SHE HAS set to tune poems of two former Prime Ministers and was awarded Padma Sri in 2001. She has received the S. D. Burman Award for best playback singing, Miya Tansen Award for best classical-based song for Marathi film ``Nivdung," and the Bharat Nirman Award. She is one of the pioneers who introduced the ghazal format to Marathi literature.
Padmaja Phenany Joglekar, a Hindustani/ghazal/bhajan exponent from Mumbai was in the city recently to participate in the "Bhajan Sandhya."
A beaming Padmaja recalled the success of her cassette "Geet Naya Gaata Hoon" containing eight poems of Atal Bihari Vajpayee says, "Initially Atalji wasn't very excited about his poems being set to music as he had termed his poetry prose-oriented and written in free style. Anyway, after he asked me to give him some samples, he actually stood up in appreciation and said, "I applaud you for your music and voice."
Vajpayee went on to become Prime Minister and of course it feels simply great as the royalty from its sales goes to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund says Padmaja.
That is not all. Padmaja also got a chance to tune and sing former Prime Minister V.P. Singh's poems that are to be released shortly.
Bhajans composed by Anup Jalota are also in her repertoire and she plans to take them across to people musically.
Just as she was getting ready to step into the lab after graduating in microbiology, Padmaja made a retreat as the call of music was simply hard to resist.
With guidance from such stalwarts as Pt. Jasraj, sarangi player Ram Narayan and music director Hridaynath Mangeshkar, she honed her vocal skills and went on to traverse not just the nuances of Hindustanishaili, but also ghazals, geet and bhajans. She revelled in her versatility and her melodic forays into Marathi poems of Kusumagraj, Indira Sant, Mangesh Padgaonkar to name a few are popular with connoisseurs of literature in the Marathi cultural circuit.
Padmaja is now dedicated to her study of saints and poets. "It helps me choose the best of each poet and offer a better package during my concerts," she says. That is how the rarely sung musical form, Tappa is also being revived by her. The harkat and murkhiyaan of the tappa style she demonstrates, used to be a favourite of Kumar Gandharv and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, she adds.
Padmaja Joglekar's concert was flagged off with Rajesh Johri's "Mai Mangal Deep Jalawun" in Yaman. Meerabai came across in Bageshri. While the hall reverberated with raag Bhoop for Kabirdas's verses "Ananda Ananda" with the audience singing along, the Sai bhajan and an enjoyable Bandhish in Basant were a fitting finale to her show. —R. G.
RANJANI GOVIND
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