Bhoop or Bhup is a raag that literally means "King" and hence can be sung anytime. The preferred time for Bhup raag as described in texts is of early evening (before Yaman). The raag however is also sung early in the morning. The term Bhoopali is synonymous with early morning song that may or may not be based on raag Bhup. Some call raag Bhup by the name Bhoopali, especially the exponents of Patiala gharana.
Bhup is a pentatonic melody. Five notes in ascendence and descendance. Sa Re Ga Pa Dha Sa`, all pure notes. It is sometimes called as a basic raag taught in early days of student (along with Yaman and Bhairav). The beauty of Bhup is in its expansiveness, its versatility and hence in its grandeur! Like a King!
The opening tune of "Prabhat Film Company" are the notes of Bhoop.
Being a pentatonic scale, this raag has been a tool of "Dhrupadias". One reason for this raag being taught in early days of student is because by altering one note in Bhoop's scale, one can derive a new raag! In fact, using the 4th note (Ma) as base note (Sa) one can turn Bhoop into one more "big raag" ... Raag Pahadi (a specialty of Patiala gharana)
There are many raags that can be developed using the scale of Bhoop by flattening either Re, Ga or Dha
For example:
My favorite raag Vibhaas is derived in Bhoop scale by flattening the Re (Rishabh)
Flattening the Gandhar (Ga) gives rise to Shivranjani
Flattening the Dhaivat (Dha) gives rise to Bhupeshwari (also called raag Pratiksha or Krushnaranjani )
All these raags have their own "bhaav" and "ras", their own personality or mood. Here are some examples of famous songs and bandishes of these raags:
Bhoop: The famous "Prabhat tune", the "Amar Bhoopali" in Marathi, the popular bandish of Gaansaraswati Kishori Amonkar "Sahela Re"
Vibhaas: "Saanjh Dhale Gagan Tale" from Utsav and the popular bandish "Taarava Ginat Ginat mai ko raiin gavaye" ... Here is the link to my blogpost on "Vibhaas"
Shivaranjani: The famous Raj Kapoor song "Jane Kahan Gaye wo din"
Bhupeshwari / Pratiksha: The famous marathi song of Pt Hrudaynath Mangeshkar, written by Suresh Bhat, sung by Lata "Maalvun Taak deep"
Another classic that is a tune of Bhoopeshwari is, the qawwali by Aziz Naazaan with music by Quaisar Ratnagirvi. This is one of my favorites. Link to my playlist from YouTube, where many artists have tried their variations of this qawwali, maintaining the Bhupeshwari framework.With Bhoop in the pocket, a singer is all set to perform not just many other raags easily but also bunch of popular songs in Marathi and Hindi. The "Chinese Music", whatever I have heard so far, seems like almost 80% based on Raag Bhoop!!