In this part of the article, I am trying to give an idea of classical music and raaga which is used in the classical song “Kesariyaan Balam”. There are many versions of this song, sung by the Great Legends Lata Mangeshkar and Mehdi Hasan in those days. Lata Mangeshkar has sung this song in the movie “Lekin” composed by her brother Hridaynath Mangeshkar. Mehdi Hasan has sung this song in many of his live concerts, he used to do classical concerts and then for people he composed ghazals in which he turned the classical raaga into simpler song to make it feel like “easy listening”.

Brief about Classical Raagas:

A little brief about the role of Indian Classical Raaga in our Music Industry, most of the songs are based on the classical raaga. We have a raaga for almost every situation, every season and even for a particular time like early morning, noon, evening etc. The best example of this is Anup Jalota’s “Main Nahi Makhan Khayo” Song, where he explains how the mood changes if another raaga is used in between the song.

About Kesariyaan Balam:

This is a romantic song. “Kesariyaan Balam” means lover. The song explains the situation where girl is asking for her lover to come to her town / village. Singing style that this song has, is called “Maand” singing. Seems like it’s not actually categorised as classical raaga but it’s a Famous Rajasthani Folk singing style. This song resembles to the Thumri or Ghazal kind of singing.

Lata Mangeshkar’s song from movie Lekin:

Mehdi Hasan’s Kesariyaan balam song from live concert:

Kesariyaan Balam from Dor Movie:

Ranjit Rajwada’s performance in Saregamapa:

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