Bhimsen Joshi is 75 MOHAN NADKARNI The Rediff.com Special, February 1996 He has never cared to hog the limelight. Quite to the contrary, the limelight keeps hogging him. A tribute to Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, the doyen of Hindustani classical music, on his 75th birthday, by Mohan Nadkarni, his biographer and wellknown critic. A jubilee year is rightly and understandably an event for rejoicing as much...
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...
Bhatkhande, A Pioneer He Resurrected Science of Hindustani Music MOHAN D. NADKARNI Sunday Chronicle September 18, 1949 Music like all art, is a vital part of a nation’s culture; and in this era of fulfillment of national aspiration and cultural regeneration, it possesses immense value for all of us. It was the outstanding personality of Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande whose anniversary falls on 19th September...
He brought music to the masses VISHNU DIGAMBAR PALUSKAR MOHAN D. NADKARNI Sunday Chronicle, August 21, 1949 THERE might have been hundreds of musicians of varying qualities in the field of Hindustani Music. But none amongst them inspired more profound admiration in the minds of the masses in recent years than the late Gurudev Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, whose death anniversary falls on the...
Sublime Genius – Pannalal Ghosh His music was sublime. His commitment to his art, total. Pannalal Ghosh was the finest flautist in Hindustani music. A visionary who evolved a new style of playing the instrument and imparted a classical cachet to it as well. MOHAN NADKARNI profiles the maestro whose dazzling artistry opened new horizons before his premature death 27 years ago. The Illustrated Weekly...