Bharat Ratna to Bhimsen Joshi, some recollections…

Bhimsen Joshi is one of the greatest legends of Hindustani Classical music. This blogger had decided more than a decade back to listen to these great masters live as and when I get the opportunity. I have listened to most of them like Pt. Ravi Shankar, Ustad Amjad Ali khan, Pt. Chaurasia, Ustad Bismillah khan (a very rare recital at Benaras), Zakir hussain, Yesudas, Pt. Jasraj, Pt Shiv Kr Sharma and so on. As also great dancers like Birju Maharaj, Padma Subramanium, Kelucharan Mahapatra, Sonal Mansingh, Leela Samson, Reddy’s, Astad Debu (I particularly enjoyed his emulation of grasshopper. He is an amazing man), Bharati Shivaji, Madhavi Mudgal and many more. I am a big fan of Uday Shankar dance troupe the dances sequences in "Kalpana" was incredible. I also follow the events in Kalashektra, Rukmini Devi Arundale was an amazing lady (infact my room wall has a black/white photo of her in Bharatnatyam). From popular people and genre, I

like Vijaythimala, Hema Malini, Shobana. I think Madhuri Dixit (a song where she is dressed as fisherwoman, don’t recall the song but it is picturised in studio was amazing) and Aishwarya Rai (in Taal and Guru) are natural dancers. I am also an ardent follower of folk dances (I should write about it sometime later).

I also follow modern forms of dances, long back I happen to witness dances using light and sound, lots of dancers from abroad performed (I also liked Aditi Mangaldas rendering of Neruda). It was an amazing experience. Specifically about Kathakali I will write sometime later, I learned it for few months just to understand the form. Now though I prefer CDs but yes I would love to listen Gangubai Hangal live, missed an opportunity last year. One of my biggest regret is never to have listened to MS Subbulekshmi katchery.

Unfortunately I also was not able to listen to Bhimsen Joshi live; I read that he has not been keeping well last few decades. I recall listening to him in DD when in school. I was not much into classical music but my neighbor’s daughters were learning Hindustani, they used to drop in to watch TV and so had to sit with them sometimes. I had started to like Bhimsen Joshi.

I am quite influenced by music. Not much into singing but to my own surprise I was selected to school music team in my pre teens!!. We learned songs in different languages and I was part of the group that sang on Independence Day celebrations. I never took up singing though. Much later when studying in college a friend who stayed in the neighborhood was seriously into Carnatic. I used to visit him very often, he was one of the smartest boy around, good in studies (doing MBBS from reputed Trivandrum Medical college, one of the toppers. Since I liked medicine used to go through his texts). A vadyar used to come all the way from Nagercoil to teach him Carnatic. One Sunday happened to be in his house while he was practicing Carnatic, just for fun sang few lines. Now it so happened that Vadyar was listening and he said I had flair for singing. So I too started learning Carnatic!!. It is quite arduous but interesting, I stuck to it for few months. It didn’t make me a singer but gave a fine ear for Carnatic. Those days Malayalam movies was going through spectacular time. Most movies had songs based on Carnatic, even protagonist playing singer, that were huge commercial hits and also maintained high aesthetic standards like Sargam, Bharatham, Kudumbasametham, Sadyam, Chitram, Kamaladalam and so on. They were all superhits. These movies make me seriously nostalgic sometimes.

On Western Classical Music: I was not much aware about Western Classical. Quite accidentally listened to an orchestra in Chennai, found that it was by Beethoven. I had read about Beethoven (probably in school) but rarely heard !!. Much later when I was in Delhi thought of exploring this form of music. Max Muellar Bhavan conducted a two days study/seminar on Western Classical Music (I guess in 1997), it was a great experience. An Indian man probably in his mid thirties (I found that two years later the man had died, it was shocking) had immense knowledge on this subject. He made it interesting by interjecting the talk with music, explaining the nuances and even showing film clipping (like on Mozart). I really got stuck to Western Classical, attended many performances. I absolutely love Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky (strictly in that order!!) as also Brahms and Chopin.

There is so much in the world!!!.And the best part is these experiences don’t cost anything!!. Rokda nahi mangtha baap!!