Kings & Queens -The Best Panjabi Roots Music
With its long history, the record company Saregama has an enviable
collection of the absolute best of Panjabi music and from its heaving
archives we present a veritable who's who of the artistes who have
dominatedthe music scene.
These include 'honey-lips' Asa Singh Mastana, the sensational singing sisters Surinder and Prakash Kaur, the bawdy husband-wife team of K. Deep and Jagmohan Kaur as well the traditionally conscious Kuldeep Manak and A. S. Kang.
It also features Mohd. Rafi and Mahendra Kapoor, who as highly successful singers in the Bombay Film Industry, became proud ambassadors for Panjab.
An interesting facet of Panjabi folk music is its close relationship with
Naqal or 'Folk Theatre' where, in order to spice up the play and keep
people's attention, a liberal use of caustic humour was employed through
Boliyaan or 'bawdy lyrics'. The listener will also hear the word 'gidha',
which literally means 'clapping'. It's a reference to the dancing and
clapping performed by two women after the recital of a boli, the bawdy lyric repeated during a gidha sequence.
Friends of the dancers gather round in a circle and encourage the women to vigorously express themselves with abandon. This intriguing sequence will begin slowly but picks up pace to become a maelstrom of expressiveness; a whirlwind of movement, laughter and
vitality.
The classic love legends of Panjab have provided the backdrop for many an artiste.