I felt that generally speaking there could be three musical streams in light classical forms which are as follows:
1) thumri, dadra, ghazal, qawwali
2) chaiti, kajri, savan, jhula etc. (season based)
3) bhajan, geet, abhang etc. (devotional forms).
As I have not studied items covering point no. 2 & 3 of the above, I have following observations to make for point no. 1. As we all know, music comprises of three major ingredients viz. sahitya, swar and laya / tala. If we apply each one of these ingredients to the referred forms, we would get the following:
Sahitya, swar, laya / tala are mildly relevant in thumri. It is very important to have a slow tempo (Deepchandi etc.). In dadra, the above elements are more relevant than in thumri.
According to some, Dadra permits romantic themes and madhya laya / drut laya is important (in talas such as Dadra /Kaherva).
In ghazal, the laya aspect is less important as melodic structure is repetitious.
In qawwali, the melodic structure is repetitious and there is an heavy clapping in addition to faster rhythm.