Interview | Vocalist Jashan Bhumkar On Reimagining Raag Megh Malhar As A Modern Indie-Pop Song For Monsoon
ETV Bharat spoke with the young classical singer as his home city Mumbai itself was drenching in monsoon showers.
Published : August 16, 2025 at 12:16 PM IST
There are ragas that belong to the seasons, ragas that seem to seep out of the very earth when the sky breaks open. Megh Malhar is one such: a melody woven into India’s collective imagination as a song of rain, renewal, and memory. It is said Tansen himself could bring the monsoon by singing it. In August 2025, young vocalist Jashan Bhumkar chose to return to this ancient raga, not as a custodian dusting off an heirloom, but as a modern interpreter opening the window wide to let the rain rush in.
His new track, Megh Malhar (Badal Ghumad Ke Aaye Re), co-written with composer Amarabha Banerjee, was released on August 14 via AWAL. It is part classical, part indie-pop, and wholly monsoon. A song to walk in the rain with. A song that carries both centuries of tradition and the fresh pulse of 2025. ETV Bharat spoke with Jashan as his home city Mumbai itself was drenching in monsoon showers. His voice seemed to mirror the rhythm of the rain outside.
The Call of Rain Across Centuries
Why Megh Malhar? For Jashan, ragas are not academic structures but stories. They have moods, colours, characters.
“I’ve always been fascinated by how ragas carry stories,” says Jashan who is also a fitness enthusiast and co-owner of the Alibaug Knights Pro Govinda league. “Megh Malhar has been sung for centuries to celebrate and invoke rain, but for me, it’s also about the inner monsoon; the renewal and clarity that comes within when it starts to rain. I wanted to preserve that heritage while showing it can speak to a 2025 listener’s heart just as strongly.”
It is easy to see why he was drawn to this raga. In our country, where seasons blur and rainfall is either scarce or overwhelming, the idea of music summoning balance feels like an act of rebellion.
Collaboration can sometimes feel like compromise, but with Amarabha Banerjee, Jashan found resonance. “He has an incredible sensitivity to melody, and also thinks and feels from a classical space,” Jashan says. “Our first jam session felt like we had known each other’s musical language for years. There was a lot of mutual trust; we could push each other creatively to best bring out the soul of the piece.”
Listening to the track, you hear that trust: the sarangi-like phrasing in Jashan’s vocals, the delicate balance of electronics and rhythm, the way silence and sound speak to each other.
Classical Roots, Contemporary Wings
How do you fuse the eternal with the immediate? How do you dress an old melody in new clothes without losing its form? Jashan’s principle is simple: follow the emotion. “The core emotion of the raga is paramount and overrides everything else,” he says. “The phrasing, ornamentation, and emotional core stay true to the raga’s melody. The rhythm sections, harmonies, and production carry a modern vibe, making it relatable and appealing to everyone. They’re vehicles but the soul of the raga drives the journey.”
It is a delicate balance, but in Megh Malhar, you hear both the clouds and the city beneath them.
The song is not just an homage to tradition but a deeply personal offering. “Watching the rains from my window has always been a special experience for me,” Jashan recalls. “Whatever situation I’m in, seeing everything change outside changes something within me. It’s as if the monsoon quietly helps me rewrite the story I’m living in.”
It is this intimate connection (the rain as metaphor for self-renewal) that makes the track feel less like performance and more like confession. At 29, Jashan knows that Indian classical music sometimes feels forbidding to younger audiences. But this Gen Z vocalist's mission is not dilution but invitation.
“My job isn’t to ‘dumb down’ classical music,” he says, “but rather to open a doorway into an endlessly vast world. Once you hook someone with a melody or groove that feels familiar, they start exploring where it came from. If an 18-year-old listens to Megh Malhar because it’s on their indie playlist and then goes to hear a live concert rendition, then that’s a huge win for me.”
His role, he believes, is to plant the seed of curiosity and let the music do the rest.
Instinct Over Intellect
Jashan does not approach reimagination as an academic exercise. “This is not an intellectual exercise but something that happens by instinct,” he says. “It starts with the story I want to tell and the feelings I want to express. As a classical musician, I most naturally feel within the canvas of a raga.” For Megh Malhar, the story was both external and internal: the monsoon outside, and the rediscovery within. “It wasn’t just about what’s happening outside in the monsoon, but that special spark of coming home to myself when the seasons changed.”
What makes Jashan’s work so significant is his ability to stand with one foot in tradition and the other in the restless now, to bridge the worlds of khayal and indie-pop, to turn ancient notes into something immediate, intimate, and human. As the rain fell outside, we thought of his words again: “The monsoon helps me rewrite the story I’m living in.” For a moment, listening to his voice, you believe that music could perhaps do the same.
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