GLOBAL APPEAL OF BAUL

Introducing Baul to the urban mileau were Nirmalendu Choudhury, Gosto Gopal and Naboni Das. The latter among the more recognized, was popularly known as Khepa Baul hailed from Birbhum in Labpur village. His son Purnadas Baul popularized the genre and reached out to a global audience. Baul singing — once the soul of rural Bengal — is being given a new lease of life. The music form, at its peak when Purna Das Baul shared the stage with singers Bob Dylan and Peter Gabriel decades ago, is being propped up by music lovers. Today, age has caught up with both him and another popular folk and baul singer Amar Pal who may not exude the same energy and vibrancy which spectators witnessed during their prime when they were in better form.

The song of the wandering minstrels — who roamed the countryside of Bengal in their saffron robes, singing spiritual songs with a one-stringed instrument — is being feted in films, by Bangla bands, writers and groups supporting folk music. Percussionist and music composer Tanmoy Bose says, “Baul geeti in itself was not lost. But better packaging was required to present it to an urban audience,”. So Bose brought in other instruments, apart from the traditional ektara and dotara(one-stringer and two-stringer), to rev up Baul geeti in the band Talatantra. “What they present today is neither a remix nor fusion. It is a more structured form of Baul geeti which appeals to urban audiences,” he says. On the other hand, there are some — like Baul veteran Purna Das — who believe that the musical form requires no pepping up. “Neither Bauls nor their traditional songs can ever be erased from the minds and hearts of the people,” says Purna Das, whose music has taken him to 140 countries.

Baul music, adds Parvathy Baul, another well-known singer, keeps evolving, and is therefore a living tradition. She has been taking the music to areas outside Bengal with her husband Ravi Gopalan Nair, who belongs to Kerala. “We have organised Baul concerts in villages in Kerala,” she says.

Writer Mimlu Sen points out that traditionally the audience for Baul singers consisted of rural folks from Bengal. “The audience was deeply religious and often from the poorest of the poor — the Vaishnavas, village troupes of kirtan singers and sadhus as well as ordinary farmers, tailors, tinkers, cops, robbers, hookers and con men,” says Sen, whose 2009 book “Baulsphere” focused on her journey with her partner of long years, singer Paban Das Baul.

But over the years, the profile of the audience has been changing, with a spate of domestic and international festivals, and with popular Bangla bands taking up Baul tunes. Bands such as ‘Bhoomi’ and Bonnie Chakraborty’s ‘Oikyotaan’ too have been highlighting Baul music. “Oikyotaan means a thousand melodies transforming into a unique song. The idea was to make folk music accessible to a global audience,” says Chakraborty. The founder and lead singer of ‘Bhoomi’, Surajit Chatterjee, stresses that the appeal of Baul music is universal. “More often than not, the theme is spiritual; it spreads the message of brotherhood, love for fellow human beings and common folk. Considering the turbulence in our society, these songs soothe our soul,” he says.

It’s not difficult to make Baul geeti match contemporary music, the singers stress. “Keeping with the spirit of Baul music that keeps including the new, our compositions often merge with contemporary music influences,” adds Chatterjee. “The drum, guitar, violin, keyboards and English flutes play along with traditional instruments such as the khamak, ektara, dupki and ghungroo when the instruments gel with the mood of the song.” Clearly, Bauls — who celebrate life — are not going to hang up their ektaras. The voice of the bard is as clear as ever.