![]() Origin of Nazrul Geeti Nazrul Islam started showing his poetic and musical skills from a very tender age. Finally, he started writing songs when he was the member of a Leto Group (Folk Musical Group). Soon he became an expert in composing songs and setting them on tunes by following his uncle Kazi Bazle Karim and a leader of the Leto Group. Nazrul’s participation in this group was extremely significant in shaping and enhancing his musical career. Later, when Nazrul was serving as a Havilder in Karachi Barrack under Bengal Regiment, then he met Satish Kanjilal, who was a school teacher of Searsolo School. Being an expert in Hindustani Classical Music, he gave Nazrul lessons on Classical music. With the help of it, Nazrul was able to work on his knowledge on music. As a result of which, he composed several songs, which are purely based on ragas. Some songs on ragas are slightly deviated from the pure form of raga. Themes of Nazrul Geeti According to the themes, Nazrul Geeti can be divided in four groups- Revolutionary Mass Music, Bhakti Geeti, Ghazal and Ragasrayi Songs (songs based on Ragas): Revolutionary Mass Music: It is the patriotic songs of Nazrul which are highly motivational with powerful words and striking tunes. They were widely used during the Indian Independence Movement and at Bangladesh Liberation war. Bhakti Geeti: Krishna Bhajans and Shyama Sangeet of Nazrul together cater to the Bhakti Geeti portion. They are all devotional songs. Ghazals: Kazi Nazrul Islam was the pioneer of the Bengali Ghazals based on the form of Persian Ghazal on the theme of love. It was the grand introduction of Islam to the traditional Bengali Music. Ragadrayi: These songs are purely based on ragas with the themes of love and nature. In some songs of this branch, Nazrul sometime brought certain deviations in the pure form of the raga. |