Simple, Happy, Bhoopali

In this edition of Shruti, the late evening raga, Bhoopali

The first thing that strikes you about the raga Bhoopali is its simplicity. A sense of being uncluttered. A reassuring clarity of feeling and expression.

To better explain the character of Bhoopali, imagine if all ragas were actual people in human form. Then, in the city of Hindustani music, Bhoopali would be that woman who exudes the happiness which comes to those who don’t carry any burden of sin. You’d become friends within minutes of meeting because it’d be so easy to trust her. You wouldn’t have to guess any part of her personality because she wouldn’t hide anything.

She’d be one of those people who sleep with content at night because they know they’ve worked hard during the day.

Tact wouldn’t be her strength. There will hardly be a difference in what she says and what she thinks. But she’ll always try and make sure that she doesn’t hurt anyone, because that just wouldn’t be her.

Bhoopali will gently smile back each time you look at her. And you will be all the more happier for it.

And for a Friday evening to be spent with such a raga, we bring you three of the most pleasing renditions of Bhoopali available on the web.

1. Ashwini Bhide

Simplicity, is perhaps harder to convey than a complex bundle of expressions. And if an artist can do that without appearing to make much of an effort, it shows just how accomplished a practitioner she is of her art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwLo3pOwCdk

2. Kumar Gandharva

Any discussion on simplicity of a raga, or expression in music, would be incomplete without Pt. Kumar Gandharva. The Bhoopali in the clip below (0:00-9:45), is a testimony to that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCpMcvWkNy4

3. Kishori Amonkar

It is often said amongst Hindustani music enthusiasts that there is no Bhoopali like Kishori tai’s Bhoopali. The precision of swaras is a given when to comes to her. But that is not the final goal of her music. It is the bhaav, the expression—combined with the swaras—that takes the listener to an abstract state of experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqa6pOzogPE