An ode to the master

One of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi's most famous disciples will join others at a tribute concert

There is an anecdote from Pandit Bhimsen Joshi’s childhood in Karnataka’s Gadag district that illustrates how obsessed the legend was with music right from an early age. It says that he would be so taken in by musical processions that passed by his home as a kid that — unbeknownst to his family — he would slip off to follow the band for miles on end, eventually getting so tired that he would fall asleep by the side of the road. His frantic relatives would then launch a missing complaint with the police who’d bring him back home. His father then thought of a simple solution — he wrote “Son of teacher Joshi” on the child’s shirt, so people knew who he was and returned him accordingly.

Another similar anecdote concerns Joshi as a teenager boarding a train from his hometown in search of a guru in North India, travelling across different states looking for one thanks to financial help from his co-passengers. It’s a different matter that he eventually found the right person — Pandit Sawai Gandharva — close to his native place. But the point is that it’s fitting that a two-day tribute concert for Joshi — a person who held the highest regard for his teacher — will feature Anand Bhate, one of his own well-known disciples.

Anand Bhate

It’s being held to kick off the Bharat Ratna’s birth centenary year (he was born on February 4, 1911) and Bhate tells us that he was as great a guru as he was a performer. He says, “One peculiar trait he had was that he would tell us to amalgamate the base of the Kirana Gharana [which he specialised in] with the good 
aspects of all the other gharanas. That’s why he had his own characteristic gayaki — what we can call the ‘Bhimsen gayaki’ — which was a combination of many different factors.”

Bhate adds that outside of music, he also learnt the importance of humility from Joshi, a man who, despite his evident fame, was an approachable human being who made it a point to never insult anyone. The concert itself will highlight the icon’s vast repertoire — from classical to semi-classical music, to natya sangeet and devotional songs. This eclectic oeuvre is testament to the open ear that Joshi kept for different forms of music, the art form that had a stranglehold on his consciousness ever since he was a child in shorts. That’s the characteristic, Bhate says, which helped him take Indian classical music from restricted royal chambers to the masses. And that, the disciple adds, is one of the lasting legacies of his master.

On Today and tomorrow, 5.30 pm
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