The Charm of Raga Todi

There are many beautiful morning ragas in Hindustani Classical music. Raga Todi or Miyan ki Todi was the trademark composition of Miyan Tansen the legendary composer in the court of Akbar. Raga Todi is also known as Miyan ki Todi, Shuddha Todi and Darbari Todi. All these names essentially refer to the same Raga Todi.Todi is a morning raga that is sung from 8am to 10am. It has the ability to evoke the same mood of playfulness of a newborn lying in bed content, smiling and playful. In film music, Raga Todi has been largely used in composing songs that depict pathos. I was listening to the songs of the recent Shahid Kapoor film Mausam (to read the review of the film click here) and heard Raga Todi showing up in the song Purey Se Zara Sa Kam Hai (Trans: Somewhat less than complete).https://youtu.be/qUB1PBVk8OAIt is the loveliest example of the Raga Todi in recent film songs. If you can think of another one, do let me know. The only thing that jarred a bit in the film is that the montage ends up with Shahid lost in thoughts well into the night. I don't want to nitpick. I am just delighted to hear the strains of Todi that too sung by Ustad Rashid Khan.The ten thaats (arrangement of notes) in Hindustani Classical Music are Asavari, Bilawal, Bhairav, Bhairavi, Todi, Poorvi, Marwa, Kafi, Kalyan, Khamaj. I use a simple mnemonic (AB-BB-TPM-KKK) to remember the list.My father used to always point out that the scales should not be confused with the Raga of the same name. So the Bhairavi Thaat is quite distinct from Raga Bhairavi. Two ragas with similar notes used could sound very different depending on the how long the performer lingers on the note and in what sequence of appearance. Raga Malkauns is a night raga (performed after midnight till 2am) based on the Bhairavi thaat while Raga Bhairavi is a late morning (10am to 12 noon) raga. Now back to Raga Todi. This time it is Rashid Khan performing Raga Todi in the classical form. Can you discover the song Pure Se Zara Sa Kam hai in this piece?https://youtu.be/rS5jBhU2dPQI want to take you back to Raga Todi being sing by two stalwarts of Hindi Film music - Manna Dey and Mohd Rafi singing Tu Hai Mera Prem Devata (Trans: You the God of Love) from the film Kalpana (1960). Listen to the first minute of the song to get the flavor of the Raga Todi and see if you can hear the strains of the previous song as well.https://youtu.be/ET1BPuO_aG8The dancers are the Travancore sisters - Padmini and Ragini. They were they were three sisters (Lalitha being the eldest) who performed in many Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam films.There is a composition by Pandit Ravi Shankar for the film Meera made in 1979 which has a superb composition in Raga Todi done by Vani Jairam.https://youtu.be/uXRUQHr0_EMMain to Ek Khwab Hoon is another lovely example of Todi being used to evoke pathos. This is from Himalaya Ki Gode Meinhttps://youtu.be/g6R0WUi4JicThere are other variants of Raga Todi that you may like to exploreRaga Darbari Todi - composed by Tansen for the darbar (court) of Emperor Akbar. Listen to Ustad Fateh Ali singing this rare raga (Click here)Raga Bilaskhani Todi by different singers is listed here (click here)Raga Gurjari Todi - a lovely and very popular variant of Todi (click here)---------------Some more classical compositions in Raga Todi by different singers.Use the Samay Chakra to see when a raga sounds at its most melodious

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