportunity to take lessons from some of the most talented singers, and to perform and interact with many other talented musicians. Would you please share some of your precious memories with them?

Purabi Dutt: I had a rare opportunity to sing for Kazi Nazrul Islam. Unfortunately, he had already lost his speech by then. I consider myself very lucky to be the disciple of the legendary NazrulGeeti singer Agurbala Devi. The HMV music company initiated my NazrulGeeti lessons from Angurbala Devi. I have also been blessed that the audience and the music lovers have enjoyed my works and many students still come to me for music lessons.

GaanMela: Do you still give music lessons?

Purabi Dutt: Yes, I do. But not as much as I once did, because of my age. I give classes at home and at Banichakra.

GaanMela: You have sung varieties of songs. What kind of songs do you prefer to sing?

Purabi Dutt: I enjoy singing different types of songs. But since my main subject is now NazrulGeeti and students come to me for learning Kazi Nazrul’s songs, that is what I practice the most.

GaanMela: What kind of songs do you enjoy listening? Please name some of your favorite singers whom you like to listen to, or someone that you have been inspired by.

Purabi Dutt: I have always been the most inspired by my Guruji Pandit A. T. Kanan. I was very much moved by his musical style and that was why I went to him for my music lessons. My family has a classical musical background. My father was a disciple of Ustad Badal Khan Saheb. Later in my musical career when I started singing Modern Bengali songs (Adhunik), I was very much inspired by Pratima Banerjee. I also like to listen to Nirmala Mishra, Sandhya Mukherjee’s songs. I listen to varieties of music – classical, light classical. That is what I do most of my free time. When I was a little girl, my family lived at the Doverlane Government Quarters, where Late Pandit Nikhil Bannerjee was my neighbor. My family shared a very close relationship with his. I had the chance to listen to the great music maestro practice and play. He was a very famous and respected musician, but to us, he was also a very close person. I have seen him all though his musical journey and have a lot of memories with him. He is one of my very favorites and I still I spend a lot of time listening to his records. He had a big heart; he kept in touch with us even after he was acclaimed one of the most eminent musicians of our times. Malavika Kanan ji and Pandit A. T. Kanan saheb were also very favorite singers of mine. There are many more singers whom I enjoy listening to.

GaanMela: NazrulGeeti was widely sung until a few years back. Then somehow it lost its popularity. We do not hear Nazrul songs being sung much these days. Why is that?

Purabi Dutt: In the late 60′s and 70′s Nazrul songs had its greatest time ever. Singers of the stature of Manabendra Muhkopadhyay, Dr. Anjali Mukherjee, Feroza Begum sang NazrulGeeti. I too came into singing NazrulGeeti with them. We also had with us eminent senior NazulGeeti singers like Dhirendra Chandra Mitra and Dhiren Basu. NazrulGeeti had its audience in those days. Then the situation somehow changed. One has to be meticulously trained in order to sing Nazrul songs. Only a properly educated singer can bring out the uniqueness of the songs. If someone without proper training attempts to sing NazrulGeeti, his/her songs will lack the original style that a Nazrul song should have. That was exactly what happened. Some of the new singers started singing Nazrul songs which were mere imitations of songs that were originally sung by the eminent singers. But the audience had perfect senses. They could distinguish between originality and an imitation. The NazrulGeeti lovers who had always enjoyed the originality of the singers lost interest in Kazi Nazrul’s songs. Nowadays when I am invited to the music competitions, the Nazrul songs I hear are merely imitations; none of them has an original style. The singers try to copy songs from music cds. Back in those days when NazrulGeeti was popular, all the singers had their own uniqueness. However, we are trying to save NazrulGeeti from a total destruction by imparting our knowledge to the students and making them carry on the legacy of NazrulGeeti. That is the only way we can try to preserve it.

GaanMela: As a teacher, do you see the same interest in NazrulGeeti among the present generation? Or has the inclination towards learning Nazrul’s songs diminished even among the students?

Purabi Dutt: I still offer NazrulGeeti classes. Some of my students are brilliant singers, though not all of them are famous. Everyone does not get a chance to perform in front of an audience, or achieve fame. That is totally luck. The reputed singer Indrani Sen was my student for a very long time. Then she took lessons from Biman Mukhopadhyay. I myself was his student for quite some time. All my songs released over these years were under the musical supervision of either Biman Mukhopadhyay or Angurbala Devi. I advise my students to practice classical music and sing kheyal, thumris in their own styles. That is the only way to bring out the proper expressions in NazrulGeeti. Not everyone takes classical music seriously. But teaching someone with a rich classical background is indeed a pleasant experience. They are the ones who bring out the proper expression in NazrulGeeti.

GaanMela: Is there anyone of this generation you like to listen to or you think is a promising singer?

Purabi Dutt: There are a number of singers these days who I think are very talented. Anasuya (Mukherjee) is a good singer, though she is senior compared to the others. Trishna Majumdar, Swastika Goswami are also very promising singers. There are some more new voices, but I cannot recall all their names.

GaanMela: It is a common notion that a singer can have all the freedom when singing Nazrul’s songs. Is it a correct way to sing NazrulGeeti?

