Rabindra Sangeet must be sung with greater vigour, greater virility and with a finer fidelity to the ragas they are based on for the sake of rendering justice to their great composer who was a veritable genius in the musical form he invented. Tagore was not well-rehearsed in the refinements of Indian classical music through rigorous training under a Guru but such was his spontaneous enlightenment in whatever art-form he graced that he ended up evolving that discipline in his own inimitable way. Such was the case with his music, a singular structural form of four phases which he evolved as opposed to the prevalent dual phase of the Hindustani classical bandish (a song in which the essence of a raga is manifest). His compositions were highly original although the bulk of them perhaps owe their tunes to sources other than Tagore's creative mind which were then remoulded by the poet into the form he finally gave them. The final products bore the distinctive mark of the master and, thus, they are called Rabindra Sangeet nonetheless. The songs are varied in mood and character, soft and sensitive often, solemn and grand often as well, worshipful and romantic by turns, patriotic and devotional too, but never quite specimens of degenerate weakness as they are manifestly being made by untrained voices masquerading as artistes who have no claim to classical training whatsoever and hence make a mockery of the beautiful songs set in tune by the poet whose likeness in talent we may find in our history perhaps only in Kalidas, I dare say. This must change. So long as Visva-Bharati controlled proceedings related to Rabindra Sangeet, we had the problem of over-monitoring music and curbing its free flow. But when post 1991 all such restrictions by law remained no more, there sprang the reverse problem of licence with Tagore's songs. The result was a certain dilution of the spirit of Rabindra Sangeet, a certain blatant commercialisation of the genre and, worst of all, a complete deflection of the intent of the songs by ever-weakening performance by ill-equipped artistes motivated by acquisition of cheap popularity rather than a pure rendition that may do justice to the spirit of the songs. When Tagore sings the songs, how spiritual they sound full of throbbing feeling of a higher order, an unearthly beauty enveloping every phrase rolling out in his high-treble sublime voice. But when the same songs are sung by the popular artistes of the day, how profane they sound, how, shorn of all sublimity and grandeur, they are invitations to the mundane elements within man in a most debasing way, for Tagore gone wrong can do great damage simply by the perversion of power. It is, thus, of utmost moment that artistes of Rabindra Sangeet seriously consider purifying their motivations and intents in life before attempting to scale the high peaks of rendering Tagore songs. For they are the ambassadors of the poet to the world at large and are right now doing a great disservice to the poet by misrepresenting him as anything short of the stupendous spirit that he was, mystic, musician rolled into one, profound in his utterance, which found music in his songs, and sublime in his intent despite the vain protestations from the lowly critics of the poet being naughtily otherwise. We look forward to a brighter day, a day of resurrection of the essential Tagore in his songs. We exhort the artistes to spare a thought on this issue and fulfil our hopes and aspirations around the brightest gem in the cultural domain of our country. Jai Hind!
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