THE VOICE OF INDIA

If you start finding a voice which could be called as “Voice of India”, you will certainly land on Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar. But what if the voice needs a gender switch.

WORDS - CHAITANYAA KHARE

If you start finding a voice which could be called as “Voice of India”, you will certainly land on Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar. But what if the voice needs a gender switch. You may think of Kishor Kumar or Mohammad Rafi, but their popularity below Kaveri is doubtful. Same phenomenon applies on Yesudas or M. Balamuralikrishna. Surely they are musical legend but they couldn’t cross the Narmada. So it would be quite difficult for you to find a voice which could vibrate Sutlej as well as Krishna.

This is the magnificence of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi. A voice which is the “Voice of India”. He was the only singer as classist who got so much popularity after Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. It is a dichotomy in the age of certainty that you may try to imitate his style of singing “Jo Bhaje Hari Ko Sada” after his concert. Many would find him a popular face just because his participation in public service films like “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara” or “Baaje Sargam” that aired in Doordarshan in the late eighties but it was him who brought beat to the Classical Music and improvised it in a well judicial way that it did not lose its originality and on the other hand took Classical music to common man. Indeed, Joshi knew that the dry and rigorous land of classical music needed the drip irrigation of alankars to keep the listener alive. Though India witnesses many Classic legends in it’s timeline. The voices of singers like Kumar Gandharva or Mallikarjun Mansur had a quicksilver quality and Pt. Jasraj has a spiritual soothing, but Joshi’s voice has a raw power which intruded his voice apart.

This boy, when he was 11 years old, was so much enchanted by the divine voice of Ustaad Abdul Karim Khan, that he ran away to absorb this art. Without money in his pockets, he wandered across India to find his Guru. After a long search, he reached Savai Gandharva also known as Rambhau Kundgolkar.

Bhimsen Ji served his Guru for years without even expecting anything. After testing the dedication of this small boy, Savai Gandharva was so much pleased that he opened all the treasures he had in front of Bhimsen. He used to practice for 18 hours. This tremendous practice can be felt in the very first note of his performance. It was this tremendous practice which gave Bhimsen Ji the strength to sing any note without effort, shift from one note to another just like a lightening. Bhimsen Joshi had a voice suitable to all the types of music. Let it be Khayal, Thumri, Bhajan, Abhang, Tarana or a Natyageet. As a bridge between the world of the eternal sublime and the mundane, he has perhaps been among the most prolific musicians of our times. Indeed, he is said to have among the highest number of recordings of Hindustani vocal music. And yet, the number of ragas that he favours is a finite set encompassing the likes of Multani, Purya Dhanashree, Ramkali, Miyan Ki Todi and Darbari Kanada among a few others. Within this lexicon, Panditji creates a universe of possibilities. The Bharat Ratna is now at 97th Birth Anniversary. The world hails to the soul voice.