He was a colossus among musicians, loved for his humility and simplicity as much as his mesmeric voice and talent. In a career spanning over six decades, he took the Kirana gharana and Hindustani music to a new high and earned fans among connoisseurs and ordinary folk alike. TOI pays tribute to Bharat Ratna Pt Bhimsen Joshi
One of the most beloved and versatile musicians of our times has sung his last note. Bhimsen Joshi passed away in Pune on Monday after struggling with a brief illness. He was 88 years old. He was one of those rare artistes who enjoyed both popularity and stature.
The maverick Joshi, known for living a colourful, even somewhat reckless, life, was a musical explorer even as a child. He was raised in Dharwad district of Karnataka, the eldest of many siblings. His grandfather was a kirtan singer and his father a Sanskrit scholar and school headmaster. To the dismay of his parents, young Joshi was often found standing for hours outside a record shop on the path between his school and his home, listening to classical and devotional music. The defining moment of his life came around the age of 12, when he heard a
record of Abdul Kareem Khan’s Raga Basant, decided he wanted to sing like that, and left home in search of a guru. He travelled on his own as far as Delhi and Kolkata, even wandering ticketless sometimes. His father managed to track him down three years later in Jallander. That was when he was directed to Sawai Gandharva, a maestro of the Kirana gharana, who lived close to his hometown.
Like many great musicians, Sawai Gandharva put his student through rigorous tests before imparting the secrets of his music. To begin with, he demanded a fee of Rs 25 per month. This was one-fourth of the senior Joshi’s salary, but he made the sacrifice just to keep his son closer to home. Sawai Gandharva made his student do all kinds of menial chores before he was convinced of his desire to learn. After that, his tutelage was morning, noon and night for about five years. The maestro taught him three ragas—Todi, Multani and Puriya. Joshi learnt other ragas when supporting his guru at concerts or from his fellow student, Gangubai Hangal.
It was Begum Akhtar who recommended Joshi for his first job as a musician—with All India Radio, Lucknow. In 1943, he took a transfer to Bombay, then the music capital of the country. He shot to fame after a series of HMV recordings and, notably, after a performance at the 60th birthday celebrations of Sawai Gandharva, held in Pune.
His popularity spread steadily thereafter, and within a decade, he became the busiest vocalist on the concert circuit. By the 1960s, Bhimsen Joshi's contemporaries had begun to joke, with some envy, that he knew every air hostess on Indian Airlines by name, and the entire Bradshaw (Indian Railways time-table) by heart!
Joshi was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2009, after receiving the Padmashri in 1972, the Padma Bhushan in 1985 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1999. Apart from classical music, he was known for his devotional music, especially his evocative Marathi abhangs. Joshi also sang for films in numerous languages including Hindi (Basant Bahar and Bhairavi), Bengali (Tansen) and Marathi (Gulacha Ganapati ). He became a national icon after his memorable Mile sur mera tumhara, a song to celebrate national integration.
As vocalist and his deep admirer Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande says, “He has enjoyed adulation and affection from all people—he belongs to not just the Kirana gharana, he belongs to everybody. You can ask a rickshaw driver or a coolie and they would have heard of him. He was equally comfortable in a big music conference in Kolkata as he was in a small town in Karnataka. All that mattered to him was his raga, his music.”
The young Jayateerth Mevundi, who has often been described as a young likeness of Bhimsen Joshi, says, “I used to literally worship him. His blessings have been with me always. He actually called me to the Sawai Gandharva festival when I was 23 years old and tuned my tanpura for me. He has been very kind to me. What I love about him is that he dedicated his entire life to music without any worldly considerations or expectations. He is like a Gandharva.”
And that is the sentiment that thousands of music-lovers share about the great and astonishingly simple musician for whom, in the end, it was only the tuneful pukaar of “Vithal, Vithal, Vithal…” that mattered.
Mile Sur Mera Tumhar
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