However, I have a soft corner for Joy Baba Felunath. Ray returned to his city of Aparaajito, arguably his most sensitive movie and unravelled another masterpiece.
While in 'Sonaar Kella', the locales of Rajasthan fit snugly into the narrative, Joy Baba Felunath is soaked & marinated in the city of Banaras. It captures the essence of the city, impeccably and the entire narrative germinates from it.
For instance, his accurate portrayal of the lifestyle of a Bengali household, living in a large house for several generations, is delightful.
At one point in the
movie (at the 34.23 mark), a beautiful Bhairavi-thumri, wafts through the mansion. The female voice, despite the low volume of the audio, sounds formidable & majestic.
At a later instance (at the 1:14:30 mark), one can hear another riveting voice. This time, it is a ghazal.
I had seen the movie for the first time, at the age of ten. The two remarkable voices had not made any impact, then.
Subsequently, at the age of 15 or 16, while watching the movie again (during a 'Ray Film-Festival' in my home-town in West Bengal), my curiosity was suitably aroused.
After several years of futile searching, the answers were provided by the noted musicologist, Kumarprasad Mukherjee (in the early 90-s). He told me that the Bhairavi-thumri was sung by the legendary Kesarbai Kerkar... a very rare recording of 1936 (from the now defunct music label: Broadcast)
The second voice belonged to another great: Zohrabai Agrewali (from an even older recording of 1910).
He also commented that it was remarkable of Ray to take the trouble of using these rare recordings, when any easily available tracks, would have sufficed.
In this case, he chose a 'whodunit', which he knew will be popular across a wide audience-base, especially the young.
Both the songs can be heard in succession, here:
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