Rekha Bhardwaj croons Tagore songs in new album

Popular Bollywood playback singer Rekha Bhardwaj has brought out an album of Rabindrasangeet, which also features noted exponent of the genre Sraboni Sen.

"I have sung three solo numbers - 'Mono Mor Meghero Shongi', 'Aha Tomar Shonge Praner Khela' and 'Bajilo Kaharo Beena' in the album "Tagore & We 3".

"Tagore's songs are endowed with inherent melancholy which we carry throughout our lifetime," the singer with a distinct Sufi style of singing said after the launch of the album. Rekha said that she had been introduced to Tagore in her childhood through the inimitable "Kabuliwala". Among the three recorded numbers of the Bard, Rekha called "Aha Tomar Sange Praner Khela" her most favourite as it talked about the communion with the Almighty.

"It's a sharing of thoughts (with the Supreme Being). It's an offering to the divinity." Rekha would name "Dariye Achho Tumi Amar", "Sokhi Bhabona Kahare bale" and "Megher Pare Megh" as her three other most favourite Tagore numbers apart from the recorded ones.

"I had also been introduced to his dance-drama 'Taser Desh' and found it engrossing," she recalled.

The album also consists of "Aha Aji E Basante" by Srabani Sen and "Chiro Sokha Hey" 

by Salim Hassan Chisthi and Rekha described Sraboni as the one she "identified the most because of the soulful texture of her 'gayaki.' The "Mileya Mileya" singer described her recording of Tagore's tracks in Bengali as a big honour for her and an educative process as well. "My upbringing had lots of Bengali influences and perhaps that helped." 

"As Gulzar saab said Tagore belonged to the whole of India and after passage of his 150th year birth anniversary a couple of years back it is time we all learnt more about him, read his poetry and works," she said.

"Tagore & We 3" is the third in the series, the brainchild of Soumyojit & Sourendro, who had cut their first album with German singer Stefan Stoppok and Sraboni Sen, followed by the second one with Sunidhi Chauhan and others.