On Tuesday, May 16, 2006 at 4:11:31 AM UTC-4, Archisman Mozumder wrote:
My mother called me up now to tell me that today's Ananda Bazar Patrika carries the news of Kumar Prasad Mukherjee's demise.
He was suffering for quite some time now. Unfortunately, I was not in
touch with him for over a year but I'll remember, with ever-lasting gratitude, that he had deeply influenced my musical thoughts and sensibilities.
I am a very non-descript listener of hindusthani classical music but I
can say with a fair bit of conviction that he was an erudite
musicologist and critic. I have heard his tapes of 'Lec-Dem' analysing
the gayaki of various gharanas for the SRA and they are brilliant.
Especially his analysis of the Gwalior gayaki, which was profound. I
have also heard him record bandishes at Shri Satyasheel Deshpande's
residence at Walkeshwar for the Ford Foundation Programme. His immense knowledge on 'raag-daari' was on display that day where he sang a
nom-tom alaap in 'gara' immediately after an equally detailed
'jai-jaiwanti'. Of course, it was followed by his favourite
'gaud-malhar ka prakaar' where he elaborated on bandishes in the
'nat-anga' and 'khamaj-anga' and also, one with a komal-gandhar. I have
also been fortunate to hear him render, one evening at his residence, a brilliant nom-tom alaap of Puriya where the phrase N-r-s was used with amazing dexterity. He followed it up with a brilliant 'lalita gauri'
and then a wonderful yaman which had a fleeting usage of the teevra
madhyam. He had the rare combination of knowledge and expression, be it
in writing or singing, though his voice was not of very high quality.
His close friends in Bombay - Shri Babanrao Haldankar and Dinkar
Kaikini thought very highly of him. I have heard some delightful 'jugal-bandis' of him with Dinkar-ji. Though not as wonderful as a
Bhat-Ginde jugalbandi, they come close in terms of exposition and conceptualisation.
His voice, all through the 90-s, troubled him as did his failing
health. The three by-pass surgeries did not help matters. I remember
how he cancelled his concert-assignment in Bombay in 1997 at the
Vallabh Ashram in Sion, where Bhat-ji stays because of a sore throat
abd fever. However, it did not deter him from asking me whether Bombay
has good 'Lucknowi restaurants serving kakori qabaabs'. (chuckle!)
His writing skills in English were very good but what surprised all
Bengalis was his grasp over his mother tongue. His first book, Kudrat Rangi-birangi was serially published in the weekly literary magazine -
'Desh Patrika' and later became a critically acclaimed best-seller. As
a book, seeking to make hindusthani classical music more palatable to half-baked listeners like me, it was hugely successful in it's
objective. Laced with anecdotes and humourous interjections, it
de-mystified the 'gharanedaar reet ki gayaki' to a great extent. The
book has been translated in English and perhaps, hindi but, as all translations go, the spirit of the literary work was not captured.
He followed it with two smaller-sized books, 'Mehfil' and 'Majlish'.
Then came the book on cricket and music - 'deshi gaan bideshi khela'
and finally a brilliant essay on the deterioration of hindusthani
khayal singing titled, I think, 'Hindusthani Kheyal Shangeeter
Abokkhoy'.
Though he idolized Faiyyaz Khan and the Agra/Rangeela gayaki, I had
seldom seen him imposing his views on others during a discussion. At
least, not with me, though it would have been the easiest thing for him
to do as I was an impressionable 'sponge' then, hanging to every word
of whatever he said. It was he who cajoled me to buy the books of
Vamanrao Deshpande, B R Deodhar, Mohan Nadkarni, Sumati Mutatkar etc.
and form an opinion for myself. He was an avid fan of Kesarbai and Mallikarjun-buwa and never tired of telling me his experience of
hearing Bai's 'lalita gauri' in the 40's and a bewitching 'basanti
kedar' and 'nand' of Buwa in Calcutta in the 70-s. He used to lament
about the lack of recorded material of Bhaskarbuwa and Alladiya
Khan-saheb. He was a great fan of Moghubai and Sharadchandra Arolkar as
well.
He used to also regret about how 'un-used' the archival audio section
of ITC-SRA was lately, 'till Ulhas came along'. He was very very fond
of Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar and Panditji, too, used to speak about him,
to me, in deferential tones whenever I used to meet him in Bombay after
a recital of his.
His biggest assets were his inquisitive mind and zest for life. Thus, according to me, his learning never ceased and his enthusuiasm never faltered, despite his health problems. He was my maternal uncle's
school-mate and insisted that I called him 'Kumar-mama'.
Farewell, 'Mama'. May you meet your childhood idols up there.
For Bengali-reading RMIM-ers, here's a link-
http://www.anandabazar.com/16cal5.htm
Regards-Archisman.
None of these links are available. I believe these are old links.
Debu Nayak
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