This weekend, September 27 and 28, is indeed unique. Want to know why? Well, Sept 27 marks the birth anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh. He was indeed a "radical". Surely, everybody would have to accept this truth, given his dedicated role in the Indian freedom struggle.
Undoubtedly, the assembly bomb case clearly shows that the revolutionaries' intention was not to hurt anyone, not even the victimising colonisers. The bomb was thrown in the vacant passageway. The purpose was to make the deaf colonisers listen to genuine grievances.
Here was a young man who could sensitise an entire nation even when incarcerated in the cruellest way. His fast unto death against the vicious treatment meted out to other young political prisoners made the Indian freedom struggle truly vibrant.
Not only was he a committed patriot, but he was also a revolutionary thinker. I read up a lot of his writings, translated in to Hindi by his nephew, for an article on the occasion of the centenary year of his birth. My article was written for the then "Kirloskar" magazine. If he were to live longer, may be, the vibrant picture of the independent India that he had visualised would have come true.
Now let us come to the other reason which explains why the second day of this weekend is special. Yes, September 28 is the birth anniversary of Lata Mangeshkar. She gave to the silver screen a voice that was truly golden. Such were her soulful renditions of all possible varieties of songs that it could be said that she accorded filmy music the gravitas of a classical 'mehfil'.
To commemorate this unique weekend, let us discuss her rendition of "Vande Mataram", the national song which celebrates its hundred and fiftieth year in 2025. Truly, it evokes in the utmost heart-felt way the continent that is our country. We are multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-regional, multi-lingual. Yet tying us together is our civilisational Indic identity that is evocatively celebrated in this song.
It is penned by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in his novel " Anandmath" which depicts the "Sanyasi Rebellion", an upheaval against the East India company against the backdrop of the terrible 1770 Bengal famine.
Latadi's most moving rendition of the song is in the eponymous film, "Anandmath". I have watched the visualisation of the song as depicted in the film, and as much available on the YouTube. The visuals clearly show why this is a soul stirring national song .
Latadi sings it with the same intense passion as her "eh, mere watan ke logo". In fact, it is sung with more fervour and genuine intensity. Apparently the raga is Bhairavi, though there are, it seems, many more classical versions of the song. Hemant Kumar's music direction is uplifting indeed. Listening to it is an absolutely stirring experience. Hence this tribute to the brilliant song to celebrate this special weekend.
Pratima@ As I am about to finish off the blog, there are crackers bursting, celebrating a cricket match win! These days when every ball and each run in a match is most often a bet, it is such a shame that there is a celebration of a series, forget the final match, that actually should have been boycotted, given the very tragic and extremely vicious and dastardly Pahalgam attack hardly five months ago!
What must be the feelings of the relatives of the victims! Feel truly happy that greats like Bankim Chandra and Bhagat Singh are not alive/around to witness this moral degradation!
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