Pratima Pandey Barua – the Queen of Goalporiya Lokgeet

A renowned folk singer of Assam, Pratima Pandey Ba rua was has been conferred with several national awards for her contribution towards upliftment of Goalporiya Lokgeet. She on 3rd October 1935, in Calcutta to  Prakritish Chandra Barua (Lalji), who belonged to the royal family of Gauripur in Western Assam's Dhubri district. She was the niece of filmmaker Pramathesh Barua of Devdas. She was a great exponent who helped in restoration as well as strengthening of Goalporiya Lokgeet. Goalporiya Lokgeet is a form of folk music of Assam, which is mainly sung in the Goalpara district. It is basically lyrical song of Goalpara and is not related with religious or rituals. Generally the main theme of compositions is based mainly on love but not totally. It has different sub-genres that differ in the musical mood and themes, of which the bhawaiya and the chatka are principal forms along with moishali and maut songs.

These songs are often sung in chorus sole accompaniment of the dotora. Pratima Pandey Barua is one of the prominent singers of Goalporiya Lokgeet, who has taken the folk music to a different level and made it popular not only in India but all over the globe. She completed her primary education from Gokhale Memorial School in Kolkata and later moved to Gauripur in Assam. Coming back to Gauripur, she was enrolled in Girls’ High School, Gauripur from where she completed her matriculation. She had spent most part of her early life between Kolkata and Gauripur. While at Kolkata, she learned Rabindrasangeet at school, but did not take any formal training in music. The encouraging words of her father motivated her to sing. The turning point of her life was in the year 1955, when Dr. Bhupen Hazarika visited Gauripur to attend a jalsa organised on a social occasion, where he met a young and coy girl, who sang songs in Goalporiya dialect in tune with the strings and rhythms of the Bashi, junuka, dhol, dotora, dhuluki and darinda. He was very impressed with the singing of Pratima and foretold that her voice would certainly take Goalpariya lokageet to great heights.

Pratima Pandey Barua performed folk song and helped in reviving the Goalporiya dialect of Assam and Dr. Bhupen Hazarika presented the songs of this genre in his film Era Bator Sur for the first time, which was sung by her. Apart from the mahout songs, she also sung the hit songs of Paul Robeson. She was married to Gauri Shankar Pandey, a retired principal of the Gauripur P. B. College.

Aaji danrao kala, Matir manush, Dui Diner Bhalobasha, Bail machhe kheil kare, Dung nori dung, Oh Mor Mahut Bandhure, Bail machhe kheil kare, Hastir Kanya, Dhick dhick, Komola Sundori Nache, O birikha simila rè, etc. are some of the popular songs sung by her. She was awarded the Padmashree and Sangeet Natak Akademi for popularizing Goalporiya Lokgeet and Prabin Hazarika made a documentary film on her life named Hastir Kanya and won national award for the same in the year 1997. The great exponent of Goalporiya Lokgeet who took it to a different level altogether passed away on 27th December 2002.