BHUBANESWAR: Creative verses of eminent poet and Sahitya Akademi winner Nirmala Devi have been compiled into a music album ‘Barnaraaga’ by composer-singer Ratikant Satpathy. The album, titled Barnaraaga and its cover song ‘Tume Barna Bihina Para’ was released on Saturday last week, three days before the late poet would have turned 112.
Paying tribute to the mystic poet, Satpathy decided to compose and sing six memorable poems by her into one music album. While the album was produced by RND Family Benefit Trust, the songs have been released on YouTube under the web channel, Tune Odisha. Satpathy said the remaining five videos of the songs will be shot and uploaded on web soon. The cover song features architect-cum-model Ar Sudhashri.
The album is a beautiful blend of the past and contemporary. Underlined with layers of mysticism, romanticism and divinity, Devi’s poems were way ahead of her time, says Panchami Manoo Ukil, Devi’s granddaughter who along with writer Ratnamala Swain decided to have her verses set to music and released in the shape of an album. “Written about four decades ago, the late poet’s words were eons ahead of her time. In an age of electronic and auto-tuned music, Barnaraaga not only serves as a fitting tribute to the remarkable poet but also reminds the younger generation of the importance of meaningful lyrics and soulful melodies,” she says.
Panchami says Nirmala Devi's three books of poetry - Dinaantey, Seemantey and Barnaraag - were lost to the world 30 years back. Two years back, both Panchami and Ratnamala began a search for the books and found them in the archival wing of State Library."We decided that a compilation of the three books would be produced. Ratnamala edited the compilation and with the support of Central Sahitya Akademi and writer Dr. Gourahari Das, 'Nirmala Devi Kabita Samagra' was released in October, 2016. The enthusiasm of readers, especially from the younger generation of readers and writers, was overwhelming. "My grandmother had an ardent desire to have her poetry set to music. A great start to this end was made 50 years ago, with my uncle, Odisha’s singing icon, and Nirmala Devi’s son-in-law, Pranab Kishore Patnaik, rendering the signature poem “Tume Barna Bihina Para”. Ratnamala and I therefore decided that some of poems must be composed and sung, so that not only would there be a fulfilment of the poet’s desire, but, also, a sense of completion to the lost and found story," she says.
For Ratikanta, the music was not very difficult to handle. He says although the poems were written 40 years back, they are very contemporary in nature. “Her poems are very lyrical, so I did not face much difficult composing them,” he adds.