The Genius of Akshaya Mohanty
#KhokaBhai
One fine day, I was researching into the musical tradition of the Moghul Tamsa of Bhadrak, Odisha. The Moghul Tamsa is a 300-year old folk theatre tradition in which the language is an intentional mixture of Odia, Hindi, Urdu & Bengali. People used to make fun of their Mughal masters in the play. The music however, is heavily rooted in Odia tunes. As I listen to the play, at one point a heavily drunk character enters the scene and bursts out into a song which goes like this : ‘ପାଓଁ ଟଲେ ଟଲେ ଟଲେ ପଡ଼େ, ଏଇ ତ କେମନ ମଜା’. Here’s the clip from Moghul Tamsa :
The tune seemed somehow known to me.¹ Days later, it struck me that Akshaya Mohanty, that genius, had used the same lines with the same 300-year old tune in a song at the end of the Fakir Mohan drama ‘Patent Medicine’. He even uses that mixed accent like the ramblings of an alcoholic. He’s perfect down to the ପୋଟଲ and ଭାଜା. Here’s the relevant song :
Can you imagine what mastery it requires to not only retain & imbibe these things from our folk traditions but also have the creative ability to employ the same bits in such a different setting? There are so many things about the man we’ll only come to know much, much later.
- Fun Fact : Banikantha Nimai Charan Harichandan uses the same tune for ‘ଆସ ଆସ ଆସ ମୋର ସରଗ ତରା’ and Sangita Sudhakara Balakrushna Das employs a variation for ‘ଆସ ଜୀବନ ଧନ ମୋର ପଖାଳ କଂସା’. You can check for yourself if you wish to. ;)
- Coincidentally, both songs are written by Kabichandra Kalicharan Patnaik.
