The rains, with Malhar on the side

Sourendro Mullick (in green) and Soumyajit Das

Here is a raga with weighty folklore behind it. Tansen, having lit a thousand lamps with his rendition of Raga Deepak, became so hot that even a dip in the river didn't cool him down. He then embarked on a mission to search for someone who would sing Raga Malhar to bring on the rain. He came across two sisters Tana and Riri, who opened the skies when they sang. Their Raga Malhar made magic and mythology, like few ragas have done, since.

"It is indeed possible to bring on the rain with music. The cosmic effect of sound is still in the realm of research, but Pandit Jasraj recounted how he was once invited to Rajasthan to sing Malhar in order to bring rain. One hears about many goose-flesh moments when a rendition of the raga made magic," says Soumyojit Das, 28, a Kolkata-based vocalist trained by Pandit Ajay Chakraborty.

Sourendra Mullick frequently collaborates with Das and is a pianist who trained V Balsara and took lessons in classical music from Ustad Vilayat Khan. He offers an anecdote. "We chose to play Raga Jayjayanti, another rain raga, at a concert in Cologne, Germany last year. Our performance was followed by heavy showers, uncommon to Cologne," twinkles Mullick. The following morning a local newspaper headline readu00a0-- 'Indian musicians bring Indian rain to Cologne'.

Call it rationalism or plain cynicism, the mind often rejects anything that apparently defies logic. "The combination of certain notes such as the 'komal gandhar' and the 'komal nishad' in Malhar bring a sense of pathos. We associate these with torrential rain and this brings about an instant connect between the performer and the audience," says Das, as the duo demonstrates the subtleties of the raga.

Do musicians find themselves singing Malhar when it rains? "The notes of Malhar suggest themselves to us as soon as the dark clouds begin to pile. It's in our psyche," says Das. However, given that Kolkata is facing a particularly dry monsoon this year, the musicians' entreaties seem to be going unanswered.

Nevertheless there are as many as 12 different kinds of Malhar, dealing with various stages of rain and the many moods they bring. For instance, if you were anxiously waiting for your boyfriend/ girlfriend as it clouded over and threatened to flood, you would need a sombre Megh Malhar to match your emotions. But if he/she arrived miraculously, wading through an inundated Mumbai, you could take recourse in the joyous Nat Malhar. This could then give way to a happy duetu00a0-- Gaur Malhar.

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