While working on a lead from 'Musique Man' Varma - on the possible source of Shankar Jaikishen's cult classic 'Yaad kiya dil' (Patita, 1953, sung by Hemant Kumar), I stumbled upon another song from the same group, alleged to have the Patita original. The group is called Djur Djura and its a all-women group working on Algerian folk music. The song in question is called 'Uni-vers-elles'. This track has generous dollops of 'Jhoom barabar jhoom', with even those three words appearing exactly! Yes, the same Aziz Nazan cult hit in 1971 that was also used as an item song in the film '5 rifles' (1974).
Djur Djura was formed in 1977 by its lead singer Djura (as explained in detail in the official website of the world music record label 'Luaka Bop' owned by musician David Byrne, co-founder of the group Talking Heads). Considering the possibility of 2 (one confirmed, another unknown) Indian tracks in her repertoire, I'm on the lookout for any information that can help me place the dates of all the 4 tracks mentioned here.
- Yaad kiya dil ne (Patita, 1953) - Possibly inspired by Algerian folk song - Unconfirmed
- Jhoom barabar jhoom (Aziz Nazan, 1971) - Found in Uni-vers-elles (Djur Djura, 2002)
The dates available as of now clearly points to the fact that the Indian versions are much older. Now, two relevant questions arise here.
01. Does Djur Djura, as a band rework existing Algerian folk music? Or, do they also seek inspiration from across the world and could have possibly lifted Jhoom barabar jhoom?
02. If a tune-equivalent of the Patita exists in their repertoire, does that again point to one of the two possibilities - the band using traditional Algerian folk or seeking inspiration from more diverse world sources, including Indian film music?
Download the mp3 version of Uni-vers-ellese here! Any more info on this topic will be immensely helpful! While I have heard some rare albums of Djur Djura, I found their music to be an interesting mix of genres including Andean folk and the kind of music Hedningarna produces. But, I'm yet to come across this so-called original of Patita's 'Yaad kiya dil'!
Friday, May 9, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)








0 comments:
Post a Comment