Purabi Dutt: It is not right to sing NazrulGeeti in just any way a singer wants to. There has to be a limit beyond which one should not go. And whatever one does, it should be done in harmony with the lyrics and the original tune. You have have some liberty when singing Nazrul songs, but that should not hamper the originality of the verses and their numbers. The most important thing for a singer is to develop his/her own style. Arati Mukherjee, Pratima Banerjee, Nirmala Mishra, Sandhya Mukherjee – all these great singers have styles of their own. These days I do not see many singers who leave a distinctive impression. I do not intend to criticize. It is just my opinion as an audience.

GaanMela: When we listen to Nazrul’s songs, they vary in notations. What would be a proper way to learn NazrulGeeti, since the tunes of the songs sung by the singers are different form their notations and also the numbers vary among the singers?

Purabi Dutt: There weren’t any notations of Nazrul’s songs for a very long time. Even when I was learning NazrulGeeti from Chitto Ray, we did not have any notations. We sung the songs the way our teachers taught us. The notations were made a long time later when NazrulGeeti became popular, from the tunes sung by different artists. Among those who wrote music for Nazrul’s songs was Kazi Anirudhdhha, son of Nazrul. Nazrul Islam was a controversial person and was not much organized about his works, either. He lost his speech at a very young age. So a lot of the notations published lacked accuracy. However, singing a song just by its notation is not a very good way to follow. There are several cases where the lyrics of the songs were by Nazrul, but the tunes were by someone else. There have also been instances of revising the notations after several publications. Learning just the notation does not always bring out the proper depth of a song. In contrast, learning a song from an authentic teacher helps one put more expression and style into the songs. All these have often led to the dilemma regarding the authenticity of NazrulGeeti. The poet along with his verses has often been subject to debates. It often worries me how the NazrulGeeti singers of this generation can find a proper way to learn the subject leaving behind all the controversies.

GaanMela: So is it always a better way to learn NazrulGeeti from an authentic institution than following the notations from a book?

Purabi Dutt: I personally think that the singers should have their own styles. However, one can always consult the notation if situation arises, though it is not enough. To make a song more enjoyable and pretty, a singer has to put expressions in the songs and develop a style. There is no hard and fast rule about it, but this is what I personally like to do.

GaanMela: Kazi Nazrul Islam has written a wide variety of songs. What kinds of songs do you like the most?

Purabi Dutt: I like the classical based songs. I have to sing different kinds of songs for the music companies, to meet the demands of the audience. I have sung folk, devotional, ShyamaSangeet, patriotic, raagashroyi (raaga based), thumri and ghazal style songs. Singing all the different styles of songs makes a singer realize the versatility of the poet and composer Kazi Nazrul Islam. I sometimes see some of the budding singers start a song from the second line, omitting the first. I advise them not to do that, since it hampers the beauty of the song. I do not know how much heed they pay to my advice.

GaanMela: We have often known some songs to be written by Nazrul, which were later discovered to be the creations of some other lyricists and composers?

Purabi Dutt: There are a couple of factors that led to this confusion. Sometimes it was the mistakes of the publishers. And sometimes it was the misdocumentation by the singers who sung those songs. In olden days when there were no proper archives for songs and the singers had to rely on their memories. Sometimes by mistake, they would ascribe some of the songs to Nazrul when those were actually composed by someone else. The recording companies took the singers’ words for granted. Once the records came into the market, the general audience knew those songs to be NazrulGeeti. And it is still a concern to the Nazrul Geeti singers…..

GaanMela: For example, in my childhood I knew “Emoni Borosha Chhilo Shedin” to be a NazrulGeeti.

Purabi Dutt: It was not written by Nazrul. There are some more instances. “Nijhum Raate Ke Banshi Bajay” for example was also not written by Nazrul. But it was promoted as NazrulGeeti by the recording companies. It is somewhat misleading to the general audience. On each side of the gramophone records there used to be songs written by different lyricists. Like Sandhya Mukherji sang songs composed by both Shyamal Mitra, and Gauri Prasanna Majumdar on the same disc. Before NazrulGeeti became popular, Kazi Nazrul and Pranab Ray composed songs for the same gramophone releases. A gramophone company once took Pranab Ray’s lyrics as Nazrul’s. And I was present at the recording center when Pranab Ray came with a book of his that published that very poem. I witnessed the incident. Like I said, Nazrul did not preserve his works with much care, and also he lost his speech at a young age. A lot of his works were handed down to us by contemporary testimonies, and human memory is not always accurate.

GaanMela: Please name some of your favorite songs.

Purabi Dutt: “Shoi Bhalo Kore Binod Beni”, “Polash Manjari”, “Amar Jabar Somoy Holo”, “Pashaner Bhangaale Ghum” , and a lot of other songs including some ghazals. I have also sung some light songs, but the classical based songs are my favorite. I also enjoy singing romantic songs.

GaanMela: Please sing a couple of lines from one of your favorite songs for us.

Purabi Dutt: I am little too old for that. Let me tell you something, a little grief of mine. When I was young and was more capable of singing, I did not have many listeners. And now when I am getting older, I get a lot of requests for singing. It embarrasses me because I am not that strong for things like that. It is one of my regrets. Let me sing just one line. “Shoi Bhalo Kore Binod Beni Bandhiya De.”

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