Ganga Reti Pe Bangla Chhava Da More Raja (Dadra) by Malini Awasthi

Ganga Reti Pe Bangla Chhawa Da More Raja | Vidushi Malini Awasthi | KASHIKA, Varanasi A song of the yearning, beloved and the Ganga. Vidushi Malini Awasthi performs Ganga Reti Pe Bangla Chhawa Da More Raja live at KASHIKA: A Standing Festival of Theatre & Raga, at the Alfred Auditorium, Town Hall, Varanasi. In this song a woman asks her beloved to build her sand castle on the banks of the Ganga, and the plea is playful, tender and full of longing. The song belongs to the Dadra repertoire of the Purab Ang, the light-classical style of Banaras. It has been sung by some of the great voices of the tradition. Vidushi Girija Devi, the Queen of Thumri, recorded it as a Dadra, and a version reached the Hindi screen in the 1954 film Mirza Ghalib, sung by Sudha Malhotra to music by Ghulam Mohammed, with words credited to Shakeel Badayuni. Here Malini Awasthi, a disciple of Girija Devi, brings the song back to the city where it belongs.