Bal Gandharva: On the sands of time (Parts I-VIII) By MOHAN NADKARNI The Economic Times, June 21, 1987 Bal Gandharva: On the sands of time—I He was hailed as “Nat-Samrat”, the King of Thespians. His was a fabulous career that spanned an almost unbroken period of four decades during which he ruled supreme on the Marathi musical stage as much by his striking presence,...
Retrospection: BADE GULAM ALI KHAN By MOHAN D. NADKARNI writing as GURUDEV SHARAN The Times of India, May 5, 1961 MUSIC to me is more than my food. I live music – it is my very life, and Icannot live without it. I would rather die with a song on my lips than live without music –so declaimed the maestro. Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali...
(A curtain raiser of the Haridas Sammelan music festival of 1959) By MOHAN D. NADKARNI writing as LALITMOHAN DUTTA The Bombay Sentinel, February 25, 1959 THE Shahanai, like the nadaswaram of the South has, from time immemorial, been associated with ceremonial occasions. Today, it enjoys the status of a concert instrument. Eminently due to its master-player, Bismillah Khan. His classical as well as light...
(A curtain-raiser on the Sur Singar Sansad music festival of 1959) By MOHAN D. NADKARNI writing as LALITMOHAN DUTTA The Bombay Sentinel, February 24, 1959 SIXTY-YEAR-OLD Omkarnath Thakur is undoubtedly a musical personage of dynamic character. A disciple of that great evangelist of Hindustani music, the late pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, Omkarnath looks upon music as a great heritage of human spirit and he...
PROGRESSIVE POLICY ADOPTED IN BOMBAY BY MOHAN D. NADKARNI The Times of India, January 26, 1959 Each form of art represents a medium of communication and has been from time immemorial, an integral part of the religious, social and cultural life of man. India’s devotion to her arts and her efforts to develop and enrich them, go back to the prehistoric times. The extent...
By MOHAN NADKARNI writing as GURUDEV SHARAN Times Weekly, February 6, 1972 Vishnu Paluskar, whose birth centenary was celebrated yesterday, was the first to rescue traditional music from the bonds of state and private patronage. INDIAN music has a fine record of development over the centuries. But the extent of neglect it suffered under British rule was truly appalling. This period marked the gradual...