Bannya: A legacy carved in Rabindra Sangeet

"I think it's an honour for Bangladesh as well, not just for me," is how the Rabindra Sangeet maestro from Bangladesh, Rezwana Choudhury Bannya, views her most recent accolade – the Padma Shri.

No stranger to awards in her long career, Bannya is feeling particularly grounded about such a prestigious accolade, which she received just a couple of months ago.

"At this juncture of my life, these awards act just as recognition and nothing more. These are important, but not so important that I'd lose sleep over it, if they never happened. It was the passion for music in the first place that made me turn this into a profession. It wasn't the allure of awards or recognition," she said.

Bannya is one of the few Bangladeshis to be awarded India's fourth highest civilian honour. Before her, former Bangladesh Ambassador to India Syed Muazzem Ali, Lieutenant Colonel Quazi Sajjad Ali Zahir (retired), Professor Enamul Haque and Sanjida Khatun were awarded. 

Bannya thinks that quite a few factors were taken into account for her to be awarded. The first being the friendly relationship that exists between Bangladesh and India, her roots from Shantiniketan and the third being Rabindranath.

"Rabindranath is a common factor that exists between us and India," she added.

Bannya's voice has been echoing with the tunes of Rabindra Sangeet for as long as she can remember. But before getting into the story of how she ended up getting into Rabindra Sangeet in the first place, we conversed about a topic that doesn't always sit well with the purists – Fusion music, especially the fusion of Rabindra Sangeet.

Fusing Tagore

Although the idea of Rabindra Sangeet fusion might raise eyebrows for many traditionalists, Bannya has ventured into this territory as well.

In 2012, she went on an adventurous collaboration with Hridoyanondo Ramon, a Western music instructor at the University of Iceland. Intrigued by Rabindra Sangeet and skilled in playing the piano, Ramon's talents combined with Bannya's enchanting vocals resulted in a unique fusion album, 'Exploring Tagore with Piano'.

After a while, she joined hands with some musicians from the West on a project called Gaan Bangla's 'Wind of Change'. During this time, she gave a unique twist to Tagore's song 'Kotobar Bhebe Chinu'. She was accompanied by singers who used 'Soprano' style in their singing, which brought a fresh and quirky vibe to the already beautiful song.

Despite her involvement in blending different styles of music, Bannya isn't too fond of the new ways other artists or bands fuse music today. Especially when it comes to Rabindra Sangeet.

"I feel that many artists mixing music styles nowadays don't really understand Rabindranath Tagore's work well enough to be doing fusion. They seem to be fusing just for the sake of it. I've enjoyed my own fusion efforts because I've made it a point to keep the song's true essence intact," she explained.

"You need a certain depth of thought, education and experience if you want to work and fuse Rabindranath's works. You need to break something down to its finest atom and reverse engineer the entire process to make a proper fusion, and I don't think anyone's doing proper justice in that regard these days."

Bannya thinks that old songs and folk music sound best when they're played just as they are. She believes there's something special about hearing a Baul musician happily singing with his dotara in the street, or feeling the peace of a shepherd's song under a tree on a sunny afternoon. To her, these moments are perfect and can't be beaten, mixing them with other music styles doesn't respect the original art form.

"Fusion nowadays are mostly gimmicks. No one will truly be able to replicate the inherent spirituality, the inner beauty of folk. The divine connection that exists between a folk singer and their deity is hard to recreate in newer forms of music," said Bannya.

Are her renditions cover numbers or her own songs?

Bannya is adamant in saying that her renditions of Rabindra Sangeet aren't just mere cover numbers but her "own" songs for that matter. Yes, they are composed by Tagore, but still, they're her songs.

"That's the beauty of Rabindra Sangeet. It's gonna be a hundred years soon that he passed away, but still to this day his songs are as contemporary. This is because his songs are multi-dimensional," said Bannya.

Bannya further explains that each of Tagore's 2,500 songs has its own unique depth and is open to interpretation. She feels every artist who chooses to perform a Tagore number, does so within their realms of interpretation that pertain to the songs. 

"I perform the songs with my own set of devotion towards Tagore. For another artist, the devotion could be for something else. There is space for individualistic interpretation. The interpretation could be totally different," said Bannya.

Why Rabindra Sangeet?

Although growing up Bannya had a certain bit of exposure to adhunik [contemporary] songs from movies in the 60s, her heart always seemed to lean towards Rabindra Sangeet. We were curious, why did she choose to dedicate herself to Rabindra Sangeet specifically?

"My music education primarily focused on Rabindra Sangeet. It wasn't something I had planned; it just happened, shaped by my life's journey, my surroundings, and where I came from," Bannya said.

"Music was a constant presence in my life, but there were always moments that drew me closer to Rabindra Sangeet. You could say my family was a big influence in that and since then, it's been my main focus."

However, as she reminisced about her early days, she did it let on that she would sing contemporary and folk songs. Whether it was a family gathering or a school event, the humble audience present always encouraged her to keep on singing. 

"Back then, 'Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne' was a hit movie, and I knew all its songs by heart. Who knows, if I stuck with them [adhunik and folk songs], I might have been an adhunik song artist now," she added.

But accessing music wasn't as simple back then as it is today. In the past, only the well-off could afford luxuries like gramophones or private music lessons. A few were fortunate to have a tape recorder, which allowed them to record songs from the radio and play them back repeatedly for practice. Bannya was one of those lucky few, which played a significant role in her musical development.

"Once my father went overseas in 1965, he brought a tape recorder for us and I used to be all over it as a kid," remembered Bannya.

Bannya holds every award a Bangladeshi singer could dream of, from the Independence Award of her own country to the esteemed Padma Shri from India. Yet, when the day comes for her to pull the plug on her career, it won't be the trophies that shine brightest. Instead, her lifelong dedication to Rabindra Sangeet - the music of Rabindranath Tagore – will mark her true legacy.