Sangeet Natak Akademy Awardee Sulochana Chavan was a famous ________ singer.

Correct — D. Sulochana Chavan sang Lavani, the Marathi song-and-dance form of Maharashtra, and was known by the title Lavani Samradnyi, the queen of Lavani. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2022.

Her name and her language put her in Maharashtra, and Lavani is the Maharashtrian form among the four choices — the other three are folk dances of other states. Option (d).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Ghumar — Ghumar, usually written Ghoomar, is a Rajasthani folk dance performed by women in swirling ghagras — a dance form, and not Maharashtrian.
• (b)
  Giddha — Giddha is Punjab's women's folk dance, the counterpart of bhangra, built on boliyan sung in call and response.
• (c)
  Jhumair — Jhumair belongs to the Chhotanagpur belt of Jharkhand and its neighbouring states, and is again a regional dance rather than a Marathi singing tradition.

Lavani is a Marathi performance form that combines forceful rhythmic singing with dance, traditionally accompanied by the dholki drum and long associated with the tamasha theatre of Maharashtra.

Sulochana Chavan is the voice most identified with it in stage and film recordings, which is why SSC pairs her name with the form.

The other three names in the options are folk dances of other states, so the question is really a form-to-state map with a singer's name attached to it.

Key facts

• Lavani is a folk song and dance form of Maharashtra, performed to the dholki and linked to tamasha theatre.
• Sulochana Chavan received the Padma Shri in 2022 and was called Lavani Samradnyi.
• Ghoomar is a folk dance of Rajasthan and Giddha a folk dance of Punjab.
• Jhumair is a folk dance of the Chhotanagpur region, chiefly Jharkhand.

Common traps

• Treating all four options as singing styles, when three of them are dances.
• Losing the Maharashtra clue carried by the artist's name, which is the fastest route to the answer.

No directly related past PYQ was found.