Jamshedpur, Sept. 10: The glamour surrounding Hindi film music, to some extent, has won more fans in recent years than the more traditional Ranbindrasangeet, believe some experts at the city’s Tagore School of Arts.

According to a report presented at the annual convocation of the Tagore School of Arts, there are less takers for Rabindrasangeet in the steel city than any other genre of music. Though, the number of students has exceeded 2,300 in the music school, Rabindrasangeet classes have witnessed a considerable fall.

But, the school’s teachers also believe that blaming the idiot box alone and its film music-fed audience is not good enough. Parents and schools’ increasing stress on academics, leaving no room for extra-curricular activities, and dwindling interest in Bengali culture and literature, are also to be blamed for the erosion of interest, they stress.

“There has been a fall of almost 45-50 per cent in students’ numbers when it comes to Rabindrasangeet in the past 10 years. I think parents are more responsible for the dwindling interest, as they are the ones who rouse interest in arts and culture in the first place,” said Ashish Chowdhury, the secretary of the academy.

Somewhere down the line, the music teachers also believe that the lack of interest in Bengali literature is an over arching phenomenon all over. “I don’t see any student who is interested in Tagore’s body of work. Many are almost illiterate when it comes to their mother tongue, students write notations and songs in Hindi or English that restricts the flow of the songs, its words and meanings. To know Tagore’s songs, one has to be well-acquainted with the Bengal,” said Chandana Chowdhury, a teacher at the school.

“Parents, too, hardly take interest in teaching children their mother tongue. In fact they avoid it altogether, believing the language to be useless, unlike English, French or German,” said another teacher. “Reality shows that promise instant success has nothing in common with Rabindrasangeet. The children and parents miss in the Bengali songs, the glamour of film music,” rued Chowdhury.

Scholar Karuna Sindhu Das, the vice-chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta, who visited the city recently suggested to make the genre interesting with more instruments, apart from harmonium and tabla.