This All-Women Band Of Jabalpur Is Setting Many Unheard Poems To Tunes

The band performs folk songs, songs of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore and other noted poets. Most of the music is composed by the band members.

Jabalpur: The Shri Janaki Band, by female students of Janaki Raman College in Jabalpur of Madhya Pradesh, is being recognised all over the country for its unique style of music. The special thing about this band is that it comprises only girls who composed songs of great lyricists of Hindi literature. At the same time, native folk songs have been presented in such a melodious manner that the listeners are enthralled. This small effort of college folks has now grown into an institution of music.

The group is the indirect outcome of the Covid-19 period when it performed on a small scale and none thought this would metamorphose into a band someday. With the easing of the lockdown restrictions, the group members named it Shri Janki band, after their college.

Shri Janaki Band has 20 female members who are equally adept at singing and playing instruments. Muskan Soni, a member, said initially the group used to perform only in college programmes, and its performance captivated the audience. Soon after, it started performing in small functions in and around Jabalpur. Four years down the line, the Shri Janaki Band took to the stages in Delhi, Mumbai and Bhopal.

Soni said the band performs no film songs but folk songs, songs of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore and other noted poets. Most of the music is composed by the band members. They hummed many songs including poetess Subhadra Kumari Chauhan's Jhansi Ki Rani for ETV Bharat. The girls have also decorated Makhanlal Chaturvedi's poem Pushp Ki Abhilasha with their tunes.

Unnati Tiwari, an ex-bander who studies at Dyal Singh College, Delhi said what she learnt from the group performance has been adopted by her college and work of composing music for the works in Hindi literature has been taken up due to Janki Band.

In present times, when more noise than music is played across stages, the Shri Janaki Band has embarked on the journey to spread the mellifluous desi songs among the youths. By setting many wonderworks of Hindi literature to the tunes, the band has earned accolades from song lovers.