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Sample Track 1:
"Badara Re" from Meera - The Lover...
Sample Track 2:
"Sanware Ke Rang" from Meera - The Lover...
Layer 2
CD Review

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South Asian Observer, CD Review >>

Canadian singer Vandana Vishwas renders Meera Bai's songs of love and passion in a soothing voice. Her debat album, Meera - The Lover, is profoundly melodious. The devotional songs that Meera sang to Lord Krishna who she loved very much captivates the soul and heart.

Meera's songs transcends spirituality and, in fact, gives expression to her inner voice. Her songs that are poetry in motion are what moved Vandana. She says, "“Meera’s poems are very, very impressive in terms of literature and expression. Whenever I read her poems I feel like composing music for them. Her poetry is so strong. The way she talks about Krishna…as if not about a god, but about a lover. There is this fine line between devotion and romance which is transcended in her poems.”

Today, Meera Bai’s poems are recognized as exceptional works, part of the literature in Indian schools, and are gaining international popularity as devotional songs among kirtan enthusiasts and yoga practitioners.

Vandana’s own life story, with its tragedies and triumphs, has brought her to develop a fond affinity with Meera Bai. Vandana’s connection with Meera began as early as her teenage years, when she was an All India Radio contract artist, and, along with her Guru Mr. D.K. Gandhe, she composed some of Meera Bai’s songs. Legendary Indian songbirds Lata Mangeshkar and Kishori Amonkar, who each beautifully sang Meera bhajans, also inspired her fascination with Meera Bai.

Vandana’s dream as a little girl was to be a Bollywood playback singer, but the lasting effects of a painful and immobilizing physical disability, inflicted upon her barely two days after her birth by a nurse using an unsterilized syringe, prevented her from being able to pursue that dream. The album is Vandana's fulfillment of a dream.

Vandana symbolically represents each phase of Meera’s love towards Krishna by composing one song for each phase from her collection and treating them with an appropriate element from Indian classical music, to evoke respective emotions. Thus, Raag Des adorns the romantic rain song “Badara Re,” Raag Darbari emotes the declaration of love in the King’s courtroom in “Rana Ji,” and serene notes of Bhairav Thaat amplify detachment and longing in “Chala Wahi Des.” Each song tells a piece of the story from Meera Bai’s life, and the components of each song are important parts of the telling. For example, in Hindi artwork, Lord Krishna is often depicted as a cow herder, playing a flute which not only calls to the animals, but also to his thousands of gopis (milkmaids) who follow the sound of his flute from far away. Vandana uses the sound of the flute to represent the presence of Krishna. It further represents the longing for something which is simply out of reach, which Meera and other devotees can hear, but never see.

The strains of some of her songs are powerful enough to induce a deep emotional and mental state of mind. The songs paint images of romance. The songs are divine.

The album is available with and without spoken word narrative that tells the story of Meera between the music tracks.

 11/20/09 >> go there
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